0654GMT//Kremlin dismisses Trump's secondary sanction threat; Russia claims most Armenian brandy is fake
RUSSIA DISMISSES TRUMP THREAT: The Kremlin has rejected Donald Trump's threat to impose secondary tariffs on Russia's trading partners if it didn't negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine in the next 50 days. (COMMENT: The threat of secondary sanctions against Russia's main trading partners, including India and China, could be an own-goal by the US. By threatening China and India, the US risks pushing them further into the Kremlin's embrace. This would play into the Kremlin's narrative of a self-indulgent West punishing the rest of the world and the need for a "multi-polar" global system that strips the US of a central authority.
Sergei Lavrov Russia's foreign minister, said that Russia was "coping" with sanctions already and that extra sanctions would impact the West more than the Kremlin. "Don't dig a hole," he said.
Three "Kremlin insiders" told Reuters that the threat was "very strange".
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said that Trump's ultimatum was "very serious" and "personal".
Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's former president and chairman of the Russian Security Council, called the US threat to impose secondary sanctions against the Kremlin's trading partners "a theatrical ultimatum". (COMMENT: Medevev is often dismissed as a hysterical Kremlin attack dog but he does telegraph Kremlin policy.)
Vladimir Putin has not yet commented.
ARMENIAN BRANDY: Most of the Armenian brandy sold in Russia is fake, Kremlin-backed scientists have said. They said that 85% of the Armenian brandy sold in Russia contained traces of other products. (COMMENT: Relations between Russia and Armenia are strained, to say the least, because of Armenia's push to join the EU and the arrest in Yerevan of a pro-Kremlin oligarch. The announcement that most Armenian brandy is fake, lays the ground for the Kremlin to ban imports. Brandy is a major Armenian export and Russia is its biggest market.)
CHURCH CROSSES: Russia's parliament passed a law banning photos or pictures of churches without crosses and other religious objects. (COMMENT: In 2023, the Russian Orthodox Church complained when the Russian Central Bank had produced a new banknote that depicted a church without a cross. The Central Bank withdrew the banknote and published a replacement. This new law feels like another sop to the Russian Orthodox Church. It shows how much influence the Church has in Putin's Russia.)
BAR FRANCHISES LESS POPULAR: Applications to purchase bar franchises have dropped by 42% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2024, the Kommersant newspaper reported. (COMMENT: This sharp drop is another indicator of the economic problems that Russia is facing. Sector analysts also said that increased regulations on the bar industry and the increased cost of importing foreign beer and other alcoholic drinks may it a less attractive business.)
DRIVERS' FEES INCREASE: Russia's parliament approved the first reading of a plan by the government to increase fees for buying new cars and registering new driver's licences in Russia. (COMMENT: The Kremlin needs more cash and has said that the extra fees, doubling the cost of some driving-related services, will bring in an extra 45 billion roubles ($575 million). Some MPs, instead, argued that the price rises will increase social tension.)
MICRO-MORTGAGES: Russia's parliament has passed a bill reinstating state-backed microlenders into the Russian mortgage market. (COMMENT: Last year, these microlenders were banned from issuing mortgages because they operated outside the Central Bank's control. Regional authorities complained that by banning these microlenders the government was restricting access to mortgages for low-income borrowers. The new legislation allows regions to permit one of their state-backed microlenders to hand out mortgages under the oversight of the Central Bank. Russia's housing market has shrunk. This appears to be another attempt to reignite it.)
NEWS MATRIX:
The Kremlin's rejection of Trump's threat to sanction its trading partners is certainly important but it is hardly a surprise. How did the White House think the Kremlin was going to react? How countries such as India and China respond is another question.
Far more of a surprise was the Kremlin's ban on photos of churches without crosses.