Sanktioner mot Ryssland.

Russia just made another agreement with Iran that will raise eyebrows in the West

Six Iranian food companies are now allowed to export their goods to Russia.

Meanwhile, imports of meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables, and fish from various Western countries are still banned by Russia.

John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, and another senator wrote a letter to members of the Fifa Congress urging them to deny Mr Blatter a fifth-term as the head of football's global body.
"In light of President Blatter’s continued support for Russia hosting the 2018 Fifa World Cup – despite Russia’s ongoing violations of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and other challenges to the post-WWII security architecture – we ask that you reconsider your support for President Blatter’s fifth term as Fifa President," the senators wrote.

Russia’s shadow economy and the self-sufficiency of Russians living outside of the major cities of the country “have allowed Russia to survive the crisis and the introduction of sanctions without large losses, according to five-year-long study of provincial society carried out by sociologists at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.

According to the study’s findings, Diana Yevdokimova writes in “Novyye izvestiya,” Russian provincial society is characterized by a pattern of social stratification in which “the status of an individual depends not on income but on his public authority and influence, his status [with the authorities] and his membership in various clans, employment and shadow groupings.”

Consequently, Yury Plyusnin, one of the authors of this study says, while Russians in the cities are frightened as a result of sanctions, the nature of provincial society with its self-organizing and self-supplying systems guarantees the stability of the state and means that an economic crisis as understood in the cities or abroad will not affect most residents.