Russia to Cut Funding for Aircraft Production Amid Manufacturing Delays

The Russian government plans to reduce its spending on the production of new aircraft and helicopters by 22% due to ongoing delays and challenges in their manufacture [...]

The largest single cut, 8.5 billion rubles ($106.8 million), will affect subsidies for leasing companies and airlines meant to support the purchase and operation of aircraft.

"If there are no planes, there’s no need for compensatory subsidies," the source said.

However, only five aircraft — three Tu-214s and two Il-96-300s — have been delivered in the three years since then. [...]

He said that the real issues facing the Russian aviation industry are supply chain disruptions caused by the defense sector’s outsized demand for parts and unfinished research-and-development efforts tied to import substitution.

"No amount of money can speed that up," Khoruzhik said.

The head of Rostec warned in March that Russia will need to replace hundreds of foreign-made civil aircraft in the coming years as its fleet of Western planes reaches the end of its lifespan.

PooTin and his cronies are saber rattling again.

Chilling signs Finland could be the next country on PooTin’s hit list.

Finland is convinced the appearance of these along its border with Russia means it is next on President Vladimir PooTin’s invasion list.

Finland was once part of a Russian Empire.

By President PooTin’s self-professed standards, that means it should be again.

“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years,” he proclaimed in 2022.

“He was not taking away anything. He was returning. This is how it was.”

PooTin went on to claim, “Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well” for his invasion of Ukraine.

Now, with US President Donald Trump washing his hands of his promise to negotiate peace with Moscow in his first 24 hours, and then first 200 days, President PooTin is once again thinking big.......

Finland was once part of a Russian Empire.

Russia was once part of the Mongol Empire.

The Mongol Horde customs and traditions, especially their "art of warfare" seem to have had a lasting impact on Russia.

And the Tartars took the town [of Ryazan] on December 21... They likewise killed the [Prince] and Knyaginya, and men, women and children, monks, nuns and priests, some by fire, some by the sword and violated nuns, priests' wives, good women and girls in the presence of their mothers and sisters. [from The Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016–1471]

Russia Moves to Revise 2025 Budget on Lower Energy Revenues and Wider Deficit

The budget signed by President Vladimir Putin last December projected revenues at 40.3 trillion rubles ($508.5 billion) and a deficit of 1.17 trillion rubles ($14.76 billion), or 0.5% of GDP. That version allocated a record 40% of total spending to defense and national security.

Under the revised plan, revenues are now forecast to fall by 1.79 trillion rubles to 38.51 trillion rubles ($485.9 billion). The deficit is expected to rise to 3.79 trillion rubles ($47.8 billion), or 1.7% of GDP, an increase of 2.62 trillion rubles.

Russia’s first-quarter spending has already reached 11.2 trillion rubles ($141.1 billion), outpacing last year’s levels.

[...] estimates that about a third of that — 3.6 trillion rubles ($45.3 billion) — was classified, likely earmarked for defense. Russia has increasingly front-loaded military spending since 2023.

To cover the deficit, the government plans to draw 447 billion rubles ($5.8 billion) from the National Wealth Fund (NWF), which holds 2.8 trillion rubles ($36.4 billion) in liquid assets. Kremlin economists have warned that, given current trends, the fund could be depleted by 2026.

Putin will not end the war because he runs out of people to send into meat wave attacks or insufficient supply of artillery shells, but because he will run out of money.

Well the writing is on the wall, but will PooTin shoot the messenger (or push down stairs or out a window)?

Russia’s economy minister has given PooTin a brutal reality check.

Russia’s economy minister warned that the country was “on the verge” of recession, issuing the downbeat message on the second day of a forum designed to bolster economic confidence.

The Russian economy has been marked by volatility since it launched its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine in 2022, with growth now slowing after a period of what officials called “overheating”.

Moscow reported strong economic expansion in 2023 and 2024, largely due to massive state defence spending on the conflict.

But economists have cautioned that growth driven by the defence industry is unsustainable and does not reflect a real increase in productivity.

“Overall, I think we are on the verge of a recession,” Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov told journalists at a panel on the second day of the Saint Petersburg Economic Forum.

He said this view was based on “current business sentiment and indicators” that were pointing to a slowdown.

