Vladimir Putin News

Russia's central bank hiked its key interest rate by 350 basis points to 12% on Tuesday, an emergency rate move to try and halt the rouble's weakening past 100 to the dollar after a public call from the Kremlin for tighter monetary policy. The extraordinary rate meeting came after the rouble plummeted past the 100 threshold against the dollar on Monday, dragged down by the impact of Western sanctions on Russia's balance of trade and as military spending soars. President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser Maxim Oreshkin on Monday rebuked the central bank blaming what he called its soft monetary policy on the weakening rouble.

The Russian ruble has reached its lowest value since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine as Moscow increases military spending and Western sanctions weigh on its energy exports

By Alexander Marrow

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia's central bank will hold an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday to discuss the level of its key interest rate, it said on Monday, as the sharply weakening rouble prompted calls for higher borrowing costs.

The Russian ruble has reached its lowest value since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine as Western sanctions weigh on energy exports and weaken demand for the national currency.

MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin's economic adviser rebuked the central bank on Monday as the rouble slid past 101 per U.S. dollar, blaming its 30% year-to-date slump on loose monetary policy and revealing growing discord among Russia's monetary authorities.

The Russian rouble fell past the psychologically key 100 per U.S. dollar threshold for the first time since March last year on Monday.

Defence Minister Li Shangfu will visit Russia and Belarus this week, his ministry said on Monday, as relations between Beijing and Moscow flourish with high-level visits and phone calls. Ties have remained warm in recent years, with China refusing to speak out against Russia's widely condemned invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

state media on Saturday rejected a Western claim that developed nations were shunning the country's Belt and Road Forum, while saying most of the leaders invited this year were from developing nations. Critics see the ambitious Belt and Road initiative — billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade infrastructure — as a tool for President Xi Jinping's China to spread its geopolitical and economic influence.

NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, plans a human spaceflight around the moon in late 2024 on a mission that would take people deep into space for the first time in decades and set the stage for a landing the agency would like to conduct with the American spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX in 2025. The stakes of the Luna-25 mission are especially high for Russia and President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions imposed since the war in Ukraine halted much of its collaboration with the U.S.

By Valentina Za and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich

Russia said Monday it plans to launch a lunar lander this week after multiple delays, hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in nearly fifty years. The launch, which is scheduled for the early hours of Friday, comes as Russia's Ukraine offensive stretches into a second year, sparking huge tensions with the West. With the Luna-25 lander, Russia's first since 1976, Moscow is keen to restart and build upon a pioneering Soviet-era lunar program.

Prominent Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison on Friday. The move came amid a historic crackdown on dissenting voices as Moscow's assault on Ukraine stretches into its second year. The trial was held behind closed doors at the IK-6 penal colony - a maximum-security prison some 250 kilometers east of Moscow where Navalny is jailed.

(Reuters) — Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie visited Ukraine on Friday and met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as he underscored strong U.S. support for Kyiv's fight against Russia.

Alexei Navalny on charges of extremism and sentenced him to 19 years in prison Friday. Navalny is already serving a nine-year term on a variety of charges that he says were politically motivated. The new charges related to the activities of Navalny's anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. It was his fifth criminal conviction and the third and longest prison term handed to him, all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. It wasn't immediately clear whether he would serve this new term concurrently with his current sentence on charges of fraud and contempt of court. The prosecution had demanded a 20-year prison sentence, and the politician himself said beforehand that he expected to receive a lengthy term. Navalny was also sentenced in 2021 to two and a half years in prison for a parole violation. The extremism trial took place behind closed doors in the penal colony east of Moscow where he is imprisoned. Navalny appeared in the courtroom Friday afternoon, wearing prison garb and looking gaunt, but with a defiant smile on his face. As the judge read out the verdict, the politician stood alongside his lawyers and his co-defendant with his arms crossed, listening with a serious expression on his face.

The central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, being developed by the Bank of Russia has now got its official logo. The Bank of Russia has also published commission fee rates, which would exceed zero points only in 2025. 

Navalny faces trial again on Friday to hear whether he has been found guilty of a series of extremism charges that could see him spend 20 more years behind bars. He is already serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security prison for «embezzlement», a charge that his supporters say was trumped up in retaliation for challenging President Vladimir Putin. Navalny said he expected the court to hand him a lengthy, «Stalinist» prison sentence of about 18 years, and called on his supporters to resist Putin's rule in a statement Thursday.

New Delhi will participate in a peace conference aimed at the war in Ukraine hosted by Saudi Arabia this month, confirmed MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi. “India will participate in this event. Our participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward," he said at a press briefing.

political leaders marry in office is when they split in office. After 18 years of being Mister and Missus, and the former having been seven-and-a-half years into Canadian prime ministership, Justin and Sophie Trudeau announced on Wednesday that they will be going their separate ways. On paper, nothing remotely odd about that.

Saudi Arabia says it will extend its unilateral production cut of 1 million barrels of oil a day through the end of September in its effort to boost flagging energy prices

India will participate in Ukraine peace talks to be hosted by Saudi Arabia on Aug. 5 and 6, a foreign ministry spokesperson said during a news briefing on Thursday. Saudi Arabia has invited Western nations, Ukraine and some major developing countries to discuss the peace plan proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier this year.