0724GMT//Putin compares himself to Jesus; Kia plans to import cars to Russia

PUTIN INTERVIEW: Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia is developing "military-technical and military cooperation" with China. He said this in an interview with Western news agencies on the sidelines of the St Petersburg Economic Forum. (COMMENT: Russia doesn't yet have a military alliance with China. Could this be the first sign of one coming?)

During this interview, Putin once again called for dialogue to end the conflict between Israel and Iran. (COMMENT: The conflict between Israel and Iran has allowed Putin to pose as a peacemaker.)

Putin said that he would be prepared to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky but "only at the final stage of the negotiating process", although he also questioned Zelensky's legitimacy as Ukraine's leader. (COMMENT: This feels like Putin 'gaming' the peace process with Ukraine once again – appearing to sound reasonable but not really having any intention of negotiating a peace deal in good faith.)

Putin ended his interview with Western news agencies with a teed-up one-liner taken from the Bible. "Let him who has not sinned cast the first stone at me," Putin said, manipulating a quote attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John. (COMMENT: Typical Putin chutzpah and complete lack of self-awareness. There is quite a lot to pick through here. Is this Putin's Messiah complex coming to the fore or was he trying to show his domestic audience that he is a pious man -- something that he has played up since he took over as Russia's President on New Year's Eve 1999.)

PUTIN'S DAUGHTER: Putin's eldest daughter, Maria Vorontsova, chaired a session on the first day of the St Petersburg Economic Forum. She is an endocrinologist and moderated a session on "Neoethics in the era of neurotechnology". (COMMENT: Vorontsova mainly droned on about her concerns that younger generations of Russians spend too much time online. This is all very 'on-message' for the Kremlin. The importance here is that this was 40-year-old Vorontsova's second consecutive appearance at the St Petersburg Economic Forum. Over the past couple of years, children of the Kremlin elite have been given higher profiles. It is unclear why these children have emerged from the shadows, although they may be being groomed to take more responsibility. Putin has another daughter and two younger sons with Alina Kabaeva, a gymnast.)

INTERNET CUT FOR ST PETERSBURG FORUM: Reports said that mobile internet around the St Petersburg Economic Forum had been disabled for security reasons. Russian officials want to reduce the chance of a drone strike.

ECONOMIC RECESSION: Russian officials at the St Petersburg Economic Forum were gloomy about the country's economic prospects. Maxim Reshetnikov, minister for economic development, said that Russia was "on the brink of a recession" and Elvira Nabiullina, Central Bank chief, said that Russian companies had to find a new way to grow as "free resources have been used up". "Many companies simply face a labour shortage," she said. (COMMENT: These were quite some admissions from Russian officials about the state of the economy. They usually try to talk it up but the data is pointing to major problems.)

RUSSIAN CARS: AvtoVAZ, Russia's largest carmaker, unveiled its long-awaited new SUV Lada Azimut at the St Petersburg Economic Forum -- where its CEO also warned that new car sales would be 25% lower this year than last year. (COMMENT: The Azimut has been heavily delayed because of Western sanctions. It was supposed to be based on the Renault Duster but it had to be redesigned after the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Western companies quit Russia. And there have been plenty of compromises. Despite its rugged looks, the Lada Azimut is a front wheel drive only car. Russian officials may also have described the Azimut as a "Russian sovereign car" but the gearboxes (manual or automatic) are made in China.)

KIA TO IMPORT TO RUSSIA: Kia, the South Korean car maker, wants to start importing cars to Russia in 2026, a Russian car analyst wrote on Telegram after meeting Kia's representatives. Oleg Moseev said that Kia wanted to import cars into Russia from its factories in Kazakhstan and China. There has been no official comment from Kia. (COMMENT: Speculation has been growing for several months that Kia has plans to start importing its cars into Russia once again. Before it left Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Kia was the second biggest seller of new cars in Russia after Lada. In other words, it is a vital market for Kia. If it sells into Russia from Kazakhstan, Kia may also not be breaking Western sanctions. If Kia does start selling directly into Russia again it will become one of the first major Western brands to re-enter the Russian market.)

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE: Russia's parliament has lifted a ban on so-called "matryoshka companies". The ban was imposed in 1995 to stop one company from owning 100% of another company which then owns 100% of another company etc – a scheme designed to establish opaque corporate structures for tax evasion. (COMMENT: The Kremlin now approves of "matryoshka companies" because it helps with skipping around Western-imposed sanctions. Once again, Russia's war effort trumps everything else – including corporate governance.)

ARGENTINE TROLL FACTORY: In Argentina, police said that they have busted a "Russian troll factory" designed to spread disinformation. They said that the troll factory was linked to associates of former Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who was killed in 2023. (COMMENT: Argentina has been clamping down on Russians moving into the country. In May, it changed its residency rules so that the parents of babies born in Argentina didn't automatically receive an Argentine passport to stop thousands of heavily pregnant Russian women flying into Beuno Airies to give birth.)

WAR MEMORIAL: Telegram reports on a memorial to a WW2 Soviet submarine commander in Ust-Luga near St Petersburg being replaced by a memorial to soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine. The WW2 memorial will apparently be rebuilt in another location, although it is not clear where yet. (COMMENT: I've not heard this before. Is the war in Ukraine taking precedence over WW2 for modern Russians?)

NEWS MATRIX:

Plenty of important stories in today's Memo. Perhaps the most surprising of these were warnings from top government officials at yesterday's St Petersburg Economic Forum that Russia was facing a recession. Although not confirmed, South Korean car maker Kia appears to have told car dealers in Russia that it is preparing to start imports again. Putin quoting from the Bible at the end of an interview with journalists was a surprise, for sure.