“Everything else depends on our decisions,” Reshetnikov said, calling for the central bank to show a “little love for the economy”.

Russia’s central bank jacked interest rates to an eye-watering high of 21 per cent last October to combat inflation and kept them at that level until earlier this month, when it eased them to 20 per cent.

Economists had warned for months that the high interest rate and a downturn in manufacturing were weighing on the economy.......

Well Poland certainly doesn't want any of PooTin's orks crossing its border.

Inside Poland’s plan to protect itself from PooTin.

As the Russian president’s war in Ukraine continues to rage, Poland is preparing to be his next target....

Well Poland certainly doesn't want any of PooTin's orks crossing its border.

Just recently Putin uttered the old Russian saying in public: Russia is where Russian soldiers once put their boots on the ground.

Well, we had large Soviet barracks in the city, not different than elsewhere... roughly one square kilometer within (0.4sqmi), a further 115 km² (44 sqmi) in the surrounding county, thousands of "Ivans", a full mechanised division (one of 21 in Eastern Germany); all 21 comprised 500K troops. There was a Soviet school for officer's children... a Soviet housing quarter, just for officers and wives (the Muzhiks (NCOs) freedom slave life was limited to the barracks)... and in the bricks near the basement of our historic water tower even today you can still read the cyrillic inscriptions (I had to learn Russian in school for six years.. as everyone else). Over many decades some Soviet soldiers carved their names, hometowns, and deployment dates into the bricks... locations from all over the vast USSR. Between 1945 and 1994 ten million Soviet soldiers put their boots on East German grounds.

So, if Putin isn't kidding, he claimed that six of 16 German states (One third of the area, a fifth to a quarter of the population) belong to Russia. I'm glad we have the Poles (and Ukrainians) between us. Poles are serious when it comes to Russian Imperialism. For decades we thought their hate for everything Russian is crazy, outright irrational. But no, they always knew Russian imperialism is alive; just held back for a short weakness period after defeat in the Cold War.

Btw. If Putin looks to justify another SMO to protect Russian speakers from oppression, he can easily argue that millions here must be able to speak Russian. And the Russian language clearly has since been erased here from public, forgotten; No, at least the dining car of our local "Pioneer railway" (a Soviet invention btw.) still bears the inscription "salonnyy vagon" (in cyrillic).

Oh, except for cyrillic inscriptions on the many gravestones in military cemetries from WW2 here. They will remain forever. We just should think about correcting the stated years this war lasted on these Soviet war memorials (1941-1945). There can't be progress in Russia until they also accept their history before 1941.

Transneft Vice President Dies in Apparent Fall From Window, Reports Say

The vice president of Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has died after allegedly falling from a window at his home in the upscale Moscow suburb of Rublyovka, state media reported Friday.

Badalov’s body was found beneath the windows of a home on the Rublyovo-Uspenskoye highway, the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement source.

“The preliminary cause of death is suicide,” the source said, adding that a preliminary investigation was underway.

The vice president of Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has died after allegedly falling from a window at his home in the upscale Moscow suburb of Rublyovka, state media reported Friday.

Who did he piss off to "fall out a window?"

The vice president of Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has died after allegedly falling from a window at his home in the upscale Moscow suburb of Rublyovka, state media reported Friday.

Who did he piss off to "fall out a window?"

What?! He did it to 'piss off' someone??!!

That's a bit drastic isn't it?


Only in Russia?
Martin

(Beware, the Oxford Comma!)

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

In other words who was mad at him and accidentally on purpose pushed him out the window?

The vice president of Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline monopoly Transneft has died after allegedly falling from a window at his home in the upscale Moscow suburb of Rublyovka, state media reported Friday.

Who did he piss off to "fall out a window?"

We will never know.

Russian newspapers basically reported identical facts, almost same sentences. Some added a short resume of his career. Mail.ru (largest RU internet group owned by billionaire oligarchs) even recollected the NINE previous, similar cases of top managers who commited suicide (some are said to have killed their families first) resp. fell from windows since 2022.

Andrey Badalov's career:

• graduated from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1984
  
• then University research center... computers...
  
• 2008 advanced training at Military Academy of General Staff RuAF
  
• 2007...2019 Defense Industry: Deputy Director, general designer of communication systems
  
• in 2014: Sochi Olympics: developed a control center to reliably supply electricity to Olympics grounds, world media.
  
