Transcription
Hello. This is the second part of the week's summary. Let's move on to the details, to the regions, to the industries. There are even more news here than yesterday about the big processes in the Russian and global economy, and so on. Many details that show the inner workings of the Russian economy, what is really happening, what the big economists don't write about when they talk about inflation, about GDP, they don't report this. In general, this second part will be no less interesting than the first. I remind you that I have a Telegram channel, "Podcast Shiryaev," where all the audio versions of my YouTube episodes are available. There is also Instagram. Be sure to subscribe, you will find the links in the description. Well, let's begin. Generally, the main problem with the Russian economy is that there is little data, it is all false, and we are trying to figure out what is happening based on some indirect indicators. This week, I was interested in the news about the collapse of the packaging market. Friends, this is a perfect indicator of what is actually happening with consumer goods, for example, with food, and so on. The packaging market has collapsed, and this market, actually, showed some growth until the beginning of 2025. And suddenly, at the beginning of 2025, which is very important, I remind you that stagnation began in 2024, and recession at the end of 2024. And here the packaging market agrees with me. Positive emotions ended at the beginning of 2025. A number of printing houses began to note a decrease in order volumes. Before, everything was growing and developing, but it stopped and began to fall. Because printing, packaging, it used to print newspapers and magazines, but now packaging is the number one business for them. They serve the industrial sector, and therefore, if the industrial sector they serve falls, then they fall too. This is how we monitor what is happening in the real sector. Major customers of advertising products, of course, were foreign companies, they left Russia. This also undermined it, but that was in 2022, 2023, yes, and it caused some problems for this industry then. But now, what is happening in 2025 is truly just a collapse. Look, for January-April 2025, the production of key food products in Russia, for which packaging is made, decreased: sugar by 32%. This is, well, the first half of the year, yes. Sunflower oil by 15%, flour by 8%. In April, the decline accelerated to 36%, from 32% to 30% to 36% for sugar, to 15.6% for oil, to 9.1% for flour, respectively, and the volumes of other raw materials are also decreasing. All this reduces the volume of packaging production and the development of retail chains. Other trends also influence this market. It turns out that the number of discounters has grown significantly. Discounters sell mainly without packaging, or with very cheap packaging. This means that the consumption crisis, the fact that people are switching to cheap, bad food, is hitting the packaging market. And, consequently, from the state of the packaging market, we can judge how people have become poorer. Discount chains are actively developing, replacing normal trade. Hard discounters already account for 6% of total retail sales, and they generally do not need packaging. A decrease in packaging also signals a decrease in the production of household chemicals, cosmetics, perfumes, alcohol, and a number of other goods. All this is falling. There is a redistribution. Large packaging manufacturers are taking orders from small ones, and their decline is not so significant, attention, 2-4%. But for all other small ones, the decline in production volumes is 20-25%. At the same time, all these players, both large and small, invested very actively in expanding production in 2022-2023-2024. Naturally, all this was with borrowed money, interest rates are impossibly high. Now there is a crisis because production volumes are falling, a lot of money has been invested, and it is practically impossible for small and medium-sized enterprises to survive all this. In the packaging sector, there are practically no chances. Another crisis, which we have also often talked about, but here, from the mouth of the director of a specific metallurgical plant, OOO OMZ, Andrey Kuznetsov, revealed the inner workings of the crisis in metallurgy. Listen, it's just a song. He believes that 2025 turned out to be one of the most difficult years for Russian metallurgy in recent years. Metal consumption in Russia has fallen to a 14-year low. That is, so little metal has not been produced. Since 2011, domestic demand has collapsed. The main consumer, construction, has significantly declined, and other clients have also sharply reduced purchases. For example, Russian Railways orders have fallen by 40%, the automotive industry by 36%, mechanical engineering by 30%, the fuel and energy complex by 19%, construction by 11%. Here