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Russian war bonanza might be over. The sharp wartime growth in Russians' incomes stalls, increasingly so. The slowdown in hiring growth and real wages threatens even stagflation, while salary offers are barely growing with inflation, and demand, according to CBR is slowing down.

1st European concert since the start of the war by Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, who is considered Vladimir Putin's cultural emissary, cancelled in Italy.

Would new sanctions matter? Wrong questions. Whether they would be enforced is the main question. EU signed off Friday on its 18th round of sanctions on Russia after 6 w of tough talks with contrarian Slovakia. The EU kills the Nord Streams, hits tankers, banks, and lowers the.

The Bell is hiring!. We are looking for a person to promote our international journalism - in particular, our newsletters published in English, French, and German. At the moment, we produce two weekly newsletters for an international audience: one is an in-depth analysis of the.

Please help us by sharing this post with a mention of @Stripe. We know this will have an impact, and hopefully they will change their policy and we will be allowed to use their services again! 10/10.

For two-and-a-half years, we’ve stayed silent about the obstacles thrown in our path because of our nationality. How 10 banks in France refused to open an account for our founder Elizaveta Osetinskaya (including those who made billions of euros of profit in Russia). How U.S.

But for the average bureaucrat, we’re a problem. We’re not Russian hackers, not Russian money launderers, not Russian propagandists… but our place of birth still apparently makes us suspicious! What if it’s all just a cover and we’re spies?! Come on. 8/10.

This is deeply upsetting. Over the past two and a half years since leaving Russia following the full-scale invasion, we've learned to solve almost any problem. After Russia cut us off from our advertising market, we didn’t shut down, fire staff, or switch to a 100% grant-funded.

"Unfortunately, following an additional review of your account, we're still unable to support your business as it falls under one of our restricted businesses categories," they told us. 6/10.

How could this happen, you ask? Well, we noticed that one of our banks had listed us as a "Bar & Restaurant," so we (proudly) informed Stripe of the mistake. “Hey, guys, we're not a bar, we're a media outlet.” In response, we were told that we are a crowdsourcing platform. All.

As a result, Stripe have simply blocked us from using their services. Meaning we immediately lost 30% of our revenue. As you can imagine, that's potentially disastrous for a small outlet like The Bell. 4/10.

Now, it turns out we've been blocked from accepting payments via U.S. financial services company Stripe. Stripe have recently ruled that we're a "crowdsourcing" organization (meaning we raise money for something that doesn’t yet exist) even though what The Bell does has nothing.

It’s particularly disconcerting when those problems don’t originate in Russia. Here at The Bell, we’ve already had more than one bank account frozen in the West - apparently simply because we are Russian passport holders. 2/10.

When you're an independent Russian media outlet working in exile, you never know where the next problem will come from. Please take a minute to read this thread and help us continue to produce independent business and political news about Russia!🧵1/10.

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But the president’s approach only kicks the inevitable & serious consequences down the line. Sooner or later, the economy will reap the problems which the Kremlin and its war in Ukraine have sown. 9/9.

As always, Putin’s speech relied on manipulations of the facts, omissions, and a few outright lies – see more below. But he isn’t wrong – the economy has adapted to wartime without dramatically harming living standards. 8/9.

The Russian president touted the 5.5% economic growth in the third quarter, the country’s growing industrial output, especially in manufacturing (7.5%); 8% salary growth; and all-time low unemployment of 2.9%. 7/9.

Putin, for his part, looks at the same numbers and comes away with a very different narrative of the Russian economy. His key message at his annual televised press conference was of domestic stability. 6/9.