Person
President of Russia and the country's dominant political leader since 1999/2000, directing its foreign policy, security apparatus, and major economic policy.
In a July 2021 issue brief, the Atlantic Council argued that Russia's push to isolate RuNet could make Kremlin cyber operations abroad more assertive. It said success was uncertain, so its five takeaways for US and European defenders were hypotheses to test.
Reality
Trump called Ukraine's refinery strikes a 'disgrace' as EU leaders hosted Zelenskiy in Brussels with a $32.6 billion budget gap for next year unfunded. Funding and air defence are on the agenda, and the strikes' effect on European energy prices is disputed.
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Russia's central bank says its digital currency law bars transfers to non-custodial wallets and allows peer-to-peer crypto trades only until July 1, 2027. Licensed intermediaries, Sberbank among them, will handle everything after that.
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Recorded Future's Insikt Group assesses that Russia's VPN, platform and shutdown controls since mid-2025 will likely fall short of a sovereign internet. Organizations operating in Russia face rising surveillance and legal risk from the controls, Insikt says.
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Trump is standing by his Russian diesel import deal after a bipartisan group of senators said it runs against a 2022 ban on Russian energy imports. Semafor puts the volume at roughly 2.2 million tons, while ABC News reports 300,000 tons immediately with more promised.
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Trump's envoys told Kyiv on Oct 9 that a Russian diesel deal of more than 2.25 million barrels is meant to restart three-way talks, Reuters reported. A person close to the Kremlin said Putin returns only after taking the last 11% of Donbas.
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Treasury licensed Russian diesel sales after President Trump said Vladimir Putin would immediately release hundreds of thousands of tonnes onto world markets. NBC News reported that the authorization runs until April 7, 2027, so operators have a fixed end date to budget against while the promised tonnage rests on Trump's account.
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Six senators from both parties urged Trump to reverse his deal with Putin to import Russian diesel ahead of the midterms. Fortune reported that energy experts doubt the diesel will lower US pump prices.
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Trump says Putin will ship the US more than 800,000 tons of diesel by November, reversing a ban on Russian oil held since the Ukraine war began. Analysts quoted by Fortune expect the cargoes to come out of other buyers' supply, so freight keeps paying near-record prices.
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Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine agreed to an immediate halt to strikes on each other's energy infrastructure, though neither government had confirmed it. Ending refinery strikes would remove one source of the energy-price pressure Trump has cited, but only once both capitals confirm the deal and say what it covers.
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Zelenskyy said Russia struck a Kharkiv power plant and a gas production facility after Trump announced an energy ceasefire. The Kremlin has not confirmed the deal. Until it does, any lower oil and gas cost rests on an unconfirmed announcement.
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3 publishersReality
Six senators, four Republicans and two Democrats, demanded Sunday that Trump reverse a Russian diesel deal that starts at more than 300,000 tons. They say it skipped the consultation statute requires, and energy experts expect little relief at the pump.
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CNN reported a US plan to suspend sanctions on Russian fuel exports for six months while Ukraine stops hitting refineries. Analysts cited in the report expect little effect on diesel prices.
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US diesel sits 71% above a year ago against 56% for crude, a split Energy Aspects' Amrita Sen links to inflation and Treasury yields. A fuel clause pegged to crude has recovered only about four-fifths of the rise in what truckers and farmers pay.
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Bank of Russia's first crypto registers give Sberbank and VTB three of the nine slots. Both banks plan to open crypto trading to their clients by December, though Sberbank's listing so far covers custody alone.
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The WHO said on Wednesday it cannot assess the risk from a suspected plague death in Siberia because Russia has not shared a full picture. Officials deny the worker's institute is involved while placing that same lab under quarantine.
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Ukraine says its strikes have knocked out 51% of Russia's oil refining capacity, a claim that could not be independently verified. IEA figures point to a smaller loss that Russia covers by postponing maintenance and keeping diesel at home.
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Researchers with the Where Are Our People? project have identified at least 47 Russian and Belarusian figures in the deportation of Ukrainian children. Only some of them face Western sanctions, while Ukraine counts 2,644 children returned against 20,651 verified deportations.
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China's Central Theater Command sent Type 99A tanks and drone units to Tsentr-2026, a Russian drill of more than 47,000 personnel built on Ukraine war lessons. For China-Russia risk pricing, what Beijing's units take home from those lessons matters more than the size of the drill.
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Vladimir Putin said a "direct attack" on Kaliningrad "or maybe some other territories" would put the use of all Russia's weapons on the agenda. This week his embassies tied nuclear use to one observable event, NATO cutting the exclave off from Russia; Putin's wording lets Moscow decide what counts.
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Invest · September 6, 2026 · Confirmed4 publishers
Invest · September 12, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers
Invest · September 13, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers
Leadership · September 23, 2026 · One report1 publisher
Invest · September 20, 2026 · Confirmed3 publishers
Invest · September 13, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers
Security · September 4, 2026 · Confirmed2 publishers