Russia Financial News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Last month, France did something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago; certainly before the outbreak of the Ukraine war, when US-led sanctions cut Russia off from the Swift payment system, the main messaging network that enables secure international financial transactions, and froze more than $300 billion of its assets. Its central bank, the Bank of France, pulled out its remaining gold reserves held in New York. Admittedly, no central bank today relies on gold to back its currency.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.China emerged largely unscathed at a time when the West Asia war battered nearly every major emerging market economy through higher energy prices and their ripple effects. The dragon retained its top rank on Mint’s Emerging Markets Tracker (EMT) for March 2026.India, by contrast, slipped three places to sixth as the conflict intensified rupee depreciation, foreign outflows and export weakness.The divergence underscores a widening gap in external-sector stability.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Kenneth Andrade, chief investment officer (CIO) of Old Bridge Mutual Fund and founder director of Old Bridge Capital Management, who views investing as a journey where one pays ‘tuition fees’ through market cycles, believes that opportunities never really dry up.“There’s always a stock or sector to be found,” he said.He notes opportunities have become easier to spot recently, though that wasn’t the case in 2024 and early 2025. With valuations now normalised, he expects more modest returns, likely in the low teens over a longer cycle.“I think most of the worst is already priced in. If a shock occurs, the opportunity will be much larger.”He said this is a phase where it makes sense to put about 50% of capital to work upfront and stagger the rest over the year.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—President Trump scrapped a trip by U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan for talks with Iran, leaving himself tough choices over how to force Iran to make concessions the White House wants to strike a deal.Trump said on Saturday that he had decided to cancel the trip after receiving an offer from Iran that fell short of the White House’s expectations.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The fight against Russia in Ukraine is now firmly Europe’s war.The European Union this week signed off on the equivalent of $105 billion in loans to keep Kyiv afloat through the end of next year—but officials warned that it may not be enough.With Russia determined to continue its four-year invasion until it dominates its neighbor, and President Trump pulling back from Europe and focused on the Middle East, Ukraine finds itself reliant on the traditionally gun-shy EU in its war for survival.The confirmation of the loan ahead of a summit in Cyprus on Thursday, long blocked by recently ousted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, marked a fresh sign of resolve and unity in the bloc.“For the first time in years there are no Russians in the room,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media, an apparent reference to Orbán, who had warm ties with Moscow but stayed away from the EU summit after recently losing an election. “Huge relief,” Tusk added.The funding decision, which Orban cleared this week following his election defeat, comes at a critical moment for Ukraine, which needs the cash to sustain its economy and its military amid relentless Russian assaults as Moscow seeks to grab more land in its neighbor’s east.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Demis Hassabis, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk—a recent Economist article describes them as the small, powerful group of five men who will determine the path along which artificial intelligence (AI) evolves. Their fellow AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, who invented the neural network system that enables AI models to learn like humans, quit Google in 2023 to alert the world that while further development of AI could lead us to a utopian future, it could equally lead us to a dystopian one.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.For long, Indian retail investors operated under a comforting premise — that domestic growth, strong savings, and limited direct global exposure would shield portfolios from global volatility. That premise is increasingly untenable. Indian retail portfolios, long seen as insulated by domestic growth stories such as consumption and banking, are now firmly in the grip of global economic currents.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.When the war in Iran started nearly two months ago, countries in Asia—which receive more than 80% of the oil and liquefied natural gas delivered through the Strait of Hormuz—were among the most exposed to the energy shock.But now, a combination of deep reserves, aggressive energy conservation efforts and savvy diplomatic efforts have allowed the deepest-pocketed of them to weather the blow—at least for now.They rushed to locate energy outside the Middle East, including the U.S. and Russia, often paying top dollar on the spot markets.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is again fighting for his political life this week, thanks to a scandal that’s becoming emblematic of Britain’s national dysfunction. Mr. Starmer’s woes boil down to a crisis of incompetence.Ostensibly the scandal concerns the vetting of a high-profile appointee—the long tail of the release in the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The US has extended by 30 days its waiver from sanctions for Russian oil purchases. Just days ago, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent had ruled that out. This flip-flop is a relief.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) on Friday authorized 17 banks to import precious metals for the period from 1 April to March 2029, according to an official order.Of these, Union Bank of India and Russia- headquartered SBER Bank are authorised to import only gold, while 15 others, including Axis Bank Ltd, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, and HDFC Bank Ltd, are authorised to import both gold and silver, the order showed. Bank of India, Deutsche Bank, Federal Bank Ltd and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd are also on the list.In FY26, Indian Overseas Bank was authorised to import only gold, which has now been expanded to both precious metals, the order showed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: Cement prices across India have climbed to a one-year high after the West Asia conflict pushed up global energy and freight costs, raising input expenses for manufacturers, with analysts expecting further increases that could bring prices close to four-year peak levels.Cement companies have raised prices by ₹15–20 per 50 kg bag this month, lifting all-India average prices by about 5% in April compared with March, according to a Motilal Oswal report dated 10 April. Manufacturers are facing higher costs for fuel, packaging bags and other inputs, with early signs that the price cycle may extend further.Dealers expect additional hikes in the coming weeks if demand remains steady, according to Motilal Oswal analysts.Data from Crisil Intelligence shows cement prices previously peaked at about ₹305 per 50 kg bag in FY23, driven by a surge in global crude oil prices amid geopolitical tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India will continue to buy crude oil and cooking gas (liquefied petroleum gas or LPG) from Russia, even after the US’s one-month waiver of sanctions on such imports has expired, according to two people aware of the development.In early March, the US briefly waived sanctions on Russian oil and petroleum products that were already in transit, amid concerns over global supply disruptions linked to the West Asia war. The waiver will not be extended, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.The first person cited above said waiver on sanctions is the US’s prerogative, and India’s imports would not depend on it.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Wall Street traders have become preoccupied by one particular market indicator.Some refer to it as the Treasury breakeven inflation curve and, while that’s a bit of a mouthful, it’s simply the market’s expectation of average inflation over two periods.The breakeven inflation rate for the 2-year and 10-year reveal how the market thinks prices would behave in the near- and long-term. Plotting the difference between these two expected inflation rates delivers this so-called curve, which has been under intense scrutiny.The breakeven curve “highlights the markets moving on from the [Iran] conflict,” wrote Barry Knapp, managing partner of Ironsides Macroeconomics, underneath a video posted Monday.How? Consider what happened after Russia invaded Ukraine and after President Donald Trump unveiled punitive tariffs.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.India’s nearly 80 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)—employing over 328.2 million people and contributing 31.1% to gross domestic product (GDP), 35.4% to manufacturing output, and 48.58% to exports—have been navigating a harsh global environment over the past five years. From the covid-19 pandemic-induced economic standstill to cost shocks triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war, recurring volatility in West Asia, and trade disruptions under the Trump administration, the sector has faced repeated stress.

