One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gifts to Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneisl was a painting with rural motifs, depicting the places where Kneisl’s husband Wolfgang Meilinger is from, reported Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

“Putin gave the newlyweds a painting with rural motifs, because her husband is from precisely these places, and he also gave an ancient butter squeezer and a Tula samovar,” Russian news agency TASS cites Peskov as saying.

The Russian president’s spokesman …

The United States Department of the Treasury published a report of country-holders of American bonds. According to the report, the total amount of treasury securities owned by Russia in June was $14.9 billion. The same figure was recorded a month ago.

As in May, Russia was not on the list of 31 countries that are the main bondholders, but decline of Russia’s holdings in the first month of summer has stopped. For comparison, from March to May, Moscow sold $80 billion of the US treasuries. …

New US sanctions that may be imposed on the Russian national debt may lead to an outflow of 8-10% of investors from Russian sovereign debt bonds, according to the results of a study conducted by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency (ACRA), reported TASS.

Analysts believe that the introduction of new sanctions for the purchase of the Russian national debt will significantly reduce the investor base, which will lead to a strong increase in the cost of borrowing for the Russian government.

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