Putin orders non-state data centres in Russia to reserve 10% of capac…

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on 2 November setting out a special procedure for transferring to state ownership the cash and precious metals of deceased citizens recognised as unclaimed (escheated) property; the document was posted on the official legal information portal. The procedure covers funds in roubles and foreign currency and precious metals held in bank accounts and deposits of citizens who died more than five years ago, provided the assets are recognised as unclaimed and no inheritance case has been opened. The list will be compiled by the Federal Property Management Agency using data from the tax service, the Federal Notary Chamber, the bailiff service and banks.

Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko met in Beijing on 2 November with CPPCC National Committee Chairman Wang Huning and NPC Standing Committee Chairman Zhao Leji. Answering a question from Rossiyskaya Gazeta, she said Russia “very highly values the position of the People’s Republic of China on what is happening in Ukraine, its readiness to facilitate a peaceful settlement as a sovereign state that does not yield to any Western propaganda.” She said she raised with Chinese colleagues the need for the international community, including the UN, to respond to ongoing attacks on civilians, calling it “the deliberate killing of peaceful children, old people, peaceful citizens in general.” She also expressed bewilderment that many in the world fail to notice the creation in Kyiv of a “pantheon” where the remains of fascist executioners convicted by an international tribunal of killing thousands are to be reburied, and stressed Russia will do everything possible to have it torn down.

According to the presidential schedule published on the official legal information portal, Vladimir Putin will present state decorations and presidential prizes for contribution to strengthening the unity of the Russian nation on 4 November, with the ceremony held in the Moscow Kremlin that day. The same week the president is also scheduled to hold a meeting with government members and to congratulate Rosfinmonitoring staff on the service’s anniversary. 4 November is an official non-working day in Russia marking National Unity Day.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Minsk on 2 November. He is due to speak on Tuesday at the plenary session of the fourth Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that his address will focus on ways to implement the Russian initiative for a Eurasian security architecture and on drafting a Eurasian Charter of Diversity and Multipolarity in the 21st century. The forum is being held for the fourth consecutive year at the initiative of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on 2 November that Moscow is “gravely alarmed” by signals that new force action against Iran is being planned. She said the situation around Iran, which suffered “unprovoked aggression by the United States and Israel,” remains difficult, the conflict is unresolved and resonates with other crisis processes in the Middle East. She stressed that no military adventure can break the will of Iranians to defend their sovereignty and independence, and that the experience of recent months only confirms this. Moscow considers it necessary to step up diplomatic efforts, supports mediators and assists the negotiating process. She also welcomed the high-level meeting between the Iranian side and members of the “Mecca Pact” held in Tehran on 26 October.

Serbia’s Republican Electoral Commission published the final parliamentary election results after counting 100% of the vote. The opposition “Student List” bloc won with 53.01%. The “United Serbia” coalition of former President Aleksandar Vucic took 38.98%. The remaining parties failed to clear the 3% threshold; besides the two main blocs, representatives of national minorities will also enter the new parliament, as the threshold does not apply to them. The main stage of the snap election ended on 25 October, with repeat voting at 53 polling stations held on 1 November.

TASS reported on 2 November, citing a draft document it had obtained, that the Russian Foreign Ministry has proposed raising the permitted stay in Russia on a unified electronic visa to 45 days while cutting its validity period from 120 to 45 days from issue, removing the distinction between validity and permitted stay and raising the latter from 30 to 45 days. The bill would also add transit passage through Russian territory to the list of entry purposes, allowing holders of third-country visas or visa-free entry to those countries to transit through Russia, and would lift the current restriction limiting entry and exit to checkpoints designated by the government.

Oil prices fell sharply on the evening of 2 November. As of 17:36 Moscow time, January Brent futures on London’s ICE Futures were down $7.1 (6.26%) at $106.33 a barrel. December WTI futures on NYMEX were down $6.86 (6.59%) at $97.26 over the same period. Interfax attributed the move to expectations that the Middle East conflict is moving toward an end.

At the close of trading on 2 November on the Moscow Exchange the Chinese yuan strengthened noticeably and the rouble weakened against the backdrop of falling oil prices. At 19:00 Moscow time the yuan stood at 12.228 roubles, up 15.65 kopecks from the previous close. Interfax also noted that the Central Bank raised its official dollar rate from 3 November by 41.61 kopecks to 80.9734 roubles per dollar and lifted the euro rate by 80.32 kopecks to 90.4635 roubles per euro.

The Russian Finance Ministry has proposed new rules for drawing pension savings. The ministry said auto-conversion of pension savings into long-term savings will give Russians additional options and guarantees for using the funds. The RBC piece does not state when the scheme would take effect or its scale.

