Russia’s grassroots military innovation ecosystem is a recent phenomenon - check out this article I co-authored with @michaelkofman.bsky.social on the Russian “People’s VPK” warontherocks.com/the-strange-...

The liquidity deficit in Russia’s banking system has reached 1.5 trillion rubles, perhaps a record. This despite all-record REPO. Data per central bank and Evgeny Istrebin.

More on this bsky.app/profile/twmc...

Russian firms face sky-high borrowing costs • Cost of money dominates economic debates in Russia, with firms delaying investment plans • Many Russian firms are posting losses amid weakening demand and high debt-servicing costs, with no relief in sight this year www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Europe sets up open standard for alternative to Visa/Mastercard. Whether or not it works, these proposals had been shot down for years based on efficiency arguments. US coercion overreach now accelerant. www.paymentsjournal.com/ecb-sets-pay...

‼️ Russia: “Russia has once again postponed the certification of its domestically produced PD-8 aircraft engine, which is slated to replace the French-Russian SaM146 and power the import-substituting Sukhoi Superjet 100.” 😂 Of course… ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/24/v...

”One of the most important factors restricting investment mentioned in recent business surveys has been the lack of in-house funds available to finance investments. Corporate profits shrank last year for the second year in a row.”🇷🇺

Agriculture has long been the one exception even VVP’s harshest critics had to recognise he hadn’t screwed up. Now we know why…

Il reste 9 jours et il manque encore 7000€ pour clôturer la collecte de dons permettant de financer des équipements médicaux pour les Ukrainiens. 5 ambulances, un camion d'évacuation blindé et 3 containers de 1ers secours. Chaque euro est le bienvenu ! C'est ici : www.helloasso.com/associations...

1\ Sounds like Russia's trying to refill the Wealth Fund. "Fiscal rule"=buy gold/yuan when oil prices are high, sell when low. This suggests they really, REALLY don't want to drain the National Wealth Fund (NWF) any more.

‼️ Russia: “Russian authorities are preparing to implement massive layoffs at public sector organizations amid a sharply increasing budget deficit.” 🍿 ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/23/v...

VTB Bank is asking for another 700 billion ruble recapitalization. It will likely come from the National Wealth Fund. 🍿 www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM0c...

I’m seeing lots of Telegram reports/complaints that Russian Railways, Russian Post, and Gazprom are firing employees and/or cutting wages. 🔥

Solid question arised. What is russian AD system production rates? It is challenging because official figures are state secrets. However, based on intelligence reports, satellite monitoring of factory expansions, I can provide the following estimates. 🧵 1/

Cheh! Gros porc, ça t’apprendra à aller faire des courbettes à l’autre taré. Entre l’humiliation et la crise, tu as choisi l’humiliation. Mais en rab, tu auras la crise.

Freedom? In the army? For real?

Russia has shut down VPN servers before, but only sporadically. Officials now reportedly plan to use the tactic at full scale, "cranking it up to the max," making it their main instrument of internet censorship. Even VPN subscriptions paid in advance wouldn't be safe. meduza.io/en/news/2026...

On peut ne plus appeler Bardella que “le petit prince” maintenant?

Pontiflex

🎙️ Tochnyi Weekly Norwegian Defense Partnership ▶️ Erlend @edrotning.tochnyi.info ▶️ Joseph @josephthomason.tochnyi.info ▶️ GAU @deaidua.org l ▶️ Stanimir @delfoo.bsky.social ▶️ Colby Badwhar 🕒 20:00 Berlin | 21:00 Kyiv | 15:00 New York Watch here: www.youtube.com/live/Z0M_CaQ...

Over the past few years I’ve heard French people daydreaming about moving abroad time and again. As destination, they’ve mentioned Dubai,London, New York, Shanghai and even Kyiv. But I have never ever ever heard anyone say they’d like to move to Moscow. It arches back to one of the giant mistakes

Inflation in Iran is 180%. www.youtube.com/live/smlHlo9...

🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺

🇮🇱❗️🇺🇦Israel has allowed a Russian ship carrying stolen Ukrainian grain to sail, saying it was “too late” to detain it, - Axios Saar sent a message to Sybiha, saying ship had already left Haifa and could not be stopped. Israeli authorities were warned about ship two weeks before it arrived in Haifa.

Y’all, Kevin knows his stuff, you’d probably be well inspired to check out the linked article.

