Russia will ban businesses with significant offshore ownership from receiving government support as part of Moscow’s ongoing campaign to push Russian firms to bring their corporate headquarters back home.

Firms where offshore entities have a stake of at least 25% in the business will not be able to get help through programs such as emergency coronavirus relief or low-interest government-backed loans from Jan. 1, 2023, the Finance Ministry said.

Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and Switzerland are among the countries Russia considers “offshore” for the purposes of enforcing the legislation, the Vedomosti news site reported Monday, citing the Finance Ministry. Some 57 countries and jurisdictions were included on the list in total, including U.S. states Delaware and Wyoming, home to many international companies due to their favorable corporate tax rates.

Cyprus, in particular, is a popular destination for Russian companies to register their corporate headquarters, due to its status as a low-tax jurisdiction, an EU member and its use of a legal system based on English law.

The new rules will deprive some of Russia’s largest companies of government support from next year, unless they undertake potentially complex and expensive restructuring, consultants warned. Metals giants NLMK and Nornickel would lose access to government funds, as would digital bank Tinkoff and the country’s largest alcohol retailer Mercury Retail Group.

Moscow has taken steps in recent years to clamp down on Russian companies registered abroad in low-tax jurisdictions. Analysts see the move as motivated both by a desire to bring funds back into the country — in line with international attempts to frustrate the use of low-tax jurisdictions by the world’s largest companies — and subjugate Russian firms to Russian laws and courts, thus increasing the Kremlin’s ability to control them.

The Finance Ministry said 1.9 trillion rubles ($25 billion) of corporate earnings made in Russia were booked in Cyprus in 2019, and the value of dividends sent to owners registered on the Mediterranean island tripled to more than 300 billion rubles ($4 billion) in the first nine months of 2021.

Russia has revised double taxation treaties with a number of low-tax jurisdictions to increase the tax paid to Russia on dividends sent abroad. Moscow also revoked a double tax treaty with the Netherlands — another hub for Russian companies such as the country’s largest technology firm Yandex and supermarket group X5 Retail Group — in 2021 after the country refused to agree to Moscow’s new terms of higher tax rates.

The Netherlands was not included on the Finance Ministry’s new list of offshore jurisdictions.

The president of crisis-hit Sri Lanka has asked China to restructure its debt repayments as part of efforts to help the South Asian country navigate its worsening financial situation.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the request during a meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday.

In the last decade China has lent Sri Lanka over $5bn (£3.7bn) for projects including roads, an airport and ports.

But critics say the money was used for unnecessary schemes with low returns.

"The president pointed out that it would be a great relief to the country if attention could be paid on restructuring the debt repayments as a solution to the economic crisis that has arisen in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic," Mr Rajapaksa's office said.

The statement also said China was asked to provide "concessional" terms for its exports to Sri Lanka, which amounted to around $3.5bn last year, without providing further details.

Mr Rajapaksa also offered to allow Chinese tourists to return to Sri Lanka provided they adhere to strict coronavirus regulations.

Before the pandemic, China was one of Sri Lanka's main sources of tourists. And it imports more goods from China than from any other country.

In recent months, Sri Lanka has been experiencing a severe debt and foreign exchange crisis, which has been made worse by the loss of tourist income during the pandemic.

China is Sri Lanka's fourth biggest lender, behind international financial markets, the Asian Development Bank and Japan.

The country has received billions of dollars of soft loans from China but the island nation has been engulfed in a foreign exchange crisis which some analysts have said has pushed it to the verge of default.

Sri Lanka has to repay about $4.5bn in debt this year starting with a $500m international sovereign bond, which matures on 18 January.

The country's central bank has repeatedly assured investors that all of its debt repayments will be met and said funds for this month's bond repayment has already been allocated.

Sri Lanka is a key part of China's Belt and Road Initiative, a long-term plan to fund and build infrastructure linking China to the rest of the world.

However, some countries, including the US, have labelled the project a "debt trap" for smaller and poorer nations.

