City Moscow Financial News

BERLIN—Soon after payment-processing giant Wirecard reported in June 2020 that nearly $2 billion had gone missing from its balance sheet, its chief operating officer Jan Marsalek boarded a private jet out of Austria. After a landing in Belarus, he was whisked by car to Moscow, where he got a Russian passport under an assumed name. Western intelligence and security officials now say they have reached the unsettling conclusion that Marsalek had likely been a Russian agent for nearly a decade.

A top Russian politician says that Moscow and Beijing could begin using their CBDCs – the digital ruble and digital yuan – to make payments as early as 2024.

The Russian Central Bank is playing down talk of a 2024 rollout for its digital ruble – insisting that the coin will not be ready for nationwide use before 2025.

MOSCOW — An international fashion forum in Moscow has brought together designers from Brazil, China, India, South Africa and other countries, an event that underlined Russia’s shift away from the West amid the fighting in Ukraine.

The Russian government wants to fast-track the launch of the digital ruble – and now claims that all citizens will be able to use the CBDC in 2024.

during the COP28 summit in Dubai, unblocking a geopolitical deadlock over the next global gathering to address climate change. Two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters countries in the regional group formally backed Azerbaijan's bid in a meeting on Saturday afternoon. ALSO READ: COP28: OPEC's 'leaked letter' leaves France, Spain 'stunned' and 'disgusted' | Here's why "We're very grateful to all countries in particular to the Eastern European group and the [COP28 summit] host United Arab Emirates for their support," the country's ecology minister Mukhtar Babayev told the COP28 summit.

Vladimir Putin has pitched for more use of national currencies in bilateral trade and called for ensuring smoother financial transactions between the two countries. The remarks by the Russian President were made at an event, Russia Calling, in Moscow, on Thursday. It may be recalled that Rupee-Ruble trade since the Ukraine conflict has faced obstacles due to accumulation of Rupees by the Russian side in India.

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Inflation in Russia accelerated in November, data from state statistics service Rosstat showed on Friday, cementing expectations that the central bank will hike interest rates as it meets for the final time this year on Dec. 15.

Russian lawmakers on Thursday set the date of the country's 2024 presidential election for March 17, moving Vladimir Putin a step closer to a fifth term in office. Members of the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, voted unanimously to approve a decree setting the date. «In essence, this decision marks the start of the election campaign,» said Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the Federation Council. Russia's central election commission is to hold a meeting on the presidential campaign on Friday.

Belarus wants to accelerate the launch of its CBDC as it looks to evade US and EU-led sanctions and let its firms trade with international partners.

While Ukrainian diplomats take part in negotiations at the United Nations COP28 climate talks, Russia’s war on the country lurks just in the background

The launch of the Russian digital ruble will trigger the nation’s “largest monetary reforms since the 1990s,” a media report has claimed.

By Timothy Gardner

By Gabriela Baczynska

Russia has brought fresh charges against Alexei Navalny, the country's top opposition politician already serving a 19-year sentence, he said Friday, as Moscow intensifies its crackdown on dissent amid the Ukraine offensive. Navalny galvanised huge nationwide protests in Russia before he was jailed in 2021 on fraud charges after returning from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack that he and independent investigators say was carried out by the Russian state. In August his initial sentence of nine years was more than doubled to 19 years for «extremism», and a court also ruled to send him to a harsher «special regime» facility. Authorities have now accused him of vandalism, which could add up to another three years to his sentence, Navalny said, citing a letter he had received from Russia's Investigative Committee in prison. Since launching its military offensive on Ukraine last February, the Kremlin has escalated its crackdown against Navalny, who opposes Russia's offensive, his allies and the Russian opposition more broadly. «They really initiate a new criminal case against me every 3 months,» Navalny said on social media. «Never has an inmate, sitting in solitary confinement for more than a year, had such a rich social and political life,» he quipped, in his typically sarcastic tone.

(Reuters) — Activity in Russia's manufacturing sector grew at the same pace in November as in October, even as new export orders contracted for the first time since July, a business survey showed on Friday.

TortoiseEcofin Senior Portfolio Manager Robert Thummel discusses how China's economic woes could impact crude oil prices on «The Claman Countdown.»

NATO member Finland has closed its last remaining border crossing with Russia

Russian media say a court in Moscow has extended the detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, until Jan. 30

By Jason Lange and Rodrigo Campos

Russia's interior ministry has added the spokesman of U.S. technology company Meta to a wanted list according to its online database