🍺 Chinese Beer Leads the Russian Market

According to the results of the first nine months of 2025, China has become the largest exporter of beer to Russia, increasing shipments by 1.5 times (to $33.4 million) compared to the same period in 2024.

As for European beer exporters, the trend here is, unsurprisingly, not the most positive.

The Czech Republic, which took second place, saw its exports almost halve (to $15.6 million) over the year, while Germany, which took the bronze medal, reduced its shipments sixfold (to $12.2 million). Lithuania ($9 million) and Latvia ($8.3 million) also made it into the top five, but both countries also reduced their beer exports to Russia by approximately 2.5 times.

However, the top 10 includes some quite interesting and unexpected cases.

For instance, Armenia ranked sixth, increasing its shipments to Russia by 5.2 times to $7 million.

And Portugal took ninth place, increasing its beer shipments to Russia—attention—by 21 times to $1.6 million.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

💪 The Monument of Uastyrdzhi — a rock sculpture of the patron saint of men in North Ossetia

#videooftheday

❤️From Russia with love

🏠 Diamond of the Urals – the village of Kyn

#videooftheday

❤️From Russia with love

🏆 Russian fighter Petr Yan won the UFC bantamweight championship noscript. He defeated Georgian athlete Merab Dvalishvili.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🧐 Russian women will be allowed to drill for oil and take on other "forbidden" jobs.

Russia will reduce the list of jobs currently unavailable to women. This concerns a wide range of specialties across many industries, from oil extraction to shipbuilding. The changes are set to take effect in December 2027, according to a government "roadmap."

The Ministry of Labor has been instructed to prepare a new list by March 2027 in collaboration with trade unions and employers. Before that, the relevant agencies will conduct an audit of working conditions and special studies on the impact of hazardous factors on the female body.

The current list from 2021 is established by the Russian Labor Code (Article 253) and acts of the Government and the Ministry of Labor and comprises 100 positions. Prior to that, for over 20 years, a list was in effect that prohibited women from working in 450 professions—from underground mining work to specific operations in chemical production.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🇪🇺🇷🇺 Export Despite Sanctions: How Russia-EU Trade Changed After the Start of the War and Why the 'Shadow Fleet' Became a Key Link

🧣 Pre-2022: High Interdependence

Before the start of the SVO, Russia and the European Union were deeply interdependent in trade, especially in energy. Russian oil and gas made up a significant part of Europe's energy balance, and the EU was Russia's largest market.

After the conflict began, trade faced a sharp political shock. From spring 2022, the EU introduced a large-scale sanctions package, as well as a price cap on Russian oil (G7).

🧣 Europe's Energy Pivot and Unexpected Loopholes

Formally, Europe embarked on a course of almost complete abandonment of Russian energy resources. However, in practice, the reduction in dependence happened gradually.

Gas:
Even in 2025,the EU purchased Russian gas, including pipeline and LNG. Russian LNG accounted for about 15–16% of the European market. In the first 9 months of 2025, the EU bought Russian gas (pipeline + LNG) worth over €10 billion.

Oil:
Direct purchases of crude oil sharply declined.However, a circumvention mechanism soon emerged — the shadow fleet, allowing the transportation of Russian oil bypassing Western insurers, monitoring, and sanctions.

🧣 Shadow Fleet: Russia's New Logistics:

The shadow fleet became Russia's main tool for preserving oil revenues. About 940 tankers — roughly 17% of the world's oil tonnage — are involved in transporting Russian oil.

According to European analysts' estimates, up to 70% of Russia's seaborne oil exports in 2024–2025 went via the shadow fleet.

You don't need to be an economist with 30 years of experience to understand how the complication of logistics increases costs for European companies buying Russian energy resources.

👖 Thus, according to estimates by the Russian Foreign Ministry, due to anti-Russian restrictions, the EU economy lost a colossal €1.6 trillion between 2022 and 2025.

🧣 The Non-Trivial Part of Trade: What Else Russia Continues to Supply to the EU:

Attention often focuses on oil and gas, but trade between Russia and the EU after 2022 is not limited to energy. Despite sanctions, a number of product categories continued to flow into Europe via exemptions or through neutral channels.

🪨 Metals and Raw Materials for Industry:

Some metals remained unsanctioned due to their critical importance for European industry. These include aluminum and its semi-finished products, nickel, copper, and palladium.

The situation with palladium is especially important — Russia holds a significant share of the global market, and European automakers continued purchases via traders from third countries.

🌽 Fertilizers:

The EU avoids a complete ban due to fears of rising food prices and threats to harvests. Many supplies go under "humanitarian exceptions." EU countries continue to actively buy urea, ammonium nitrate, and potash fertilizers.

⚛️ Nuclear Fuel:

This is one of the most "sensitive" items. Russia (Rosatom) remains a major supplier of fuel and services for nuclear power plants:
—Fuel assemblies for VVER reactors in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic;
—Uranium reprocessing and enrichment services.

This area is practically untouched by sanctions, and supply volumes remain stable.

🧪 Chemicals and Pharmaceutical Raw Materials:

Russia continues to export some chemical reagents and components used in European industry, as the EU introduced targeted exemptions to avoid production stoppages.