Deputy Health Minister Yevgeny Kamkin said at the 5th National Healthcare congress that over five years of the federal “Fight Against Cancer” project, one-year mortality among cancer patients fell 29%, detection at early (stage 1–2) rose nearly 15%, and stage 4 detection fell 11.3%. He said more than 2.3 trillion roubles went into modernising the service over seven years, of which 890 billion came from the federal project; 18 new cancer centres were built, almost 17,000 pieces of equipment purchased and a network of 595 outpatient oncology care centres created. He named development of nuclear medicine in the regions as the main innovation of the second stage, saying the ministry expects radiopharmaceutical diagnosis and treatment to be available to all indicated patients by 2030.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said at the National Healthcare congress on 2 November that Russia has the lowest infant mortality rate among countries with more than 100 million inhabitants, at 3.3 per mille. He said the approaches and standards used in the country for managing pregnancy and newborns have secured minimum levels of the indicator.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said late on 2 November that air defences had destroyed 10 more drones; he had earlier reported 18 downed, bringing the day’s total near Moscow to 28. “Emergency specialists are working at the debris fall site,” he wrote on his channel. RIA Novosti reported 10 downed at 23:45 and REGNUM 8 at 22:59 — dispatches from the same evening at different moments.

Luhansk region head Leonid Pasechnik said on the evening of 2 November that a scheduled “Luhansk–Zymohiria” passenger bus was deliberately attacked on the Rodakove–Zholte stretch of road in the Slavyanoserbsk district. According to preliminary data one passenger was killed and eight were wounded; all the injured are receiving medical assistance and emergency services are working at the scene. Earlier the same day Pasechnik reported one death and two injured in the republic, and said air defences destroyed around 120 aerial targets over the region.

The Russian Emergencies Ministry said on 2 November that its mobile app was hit by a massive cyberattack overnight into 2 November, through which attackers pushed out false information to the public. The fake alerts claimed “nuclear warheads” had been launched across all Russian regions and urged residents to stock three weeks of food and take shelter in basements; identical messages also appeared in channels of regional ministry units and on some operational headquarters resources, with part of the content later removed. Fake warnings were recorded at least on ministry resources in St Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Tula and Chelyabinsk regions, Perm and Stavropol territories and Bashkortostan. The ministry stressed the national warning system is operating normally, the app is only an additional information service, and main alerts go out through regional and municipal warning systems, SMS, television and radio.

One of Russia’s largest hosting providers, Beget, said its infrastructure was hit by a massive cyberattack overnight into 2 November 2026, disrupting a number of services. According to the outage monitors Sboy.rf and Detector404, complaints began arriving around 03:00 Moscow time, with users in 33 Russian cities reporting inaccessible sites and digital services. Around 500,000 websites were at risk of going offline as a result. Beget said engineers are manually configuring infrastructure in data centres, plan to restore NS servers within four to five hours, and are still assessing the scale of the impact, so it cannot yet give a precise timeline for full restoration. Users of Yandex Pay also reported problems; the company’s press service said the issues had been resolved.

Fix Price’s financial statements for the first nine months of 2026 show the Russian chain has closed all its outlets in Mongolia: three stores were operating in the country at the start of the year, but by 30 September none remained. Earlier, in September 2025, Fix Price had four outlets in Mongolia, all run under franchise. The company did not say why the stores were closed.

Vladimir Region Governor Alexander Avdeyev said Anatoly Koreshkov, who took part in preparing Yuri Gagarin’s space flight, died on 1 November aged 95. The governor described him as a test engineer, inventor, writer and poet, an honorary citizen of Baikonur in Kazakhstan, who devoted much of his work to the conquest of space. Koreshkov worked on preparations for the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957 and Gagarin’s flight in 1961, took part in three lunar programmes and the first international Soyuz–Apollo programme, and held 10 inventor’s certificates. The funeral will take place on 3 November.

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, a 20-year-old Italian, clinched the Formula One world title at the Mexico City Grand Prix held overnight into 2 November. He finished third in the race, which was more than enough: Max Verstappen of Red Bull won, with Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton second. Kommersant notes that Antonelli became the youngest champion in Formula One’s more than 75-year history, going from rookie to champion in two seasons. The previous record belonged to Sebastian Vettel, who took his first title in 2010 aged 23 years and 134 days. The Italian is also the first Italian to win the championship since Alberto Ascari in 1953.