are also problems with competition from China, which has flooded world markets with cheap steel. And metallurgists have nowhere to export. At the same time, there is no help from the budget. Attention, the person speaks specifically, quote: "A large part of the budget goes to defense, maybe even a larger part. Here I am quoting you from the press: 'Perhaps the emphasis should be on larger.' Probably, a larger part of the budget goes to defense, so there is less help for large metal consumers like Russian Railways, the automotive industry." And they were sustained by this budget money. That is, essentially, they were sustained by oil rent. As soon as this disappeared, this is what I always explain to you. Without oil, there is no economy. Everything collapsed at once. All sectors of the economy. And the budget can no longer pull them. They are already inefficient. They are already just Potemkin villages, in essence. But when the budget can give them something, they work and they buy metal. But all this has reduced orders for metallurgists. Lost export markets too. Naturally, sanctions are nothing to us. Europe stopped buying. China doesn't need it. But this is how we will bury ourselves. Now, attention, a few figures on the volume of decline in production volumes. Nadezhdinsky Metallurgical Plant -41%, Eksunsky Metallurgical Plant -35%. Evraz NTMK -12%. In general, this is a colossal decline. And this is all said by a person within the country, the commercial director of a metallurgical plant. In 2025, metal consumption in Russia will decrease by 14%, to 38 million tons. This is 6 million tons less than in 2024. And the lowest figure, I remind you, since 2011. All this forces workers to be transferred to a shortened work week, to carry out layoffs. And by the end of 2025, at his plant, OMZ, the decline will be 7%, and this is better than the industry average. That is, everyone is already praying to fall by at least 7%, 10%, and not by 30%. This is the situation in metallurgy. But the situation is even worse, you know, here is another sector, I will name it for you, the production of rubber and plastic products, yes? Everything, all this plastic, all this rubber, and even what you thought of, in general, everything from January to November 2025 collapsed by 7.5%. Very interesting indicators. In November, the negative trend in this sector continued. Because if on average for the year it's seven, then in November 2025, compared to November 2024, there was already almost a 10% decline, then you can imagine what will happen next in December, in January, and so on. That is, an acceleration of the decline. In November 2025, the business confidence index in manufacturing industries as a whole decreased from October by another six, by another 6 percentage points, and, excuse me, amounted to -2%. That is, less than zero means a decline. And the average capacity utilization rate in manufacturing industries fell to 61%, that is, -40% from the level that industry could have. Also, a remarkable piece of news last week was the sharp increase in oilmen's losses. Attention! Oil companies in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug faced a sharp increase in losses. They grew by 26%, from 212 billion rubles to 268 billion rubles, that is, by 56 billion rubles in just a few weeks. In general, trouble is happening with the oil industry because the quality of the resource base is deteriorating. It is becoming more expensive to extract oil, and revenues are decreasing, expenses are growing, revenues are falling, costs are increasing, companies are in distress. In Yugra, in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, 42 companies are engaged in oil and gas production, 30 are part of large holdings, 12 are independent producers. And, attention, every third enterprise is unprofitable. The share of unprofitable enterprises is 35%. And production in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug is constantly decreasing. Once it was at its peak, 360 million tons in the seventies-eighties. In recent years, it has fallen to 200.5 million tons. It is still unclear how much it will be in 2025. It will definitely be less. But, well, if only that were the problem. Yes, we understand that it's not just oil prices, but also volumes. All this has not yet played the fatal role and has not had the decisive influence on the state of Russia's oil industry that we expect in 2026. For now, the independents are suffering first. Then Lukoil, Rosneft, Gazpromneft, and so on, which are still holding on by processing oil and selling gasoline, and because of this they have a margin in the domestic market, will also go into losses. But there are also figures on overdue accounts payable, which are constantly increasing. Overdue payments increased by half a billion, to 85 billion rubles. And at the same time, customers owe oilmen colossal figures. This all speaks of a payment