Members of Delovaya Rossiya, one of the country’s most influential business organisations, have put forward 52 proposals for economic reform, including the abolition of the simplified tax system with a 6 per cent rate. This is a measure designed to fund the war, which would hit small businesses particularly hard.
Today's news: Up to 75 per cent of the Palestinians in Gaza are forcibly displaced, the Israeli army advances to Rafah, attacks in Jenin and authorises the return to three settlements in Samaria; Between 2016 and 2023, the Chinese authorities drove out more than 700,000 Tibetans; The Indonesian parliament wants to change the media law in a restrictive way; Bangladesh ruling party member found dead in India, three compatriots detained.
Today's news: Over 1400 academics sign a petition to the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza; In Beijing, the Minister of Agriculture is also under investigation; Nepalese Sherpa climbs Mount Everest for the 30th time, an all-time record; Vietnamese police arrested a prominent trade unionist; Concern in Moscow over attack on foreign tourists in Afghanistan.
Today's news: India's anti-terror section arrested four Sri Lankans for pro-Isis propaganda; At least two dead and 10 injured in a knife attack on a primary school in southern China; The heat wave that is also affecting Myanmar has claimed at least 100 lives, including children; Seoul bans a North Korean propaganda video that went viral glorifying Kim Jong-un.
Unlike the post-Soviet 'converted' politicians Andrej Belousov is one of the patrons of the Diveevo Monastery, the historical seat of St Seraphim of Sarov. Since the early 2000s, the influence of "presidential orthodoxy" has been concentrated here in the place that symbolises a spirituality that in the early 20th century was considered too close to the heresy of the Old Believers, convinced of the superiority of Russian Christianity over Byzantine Christianity.
Today's news: UN 'deeply alarmed' by renewed violence in Rakhine State in Myanmar; Officials from Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan met after mob violence in Bishkek; Two Chinese warships docked in Cambodia for joint military exercises; Over 130 people died over the weekend in Afghanistan from flooding in the north and centre.
At the Kazan International Economic Forum, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov - former president and adre of the current Turkmen head of state - called for "an Islamic initiative in the name of peace, mutual understanding and trust" to be presented to the UN. He pointed to the relations between Russia and Islamic countries as a model.
The first decree approved as soon as the ceremony for the start of his fifth term is about the ‘Fundamentals of Historical Education Policy’. The anxiety to rewrite history is the sentiment that stirs Putin's conscience most of all, as well as that of the entire generation afflicted by the resentment of the end of the Soviet Union. And it is this global and eschatological vision that Putin is now also trying to embody side by side with Xi Jinping in Tiananmen Square.
The synod of the Orthodox community led by Metropolitan Epifanyj has appealed to Patriarch Bartholomew to condemn Kirill for the "ethno-filetist heresy". The clash with the other Orthodox jurisdiction, which has always been linked to Moscow, despite having formally distanced itself from it after the Russian invasion.
The appointment at the Ministry of Defence in Moscow of the economist Belousov (master of ceremonies of the Orthodox Church) in place of Šojgu seems to indicate a willingness to make the war industry the main engine of increasingly protracted conflicts. While the new energy minister - on whose activities 70% of Russia's GDP depends - is now Sergei Tsivilev, husband of Putin's niece.
On several occasions, Putin said that he had no intention of staying in power for life, but the matter was shelved long ago. During the latest presidential inauguration, Patriarch Kirill invoked upon him God's blessing “until the end of your existence and until the end of time, as we say.”
Among the 18 agreements signed in Budapest with Xi Jinping there is also cooperation on nuclear power plants. In the background are the difficulties of the new Paks II plant project, under construction with the Russian agency Rosatom and at risk of sanctions. For his part, the Chinese president praises Hungarian support for Beijing on "Taiwan, Hong Kong and human rights".
More than a month after the attack on Krokus City Hall, the retaliation against Tajik migrants in Russia has not subsided, to the point of prompting a protest note from Dushanbe. Hundreds remain stranded at airports and at the border with Kazakhstan, but Moscow cannot afford to lose the country where its most important military base in Central Asia is located.
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