Igor Volobuev, VP of state-owned Gazprombank, fled Russia to fight the side of Ukraine.

Gazprombank is now the only operator of Russian gas export according to the latest scheme introduced by Putin.

Volobuev was born in Ukraine. The scale of tragedy and destruction going on in Russia and Ukraine is so big, even if both sides fail to comprehend it now.

The greatest contributor to Ukranian identity for ages is not Vladimir Lenin. It's another Vladimir.

Regarding personally Volobuev - according to our sources, as many other Gazprom top-managers, he was getting money for nothing.

Major activities he was heavily involved in were corruption schemes with contractors and sub-contractors.

That's about it. Volobuev even showed up to his job on occasions.

He is no freedom fighter or a man of honor by any means. Just a typical corrupted Gazprom manager, one out of many.

One remark, our friend - we are American, not British, and we are generally interested in Russia. Little doubts about who Mr.Volobuev is.

Some major Russian media sources came up with "patriotic news" about Austria being ready to pay for Russian gas in rubles.

Sure enough, the news turned out to be fake. Austrian chancellor Nehammer confirmed that the country will 100% follow the EU sanction policy.

There won't be ruble payments. They make no sense to Russia either.

Federation Сouncil Speaker Valentina Matvienko suddenly turned into business-ombudsman and came up with a passionate demand to stop pressuring Russian business.

Matvienko even promised to organize a personal anti-government protest if the business in Russia won't be provided with all necessary freedoms.

It's funny to watch how Matvienko is discovering Russia now, in 2022. Previously she suddenly found out that Russia isn't capable of producing enough iron nails.

The House of Representatives passed a bill urging President Biden to confiscate assets from sanctioned Russian oligarchs and use the funds to support Ukraine.

The legislation passed in a 417-8 vote. The name of the bill is Asset Seizure for Ukraine Reconstruction Act.

We think bill is largely symbolic, but it still reflects the ability and, more important, the intention of Washington to raise stakes in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

There is a basic understanding that the owners are more or less nominal. True Russian oligarchs are in Kremlin.

There is a raising concern in Russia over the destroyed balance in the media and information policies.

All the independent media are swept, but some key media figures and "tower" behind them will certainly clash over power and budgets.

Here is, for example, a slight criticism of Margarita Simonyan in a state-controlled outlet. Simonyan, Soloviev and other faces of Russian media campaign represent various power group that are not always on the same page.

Simonyan, who along with Peskov made her career on Beslan tragedy, recently claimed (smiling) that nuclear strikes are a likely option for Russia now.

All we can say that state-financed media personalities and managers in Russia (likes of Simonyan, Soloviev, Skabeeva, Potupchik etc) are highly incompetent.

Budgets are going to the wrong people.

Renault will transfer its 68% stake in Russia’s largest carmaker AvtoVaz to the state for a symbolic price one ruble and a five-year option to get the asset back.

As far as we know, Renault tried to sell AvtoVaz, but couldn't find a buyer. Now AvtoVaz is controlled by the state which is not a good scenario.

Ukranian operation will 100% result in a critical technological backdrop for Russia - with nothing instead.

USA updated the 1941 legislation Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law to help allies fight Germany: Ukraine will be supported through a lend-lease program.

White House will seek another $30bln to provide Ukraine with weapons and equipment, in addition to $14bln already approved. The military budget of Russia is $66bln.

Overall the turn of events is showing the total strategic incompetence of Russian leaders. Now it looks like a game played by a skilled player against a teenager making nervous decisions.

Money for Ukraine rearmement will come from the frozen Russian assets. We are not asking about the Russian plans anymore.

What is the hope?

Branko Milanovic: "All that NATO dreamed, Vladimir Putin delivered".

Manchester City’s owner Mansour bin Zayyd helps usher more Russian oligarchs to UAE, according to Bloomberg.

UAE is turning into a haven not only for tycoons, but for Russian IT-specialists. Washington hasn't expressed any concern about it so far.

Bloomberg article is a sign of growing concern here.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby dismissed Russian calls about "fighting nazism in Ukraine" as "bull shit".

Russian narrative of the latest years largely predicated the current conflict. It was based on traditional Russian messianism and belief in moral advantage over the West.

