🦠 Need to see Putin? Now, you don’t have to quarantine

And how fragile Russia’s banking system actually is

Hello and welcome to your essential guide to Russian politics and economics! This time we look at:

• The Kremlin’s decision to allow people to meet with Putin without spending several days in quarantine (a Faridaily exclusive!);

• Is a banking crisis really already underway in Russia?

We also briefly examine the attempted assassination of the deputy head of Russian military intelligence, a 50 percent fall in Russian oil-and-gas revenues in January, and how Moscow is stepping up pressure on WhatsApp, Telegram, and YouTube.

⏳ This newsletter contains 1944 words—it will take about 10 minutes to read.

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Kremlin (finally) scraps quarantine for Putin meetings

In wartime Russia, face-to-face meetings with the president are an extremely important political commodity—and they’re now easier to obtain.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stopped demanding that all those he meets are quarantined in advance, four sources with knowledge of Kremlin protocol told Faridaily. Quarantine measures for the Russian leader were introduced in 2020 amid the coronavirus epidemic, and they have been strictly enforced by the Federal Guard Service (FSO).

Known to be careful with his health, Putin, 73, was the only head of state to impose such a strict coronavirus quarantine—and maintain it for so long. Government ministers, heads of state-owned companies, and billionaires have all had to put their lives on hold and stay in specially designated isolation facilities if they wanted to meet the Russian leader.