crisis. There were 118 billion rubles in September, and in October, consumers already owe oil companies 121 billion rubles. Naturally, all this also causes problems in the oil industry. Let's move on to the regions. There is a lot of news about individual regions and even cities. Today we will consider them. This is also very important to understand where everything is going. The aggregate losses of companies in Tatarstan in 2025 increased by one and a half times. The total volume of losses is 198 billion rubles. This is one and a half times more than in 2024. The largest share of unprofitable companies is in electricity, gas, and steam supply, and so on. 57% of companies are unprofitable. Also in transportation and storage, 40%, information and communication, 33% of companies are unprofitable. Professional, scientific, and technical activities, 33%. And overdue payments on bank loans and borrowings are also growing. And the total volume of loans is growing by 5.2%, having increased over the year to 2.3 trillion rubles. Enterprises in Tatarstan owe banks. Bashkiria has also caught up with completely catastrophic figures. The losses of large and medium-sized enterprises in Bashkortostan for January-October 2025 reached 63 billion rubles. And this is 3.3 times more, not one and a half times, as in Tatarstan, but 3.3 times more than for January-October 2024, when the loss was only 19 billion rubles. The aggregate loss of all unprofitable companies. Yes, the share of organizations operating at a loss is also increasing. It already amounted to 27%, it was 22%, and every fourth large and medium-sized company in the republic finished the period with a negative financial result. Karelia. Let's move to Karelia. Now to the west, the Northwest. A decline in production was also recorded there in 2025. Well, of course, everywhere and everywhere. The industrial production index was 94.8%, a decrease of 4.6% compared to January-November 2024. And manufacturing production collapsed by 10%, electricity, gas, and steam supply by 8%. And wage arrears in Karelia increased almost fourfold in 2025. Let's move to Bryansk region, let's relocate. Bryansk region entered the top three regions with the deepest production decline. The decrease in industrial production was 5%. The Bryansk region faced serious difficulties in the production of transport equipment, non-metallic mineral products, computers, electronic optical equipment, and so on. So, here are a few regions for you to choose from, how to get out of this? No way. Against the backdrop of problems in industry and real business, they started talking about the personnel problem, about how it is difficult for people to find work. And there is such an index, the Headhunter index, a company that monitors all resumes and all vacancies. So, it has an index that has started to rise sharply. In December 2025, the situation in the labor market worsened. The Headhunter index rose from 8.1 to 8.6. Well, these are not percentages, these are just values 8.1, 8.6. And this has not happened since the pandemic. Again, if it rises high, if it spikes, it means the situation in the labor market is becoming more and more difficult. There are few vacancies, and many applicants. If the Headhunter index exceeds 12, it is already a catastrophe. 12 is a catastrophe, now it's already 8.6. The number of vacancies continued to decline. December 2025 compared to December 2024, -27%. Well, that's almost a third, minus a third of vacancies in the economy. The number of resumes, meanwhile, continues to grow and grow. The pace is increasing. In December, there was a 37% increase in the number of resumes, that is, people looking for work. While in November there was a 34% increase. And Headhunter again says that the most difficult situation is expected in the IT industry, with an outflow of IT specialists, programmers from Russia, because there is no work here. Let's move on to agriculture. Very interesting news about the decline in exports of agro-industrial complex products by 8% for 11 months. We will look at 12, but for now, for 11 months, it's 8%. At the same time, food imports increased by 14%. Russia has become a net importer of food. We talked about this, but the figures for 11 months are interesting. So, exports exceeded 35 billion rubles, dollars, excuse me, about 36 billion, and imports exceeded 38 billion, that is, almost 39. Russia buys for 39 billion and sells for 36 billion. That is, a difference of 3 billion dollars. It used to be the other way around, that is, Russia used to sell more agricultural products than it bought. This also speaks of a crisis in agriculture. As an element of this picture, a decrease in grain shipments for export by almost 18% in the second half of the year. 34 million tons went for export, while a year earlier it was 41 million tons. Shipments of corn decreased by 28%, corn by 11%, and so on. Well, everyone talks about