According to the Moscow mayor’s office portal, the total length of ice trails and alleys at the Gorky Park rink will be 2.3 km, with visitors able to skate around the fountain and along a stretch of the renovated Pushkinskaya Embankment. The park will also flood a separate children’s rink of over 1,400 sq m, offer rental of skating trainers for adults and children, and open five heated rental pavilions totalling more than 2,000 sq m. Head of the city culture department Alexei Fursin said that, for the first time after the renovation of the Pushkinskaya Embankment and the Figured Fountain, a rink of more than 18,000 sq m will open, with a winter programme of theatre performances, light shows and music. The rink’s fencing, nearly 4,700 m long, will have controllable lighting built into the boards and form part of the light shows.

Interfax reports that a decree signed by Vladimir Putin on 2 November requires non-state data centres located in Russia to reserve 10% of their floor space and capacity so that, if necessary, authorities can use it to keep information resources running; the reservation must be completed within 10 days of 2 November. The reserved capacity continues to be used by the data centres themselves, and once the sub-commission of the government commission on digital development decides, it must be provided within 24 hours; the sub-commission will set a cap on the fee. The decree also allows temporary use of computing capacity located outside Russia, subject to that sub-commission's decision agreed with the Federal Security Service. The digital development ministry is to inventory free space and capacity at non-state data centres. The article recalls that in October data centres of three Russian companies were hit by drones: Yandex had three data centres damaged and two of them halted, causing disruptions both to Yandex services and to other Russian internet resources; VK and Sberbank data centres were also attacked but their services were unaffected. The article does not spell out any impact on marketplaces or sellers.

Interfax reports that Vladimir Putin signed the law ratifying the intergovernmental agreement with China on joint construction of a second 1,435 mm gauge main line on the Zabaikalsk–Manzhouli cross-border railway section; the document was published on the official legal-information portal. The agreement was signed in Beijing on 20 May 2026; on the Russian side it was signed by then transport minister Andrey Nikitin and Rosatom chief Alexey Likhachev. The article quotes Nikitin from the signing: implementing the agreement will raise the crossing's carrying capacity by 11 million tonnes by 2030 and enable the exchange of almost 50 train pairs per day. The explanatory note says implementation will not entail negative socio-economic or financial consequences for business activity. Construction timelines and investment amounts are not given, and e-commerce cargo is not mentioned.

RBC, citing the government press service: the cabinet has banned, for three months, exports outside the Eurasian Economic Union of certain petrochemical products — coal-tar and petroleum benzene, toluene, orthoxylene, paraxylene and phenol. The measure is meant to keep Russian industrial enterprises stably supplied with feedstock. The statement lists end uses: paints and coatings for automotive, aircraft, shipbuilding and railway engineering, food packaging, floor coverings, insulation materials for cable products, and the medical industry. The ban does not apply to international transit, international humanitarian supplies, or support for Russian organisations on Svalbard. Export volumes and price effects are not given.

Kommersant reports that a draft law prepared by the Russian MFA would remove the distinction between the validity period of the unified e-visa and the permitted length of stay, raising that period from 30 to 45 days. At present the unified e-visa is valid for 120 days from issuance with a permitted stay of up to 30 days, and entry is allowed only at certain specially equipped border crossings previously designated by the government. If adopted, the draft would allow entry on unified e-visas at all crossings open to international passenger traffic and would add transit travel through Russia to the list of trip purposes (currently tourism, business visits, private visits, and participation in scientific, cultural, socio-political, economic and sports events). The document has been posted on the legal acts portal but not adopted; no effective date is given.

Interfax reports that on 2 November Vladimir Putin signed a decree clarifying Decree No. 72 on the special settlement procedure between certain resident legal entities in foreign economic activity; the decree has been officially published. It introduces the concepts of first- and second-level co-executors: Russian executors of foreign trade contracts may transfer foreign currency received from non-residents, including advance payments, to accounts of such co-executors at authorised banks without mandatory sale of currency, and to their accounts at banks abroad; first-level co-executors get the same right in settlements with second-level co-executors. Executors may also transfer currency to foreign accounts of employees (residents and non-residents) of Russian co-executors' branches outside Russia, and may make currency payments on co-executors' obligations to tax authorities, social insurance bodies and extra-budgetary funds of foreign states participating in intergovernmental agreements. Marketplaces and sellers are not mentioned.

