Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“We are thinking especially of our friends in Ukraine. We hope that the coming year will finally bring a just and lasting peace – and ultimately a secure, prosperous future in our Union,” said President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Permanent Representative of the United States to NATO Matthew Whitaker has suggested that a settlement of russia’s war against Ukraine could be reached within the next 90 days.

From April 1, Poland will no longer recognize russian passports for travelling abroad issued for a period of five years that do not have a biometric chip. They will not be allowed into the country. In addition, from January 1, diplomatic passports will cease to be valid if they do not comply with the new model documents. Poland has become the tenth EU country to announce that it will not recognize old russian international passports. Earlier, such restrictions were introduced by Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, and Romania.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Baiba Braže has announced a ban on entry for 14 athletes from russia ahead of the luge competitions to be held in Sigulda.

The accumulated net financial result (profit minus loss) of russian organizations in January-October 2025 decreased by 9.9 % to 21.57 trillion rubles. In October, the indicator declined by 24.7 % year-on-year to 2.34 trillion rubles.

russia’s industrial production shrank by 4.1 % in November.

The volume of government bond placements on the russian domestic market reached a historic high of 7.2 trillion rubles in 2025. Compared to the previous year, the volume of borrowings increased 1.7 times.

The share of unprofitable coal enterprises in the rf increased in January–October 2025 from 53.4 % to 67.6 % compared to the same period last year. The net loss of the coal industry (before tax) for the ten months of this year amounted to 327.9 billion rubles, having increased by 18.7 billion rubles over the month.

deputy prime minister of the rf Aleksandr Novak has acknowledged that due to international anti–russian sanctions, his country is forced to postpone plans to triple annual liquefied gas production to 100 million tons per year.

Passenger car production in russia decreased by 34.1 % in November 2025. In the first eleven months, output declined by 12.6 %.

russian operators are raising prices for communications and the Internet by 10–15 %. 96 % of russian companies intend to increase their tariffs.

About 15 million russians may lose access to legal microcredit from January 1, 2026: microfinance organizations will be prohibited from using their own income assessment models when issuing loans of up to 50,000 rubles.

The trade union of teachers of russia has called for a warning strike over the salary situation. There have been no nationwide teachers’ strikes in the rf since the late 1990s.

On the eve of the New Year, isolated pickets against the sharp rise in food prices took place in different regions of russia. In particular, protests took place in Ivanovo region, the Altai Territory, and the Nenets Autonomous District. According to the participants, over the past year, the cost of classic ingredients for Olivier salad has increased by more than 230 % on average.

Over the course of a year, about 40,000 employees quit “russia’s Post” due to low salaries and constantly increasing workloads.

One of the most popular medications for treating schizophrenia, psychosis, and bipolar disorder, Seroquel, has disappeared from russian pharmacies. The neuroleptic in doses of 25 mg and 100 mg is unavailable in most large pharmacy chains.

Since the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine, fsb officers have killed at least 74 people during arrests.

Since 2022, rosfinmonitoring has added 24 russian scientists to its list of “terrorists and extremists”. In total, 115 representatives of science have been subjected to repression in russia since 2022. Apart from adding them to the list of terrorist extremists,  over the last years,  russian authorities have charged 15 researchers with treason. Another 39 people have been added to the state register of “foreign agents”. 34 scientists are currently in pretrial detention or in prison.

From January to November 2025, russian authorities declared an average of more than 300 people terrorists and extremists every month. Currently, there are almost 19,500 individuals on the rosfinmonitoring register. The expansion of the list has accelerated in the last two years: in 2022, 1,400 new individuals were added to it, in 2023 – 1,800, in 2024 – 3,200, and in January–October 2025 – more than 3,000.

In 2025, the ministry of justice of the rf added 95 organizations to the register of “undesirable” entities, which is a record number since the list was established in 2015. This is more than by a third higher than last year’s figure. Most of the organizations on the list are involved in political activities and support democratic institutions. In total, there are 281 organizations on the list.

“russians will be denied access to Google services, including the Gmail email client,” said first deputy chairman of the duma committee on information policy Anton Gorelkin.

A court in Yekaterinburg has ruled that the song “May There Always Be Sunshine” discredits the russian army.

“The shortage of personnel in moscow is 400,000-500,000 people,” said mayor Sergei Sobyanin. According to him, the personnel shortage will only intensify.

The volume of housing construction in the siberian federal district in 2025 is by 19.2 % lower than last year's figures.

As of December 23, there were 1,135 political prisoners in prisons of the rb, including 968 men and 168 women. Among the imprisoned – 28 media representatives, three human rights defenders, 21 doctors, and 16 lawyers and attorneys. There are at least 164 political prisoners known to be at increased risk. Among them – at least 56 people with serious illnesses, seven people with disabilities, 26 people over the age of 60, and 10 people with mental disorders. There are also reports of 34 political prisoners who are in difficult family circumstances, including large families and single parents, as well as families where both parents are in prison. At least 20 families are being held in places of detention at the same time.