The authorities in Sweden have initiated an investigation into the possibility that a Russian Orthodox Church near a key airfield in the city of Västerås may be used as a platform for espionage.
Small businesses in Russia are facing much greater difficulties than large companies due to the high key interest rate and related defaults.
Top management at VTB has urged Russians to prepare for a ruble decline in the coming months. They forecast that by the end of 2025, Russians will be paying 90 rubles for 1 US dollar, instead of 79.
In Russia, sales of new Chinese passenger cars have dropped by 30% year-on-year.
In the past month, not a single new construction project was launched in St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Volgograd, Ufa, or Perm. In the first half of the year, only 17.8 million square meters of housing were started in Russia — the lowest figure for similar periods in the last three years. The largest declines among regions with significant construction volumes were recorded in:
- Moscow – down 38% (to 1.8 million m²)
- Sverdlovsk region – down 32% (to 1 million m²)
- Krasnodar Krai – down 31% (to 0.81 million m²)
- Tyumen region – down 26% (to 0.64 million m²)
The debt of Russian companies for insurance contributions — that is, deductions for employee pensions and medical care — rose by 22% between January and March 2025, reaching 352 billion rubles.
Rostov region is experiencing huge problems with the harvest due to drought. Last year, instead of the expected 16 million tons of grain, Rostov farmers harvested 11 million tons after several waves of sudden frosts followed by a shortage of precipitation. This year, the situation has worsened. The grain harvest could drop another 20%, reaching the lowest level in the past decade.
Over the past year, the number of wedding salons in Russia has decreased by 12%. This is linked to a decline in the number of marriages.
The report on the socio-economic situation in Russia for May, published this week, did not include the usual information on natural population growth, birth and death rates, marriages and divorces, migration, or even the total population.
Russians have been blocked from obtaining Kyrgyz citizenship — none of the previous schemes are working anymore, including the popular ones based on birth or ancestry.
The Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Justice of Russia are demanding that the "International Satanism Movement" be recognized as extremist and banned, even though no official organizations by that name exist.
Belarus has introduced a new rule into its Education Code: schools in urban-type settlements and villages, as well as specialized lyceums, Suvorov and cadet academies, must now train students to operate motor vehicles and self-propelled machines in order to later encourage them to serve in the army.
Teachers in Belarusian regions have been instructed to subscribe to regional socio-political publications, or else they will be deprived of bonuses.