active competition in international markets. It is becoming increasingly difficult for Russia to sell its wheat. The European Union is increasing exports. Australia is increasing exports. The European Union's exports, for example, are 33 million tons, Australia's are 27, so these are comparable figures to Russia's. And wheat from Argentina has also appeared. In general, even Egypt, the main client of the Russian Federation, which buys a lot of wheat, bought 21% less than in the second half of 2024. Only just over 5 million tons. Well, the number of companies exporting wheat has sharply decreased. In the second half of the year, 97, while in the first half of the second half of 2024 there were 235, so the number of companies has almost halved. Well, it is clear what is happening in agriculture. We have been talking about the crisis in agriculture all year. Now the fruits are ripening. And the sharp increase in the price of fruits and vegetables and the entire food line indicates that a crisis is indeed inevitable here. But what is happening with AvtoVAZ is, of course, a separate story. Here is the headline: "Stable in leadership of failures." That is, AvtoVAZ is the leader in failures, breaking records for sales decline, losing market share. By the end of 2025, its share decreased to 24.9%. And if in 2023 almost every third car bought by Russians was an AvtoVAZ, now it's less than a quarter. For the entire 2025, only 330,000 new Ladas were sold. That's a little more than in 2021. No, a little less than in 2021, excuse me. Yes. So, after 439,000, this is simply a colossal decline. All the achievements of the last year, the last few years, are nullified. And in total, 1,326,000 passenger cars were sold in Russia. This is 16% less. So the entire market has slumped. But if the market slumped by 16%, then AvtoVAZ sales fell by 24% plus. Well, and in general, the automotive industry is in big trouble. In the spring of 2024, I remind you, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was shown a new Volga car. This is a Chinese Changan. And assembly in Nizhny Novgorod was announced, but as of 2026, it has not yet begun. Lada Vesta became the absolute leader in sales decline. In December, only 5,000 cars were bought. 5,000 in a month. And Lada is surviving now only because it is really the cheapest. That is, if you have 2 million rubles, you basically cannot buy anything else. And 2 million is the average check in the car market. And, at the same time, AvtoVAZ has very unfavorable loan terms. They cannot compete. AvtoVAZ requires an initial payment of up to half and loans for 5 years at 18% interest. Naturally, this is robbery in broad daylight. In 2022, by the way, 208,000 cars were produced, and I remind you, now it's 325,000. But comparable figures for AvtoVAZ were shown, attention, in 2016. That is, in 2016, it sold 315,000 cars, now it's 320, more or less the same. So, it's like 11 years have passed, as if nothing has happened. We have rolled back 11 years in sales volume. Another piece of news from the technology sector. We often talk about airplanes, we have already discussed the MS-21, Superjet, well, the Il-118, all of this. Now, news about the Il-96. We forgot that Putin has an Il-96. He wants the 96 to replace the A350 and Boeing Dreamliners, wide-body aircraft that can carry 300-400 people. So, the certification program for the Il-96-400M has stalled. Tests have not been conducted for several months, and the certification program has only been completed by 15%. This import-substituted Il-96, which was supposed to solve the problems of the Russian aviation industry, will not be. Because the liner that is participating in these certification tests with tail number 96115 has not taken to the sky even once since October 2025. Everything has stalled at 15%. Another market has collapsed, friends. Well, today is just a constellation of falling markets. The Russian microelectronics market has collapsed by a quarter. And it mainly consists of foreign products. Well, all these chips, electronics, components, all of this has fallen by 25%. And within this market, Russian products are shrinking even more. That is, only a quarter, 75% are foreign chips, microcircuits, and so on. The market mainly supplies, well, production from this market sector mainly supplies products for the military-industrial complex. The military-industrial complex accounts for about half or even more of all these microchips and components from the microelectronics industry. And at the same time, 213 billion rubles is imports. So, imagine what colossal sums of money are spent to provide the country with microelectronics. This is about import substitution. How many years have we heard about import substitution in microelectronics? Well, 75% we drag from abroad. And that's it. And this share is constantly increasing, this volume from abroad. And the share of Russian microelectronics