Beijing has always rejected those accusations, and in response has accused some in the West of promoting this narrative to tarnish its image.

Last month a Sri Lankan government minister said the country planned to settle a debt for past oil imports from Iran by paying it off in tea.

It plans to send $5m worth of tea to Iran each month to clear a $251m debt.

In September, Sri Lanka declared an economic emergency, after a steep fall in the value of its currency, the rupee, caused a spike in food prices.

Authorities said they would take control of the supply of basic food items, including rice and sugar, and set prices in an attempt to control rising inflation.

Mongolia is a landlocked country on the East Asian continent. Its geographic location is extremely awkward. It is sandwiched between China and Russia. It has insufficient domestic resources and is on the edge of the world. At the same time, Mongolia is second only to Kazakhstan in the world. The second largest landlocked country.

Mongolia's area accounts for one-sixth of China's land area, which is 1.566 million square kilometers. On such a vast land, the population is only 3.17 million, which is truly vast and sparsely populated. In this case, Mongolia The standing force of the People's Republic of China is less than 10,000.

The country's population is so small because most of the areas are Gobi deserts and deserts. Under the influence of this topography, it can neither be cultivated nor inhabited. Among them, the mountains cover an area of ​​777,000 square kilometers. Good guys, It actually occupies half of the total land area, and the Gobi Desert has 400,000 square kilometers, so in this case, the land available for the Mongolians is still very scarce.

At the same time, Mongolia's domestic industry is very backward, dominated by animal husbandry and mining. Many industrial products are not self-sufficient and rely on China and Russia. Moreover, Chinese Yiwu products are very popular in Mongolia, which makes up for it to a great extent. The lack of daily necessities in Mongolia.

Because Mongolia is a landlocked country, its country faces fewer threats, and its nationality is relatively single, and there will be no large-scale ethnic conflicts. Therefore, Mongolia's military strength is relatively weak. At the same time, Mongolia The degree of mechanization of the army is relatively low, and even most of the cavalry exists in the army. As a landlocked country, Mongolia does not have the sequence and organization of the navy.

There are many grasslands in Mongolia, the terrain is flat, and there is basically no danger to defend. Therefore, Mongolia's standing army is mostly distributed on the border. In this army of nearly 10,000 people, the proportion of Mongolian female soldiers is relatively high. There are 800 people. In the usual news, the image of Mongolian female soldiers is very rich and rich . Does this indicate that the Mongolian army's food is too good?

In fact, this is not the case. If there is a ranking of the military food of various countries in the world, then Mongolia will definitely appear in the bottom few places. The food provided by Mongolian soldiers is very simple; it is rice, bread, milk, potatoes, and local seasonal vegetables. It can be seen that the Mongolian soldiers' food is very average, so why are there so many wealthy female soldiers?

1. Mongolia is different from other countries. The census in recent years shows that the proportion of women in the country is higher than that of men, and many Mongolian women are self-reliant and even better than Mongolian men in some important jobs. This situation is still the case in the Mongolian army. From the perspective of the proportion of female soldiers, it accounts for nearly 10%. In addition, the Mongolian female soldiers look very strong, all of them burly, which also represents the beauty of women's strength.

2. The plump figure of the Mongolian female soldiers is affected by their childhood habits, and in life, it is related to their childhood eating habits. Since ancient times, Mongolians have been a nomadic nation, so the Mongolian animal husbandry industry is also very developed in the world. Therefore, their food is mostly crude fiber staple food, beef and mutton and dairy products. Coarse grains exercise the developed digestive system of Mongolians, and dairy products and filling meat also provide them with sufficient protein, so Many Mongolian women seem to be stronger.

3. The average altitude of Mongolia is relatively high. The sun's ultraviolet radiation is large, and Mongolian female soldiers spend more time in outdoor training. Therefore, their skin color is healthy and wheatish. At the same time, many Mongolian women mostly live on grazing before joining the army, and they also do all-year physical labor. Shaped a beautiful figure for it.