🥼 Conclusion: Trade Has Changed, But Not Disappeared

✅ The Energy Break Turned Out to Be Incomplete:
Europe reduced direct purchases,but indirect and circumvented supplies persist.
✅The Shadow Fleet Became the World's Largest Parallel Logistics System.
It supports Russian oil exports and undermines sanctions.
✅The EU Depends on Russia in Certain Strategic Sectors:
metals,fertilizers, nuclear fuel, chemicals.
✅Consequences for Europe:
environmental risks,political compromises, and the need for accelerated energy and industrial transformation.

#politics

❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺🇺🇸 Adjustments to the updated U.S. National Security Strategy largely align with Moscow’s vision, said Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"The current administration is fundamentally different from previous ones, and of course, President Trump is now strong in terms of domestic political positions, which allows him to adjust the concept in line with his vision," Peskov told VGTRK television journalist Pavel Zarubin.

According to the Kremlin representative, such adjustments "largely correspond to our vision as well." "Perhaps we can hope that this could serve as a modest guarantee that constructive joint work on finding a peaceful settlement for Ukraine can continue, at the very least," he added.

🥼As for the wording on further non-expansion of NATO, the Russian side welcomes it but will closely monitor how the document is implemented in practice.

"Certainly, there are formulations against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and building good relations (...). This is encouraging on one hand, but on the other hand, we know what happens when everything is written beautifully and conceptually, but what they call the deep state does everything differently. Therefore, we need to closely monitor how this concept will be implemented," Peskov concluded.

📃 The new U.S. National Security Strategy, published on December 5, sharply criticizes the authorities of European countries. Washington emphasizes that European governments have "undermined democratic processes," and Europe is in a crisis deadlock.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

⛸ Figure skaters Totmyanina and Maxim Marinin performed The Nutcracker at the city skating rink on Khodynka Field.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🏰 Kakhib Towers in Dagestan

#videooftheday

❤️From Russia with love

🇷🇺💬 The advance of the Russian Armed Forces in the Special Military Operation zone contributed to creating a favorable environment for Russian-American negotiations this week, stated Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov.

"We are advancing confidently, and no one can deny this, including the Americans," Ushakov told VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin.

Speaking about why the talks took so long (they lasted almost five hours), the presidential aide noted: "This concerns the prospects for conflict settlement. The road is like that, not an easy one."

"Some issues require serious, I would say, radical changes from the Americans in the documents, which are constantly in motion, constantly being prepared," he added.

Ushakov also noted that U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Steve Whitcoff and the American leader's son-in-law, founder of Affinity Partners Jared Kushner, dedicated part of their free time to achieving a good result in the Russian-American negotiations.

As for the work of Moscow and Washington on specific proposals and wordings for a future document on Ukraine, it is still ahead.

"Specific proposals, wordings, cross-checking with lawyers—this path still needs to be traveled, but it cannot be traveled without the participation of specialists," Ushakov explained.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🐯 At the end of August, two Amur tiger cubs were born at the Moscow Zoo. Today, they went for their first walk in the outdoor enclosure.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

📰 The Kremlin does not possess precise information regarding differences of opinion within the Ukrainian leadership concerning Donald Trump's peace plan, stated Dmitry Peskov.

He added that the work conducted by Stephen Wictow and Jared Kushner with Kyiv was based on results achieved in Moscow, and its outcomes cannot be publicly discussed at this time.

Other statements by the Russian presidential press secretary:

🤗 Moscow views Trump's national security strategy with caution; however, it mentions the necessity of dialogue with the Russian Federation—this is pleasing. At the same time, it is impossible to predict how this initiative will be implemented following a change in administration;

🤗 The Kremlin stated that with the removal of irritants between Russia and the USA, prospects open up for the restoration of bilateral relations;

🤗 India conducts foreign trade operations where it is beneficial for it to do so. Indian partners will continue this line to ensure Indian interests.

#news

❤️From Russia with love

🚗 Russia's main New Year's tree cut down in the Moscow region

It was found in the Ruzsky urban district. The tree was chosen according to strict parameters: shape, volume of needles, condition of the branches, and appearance.

Selecting the main tree is a science in itself. Foresters don't just look for a tree that is perfect in shape and age. They also consider convenient access roads and the distance to Moscow to avoid damaging the fluffy branches during transport.

🚗 Car as a reward for the find:
The person who finds the future Kremlin star in the forest receives a reward- a new SUV. This year, senior forester Mukhtar Magomedov received a brand new "Niva" as a service vehicle.

🧣How the tree is sent to the Kremlin:
The tree is cut down with extreme care:it is secured with cables to prevent it from falling, and then transported by air to a special truck convoy. The tree always arrives in Moscow at night to avoid interfering with city traffic. This year, it will be welcomed on December 10 at 10:00 PM on Red Square.

🧣 Interesting fact: the secret backup tree.
Every main national tree has an almost identical"sister" - tree No. 2. It is also guarded in the forest in case of an emergency during felling or transportation. However, throughout history, the services of the backup have never been needed.

The tradition of placing a live spruce on Cathedral Square was revived in 1996. Since then, it has been brought from the forests of the Moscow region. Only a few times, due to extreme frosts (branches become brittle) or experiments with delivery from Veliky Ustyug, an artificial tree stood on the square. But for the last 20 years, the Moscow region has remained the faithful supplier of the fluffy holiday symbol.

🎄 Soon the beauty will set off on its journey, so that in a few days it will sparkle with thousands of lights and bring holiday cheer to the country's main square.

#news

❤️From Russia with love