production has been declining for the second year in a row. The military-industrial complex accounts for about 43% of orders in the component markets. Also, computing equipment accounts for 17%, industrial electronics for 16%, the rest is automotive electronics. The brains in cars, and so on. Well, here is the picture of the decline of a very important sector of the economy, which has been affected by, attention, the reduction of investment programs by customers. That is, no enterprises are updating anything, no production lines, no new projects are being launched. Budget deficit, well, budget deficit, because the budget cannot spend money on things that contain microelectronics. Reduction in the volume of state order financing. Here, state secrets have practically been revealed to us, that the state defense order is also shrinking. No one officially admits this, I keep repeating this, guys. Less and less money is going into the state defense order. The physical volumes of everything that kills people in Ukraine are getting smaller and smaller. Putin does not have enough resources even to maintain the fighting army at a constant level. And a stunning piece of news this week. Headline: Russia is hit by a record wave of defaults since the beginning of the war. I remind you that not only countries but also companies can default. If it issues bonds, for example, borrows money from the market, and does not take a loan from a bank, it issues bonds and must pay on these bonds. And so, fewer companies can sustain existence in current conditions, and more companies are simply defaulting. The fourth year of the war in Ukraine has become the most difficult for the debt market, for bonds. Immediately 48 companies went through default and forced restructuring. Direct defaults, 15.6 billion rubles. Companies are accumulating debt, they cannot handle it. And I wanted to talk to you separately, to discuss the cost of raising money for companies. Because in the previous series of the week's summary, we discussed inflation, we discussed the cost of money in the economy, and Ruslat said 6%. So, companies are borrowing at 27.5-29%. Imagine. Now there have been two new bond issues last week, VTB bank, some other company, they borrowed at 25%, 26%. Can you imagine, no business can sustain such returns on their bonds, such yields. They are actually paying 25 kopecks per year for every ruble raised. This is impossible. Only drugs can provide such returns to borrow at such interest rates. Why are companies doing this? They are all bankrupt, they are all zombies. They need to take money at any interest rate to refinance previous loans. And there are also, excuse me, idiots who buy all this hoping to earn 25% per year. Naturally, all such borrowers will sooner or later default, investors will lose money, but the very fact of this unhealthy agitation with bond yields is a very clear signal. Denis Gabdulin, Director of Work with High-Net-Worth Clients at BCS Mir Investments, believes that the stress will spread. Stress will spread. Well, that is, not 50 companies anymore, but hundreds of companies will be in default, affecting larger borrowers and increasing the average default check. In addition to payment problems with investors, businesses are rapidly increasing their debt burden against the backdrop of declining demand. Well, it's impossible to pay all this, of course. Well, and before we move on to the concluding news, what we should definitely discuss, and the good news that we promised you yesterday at the beginning of the announcement of the first part of the week's summary, I remind you that subscribing to my channel, the YouTube channel, is very important. You make it so that this video is seen by many people, tens of thousands of people, just by pressing a button, you don't even need to share it somewhere on social media, if you share it, it's great, on WhatsApp or somewhere else, share the link to this episode. But just by pressing the button, you tell YouTube: "Show this video to everyone, it's good." Therefore, please subscribe right now, or give it a like. I also have a Telegram channel, "Kratko po delu" (Briefly to the point), in one word, you will find the link in the description. There is one important news item, but every day, but only one. About the economy, about business, about what truly determines the movement of Putin's regime towards collapse, towards the inevitable. In general, this is a way to observe the chronicle of a falling bomber. Briefly to the point, in one word, subscribe. China has reduced trade with Russia for the first time in 5 years. We often talk about knives in Putin's back. Well, how could he? Well, how could this ally, brother, friend, when there are such difficulties, when the budget is bursting at the seams, he gives Putin less money? Trade decreased by 6.5% to 1.630 trillion yuan. Supplies of Chinese goods to Russia collapsed by 3.4%, but