It is a deeply irrational concept. Its current application is the idea that Russia is single-handedly fighting against nazism and is the only country to do so.

Russia hasn't ever been able to export this narrative. Kirby basically expressed the opinion shared around the world.

Literally nobody sees this conflict in terms of "fighting nazism", but Russia failed to produce any worthy idea since 1991.

Russian envoy in Israel has been summoned for ‘clarification’ after Foreign Minister Lavrov justified ‘denazification’ in Ukraine by saying ‘some of worst antisemites are Jews’ and 'Hitler also had Jewish blood'.

Russia never managed to maintain a modern civil nation. The model of Russian nationalism is ethnic, that's why Lavrov is basically looking for the purity of blood.

A scandalous, outrageous comment which basically confirms our previous text about irrational concepts that still dominate the Russian discourse.

These concepts are a mix of racism, medieval mystical ideas and German romanticism of 19 century. Lavrov's words are also a message to all ethnic non-Russians in the country.

After Ukraine Kremlin will likely start to 'denazify' Caucasus, Tatarstan, Yakutia and other regions with strange people who speak strange languages.

Based on public records, reporting by Russian media outlets and yacht valuations provided by VesselsValue, Forbes estimates Sechin is worth at least $800 million.

For some reason Russia continues to escalate its tensions with Israel over clearly antisemitic comments of Sergei Lavrov over 'Jewish blood' of Adolf Hitler.

Not only Moscow hasn't apologized, instead Russian MFA accused Israel of supporting 'neo-nazi' regime in Ukraine.

We are witnessing Russian mental, cultural and intellectual collapse of unheard proportions which is accompanied with traditional Russian everyday antisemitism. Late Stalin style.

A good training case for future though, we will follow closely.

Charles Michel, Head of European Council, met Greek Prime Minister and the leaders of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and non-NATO member Serbia at the Greek port of Alexandroupolis.

Balkan leaders will discuss an LNG project to rival Russian pipelines.

Doing business with modern Russia is not only toxic, but also expensive. The partner is too unstable.

Military spending in the world in 2021, according to SIPRI data. US military spending amounted to $801bln which is 38% of all expenditures in the world.

American military research and development funding has been $107bln last year and is constantly increasing which indicates the focus on the next-gen technologies.

India is negotiating deeper discounts on Russian crude oil which has become a toxic commodity since February, 24. Actually Delhi wants to pay less than $70 per barrel. Brent is $108 at the time.

Western sanctions has made Russian oil exports very problematic, and India is making the most of Russian difficulties. Delhi has been very opportunistic, buying over 40mln barrels of Russian crude since February, 24.

Russia has heavily discounted its oil and has no choice but to sell it in order to support its military efforts in Ukraine.

Russians have invested more than $3bln in Dubai real estate, according to the EU Tax observatory. There is another interesting tendency though.

In the most exclusive neighborhoods the fraction of offshore real estate owned by Russians rises to 6%, as opposed to about 3% for Dubai real estate overall.

We are almost sure that in a year this fraction will rise even more.

Sergei Beseda of FSB and Vladislav Surkov of Presidential Administration, who oversaw Ukrainian activities of Kremlin, are both all right.

We couldn't confirm the reports that they have been put under house arrest. Business for multimillionaires Beseda and Surkov goes as usual.

Who will take responsibility for the collapse in Ukraine? Well, must be someone else.

Beseda is an acting FSB general, Surkov is retired.

Both are enjoying their lives while thousands of kids are dying in Ukraine because of some "misconceptions" and "wrong decisions".

British updated sanctions list published yesterday includes Russian MCST JSC which develops Elbrus processors and Baikal Electronics JSC which produces Baikal chips.

Basically, Russia won't be able to further produce Baikal, because it specializes only in chips that use the British Arm architecture.

So, there are two possible solutions now. One, find a manufacturer who will knowingly infringe Arm’s patent laws, and the other, develop new open RISC/V, MIPS, VLIW architectures.

The latter will take at most two or three years and could require investments of up 1bln rubles.

Sanctions will devastate Russian economy, so from economic viewpoint Moscow has to negotiate peace in Ukraine as soon as possible. Which it won't do.