Russia Financial News

In its annual review published today (21 March), the OFSI said the UK and its allies have imposed «the most severe sanctions Russia has ever faced», depriving Moscow of over $400bn since 2022, «equivalent to four years of Russia's military spending». The agency added that 2,001 Russian individuals and entities fell under the UK sanctions regime as of March this year. How the Russia-Ukraine war has reshaped the defence and energy sectors in Europe The latest figures came as US President Donald Trump rushes to negotiate a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine without consulting...

There will be winners and losers as United States President Donald Trump shakes up the world order through tariffs and shifting military strategies, but one area poised to prosper is defence, says Jo Taylor, chief executive of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board.

Heathrow Airport, which caused a full-day shutdown of the UK’s busiest travel hub. Over 1,300 flights were disrupted, and thousands of homes lost power after an explosion ignited a transformer at the North Hyde substation. Officials are probing potential links to Russian sabotage campaigns, following accusations of Kremlin-backed efforts to destabilize European infrastructure.

Kim Jong Un. Traditional allies Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, with Seoul accusing Kim of sending thousands of troops and container loads of weapons to help Moscow fight Kyiv. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has officially confirmed the troop deployment, but the two countries signed a sweeping military deal last year, including a mutual defence clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North. Moscow's top security official Sergei Shoigu was visiting North Korea on Friday, Russian news agency TASS reported, the latest in a recent series of high-level exchanges between North Korea and Russia. Shoigu passed on «greetings and best wishes» from Putin to Kim in a meeting with the North Korean leader.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BERLIN—Germany’s mammoth spending package cleared its last parliamentary hurdle, paving the way for as much as €1 trillion in civilian and defense investments to jolt the region’s economy and reduce its military reliance on the U.S.

Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies declined on Friday as escalating geopolitical tensions and concerns over US tariffs dampened investor appetite for risk. Global policymakers struck a cautious tone amid central bank meetings this week, highlighting economic and political uncertainty. The US Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan, and Bank of England all kept interest rates unchanged, citing trade tensions and inflation risks.

Trump made the comments at a White House event after signing an order to increase U.S. production of critical minerals. «We're doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia. And one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine.» Trump referred to his separate discussions this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine. Those talks, which fell short of Trump's aim to secure a full 30-day ceasefire, resulted in Putin agreeing to stop Russian attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days and Zelenskyy saying he would also accept such a pause.

The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program will replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor with a crewed aircraft built to enter combat alongside drones. The plane's design remains a closely held secret, but would most likely include stealthiness, advanced sensors and cutting-edge engines. Lockheed and Boeing are competing for the winner-take-all engineering and manufacturing development contract, worth more than $20 billion. The winner will eventually receive hundreds of billions of dollars in orders over the contract's multi-decade lifetime. For Boeing, a win would mark a sharp reversal of fortunes for a company that has struggled on both the commercial and defense sides of its business; a loss could be devastating. A victory for Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor, would keep its high-end offerings — it also makes the stealthy F-35 — on an upward trajectory. An Air Force spokesperson and Boeing and Lockheed representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Fujifilm's GFX100RF marks a significant advancement in medium format photography. Designed for photographers who want detail without bulk, this camera is expected to compete with high-end models such as the Leica Q3. The GFX100RF from Fujifilm is a small fixed-lens camera with medium format capabilities.

Boris Johnson, a longtime Donald Trump supporter in Britain, has abruptly reversed course, criticizing the US president's handling of negotiations with Vladimir Putin. Boris Johnson has expressed his rage following the breakdown of the US President's negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

Leader of Opposition in the Upper House Mallikarjun Kharge asked the government the total expenditure incurred by Indian embassies on arrangements for the prime minister's foreign visits in the past three years. He also asked for visit-wise details of expenses under major heads such as hotel arrangements, community receptions, transport arrangements and other miscellaneous expenditures among others. The data on country-wise expenditure on foreign visits by the prime minister, including the expenditure on official, accompanying, security and media delegations, in 2022, 2023 and 2024 was shared in a tabulated form in his response. According to the data, an expenditure of Rs 22,89,68,509 was incurred on the visit of the prime minister to the US in June 2023, while the expenditure incurred was Rs 15,33,76,348 on the September 2024 visit to the same country.

They say, ‘Home is where the heart is’. When it comes to money, however, Devina Mehra, founder and chairperson of securities firm First Global, strongly feels that part of it should be parked outside of the home country.