this is not so much. But supplies of Russian energy resources, primarily to China, collapsed by 10%. Friends, remember, everyone said: "No, China will increase, China will not let Putin fall." Sanctions work, 10% less is bought in total. But, of course, primarily oil. Oil purchases fell by 20%, by 20% over the year compared to 2024. Oil products by 16-40% depending on the type of oil product, liquefied gas by 2%, coal by 30%. Well, all this, of course, hits Putin. He is trying to persuade China to buy more, he travels, he bows, but China is unyielding. Reductions, reductions, reductions in purchases. Well, and Russia also responds three times less, because it cannot respond more strictly. Everything is needed from China, nowhere else can it be obtained. And the main reduction in imports from China is, of course, due to cars. Equipment supplies also fell by 11%. This means that enterprises have nothing else to buy. They have nothing to buy from China, this speaks about the state of the Russian economy. Also, attention, you know how much Russia occupies in Chinese exports? That is, how interesting is Putin's Russia to China. Everyone says: "Well, he is a strategic partner there." Attention. The volume of the Russian market in Chinese exports is only 2.7%. Less than three, it was 3.2%, and now it has decreased by another 5 percentage points and is already 2.7%. That is, 30 times less than the total volume. This is the level of Mexico. Imagine where Mexico is, where China is. Russia is nearby, and China has the same relationship with it as with Mexico. The same love, right? And it's five times less, naturally, than China's volume with the USA. Five times. At the same time, China is extremely important for Russia. For China, Russia is not important at all, but for Russia, China is very important, because about 27% of exports still go to China. That is, it is decreasing, but nevertheless, even these 27% are very important for Russia, because it is a lion's share of all the money that Putin earns. There is also India, of course, there is also Turkey, there is even partly the European Union, but China is number one. Well, and Reuters complains: China does not behave like an ally. Sometimes it lets us down and stops payments. Sometimes it profits from us.
us, and sometimes just robs us. Here are such quotes from officials regarding China. Only discounts on oil, according to Igor Sechin, he said in November, gave China 20 billion dollars. That is, they gifted 20 billion. I remind you that Russian gas in China is about 40% cheaper than in Europe. Many gifts, China does not appreciate. In general, such a junior partner on a leash. If in the 2000s Russia still sold a lot with high added value, now it's raw materials for pennies and even less with each month. Less, less, and less. Such is friendship. Another piece of news interested me, that Russia topped some rating. You know, it's very rare for Russia to be a leader in anything. Do you know what it's a leader in? In internet shutdowns. In 2025, Russia broke all records and topped the ranking of countries by internet shutdowns. The compiled rating is compiled by top-10 VPN. Venezuela is in second place. There are other countries too, I'll name them later. It will be very funny for you. But the total duration of internet outages in 2025 in Russia was 37,166 hours. They sum up in the top-10 VPN the time without internet, with speed restrictions, with blocking of social networks, and so on, and so on. And the shutdowns affect 146 million people. That is, they also take this into account in the index. The economic damage from blocking and shutdowns in Russia amounted to, attention, according to their calculations, 12 billion dollars. While the total global damage from all shutdowns in all countries amounted to 19 billion dollars. Of these, Russia, well, consider, almost 70%, that is, 70% of the losses from all shutdowns in the world, Russia gifted to the world, lost 12 billion. In second place is Venezuela, where the internet had interruptions for 5,900 hours and 18 million people were affected. Losses of 2 billion dollars for the economy. In third place, do you know who? The military dictatorship of Myanmar is in third place. 