0635GMT//Russians 'celebrate' Russia Day; Businesses lobby against return of Western firms
RUSSIA DAY: The US congratulated Russians on Russia Day on Thursday for the first time since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in 2022. In a statement, US Sec. of State Marco Rubio said that the US was "committed to supporting the Russian people as they continue to build on their aspirations for a brighter future". (COMMENT: This is telling. Rubio was under no obligation to congratulate Russia on its national day. It shows the current US administration's push to improve relations with Russia.)
Events were staged across Russia and occupied parts of Ukraine to mark Russia Day. These focused on indoctrinating young Russians with "Russia's greatness" and promoting the war in Ukraine. Highlights included a free concert in Red Square; an exhibition in Krasnoyarsk on the evils of "foreign propaganda" and "provocateurs"; lessons for children on how to assemble and disassemble a machine gun in Bryansk. (COMMENT: No surprises here, given the Kremlin's addiction to pushing its propaganda machine.)
Russian propaganda was particularly focused on occupied regions of Ukraine on Russia Day. Parachutists dropped into the occupied Donetsk region, flying Russia's tricolour flag; in Mariupol, the city flattened by Russian bombers in 2022, residents were cajoled onto the streets, given flags to wave and t-shirts in Russian national colours. Video showed various Russian children's groups standing to attention and saluting the Russian national flag as the national anthem played. Most ordinary people just walked past and ignored the ceremony. (COMMENT: These are generally faked ceremonies, designed to give the impression of major support for the Kremlin and its war in Ukraine. Most people in Russia and occupied Ukraine just want to be left alone.)
Putin spent part of Thursday celebrating Russia Day with veterans of his war in Ukraine in the Kremlin. He told them that "immortality" lies through victory on the battlefield. (COMMENT: Promoting Ukraine war veterans through his "Time for Heroes" programme is a cornerstone policy for Putin.)
BUSINESS LOBBIES PUTIN: Russia's rebranded McDonald's, Vkusno i tochka (this translates as "Tasty, full stop"), is lobbying Vladimir Putin not to allow Western companies back into Russia, the FT reported on Thursday. It reported that several Russian companies told Putin at a meeting last month that they should be allowed to dodge a "buyback clause" that Western companies had negotiated when they quit Russia in 2022. (COMMENT: The Kremlin had previously appeared keen for Western businesses to return if a peace deal in Ukraine is signed but it also knows that it has to keep businesses which have benefited from its war in Ukraine happy.)
BUSINESS EXPANSION IN SE ASIA: The first "Soul of Russia" shop opened in Hanoi on Thursday in time for Russia Day. The shop will sell various imported products from Russia and is a joint venture between Vietnam's Masan Group and Russia's Magnit. Hundreds more of these small shops are planned. (COMMENT: Although in many ways Vietnam is low-hanging fruit for Russian business it still shows their ability to expand internationally in Southeast Asia despite being viewed as a pariah in the West.)
NUCLEAR POWER ON THE MOON: Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said on Thursday that it intends to build a nuclear power station on the moon. (COMMENT: It has said this before and in many ways, Roscosmos needs a headline to aim for after the failure of its moon mission last year. Russia's space programme earns its kudos with allies and client states and the failure of its moon mission was humiliating. Putin personally showed North Korean dictator Kim Jung-un around Russia's Cosmodrome in Far East Russia in 2023.)
WAR LOSSES: Russia has now lost 1 million soldiers since the start of its war in Ukraine, British intelligence said on Thursday. It said that 250,000 soldiers had been killed, the rest are missing or seriously injured. (COMMENT: The size of Russia's loss in the war in Ukraine is staggering and will scar the country for generations. Losses from the Soviet Union's Afghanistan war in 1979-89 damaged society but these losses are far more serious. Despite the high losses and earlier predictions that they may trigger protests, Russian society appears to more or less accept them.)
TORTURE CHAMBERS IN AFRICA: The Kremlin's Wagner mercenary group operated a string of illegal prisons in Mali where it tortured and often killed men suspected of being linked to Tuareg rebels or Islamic militants, French and exiled Russian media units reported on Thursday. Reports said that between November 2023 and April 2025, nearly 700 Malians were detained and sent to these prisons. Survivors described the various torture techniques used by the prisoners. (COMMENT: Russia's client states in West Africa hired Wanger to crush rebel forces. These prisons highlight just how brutal the Wagner methods are. Of course, Wagner has form. It tortured and killed people in areas of Syria that it controlled 10 years ago after a war there too.)
SPYING ON THE WEST: Russian intelligence network is increasingly recruiting impressionable teenagers to carry out low-grade spying and sabotage operations as part of the Kremlin's "hybrid war" against the West, Reuters has reported. (COMMENT: Russian agents view teenagers as easy to recruit and expendable. They also appear to be less "visible" to Western counter-intelligence operations. This is more evidence that Russia has adapted its tactics against the West. It views itself at war with Europe.)