Pavel Stepchenko. This young man from Russia has made headlines for becoming the country’s youngest-ever pensioner, according to a report by odditycentral.com. How, you ask? Well, it’s not just about hard work and savings—it’s a combination of clever legal loopholes and a dash of Russian pension law wizardry. Pavel’s story begins when he was just 16 years old.

Rafale fighters armed with hypersonic nuclear missiles by the middle of the next decade to counter what it believes is the Russian threat from the east. Just days after proposing a nuclear umbrella to Europe in the event of US President Donald Trump withdrawing from the NATO military alliance, French President Emmanuel Macron on March 18 announced that an air base near the German border will have Rafale F5 combat jets armed with Air-Sol Nucleaire de 4eme Generation (ASN4G) hypersonic nuclear missiles. «By 2035, Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Air Base will be the first base to host the latest version of the Rafale fighter jet with a hypersonic nuclear missile, symbolising the renewal and modernisation of our nuclear deterrent forces that has begun.

Vageshwari Properties, an entity that counts Reliance Industries' board member and executive director Nikhil Meswani's wife Elina as a director, has acquired Laxmi Nivas, an iconic bungalow located on south Mumbai's plush Nepean Sea Road, for over ₹276 crore. The over 120-year-old sea-view property situated diagonally opposite the Russian consulate has a total built up area of nearly 19,892 sq ft spanning across ground plus two upper floors. The sellers had acquired the bungalow spread over around half-an-acre from a Parsi family for about ₹1.2 lakh in 1917. The bungalow, built in 1904, holds significant historical importance, having served as a safe house for prominent freedom fighters during the 1940s Quit India movement. Notable figures such as Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Achyut Patwardhan and Aruna Asaf Ali sought refuge here. It also functioned as a broadcasting centre for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Azad Hind Radio during this period.

JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Artificial Intelligence was a great technological revolution that will drive everything and change the world, sounding bullish on the sweeping technological changes AI was sparking. AI was reshaping the world just like the invention of the printing press, the steam engine, and the internet did, he said in a chat with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen at the tech company’s annual summit in Las Vegas. “Like past innovations, AI too will take time but will transform the world in ways we can’t yet imagine.” The future, according to him, was going to be AI-driven.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The much-anticipated telephone call between US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine, as well as chart out a path for a lasting peace formula, turned out to be sub-optimal and weighed down by variables antagonistic to a meaningful deal. The tentative deal reached after a marathon 150-minute call has placed energy infrastructure out of bounds, but allowed broader hostilities to continue.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Williams’ and fellow Nasa astronaut Butch Wilmore’s mission aboard a Boeing spacecraft has finally ended and they are safely back on Earth. A leaking propulsion tank and faulty thrusters in the Boeing Starliner threw return plans off schedule.

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that they had a constructive call about moving toward a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow, with the White House suggesting the U.S. could take control of Ukrainian power plants to ensure their security. Trump told Zelenskyy that the U.S could be «very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,» according to a White House statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz that described the call as «fantastic.» Trump added that «American ownership of those plants could be the best protection for that infrastructure.» Zelenskyy and Trump discussed in general terms the possibility of a ceasefire, according to a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to comment publicly. During the call, there was an emphasis how any ceasefire process would need to be monitored and that the teams still needed to resolve technical issues, said the official, who characterized the call as «a very good conversation, positive, with the jokes.» During the call, Zelenskyy requested additional Patriot defense missile systems. Rubio and Waltz said Trump «agreed to work with him to find what was available, particularly in Europe.»

Criterion Collection has announced physical media releases of the film, with pre-orders available before the official release date.

Vladimir Putin scored a coup by discussing with Donald Trump in highly anticipated phone talks everything from improving bilateral ties to Iran and even hockey matches, but stopping well short of agreeing any peace path to end the war in Ukraine, analysts say. During the call on Tuesday, Putin refused a full ceasefire agreement proposed by Washington but focused instead on reviving Russian-American cooperation that has been frozen since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The very fact such talks took place was an achievement for the Kremlin, said Ekaterina Schulmann, a Russian political scientist based in Berlin. «The two superpowers are discussing the fate of the world and the future of humanity,» she told AFP, summing up Moscow's thinking. «It is a great achievement for Russia which reproduces a Soviet-era narrative without being the Soviet Union.»