10,000 shutdowns for 23 million users. Damage of 1.89 billion dollars, slightly less than in Venezuela. Then comes Pakistan. Also a very democratic, wonderful country, developed, highly civilized. There, the damage is slightly more than a billion. In fifth place is Tanzania, an African country, damage of 890 million dollars. And then Iraq, sixth place, 7,680 hours. and almost 600 million dollars in damage. Well, look at what a company for Russia. Tanzania, Iraq, Pakistan, Myanmar, Venezuela. Well, they've become leaders. Well, they've risen from their knees. Well done. Applause. Come on, keep it up. The labor market situation in industry also interested me. It turned out that staff turnover has begun there, because people who rushed to make all these metal parts for the war suddenly found out that this is not some kind of paradise, not some kind of buttered bread, sandwiches with caviar. Yes, it's a real wild juicer. People lose their health, people lose their last remnants of moral state, capital, self-control. Why? Because of irregular working hours. A shift can last from 8 to 12 hours, and in reality, the boundaries of the shift are blurred. Planning meetings, delays, pressure, control, supervisors watch, CCTV cameras, no breaks to catch your breath, to drink water. This is often considered a violation of labor discipline. There's nowhere to sit during the day in the workshop. You have to walk and work. It's cold in winter, stuffy in summer, constant noise, vibration, and people naturally start to have chronic illnesses exacerbated. Plus this hopelessness, the inability to advance in a career, because managers have been in place for decades. All this intensifies negative phenomena in the team. People start to work half-heartedly, and those who want to work and are forced to do the work of those who work half-heartedly burn out because no one appreciates it. In general, a personnel crisis is brewing in industry. People don't want to work like this for pennies. And, of course, for many now, working in a factory is a forced measure. At least some money is paid there because loans need to be paid, and in some small towns, there's nowhere else to go. But people are still leaving, and there are many vacancies, and no one to fill them. No one is coming to replace them, despite the fact that there is some kind of salary, even if it's not much. The problem is also that the factories rely on old equipment, often Soviet, and state support is the only thing that allows these enterprises to exist at all. And the workers, essentially, are rightly said to be supporting the operation of a loss-making enterprise, because the equipment is old, it's inefficient, state support. And all this is pulled through only by the workers. By virtue of being squeezed three times a day, they give 100%, and they receive not as much as they should. It is thanks to this margin on the proletariat that these inefficient enterprises are still holding on. And it turns out to be a vicious circle. Poor conditions cause people to leave, and people leaving cause a decrease in efficiency, a decrease in efficiency, a deterioration of financial performance. Deterioration of financial performance naturally leads to harsher working conditions for everyone remaining. In general, a problem has surfaced in industry, another big problem. And the personnel problem there will grow. And people will also be forced to leave the catering sector. We have often heard in recent months and years that look, the restaurants are full, people have a lot of money, they are all eating in restaurants, there's no room to sit. Well, now we have seen how the situation actually stands. Mass layoffs have begun in the Rostiks restaurant chain. Before that, there were problems with the closure of Chocoladnica and Dodo Pizza. Sergei Guskov, my co-host, and I will do a separate analysis of this this week. Be sure to watch what is happening in the catering industry and how it characterizes the situation in the economy as a whole. But 600 employees lost their jobs at Rostiks after the closure of twenty outlets. And before that, they had been without salary for 4 months. In general, it has begun, the catering industry has started to decline. People's expenses are being cut not only on food, but also, of course, primarily on entertainment, on restaurants, on cafes. And this indicates that we will no longer hear about this effect, that everyone has tons of money, restaurants are full, all this is now in the past. And I wanted to start with this as good news, which I will now read out, but then I decided that there is still better news. So let's not call this good news, but preceding the good news, it is worth mentioning the circus about the SMO. So, there is a circus about the SMO. It requested 4.7 million rubles from the presidential grants fund for a program about the SMO, that is, about the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The circus about the full-scale invasion of Ukraine is asking for 5 million rubles. It is called the circus studio "Aerial Project". And they want to conduct 20 circus programs for 2,000 spectators aged 8 and over. Well, I took the liberty of fantasizing on my Telegram channel about what this performance for 5 million rubles might look like. So, clowns confuse maps, globes constantly bump into each other, they announce victory over their own shoelaces. Trained bears ride scooters back and forth, always returning to the start. At the same time, they depict some incredible strategic maneuvers, but they always return to the line of combat contact somewhere far beyond Kupyansk, even though