Russian-style fertility measures
In Russia, a fee of 650 rubles is charged for a divorce, and the Ministry of Finance has proposed to increase this fee to 5,000 rubles. Also in Russia, real estate is in short supply and rents continue to skyrocket, spurred by the ban on the construction of small apartments. In Moscow, the minimum floor space for a newly constructed property is 28 square meters for a one-room and 44 square meters for a two-bedroom apartment. The reason for this is also supposed to be that young couples must live in houses larger than a certain size in order to have children. However, the regulation of house size does not necessarily mean that rents will fall, and the demand for smaller, less expensive rooms will remain constant, leading to a situation in which the price of large and small houses alike will skyrocket. It is also doubtful that the high cost of divorce will cause people to stay in their marriages and have children.
Russia has a population pyramid similar to that of Japan in the 1970s, but with a low total fertility rate of 1.49 in 2020, it will soon become an aging society similar to Japan. Various measures are being taken to avoid this, but no one knows yet what will happen.（Теснота как образ жизни）
Norilsk Nickel does not pay dividends
Norilsk (Норильск) is a city in the Krasnoyarsk region, known for having the largest nickel deposits in the world. The city is a “closed city” requiring permission from the authorities for foreigners to enter.（Въезд иностранных граждан）
Norilsk Nickel, the largest producer of palladium and nickel, was sanctioned by the United States on April 12, 2023 against then board member Alexei Bashkirov and banned from importing Russian aluminum, copper, and nickel on April 12, 2024. Under these circumstances, the General Meeting of Shareholders decided not to pay a dividend for the fiscal year 2023.
The ranking of the world’s nickel reserves shows Australia in first place, Indonesia in second, Brazil in third, and Russia in fourth. In terms of production volume, the 2020 production ranking is Indonesia in first place, the Philippines in second place, and Russia in third place. Although Russia has lost out to Indonesia and the Philippines in terms of production volume, the nickel used in EV batteries must be highly pure (99.8% or higher), and if limited to this highly pure nickel, Russia holds approximately 20% of the world market share.（EV市場拡大に向け、原材料価格の高騰が課題に（中国））
Regulations for electric scooters
In Japan, a Chinese woman was caught riding on the sidewalk with an electric suitcase, while electric scooters for sharing are available without a license, and a new model with a seat and basket has been introduced. The debate is underway in Russia on how to legally position this new means of transportation. Currently, there are proposals to classify them according to their maximum speed, with speeds below 25 km/h being considered electric bicycles, speeds between 25 km/h and 50 km/h being considered mopeds, and speeds above 50 km/h being considered similar to motorcycles. In Moscow, there are proposals to limit the speed on sidewalks, and in St. Petersburg to prohibit riding on sidewalks in the first place, while at the federal level, a proposal has been made to increase fines for electric scooters by 20 times, from a maximum of 1,500 rubles to 30,000 rubles.（Электросамокаты гонят с тротуаров）
Videos of dangerous driving resulting from a lack of understanding of road traffic laws and local rules, such as entering a highway on an electric scooter, sometimes appear on Twitter. Instead of adding new alternative means of transportation, we should increase the disposable income of the people so that they can afford to buy a car, get a license, and drive it on public roads.