Swiss sanctions, DIM leaves Russia: the main thing on December 22

Russia

• Putin granted Ruben Vardanyan’s request to renounce Russian citizenship. The businessman’s plans to renounce Russian citizenship became known in early September. Vardanyan was reported to be moving to Nagorno-Karabakh.

• The State Duma proposed to tighten the conditions for the registration of children in social networks. A possible adjustment is planned to be discussed in early 2023.
• The Ministry of Digital Development has approved 70 projects to substitute foreign products and services. The government expects that by 2030, 71% of the Russian software market will be domestic.
• State Duma deputy Khinshtein said that the government plans to replace all IT equipment on the Russian market with domestic equipment by 2028. According to the parliamentarian, today only 16% of storage systems and only 28% of all servers used in the country are produced in Russia.
• Russian design brand Caviar has released the world’s most expensive “wrapping” for the iPhone – a smartphone encrusted with 511 diamonds and decorated with a snowflake pendant. The price of such an instance is 31.5 million rubles, but there are simpler and cheaper ones.

World

• Switzerland has expanded sanctions against Russia. Another 141 people and 49 companies from Russia have been added to the sanctions lists.

Finance

• The Bank of Russia will sell Otkritie Bank to VTB for 340 billion rubles. The shares will be paid for in cash and federal bonds.

• Alfa-Bank, Ak Bars Bank and Sovcombank were recognized as the best mobile banks on Android for everyday tasks, a Markswebb study showed.

• Rosbank apps disappeared from the App Store after the introduction of US sanctions. The credit organization noted that all pre-installed apps on iOS and Android devices work stably and without restrictions.
• Russians will be able to pay for offline purchases in installments. Such an opportunity will appear in offline stores, while now they only work for online purchases. This option for customers was launched by Shares, a Tinkoff BNPL service.

• Banks and brokers in Kazakhstan are buying Russian government debt from international investors at a deep discount. Not being able to leave the market due to sanctions, investors thus offset at least a part of their investments.

• Russian companies earned 1.8 times less in October than in the same month a year earlier, Rosstat calculated. The total profit of the companies that made a profit amounted to 1.78 trillion rubles, unprofitable companies suffered losses of 128 billion rubles.

Deal

• Yandex has registered a new Beyond ML holding structure in Armenia and the United States: it owns a dozen tech startups in the field of machine learning (ML) around the world, RTVI found out.

• The French brand DIM leaves Russia. The lingerie market is very competitive, so both Russian and foreign players will be able to replace this company.
• The growth of sales of organized tours in Russia in 2022 amounted to 16%. This was made possible by existing cash back programs and the charter subsidy.
• Director Timur Bekmambetov sold the Bazelevs film studio in Russia, which created Night Watch and Elki. The deal was on commercial terms, with the studio expecting a rebrand early next year.
• The American manufacturer of biscuits and breakfast cereals, Kellogg’s, has decided to sell the Russian business to the Chernogolovka Group of Companies. The transaction is expected to close in early 2023.
• In the “daughter” operation of “Gloria Jeans” the general director was replaced. Gap’s former chief manager, Ismail Seis, has been replaced by Lilia Bulatova, who worked as a marketer for the company.
• They arrived at the Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal near Moscow with a migration registration check. The company assured that 99% of the warehouse employees are Russian citizens, and the rest have permission to work in Russia.
• Wildberries responded to media reports that cards removed from the app were debiting money for purchases of goods made from another account. Previously, news appeared with reference to market customers that money was withdrawn from their cards for goods that someone else bought with another card. Wildberries called these messages “telegram ducks”.

Transportation

• The State Duma passed a law according to which taxi services must provide the FSB with access to their databases and systems for storing and processing orders. The document also provides for the appearance of passenger taxis and provides for obtaining a special permit to work.

services and means

• “Yandex.Food” in the case of user data leakage received the status of the victim. The official investigation is still ongoing.

• Russian Post has launched a personal account for individuals on its website, organized in one place.

• BI.Zone has launched a one-on-one cybersecurity technical training platform Cyber ​​Polygon. Previously, only organization teams could receive online training.