Putin's first decree after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was to limit the release of key economic data ⬇️

It's finally here. Just cracked open the first advance copies of Leaving Russia.
● Many thanks to all of you for the crucial pre-orders ahead of its release on April 30. More updates here: jasoncorcoranwrites.com

Putin, Help! Sechin, help!” — Hundreds of Chinese workers in Komsomolsk protest about unpaid wages at a #Rosneft subsidiary in Russia’s Far East.
● The lads would be much better off bleating to Comrade Xie. #OOTT

Somewhere, Aesop is busy rewriting the ending: the mouse doesn’t save the lion...it issues a press release describing the trap a strategic opportunity.

Kremlin telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor has demanded that Russian media delete news about the banking system failure being linked to #Telegram blockages.
●Articles about yesterday's banking crash on Forbes website and Mash Telegram have suddenly disappeared
Source: DW Russian

Pavel Durov says the crackdown in Russia on his wildly popular #Telegram app triggered "a massive banking failure" as cash was the only payment method for a while.

Sanctioned Russian Tycoons Are Still Profiting From Industries in Europe - The Moscow Times Opinion | When President Vladimir Putin gathered Russia’s top businessmen in the Kremlin for a wartime whip round on Thursday, there was no ambiguity about what was happening: the only way to have ind...

My @themoscowtimes.com OpEd: Ireland shelters Ukrainians while hosting a refinery tied to Oleg #Deripaska that feeds Putin's war machine.
Legal, perhaps. Moral, hardly.

www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/04/01/s...

Sanctioned Russian Tycoons Are Still Profiting From Industries in Europe - The Moscow Times Opinion | When President Vladimir Putin gathered Russia’s top businessmen in the Kremlin for a wartime whip round on Thursday, there was no ambiguity about what was happening: the only way to have ind...

#OpEd It is hypocritical for governments to claim they're tough on Russia's super rich when they leave the peripheries of their empires untouched, writes Jason Corcoran.

Sanctions in Name Only: Ireland’s Complicity in Russia’s War Economy
● Two stories last week involving Oleg Deripaska resonated with themes in my forthcoming book Leaving Russia, which features an expose about how Russian oligarchs sought to build influence in Ireland
jasoncorcoranwrites.com/blog

Trump Envoy Said Calling Europeans ‘Pussies’ Helped Win Lukashenko Over - The Moscow Times U.S.

Another inspired appointment: Trump's Special Envoy admitted to not knowing where Belarus is located when he was first approached for the role...
www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/25/t...

Leo Varadkar’s Aughinish meeting ‘stinks’, says Putin critic Bill Browder Bill Browder, the financier and political activist who is a long-time critic of the Kremlin, has criticised Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe for meeting with a UK Conservativ...

This scandal over Rusal’s Irish plant reminds me of when @billbrowder.bsky.social warned in 2022 of the “hypocrisy” of Leo Varadkar meeting a “key oligarch enabler” - a warning that now looks prescient. #aughinish
www.independent.ie/business/leo...

Leo Varadkar’s Aughinish meeting ‘stinks’, says Putin critic Bill Browder Bill Browder, the financier and political activist who is a long-time critic of the Kremlin, has criticised Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe for meeting with a UK Conservativ...

This scandal over Rusal’s Irish plant reminds me of when @billbrowder.bsky.social warned in 2022 of the “hypocrisy” of Leo Varadkar meeting a “key oligarch enabler” - a warning that now looks prescient. #aughinish
www.independent.ie/business/leo...

It's staggering that Aughinish has remained open when its largest shareholder is Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch and key ally of Putin.
● The Irish government's principles on Ukraine are seemingly negotiable when local politics demands it.

The Bond Market strikes back

Kremlin says strikes near Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran 'extremely dangerous' (RTÉ News)

The irony, given that Russian Armed Forces have struck buildings and power lines at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine many times, threatening a Chernobyl-style meltdown and explosion.

Amid severe blocking of Telegram, Russians have begun downloading the Korean messenging app KakaoTalk en masse.
👉 I suppose anything is better than the Kremlin's Max app
Source: Google Trends ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/23/r...

Moscow Saturday night in the cultured confines of the
House of Music (Dom Muzyki)

"Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time"

Source: Mash Telegram

Moscow home internet providers are urgently implementing a "white-list" system of websites (similar to the mobile network).
Source: Novosti Moscow
● According to RBC, a complete block on Telegram will begin in the coming days as Putin's Great Firewall is erected.

Just read Mikhail @zygaro.bsky.social Substack, and he feels Russia is bracing itself for something big.
● Internet disruptions in Moscow, pressure on Telegram, and elite rumours all point to rising panic ahead of the September election -from possible mobilization to a full information lockdown.

"We must isolate Iran”…unless the oil price graph looks scary, in which case, welcome back, old pal.

Paranoid Putin has stopped visiting the Kremlin after reports that the US and Israel tracked Khamenei down using hacked surveillance cameras before his assassination.
Source: Agentsevo

It was great to be on live just now on @newstalkfm.bsky.social with host @clairebyrne.bsky.social to talk about how higher oil prices triggered by the Iran war and sanctions waivers are benefitting Putin's war economy. #OOTT

Moladets ! This film about a Russian teacher who filmed the militarisation of his primary school should be required viewing for parents in Russia.

Back to the USSR: Demand for pagers, walkie-talkies, and paper maps has surged in Moscow due to constant problems with mobile communications.
● Report by Kremlin friendky newspaper RBC, citing data from the press services of Wildberries and Russ (RWB).

Putin’s Great Firewall appears to have one setting: “off" as mobile internet in Moscow goes down for a week.

I’m delighted to share that my book, Leaving Russia: How Putin Forced a Nation’s Future to Flee, is now available to pre-order in Ireland at Chapters and O’Mahony’s.
● The book by Quartet will be released on April 30th.
chaptersbookstore.com/products/lea...

www.omahonys.ie/leaving-russ...

Tickets from Oman to Moscow aboard a Roscosmos plane are going for an eye-watering €20,000 per seat, as rich Russians rush to flee the conflict zone
Source: @ru_rbc
ru.themoscowtimes.com/2026/03/02/a...

Russian tourists are kicking back in Dubai on an empty beach as drones explode downtown.
● "The sea here is so beautiful. The wreckage of a drone is burning nearby. We're the only ones here today!"
Source: KP.Ru Kremlin tabloid

Russian tourists are kicking back in Dubai on an empty beach as drones explode downtown.
● "The sea here is so beautiful. The wreckage of a drone is burning nearby. We're the only ones here today!"
Source: KP.Ru Kremlin tabloid

Blast from the past: Dzhabrailov was the former business partner of US investor Paul Tatum, who was gunned down in a Moscow metro station in 1996.
● Some US officials believed the Chechen was behind Tatum's after they rowed over the Radisson Hotel ownership in Moscow.