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Vladimir Putin
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine intensifying the strain on state finances, President Vladimir Putin is reaching for cash to fund his government and the war, squeezing tax revenue from an economy that's increasingly skewed toward the military - while civilian needs take a back seat. The country's 2027-2029 state budget, which will be taken up Thursday in the rubber-stamp parliament, is accompanied by a string of tax hikes announced after the September parliamentary elections. While last year the Kremlin went for a broad tax increase, raising value-added taxes at the cash register and making more small businesses pay VAT, this cash grab hits a narrower segment: mining companies and better-off citizens with investment income, property sales and bank accounts. The budget deficit this year has swelled beyond forecasts due to lavish military spending and tepid economic growth amid sanctions, high interest rates for non-military companies, labour shortages and Ukrainian strikes on oil ..
A localised ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia took effect early Tuesday ahead of a humanitarian mission led by US first lady Melania Trump, as missile attacks resumed in Kyiv. Meanwhile, Finland's president and Norway's prime minister spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, officials said, in their first known direct contact since shortly after Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. After the conversation with Putin, the two Nordic leaders had a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Zelenskyy's office. Russia and Ukraine began observing a localised ceasefire in a devastated southern Ukrainian city Tuesday, before a planned humanitarian mission brokered by US first lady Melania Trump, but Moscow kept up its deadly missile attacks on other cities in the meantime. The local pause in fighting started at 3 am to allow an aid mission into the Russia-occupied city of Oleshky later this week. The situation in
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have directed their governments to further expand bilateral cooperation, as India and Russia aim to increase bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030, Ambassador Vinay Kumar has said. In an interview with Russian news agency TASS published on Saturday, Indian envoy Kumar said the two leaders discussed the full range of bilateral relations on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13. "One of the concrete results of the cooperation was the joint participation of the leaders of our countries in the BRICS business summit, as well as a visit to the Innoprom-India exhibition - the first Russian industrial exhibition held in New Delhi," the Indian envoy told TASS. He said the leaders had directed relevant ministries and agencies to further develop cooperation, including in trade and commerce. Kumar said India and Russia continued to work towards increasing bilateral trade to USD 100 billion and ..
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated Moscow's long-held position that Russia is not planning to attack European countries but will respond to aggression with "all weapons" in its arsenal. In remarks at a foreign policy forum, Putin accused the West and Europe of escalating tensions by talking about preparing for a war with Moscow in the coming years, conducting military drills in the Baltic Sea, and seizing Russian vessels. His remarks followed Moscow's warning to NATO that it would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons to defend Kaliningrad should any members of the military alliance try to cut off the Baltic exclave from the rest of Russia. Several Russian embassies in Europe this week issued statements that said Moscow has "information that NATO is preparing (an) air and naval blockade of Kaliningrad and (the) Kaliningrad region." They accused European leaders of "playing a dangerous game" by saying Russia might attack another country or ramp up a campaign of destabiliz