Bonjour ! Désolé je ne suis pas souvent sur ce réseau mais le Monde vient de publier une très belle cartographie qui explique tout cela en détail et qui est tirée de mes recherches : www.lemonde.fr/internationa...

New hits on russian oil ports would be very valuable to Ukraine.

🎉 The U.S. has reinstated sanctions against Russia now that 30 days have transpired.

French CEO of the country’s largest ciment producer condemn to 6 years in jail for financing a terrorist organisation. Good! Now do Russia!

Le tribunal de Paris a rendu lundi une décision inédite en condamnant à six ans de prison avec incarcération immédiate l’ancien président du cimentier Lafarge Bruno Lafont, reconnu coupable, avec d’autres, d’avoir financé des groupes djihadistes en Syrie.  Par @fabricearfi.bsky.social

🎙️ Tochnyi Weekly Russian Budget Crisis ▶️ Erlend @edrotning.tochnyi.info ▶️ Joseph @josephthomason.tochnyi.info ▶️ GAU @deaidua.org l ▶️ Stanimir @delfoo.bsky.social ▶️ Colby Badwhar 🕒 20:00 Berlin | 21:00 Kyiv | 15:00 New York Watch here: www.youtube.com/live/1owbsxA...

How was this man ever elected? Maybe Trump gets one thing right: American are too deeply unserious to be granted the right to vote?

“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been”

The book “How China Avoided Shock Therapy” does a pretty good job at showing all the advantages a country can draw from finding non-tax sources of revenue to stimulate growth (eg sale of public lands). Russia now is doing the contrary: taxing its population to fuel growth-destroying policies.

I may have had a semi descent brainwave: Listening to this podcast, I realised that the new range of cheaper threats (missiles, drones) are gaining range, making cutting trade routes easier and as a consequence fracturing the global shipping world. podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/t...

A Georgian businessman is helping Moscow illegally sell raw materials seized from Ukraine. The Russian occupation authorities are celebrating having opened a breach in international sanctions, while Tbilisi remains silent. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Nice (adds 300-450 nautical miles/1-2 days extra sailing to the journey if travelling from the Baltics to Suez).

We are ruled by ghouls. Sometimes I wonder if we’re in any position to lecture Russia or Israel. www.france24.com/en/europe/20...

NEW: I spoke to cybersecurity legend Mikko Hyppönen about his decades-long fight against computers viruses first, and then malware — and how computers have gotten safer over time. Mikko also told me why he has decided to now turn his focus to fight another enemy: killer drones.

The most interesting point of data from this article is that last week Russian oil exports were down 1,75 million barrels a day to 2,32 million barrels a day or down 43%. This was partially by 1/3rd reduction of Kozmino loading but mostly due to UA sanctions on Baltic ports.

This is so so so stupid and cowardly. The worse part is that I’m pretty sure it will have 0 impact on oil prices, it will only help the Kremlin making money.

Great article in the link. $120 Brent for the rest of the year = a boost of 3% GDP growth for Russia. That would buy them so much breathing room if it happens. Budget still in deficit, but they can afford small deficits. It is necessary to cap Russia's oil export volumes and/or prices. Hard.

No idea if accurate, but UN say net migration in 2025 was 270k AWAY from Russia. This would be great news. The more people who get out, the fewer taxpayers and potential recruits there are.

1\ Investigation into the Social Fund of Russia (SFR) that covers things like family benefits and pensions. Russia has a surge of new pensioners this year and indexed pensions at above inflation. Yet the official tax forecast and budgeted federal transfers suggest real-terms cuts in expenses.

Surging oil prices are stopping Russia’s budget cut plans, per Bloomberg and the MT www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/27/r...

There’s gonna be so many people taking the train…

Coal companies in the Kuzbass are facing a critical shortage of gondola railway cars to transport their production. A side effect of growing maintenance costs combined with stagnant transportation rates have made these railway cars unprofitable for operators.

🎙️ Tochnyi Weekly: Strike on Russian Oil Ports Ukrainian drones hit Russia's Baltic hubs. ▶️ Erlend: @edrotning.tochnyi.info ▶️ GAU: @deaidua.org ▶️ Joseph: @josephthomason.tochnyi.info ▶️ Stanimir: @delfoo.bsky.social ▶️ Colby Badhwar Watch: www.youtube.com/live/22cz80u...