Page 39 - RusRPTOct20

and personal friend of President Vladimir Putin Arcady Rotenberg was using London's Barclays for laundering operations, through an affiliated company Advantage Alliance. Barclays reportedly turned over GBP60mn ($77mn) from 2012 to 2016, mostly for transactions on the art market. The Wall Street Journal previously claimed that his brother Boris Rotenberg is also dodging the sanctions in the art market. Other revelations in the FinCEN Files include a close friend of Putin, cellist Sergei Roldugin (​mentioned extensively also in the Panama Papers investigation​), has channelled funds through Cyprus-based entities reportedly affiliated with the Severgrupp of steel tycoon Alexei Mordashev. One of the advisors to Putin, Valentin Yumashev, reportedly transferred funds through companies related to tech and media billionaire Alisher Usmanov. Rosoboronexport military exports agency reportedly made illegal payments to Indian intermediaries through banks of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's International Financial Club.
The first peer-reviewed data on Russia's controversial coronavirus vaccine shows the inoculation generated a strong immune response in all participants during initial clinical trials ​without any "serious adverse effects". In the study published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday, researchers from the state-run Gamaleya Institute that developed the vaccine said it had provoked a safe immune response in all healthy adults but added that further investigation was needed to establish "the effectiveness of this vaccine" to prevent Covid-19. Russia shocked much of the global medical community last month when it approved the shot, known as Sputnik V, for civilian use before completing so-called Phase 3 trials and without releasing any research on the vaccine. Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, has ordered frontline medical staff to be given the vaccine in September ahead of a broader rollout planned for the start of next year. In the studies conducted so far the vaccine was given to 76 participants, generating levels of antibodies up to 1.5 times higher than in patients recovering from Covid-19, according to the report.
2.11 ​Polls & Sociology
Two out of five (42%) Russians say that a merger between Russia and Belarus is a bad idea​, according to the state owned pollster, the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre (VTsIOM). More than 40% of Russia's residents do not want to unite with Belarus and prefer to keep the relations are good neighbours. Another fifth (22%) of respondents are for the proposed Union State that would bring the two countries much closer together in an version of the Eurozone, with the free movement of capital, labour and goods as well as a single currency. 17% of the country's residents believed that Belarus should become part of Russia as a new regions, and another 1% say Russia should become part of Belarus.
At 11%, the number of Russian citizens who consider Estonia to be
39 ​RUSSIA Country Report​ October 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com