Recently, a member of the State Duma lower house of Parliament from the United Russia faction has made a statement which almost went unnoticed. In fact, it would be better if someone paid attention to it. According to it, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party and an important and undoubtedly bright politician, might quit the Russian political scene.

“Obviously, the Federal Security Service (FSB) is the core organization,” economist Andrei Illarionov said. “However, it is not the only one. There are plenty of secret services and law enforcement agencies here. Some of these people are their former employees. As a result, some kind of united group has emerged.”

Anyway, most experts agree that in the first half of January, there were no risks for the ruble as economic activity remained low due to the New Year public holidays in Russia.

According to experts, one more version should be added to the list of the most likely scenarios made by their colleagues around two particular persons. It is not as much discussed and could be even called unexpected, but in some ways it is even more obvious and predictable.

In Mikhail Khazin’s opinion, the situation in Russia is aggravated by the fact that, in recent years, the global capitalist system has collapsed. He believes that, under these conditions, no world leader will be able to offer alternative options for the future to the world. However, Putin might have an alternative of this kind.

It should be said how the Russians were presented with a basket of these changes. They were hastily approved by the State Duma deputies and then by the Federation Council, the upper house of Russian parliament, in just a couple of days. After that, Vladimir Putin signed more than a dozen bills.

After the information about the withdrawal of the Wagner Group foreign private military company from eastern Syria occurred on the Arab media scene, the activity of the Islamic State (also ISIS, banned in Russia) has grown significantly in the region. According to the European media, these two facts are related.

In May of last year, the TRT Russian project was launched on the website of TRT, a Turkish media holding company. It is an Internet platform for the Russian-speaking residents of the post-Soviet space.

At the same time, discussions of property belonging to officials and civil servants might be simply forbidden. A corresponding bill was actively discussed in the State Duma at the end of 2020.

Apparently, Dmitry Medvedev is actually “waiting through” in the Council of Ministers. Given the fact that the Kremlin might have big plans on him, the authorities have to wait for the people’s negative attitude to Medvedev to subside in the wake of the notorious pension reform and other decisions of this kind he made as Russia’s Prime Minister.

On December 16, the famous Flight School in Buguruslan [a town in southern Urals] celebrated its 80th anniversary. It is a legendary alma mater of aviation experts, whose list includes three Heroes of the Soviet Union and eight Heroes of Russia, hundreds of excellent workers of the Aeroflot flag carrying airline and honored pilots.

Sergei Girdin, a real estate developer from St. Petersburg, has become a defender of the world against Ebola and a partner of Ozon, a new Russian Internet trading website on the U.S. stock market. He is the only surviving beneficiary of the Moldovan laundromat, a scheme used to move money out of Russia from 2010 to 2014 through a network of global banks. Many of them were located in Moldova and Latvia.

Many experts have been talking for months about Vladimir Putin's possible plans to get rid of those officials who work against the interests of Russia and its people.

Recently, the Russian media outlets have again become interested in the new domestic commercial aircraft. Namely, the IL-114-300 turboprop and the MS-21-310 jet with Russian PD-14 engines.

Central Bank of Russia is about to round up “clearing” the financial field from a large number of small banks that are instrumental in bypassing the ban on online casinos. Fintech Bank was the first victim of the effort. In doing so, a platform for a new regulator is being prepared on the market.