Vladimir Putin has arrived in Vietnam. During the visit, the heads of the two countries adopted a statement on strategic partnership and signed more than 10 documents. President Toh Lam said that Vietnam considers Russia as one of the priorities of its foreign policy. Putin added that from now on, Russia and Vietnam are switching to national currencies in settlements. The ruble reached a record share in trade with Europe in April. The share of the ruble in Russian exports to European countries increased to 58.3%, and in imports – to 54.9%. In addition, more than half of payments for Russian exports are made in rubles with countries in Africa (60.3%), Oceania (68.8%) and the Caribbean (86.2%). The Federal Tax Service of Russia plans to abandon most personal income tax declarations. It is planned to abolish declarations of income from the sale of real estate and vehicles. The non-declaration procedure for personal income tax payment will begin to apply to income received from January 1, 2025. Elon Musk is criticizing Biden again. The businessman expressed dissatisfaction with the planned government spending on providing citizens with access to high-speed Internet. The program provides for costs of $42.5 billion, which Musk called an outrageous waste of taxpayers' money, since his Starlink project already exists. Chinese banks have resumed accepting payments from Russia, but with some restrictions. Since the beginning of May, Bank of China and six northern regional banks have started accepting payments from Russian customers in yuan again. However, cooperation with Russia is limited to these regional banks, which creates problems with transactions. Many southern companies are not ready to open accounts in remote banks, which calls into question the stability of trade at this stage.