Interfax, citing China's National Bureau of Statistics: China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index fell to 49.3 in October from 50.1 in September, worse than the consensus forecast of 50.0 (per Trading Economics). A reading above 50 signals stronger activity, below 50 weaker. The production sub-index fell to 49.8 from 51.7, new orders to 49.4 from 50.5, export orders to 48.7 from 50.0, while employment held at 48.4; the future-expectations gauge eased to 53.4 from 53.8. The services and construction PMI dropped to 49.7 from 50.2 ( analysts had expected a rise to 50.5) and the composite PMI to 49.7 from 50.7. The article does not mention the Russian market or e-commerce; any implications for stocking and sourcing are inferred.

Interfax reports that the yuan on the Moscow Exchange stood at 12.228 rubles at 19:00, up 15.65 kopecks from the previous close, with the ruble weakening; the article attributes this to the oil price slump — January Brent futures were down 6.5% at $106.05 a barrel at 19:00. It notes market participants are awaiting the Finance Ministry's Thursday (5 November) report on the formation and use of extra oil and gas revenues in October. Sber Investments analysts say the yuan/ruble pair could reach 12 rubles this week; BCS Mir Investments analyst Dmitry Babyn expects the rate to stay in a 12–12.25 range in November. These are analysts' forecasts, not realised figures.

RIA Novosti, citing Central Bank data: official rates for Tuesday 3 November are 80.9734 rubles per dollar (+41.61 kopecks), 90.4635 per euro (+80.32 kopecks) and 12.1714 per yuan (+8.41 kopecks). The previous set in force on the coverage day was the 31 October one (80.5573 / 89.6603 / 12.0873); the figures were cross-checked against the central bank's rate service. The article also notes that since 8 June 2026 the Bank of Russia derives the official euro/ruble rate from the dollar/ruble rate and the ECB's euro/dollar rate as of 15:30 Moscow time, because low turnover in the ruble/euro pair made direct calculation less representative; the dollar/ruble rate is based on credit institutions' reporting on interbank off-exchange conversion operations.

Interfax, citing the Bank of Russia's banking regulation review: the regulator has extended into the fourth quarter of 2026 its recommendations that banks restructure loans to corporate borrowers and individual entrepreneurs facing temporary difficulties. The recommendations are set out in a Bank of Russia information letter dated 21 October 2026. They cover companies with moderate debt loads that have serviced debt properly over the past six months and provided the bank with a realistic three-year business plan; banks must regularly compare actual results with the plan and build additional provisions if targets are missed. Previously the recommendations applied to loans restructured in the third quarter. The central bank said it plans to modify them by year-end to simplify application to SME entities and borrowers with historically acceptable debt loads. Marketplace sellers are not mentioned.

RIA Novosti reports that Binance said it has covered roughly 95% of the affected amount; the remaining 5% consists of less liquid tokens that take longer to acquire, and work with industry partners continues. By the company's preliminary estimate, the incident affected about $6.3bn of assets. The exchange said it has already replenished client assets in BTC, ETH, USDT and other forms and partially resumed withdrawals on Sunday. The article cites a Monday Financial Times report saying clients withdrew close to $5bn after withdrawals resumed. Compared with the 1 November report ('90% covered, withdrawals to resume on 11-01'), the new elements are the 95% coverage level and the actual withdrawal volume.

Interfax, citing Russian Railways data: October loading on the network totalled 95.6m tonnes, down 1.4% year on year; freight turnover rose 2.5% to 218.3bn tariff tonne-km, and including empty wagon runs by 0.5% to 265.6bn tonne-km. The company says the loading decline relates to external factors, while faster turnover growth reflects reorientation of freight flows and longer haul distances. For January–October, loading fell 0.8% to 920m tonnes. In October loading of ferrous metals rose 8.7%, non-ferrous ore 9.8%, coke 21.1%, scrap 22.5%, cement 9% and chemicals 9.4%; among railways, the Zabaikalsk railway grew 13.9% and the Far Eastern railway 5.1%.

Kommersant, citing the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs' monitor published on 2 November: in Q3 38% of respondents named falling demand for goods and services as the main constraint, up 5 percentage points from Q2; 36% reported a shortage of working capital (up 9 points); 36% faced counterparties failing to meet obligations on time (down 4 points). Some 20% cited unavailable borrowed funding (15% in Q2) and 20% a higher debt burden on loans and bonds (5% in April–June); 18% reported a higher tax burden and 18% difficulties delivering raw materials and equipment (up 5 points). Against this backdrop, 84% of companies plan to cut spending — mainly administrative and general business costs, personnel and consulting; 18% plan to cut investment programmes; 29% plan to raise prices; the share forced to cut production rose to 16% from 14%. The article also cites S&P Global: Russia's manufacturing PMI edged up to 49.9 in October from 49.8, total new orders fell and output contracted for a third straight month.