JUST IN: President Putin signs law legalising Bitcoin and crypto mining in Russia.
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
Oops... I missed this one... Russia's economy has defied sanctions in the two years since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022
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.
European banks are apparently doing brilliant business in Russia…
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
The US is pushing through another big military aid package for Ukraine.
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
Russia replaced oil exports to the EU with exports to India and China
Source: FT
According to RT, Russia has conducted a major exercise aimed at testing its strategic nuclear forces, the Kremlin said on Wednesday
The drills focused on the simulated delivery of ‘a massive nuclear strike by the strategic offensive-oriented forces in response to a nuclear strike by a simulated enemy’. Note that gold and bitcoin both jumped on the news.
Robin Brooks tweet: "In the first 8 months of 2023, German exports to Kyrgyzstan were up 1400% from the same period in 2019
A lot of these goods - mostly cars and car parts - never ends up in Kyrgyzstan, but go directly or indirectly to Russia"