they have been to Kupyansk. Yes. And in the finale, all participants, of course, must try to assemble the word "peace" from puzzle pieces, but these pieces, of course, will not fit together. This is what a circus program should look like in my imagination for 5 million rubles. And it will best characterize, of course, the artistic embodiment of the image of the full-scale invasion of this inhumane war in Ukraine. Well, in conclusion, there is still good news, you know, I don't know, I just don't understand how to talk about it without mockery, without irony. But in this news, the entire Russian economy, this state waste, wild inefficiency, this whole Potemkin village is like a drop of water. I will read it to you carefully now, and you will simply enjoy every line. So, the good news is that an analogue of Viagra will not appear in Russia. Well, because if it did, imagine how many problems it would cause people. Thank God it won't appear. But then the details. 1 billion rubles were spent on creating a Russian analogue of Viagra. But after 10 years, the medicine still hasn't appeared. For 10 years, they tried to create, to import-substitute Viagra in Russia and failed. Thank God. So, it was a state project, imagine, there was a separate state project in Russia for the import substitution of Viagra. Izvestia writes, citing relevant documents. 1 billion rubles were allocated for this state project. But production was never established. In 2016, the Federal Medical-Biological Agency was supposed to be involved in this project, but this is also, by the way, biological weapons. The idea was to create a full cycle. But the deer farm in Altai, from which the substance was supposed to be obtained, was created with a 4-year delay. The laboratory in the Moscow region for creating the medicine has not been built to this day, in 10 years and for 1 billion. The experimental batch of the drug Musculif, so this Russian Viagra, was made not from its own raw materials at all, but simply bought somewhere in the West. Yes. But the most interesting thing is that the Accounts Chamber decided that the project is unprofitable in principle. Imagine, for once, we learned that what the Russian state is spending money on is not needed at all. It's not worth spending on, it's unprofitable. Amazing. At the same time, immunologist Andrey Prodeus believes that the drug Musculif is a dietary supplement, not a medicine like Viagra. It cannot be called an alternative to Viagra. Viagra is not a medicine, but a biologically active supplement. And it can work, this remedy. Only, attention, don't fall, through self-suggestion. That is, without self-suggestion, Viagra will not work. So self-suggestion is needed. Then the drug Musculif will work. And that's all. There are no other news for today. Thank you for watching. I remind you that last week there were wonderful episodes on my platform Dom. I talked about them in detail, about these premieres yesterday in the first part of the weekly summary. Now you will watch a video. I just urge you, I remind you again to watch the episode with Eduard Limonov's muse, Elena Shchapova Decarli. And it's something unique. She hasn't given interviews recently, I haven't come across any. In general, it's very interesting. She's a legendary personality. Well, there are many other interesting people in "Where did he disappear?". "Where did he disappear?" is a project that launched last week. I remind you, please subscribe and watch. There's a lot of interesting stuff there. Bye, see you on the channel. Please don't forget to write about what you see around you, if you are in Russia. Don't forget to like, and definitely subscribe to the channel. Good luck. >> Suddenly you feel a sadness, nostalgia come over you. >> The camera is just flying around. We have a whirlwind of dances. >> They pulled me out of the hall. And right in the hall, me >> my people are all around here. Yes, >> people discuss each other and people condemn each other. >> Some kind of role-playing games. This whole BDSM thing. >> Lord have mercy, >> what >> life is happening here, attention is happening here. >> Oops, >> just a pleasant time. Something they are looking at so, which we will spend with friends. It would seem, well, that's it, enough. But no, they are with us again. >> As you presented them, so they look. >> And can we kick out the main character? >> You have the right on your left hand. >> Ready to try your fate? >> Such intrigue. Such a blockbuster. >> 8. >> The thin line between stupidity and nonsense. >> Wait. You allowed it yourself. >> The stakes are so high that we cannot afford even a moment of weakness. >> I'm getting goosebumps now. Well, >> in general, they mixed everything up and this is what happened. Igor >> and music, music, music, music. >> Were those emotions from AliExpress now or >> some kind of passion. >> So, this is perfect. Eyes are burning >> just like that.