The El Niño phenomenon could result in one of the driest monsoons in India in at least eight years.Private forecaster Skymet has predicted: the rainfall is likely to be 94% of the long-period average (LPA), or below-normal. While the predictions are in line with broader expectations of low rainfall, Skymet is known for giving more conservative predictions than the official India Meteorological Department (IMD).Both agencies fail to predict the intensity of rainfall accurately more often than not, but Skymet’s track record has worsened in recent years.

NEW DELHI: India took a major step towards nuclear fuel self-reliance when its indigenously developed Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu attained criticality on 6 April. This is the stage when a nuclear chain reaction can sustain itself.This will enable India to leverage its vast reserves of thorium and reduce dependence on uranium imports.

For at least a decade, developing countries across Asia and Africa have worried about growing dependent on the People’s Republic of China. They’re concerned about debt traps, coercive policies and hidden costs that might push their economies toward crisis.Crisis has come, and that logic has been turned on its head. After six weeks of the US and Israel’s war on Iran and its ensuing counter-attacks, it is the countries that bet on Chinese supply chains that are faring better than the ones that had trusted Pax Americana.

The push is ambitious. State-run EESL is exploring interest-free EMI options, in talks with global lenders like the World Bank and ADB, to make induction cooking accessible for economically weaker households.

NEW DELHI: Oil prices have been on the boil since the war between the US, Israel and Iran broke out on 28 February. To ease supply concerns and prices of over $100 per barrel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies including Russia, together known as OPEC+, agreed to increase production in May.

An old commodity-trade adage is that the Middle East “sells hydrocarbons to buy carbohydrates.” The desert states send out their oil and natural gas, and in comes wheat and rice. There are a few things produced in the Gulf, however, that are crucial to global food production: nitrogen fertilizer such as urea and ammonia, and the gas used to make them.So the war in Iran—and its blockage of the Strait of Hormuz waterway—has prompted warnings about another bout of global food inflation similar to the one that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite such fears, the agricultural market isn’t at risk today, at least in the short term.