0815GMT//Gas exec falls to his death; billionaire gold miner tries to flee
BRICS BLAMES UKRAINE: In a final communique at the end of their summit in Brazil, BRICS members condemned an alleged Ukrainian attack on a railway bridge in Russia in May that killed seven people but failed to criticise regular Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine that have killed hundreds of civilians. (COMMENT: The Kremlin has made it a mission to turn BRICS into propaganda mouthpiece and this one-sided criticism of Ukraine is its reward. BRICS was originally Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but has been expanded.)
Putin didn't attend the BRICS summit because Brazil is a member of the International Criminal Court which has an arrest warrant out for him. Instead, he sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. (COMMENT: The Kremlin published photos of Putin watching the summit online via a video link. He seems to have played a very peripheral role. Xi Jinping, China's leader, also stayed away. Putin and Xi's absence suggests that the Kremlin's mission to turn BRICS into a major anti-West focus is stalling. It was only in October, at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, that the Kremlin was talking it up as a counterpoint to the G8.)
GAS EXEC FALLS TO DEATH: Andrei Badalov, a vice president at the Russian state gas transport monopoly, was found dead on Friday after falling from a window at his home in Moscow. (COMMENT: Badalov's death has been described as a suicide. There have been several suicides or unexplained deaths of Russian oil and gas executives since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.)
GOLD MINE BILLIONAIRE CAUGHT FEEING: Konstantin Strukov, the billionaire owner of the Yuzhuralzoloto gold mine in the Urals, was caught by Russian police trying to flee the country on his private jet on Saturday, three days after prosecutors started proceedings to seize his business. Media said that he had been planning on flying to Turkey. (COMMENT: This is another humiliation for Strukov, who had been ordered by a judge not to leave the country. The Kremlin has been seizing assets since it started its war in Ukraine.)
TRANSPORT MINISTER SACKED: Vladimir Putin on Monday sacked Roman Starovoit as minister of transport. (COMMENT: No reason was given for the sacking but over the weekend thousands of Russian travellers faced major delays after 400 flights were cancelled because of drone strike threats and tickets ran out for trains connecting Moscow and St Petersburg. Starovoit has been Russia's transport minister since May 2024. He was previously the governor of the Kursk region.)
PUTIN'S HEROES: Putin on Sunday met with Zhanna Gudkova, widow of Major-General Mikhail Gudkov who was killed in a Ukrainian missile strike on his HQ in the Kursk region last week. Gudkov was the deputy commander of the Russian Navy and was commanding marines. At a rally on Sunday evening for a pro-war pro-Kremlin group called the People's Front, Putin eulogised Gudkov and ordered a street in Donetsk to be named after him. (COMMENT: Putin presented Gudkova with a Hero of Russia medal on behalf of her husband. This was his second. Putin is desperate to make heroes out of Russian servicemen who have been fighting his war in Ukraine. Gudkov's units were accused of being involved in the rape and pillage of Bucha, north of Kyiv, in 2022.)
SELLING RESERVES: Russia's government said on Friday that it will sell off 9.8b roubles ($124m) of Yaun reserves every day from its National Wealth Fund to plug a gap in its budget created by a drop in oil and gas export revenues. (COMMENT: This is a 30% increase in June sales and shows the problems that Russian officials have had patching up their budget. Russia built up reserves last year when oil and gas prices were significantly higher. The NWF is estimated at 4.1 trillion roubles ($52.6b).)
TRANSLATORS NEEDED: Russian companies are desperate to hire decent Russian-North Korea translators, Russian media reported. (COMMENT: This is a reflection of the thousands of workers from North Korea who are taking construction and agricultural jobs in Russia.)
ASTRAKHAN PORT SALE: Rostec, the Russian state defence conglomerate, will not sell its 25.5% stake in the Astrakhan port to Iran, Russian media reported (COMMENT: Iranian media reported that Iran wanted to buy all of the port last week. It already owns a 53% stake in the port. The port at Astrakhan is Russia's most significant on the Caspian Sea.)
FOOTBALLER BLACKMAILED: Fyodor Smolov, a Russian international footballer, claimed that he was blackmailed after being videoed punching two people in the face in a coffee shop in Moscow in May. Smolov, who has played 45 times for Russia and scored 16 goals, posted a video on social media apologising for the fight after receiving the blackmail threats.
NEWS MATRIX:
News that Russia has been selling reserves from its National Wealth Fund for the second month in a row is important as it highlights the problem the Kremlin has in plugging gaps in its budget. BRICS' one-sided final communique is biased against Ukraine and whitewashes Russia but this is hardly a surpise. It's important, though, as it means that BRICS is acting as a Kremlin propaganda mouthpiece.