• 2019.. Director State Research Institute subordinated to Fed. Ministry of Digital Development, Communication, mass media.
  
• 2022: Vice Pres. Transneft: digitalization and automation of production processes; large-scale projects
  

... reads like the Soviet system lives on; no clear distinction between private enterprises, government ones, research institutes, military, oil industry... The government's supervision and control... Big brother is watching you... George Orwell described a dystopian three-class society in "1984": subjects, party members, and the ruling elite. This manager clearly was an influential "party member" charged with important and top-secret tasks; but never part of the inner circle, the ruling class. A replaceable figure.

According to one news outlet, before his death, he wrote his wife a SMS; content undisclosed.

His daughter told another channel: in recent days her father was depressed and morally exhausted, returning home sad and tired.

Was it a first floor window like all the rest?

Was it a first floor window like all the rest?

High-rise apartment building.

Telegram channels "Baza" and "112" reported, Badalov fell from a balcony on the 17th floor. He lived in an apartment in the same building on Rublevskoye Highway, but on the 10th floor.

SHOT, Mash and RIA Novosti reported the top manager fell out of a window of his apartment.

Source: Gazeta.ru (major news outlet, owned by oligarchs; in 2020 acquired by state-owned Sberbank) (In Russian only)

The Rublyovka quarter is the "Beverly Hills" of Moscow; the residency place of the "nomenklatura" already in Tsarist Russia, 400 years ago.

Today's Russia is a Mafia state, ruled and owned by an organized crime syndicate, the most powerful on earth.

In Western, liberal democracies, failing politicians are voted out of office or fall from power due to scandals (just the theory, I know), and failing managers are dismissed by powerful shareholders.

In Russia, they have to be removed from the syndicate, either using the tested Sicilian method (concrete on feet), or more conveniently by defenestration, which has the advantage of attracting public attention and press coverage, thus sending the desired signal back into the syndicate.

Badalov was vice president of a large oil company, thus a "member". He knew the syndicate's rules and customs.

... not a window...

Former Transportation Minister Roman Starovoit Found Dead With Gunshot Wound After Being Sacked by Putin

[...] Roman Starovoit was found dead at his home Monday in an apparent suicide, just hours after President Vladimir Putin dismissed him amid speculation over a defense scandal in the Kursk region, where he previously served as governor. "Today, in the Odintsovo district [of Moscow]... Roman Vladimirovich Starovoit was found in his car with a gunshot wound," [...]

Putin had tapped Starovoit to lead the Transportation Ministry in May 2024 after he was elected as president for another six-year term. Before that, Starovoit served as governor of the southwestern Kursk region near the Ukrainian border from 2018 to 2024.

His tenure as governor drew renewed scrutiny following Ukraine’s surprise incursion into the Kursk region last August. Since then, law enforcement authorities have made several high-profile arrests, including that of his successor Alexi Smirnov, over alleged embezzlement in the construction of border fortifications.

While Starovoit had not been directly implicated in the ongoing police investigations, Russian media reported that the breached border defenses, built during his time as governor, cost nearly 15 billion rubles (around $191 million) and took nearly three years to construct.

Despite the large sums that went into building the fortifications, Ukrainian forces still managed to launch their incursion and rapidly seize large swaths of the Kursk region, facing little resistance.

Rosstat Stops Publishing Monthly Population Data Amid War Deaths, Demographic Crisis

Russia’s state statistics agency Rosstat has stopped publishing monthly data on births and deaths, a move that comes amid a deepening demographic crisis and ongoing troop losses in the war against Ukraine.

The agency had already stopped releasing regional breakdowns of births and deaths earlier this year.

“Since March 2025, there’s been virtually no publicly available demographic data in Russia,” [...] “We consider the full suppression of regional demographic statistics a clear sign of failed demographic policy at the regional level.”

[...] linked the latest data blackout to the Kremlin’s efforts to "obscure the Russian military’s high personnel loss rate."

[...] internal data from an unnamed region allegedly showing life expectancy for men dropping from 66 years in 2024 to 61 in mid-2025 [...].

Rosstat’s May data blackout comes months after the agency reported just 90,500 births in February — the lowest monthly figure in more than two centuries. Raksha estimates the first quarter of 2025 likely saw the fewest births since the early 1800s.

