0656GMT: Russia news
FORREST FIRES: States of emergency have been declared in the Amur and Buryatia regions of Russia, they're east of Siberia, because of forest fires. Videos showed cars on a motorway having to drive through thick smoke. Media reports said that thousands of acres of forest are on fire. (NOTE: The Amur region in Far East Russia is important to the Kremlin because it is the site of its Vostochny Cosmodrome, where Vladimir Putin wooed and impressed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un in 2023.)
CRIMINAL CANDIDATES: Candidates in local elections in Russia will no longer have to post information about their past criminal records or income on noticeboards at polling stations under reforms passing through parliament. (COMMENT: This is part of a Kremlin ploy to promote veterans of its war in Ukraine. Many of its soldiers were recruited from inside the Russian prison system – including murderers and rapists. The deal was that if a convicted criminal signed up for a six-month tour of duty in Ukraine and survived, he/she would be pardoned.)
POTEMKIN RECONSTRUCTION: Residents of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city on the Sea of Azov that Russia captured in the early stages of the war, once again appealed to Putin to solve the "homeless problem". Carefully holding Russian flags, they said that three years after the start of the war, they are still homeless. (NOTE: Mariupol is now administered by the pro-Russia authorities in Donetsk. It was particularly badly damaged in fighting but the Kremlin made it a priority reconstruction project, flying in workers from Central Asia to re-build the city and young Russians to live in it.) (COMMENT: These videos are embarrassing for Putin personally because he travelled down to Mariupol in 2023 to see the construction effort for himself. The Kremlin's plan was to turn the city into an example of the "good life" under Russian rule after it was annexed in 2022. It doesn't seem to be working out that way.)
PROPAGANDA PLAYHOUSE: Putin ordered his top officials to build a new theatre in Moscow to showcase "modern drama with a patriotic focus". (COMMENT: This is Putin pushing his propaganda project to eulogise his war in Ukraine. This project appears to be important to Putin because he handed out the instructions to Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, culture minister Olga Lyublimova and top presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. He also gave them a deadline of November to get it up and running.)
POLISHING MONUMENTS: Russia's ministry of culture unveiled on Tuesday an ambitious programme to polish, paint and repair 14,000 historical monuments across Russia by 2045. (COMMENT: Most of these monuments will celebrate great Russians and their works, as well as various Soviet achievements. Read this as part of the Kremlin's project to boost ordinary Russians' links with their past.)
ECONOMIC WOES: The value of Russia's exports fell by 6.8% in Q1 compared to the same period a year earlier mainly because of a drop in the price of oil, Russia's Customs Service reported on Tuesday. (NOTE: The average price of a barrel of Urals oil, Russia's benchmark oil, fell from around $68 in January to $59 in March. By comparison, a barrel of Urals oil cost $71 in March 2024. Oil and minerals are Russia's biggest exports.)
COAL INDUSTRY ON LIFE SUPPORT: Putin approved emergency legislation on Tuesday that will give coal producers a decent discount on rail transport, part of the Kremlin's ongoing project to save the vital coal industry from bankruptcy. (COMMENT: Russia's coal mining sector is facing an existential crisis because several factors have made it unprofitable. These are Western sanctions, a fall in the global price of coal, discounts forced onto Russian coal by clients and a rise in transport costs. The Kremlin has estimated that 30 coal mining companies, which employ hundreds of thousands of people and support entire towns, are at risk of collapsing.)
BUSINESS WITH THE WEST: Western companies eyeing up a return to Russia if peace negotiations with Ukraine move forward and sanctions are repealed will be in for a bumpy and complicated move. At a meeting with Putin, Alexei Repik, head of the Delovaya Rossiya business lobby group, proposed a two-tier system dividing those companies that quit Russia after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine "with respect" and those that quit hurriedly and "let down Russia". (COMMENT: Western businesses are already in for a difficult ride if they attempt to re-enter the Russian market. This messaging from Repik is another indicator that the Russian authorities will make it tough. Repik's comments did allow Putin to act as "the adult in the room" by saying that each Western business wanting to operate again in Russia will be judged individually.)
PEACE TALKS: The Kremlin confirmed on Tuesday that it will turn up for peace talks with Ukraine on Thursday in Istanbul, although it didn't say who would head the delegation. The Washington Post later quoted an "unnamed Kremlin source" as saying that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov would lead the delegation. (COMMENT: Zelensky has challenged Putin to turn up at the talks but this was always unlikely and feels doubly so now that Trump has confirmed that he will not be going. Still, these are important talks as they are the first direct Russia-Ukaine talks since 2022 on ending the war. The two sides have met since 2022 to discuss Black Sea grain corridors, not ending the war.)
CORRUPTION: In today's 'Russia corruption corner', the mayor of a town in the Rostov region has been arrested for taking a bribe. Media reported that Yuri Lysenko, mayor of the town of Novocherkassk, is facing 15 years in prison for taking a bribe from a property developer. Lysenko's predecessor as mayor of the town of 200,000 people was also arrested for taking a bribe.