Syz the moment

Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to Russia’s declining birth rate, has launched an unusual initiative: encouraging Russians to have s*x during their work breaks... Source: The Times Of India

Source: Tass, VBL’s Ghost

Instead, many EU countries have been sending flood of exports to Russia that's invoiced to Kyrgyzstan. Source: Robin Brooks

Source: Visual Capitalist, Elements, Jesse Felder on X

Russia seems to be acting to keep up with the US. Nation-level as Bitcoin FOMO is heating up. Their entry will boost the hash rate, strengthen network fundamentals, and diversify miner politics. Chinese mining pools control 57% of the BTC hash rate, while the 🇺🇸US has 35%. Source: Cryptoquant, Ki Young

So much so that the World Bank is now classifying Russia as a "high-income country." On Monday 1st of July, the World Bank announced it has upgraded Russia from an upper-middle-income country to a high-income country, according to a report from the financial institution's economists. "Economic activity in Russia was influenced by a large increase in military-related activity in 2023," World Bank economists wrote in their report. Last year, Russians earned $14,250 per person on a gross national income basis. The World Bank's upgrade confirms reports from Russia that suggest the growth is primarily driven by wartime activities that generate demand for military goods and services, making some sectors winners in Russia's wartime economy. Russia's trade jumped by nearly 7% last year, while activities in the financial sector and construction grew by 6.6% and 3.6%, respectively. This boosted Russia's real GDP — which is economic growth adjusted for inflation — by 3.6%. The development has made some poor Russians better off financially, complicating any calculus over how to end the war.

In 2023, they paid 4 times more taxes to the Russian state than they did before the war in Ukraine... According to the FT, Deutsche Bank has increased its profits in Russia from €26mln before the war to €40mln in 2023, while Commerzbank has more than tripled its profits to €51mln. The German state holds a 15.8% stake in Commerzbank. Italian and Austrian banks are doing a killing as well… Western lenders have benefited from the imposition of sanctions on most of the Russian financial sector, which has denied access to the Swift international interbank payment system. That made international banks a financial lifeline between Moscow and the West. Source: FT, HolgerZ

Meanwhile, Germany has massive INDIRECT EXPORTS to Russia - see charts below. What are US taxpayers supposed to think when they see this? Source: Robin Brooks