Somebody compiled a list; 17 entries so far:

Death by Falling: A Timeline of Cases Across Russia and Abroad

2022:

• Aug. 14 — Dan Rapoport, Latvian-American stockbroker and businessman
  
• Sept. 1 — Ravil Maganov, chairman of the board of Lukoil

[...]

2025:

• Feb. 4 — Artur Priakhin, head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service in the Republic of Karelia
  
• Feb. 5 — Vadim Stroykin, singer and songwriter
  
• March 2 — Buvaisar Saitiev, former State Duma lawmaker from Dagestan and freestyle wrestler
  
• July 4 — Andrei Badalov, vice president of Transneft
  
• [cont.]
  

In Photos: Russia's Muslims Mark Eid al-Adha

Russian supremacy needs Russians. Non-Russian nationalities within the Russian Federation, especially Muslims, may have different values than strengthening and expanding the Russian world. They have a different concept of family. Today's Russian marriages often end in divorce with few children.

While the war is wasting away thousands of Russian soldiers with non-Russian nationality, masses of young Russians die too.

Where will this lead Russia? Already four million of Moscow's ~12 million inhabitants are said to be Muslim (often work migrants from Central or Southern Russia or former USSR republics, now sovereign nations in Central Asia.

Putin himself publicly pretends to be a devout Orthodox Christian; he reestablished a Russian Orthodox state church throughout the country, controlled by priests with close ties to the KGB/FSB, in fact often former FSB agents.

The appeal of a technocratic, laicistic state that promised progress in all parts of the vast country has vanished with the collapse of the USSR. Can Putin's vision of Russia convince Russian Muslims? I doubt it.

Weekend Drone Attacks Disrupt Over 1K Flights at Moscow Airports

Ukrainian drone attacks triggered another wave of flight disruptions at Moscow’s airports over the weekend, with more than 1,000 flights delayed or canceled, according to Russian media reports.

Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports faced extensive operational shutdowns as Russian air defenses intercepted dozens of drones approaching the capital between July 19 and 21.

Airlines have canceled around 1,000 flights since early May, with 430 planes diverted to alternate airports. At least 200,000 passengers, or roughly one in 10 air travelers, have been affected, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) calculated.

Despite mounting losses, state aviation authority Rosaviatsia said it has no plans to compensate airlines for delays or cancellations.

“Neither airports nor airlines can predict when the ‘Carpet Plan’ [emergency airspace closure] will be triggered,”

Russian Banks Will Fall. The Question Is How Hard.

The Bloomberg report did not name specific institutions but said at least three of Russia’s 13 systemically important banks are seeking bailout talks. With giants like VTB, Alfa, Gazprombank, Raiffeisen and Rosbank fitting that description, even one collapse could trigger a financial crisis. Three would be catastrophic.

Even executives at Kremlin-controlled Sberbank and VTB admit the size of the bad debts is much larger and likely to climb. Bloomberg’s sources within the banks reveal that much of the apparent stability is a façade, propped up by creative accounting and political pressure. “Everything is not as good as it looks on paper,” one insider said.

Corporate lending in Russia is clearly reaching a breaking point. Over 55% of loans now carry floating rates, and with interest rates staying high far longer than expected, many companies are slipping into pre-default. According to VTB chief Andrei Kostin, some companies are now borrowing solely to pay interest on existing debts. The analytical center CMAKS estimates that thirteen major industrial sectors, accounting for 17% of national revenue, are already under severe financial stress.

That pressure comes on top of domestic overheating. Since mid-2023, Russia’s war-fueled economy has overheated, forcing the Central Bank to hold rates at 21% to curb soaring inflation. Nabiullina [CEO of Russia's Federal Reserve Bank] warned the economy was “racing at full speed.” Now the brakes are hitting hard, with retail lending stalled and corporate borrowing barely moving.

To rein in Putin’s overheated war economy, Nabiullina is keeping interest rates very high, trying to rein in consumer and corporate lending amid soaring military spending that keeps inflation stubbornly high.

It is an almost impossible balancing act. Nabiullina is attempting to land a burning plane on a foggy runway, with limited visibility and many critical controls stuck.

Russia is a gas station run by a mafia masquerading as a country. Sen. John McCain, 2015.