0715GMT//Russia lowers interest rates; new missile tested; top North Korean official visits
INTEREST RATE CUT: Russia's Central Bank cut its core interest rate on Friday to 16.5% from 17%. This was broadly in line with expectations. (COMMENT: This is the fourth consecutive cut since June. Russian business wants a harder cut. The Central Bank still says that there are inflation problems. The Kremlin is raising VAT to 22% from 20% in 2026, which will push up inflation. The Central Bank has now admitted that inflation will be higher this year than expected, and most analysts now expect interest rate cuts to stop, or slow.)
RUSSIA TESTS NEW MISSILE: Russia tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, which it said had an "unlimited" range. The missile, called 'Burevestnik', is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Valery Gerasimov, the head of Russia's military, told Vladimir Putin on Sunday that the missile flew 14,000km and was in the air for 15 hours when it was test-fired on Tuesday. Putin then described the missile as "invincible" to air defence systems. (COMMENT: This is the usual hyperbole from the Russian side. When the Kremlin feels threatened, as it now does with the prospect of the US giving Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles, it unveils a new "deadlier" missile. The difference here is that Putin took the briefing from Gerasimov about the missile on TV, wearing a military uniform. This is rare and is designed as a show of strength to ordinary Russians.)
BRITISH MEN JAILED FOR SABOTAGE: A court in Britain convicted six men of arson against warehouses in a London suburb used by a Ukrainian company in March 2024. The men were recruited online by Russia's mercenary Wagner group. (COMMENT: These men are part of a wider plot by Russia to sabotage infrastructure in the West by recruiting disaffected young men. The theory goes that these men are easy to recruit online, through a mix of bribes and promises of "adventure", and are then expendable. They are generally given low-grade targets to bomb and damage. There are reports of a similar recruitment drive across Europe.)
NORTH KOREA VISIT: Choe Son Hui, North Korea's foreign minister, was due to arrive in Moscow for a three-day visit on Sunday. A statement from North Korea said that she was on a "working visit". (COMMENT: This trip is definitely worth watching. Choe's visits to Moscow have previously laid the foundation for major policy shifts. North Korea has become a major Russian ally, sending soldiers to fight its wars and labourers to prop up its economy.)
RUSSIA-US TALKS: Talks in the US between Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's envoy to US-Russia peace talks, and Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump's special envoy to the peace talks, have tipped into their third day. Dmitriev was sent to the US by Putin after potential talks with Trump in Budapest collapsed, and the US then sanctioned Russian oil companies. During the talks, Dmitriev said that a diplomatic solution to ending the war was "quite close". (COMMENT: The Dmitriev-Witkoff talks are important for Russia-US relations mainly because they appear to be the only publicly acknowledged channels currently ongoing. It's also relevant that Dmitriev talked up a potential end to the war, although there is a long way to go.)