Concluding remarks

The war in today's world is no longer the era of cold weapons. Although Mongolia's soldiers are well-shaped, it does not mean that their combat effectiveness is very strong. The combat effectiveness of modern warfare depends on the comprehensive strength of technology and economy. Obviously, Mongolia is in this respect. The displayed strength is not very outstanding, which means that Mongolia's military strength is still very weak.

Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has announced that the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be much smaller than that of the 2008 Summer Games held in the capital, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Zhang has been appointed chief director of the Games' opening and closing ceremonies, reprising his role in the 2008 Olympics.

The acclaimed director told state-run media that he is honored and excited.

He said the opening ceremony on February 4 at the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, will feature about 3,000 performers and last less than 100 minutes.

The number of performers is one-fifth that of the 2008 ceremony and the length is less than half.

Zhang cited anti-infection measures and cold weather as reasons for downsizing.

With less than one month to go before the Olympics, community infections of the Omicron coronavirus variant have been confirmed in the city of Tianjin, adjacent to Beijing, and the inland province of Henan.

Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia's COVID-19 death toll has reached 2,001 after two more related deaths were registered over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said on Monday.

Meanwhile, 649 new COVID-19 infections, including 10 imported ones, were recorded across the country in the past day, raising the national tally to 396,456, the ministry said.

Less than 400 infections had been reported a day in the country until Jan. 4, when the number of daily infections has been resurging due to New Year celebrations.

The Asian country confirmed its first 12 imported cases of the Omicron variant on Friday, and its first five local cases of the Omicron variant on Sunday.

So far, 66.6 percent of the country's total population have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while 936,906 people aged over 18 have received a third dose.

Starting from Friday, the country has offered a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens on a voluntary basis.

In December 2021, the gold purchase of the Bank of Mongolia (BoM) was 780 kg, raising the BoM’s total precious metal purchase of 2021 to 21 tons.

In December, the BoM branches in Darkhan-Uul and Bayankhongor aimags bought 8.2 kg and 46.4 kg of precious metals respectively.

The average price of BoM’s purchase of 1 gram of gold was MNT 163,695.6 last month.

On January 5, the Prime Minister issued an order to establish a working group in charge of enhancing the operations of border checkpoints and accelerating the transport of export and import products during the pandemic.

In connection, Deputy Prime Minister S.Amarsaikhan on January 7, received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Mongolia Chai Wenrui to exchange views on ways to keep operations running at the two countries’ border checkpoints without interruption.

At the start of the meeting, the Deputy Prime Minister highlighted that he has been appointed as the head of a newly-established working group in charge of ensuring normal operations at border checkpoints, and expressed the country’s interest in urgently launching container transportation between the two countries. “As preparations have been completed for the side of Mongolia, I am confident that you will provide support in resolving the matter by informing the People’s Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The resolution of the matter concerning the transportation of goods and products between the two countries’ borders will serve as a significant measure for the two countries’ friendly relations and cooperation,” he highlighted.

He then informed the Chinese Ambassador about the interest in organizing a virtual meeting of the two countries’ intergovernmental commission in the near future to discuss increasing the number of border checkpoints and launching preparatory works for the Zamyn-Uud Free Economic Zone.

In turn, Ambassador Chai Wenrui told the Deputy Prime Minister that he will pass on the request to the corresponding organization, and put in all his efforts to have active cooperation between Zamiin-Uud and Erlian. He then agreed that organizing regular meetings between the two countries’ professional institutions would create the conditions for normal operations to be carried out during the time of the pandemic.

Mongolia has begun to administer the fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine to its people on voluntary basis on January 7. Currently 66.6 per cent of the population have received two shots of coronavirus vaccine while 28.7 per cent have had the third shot.

Mongolia is one of leading countries in the world with its early and active vaccination program and has passed the coronavirus waves not imposing strict quarantine and with less loss. The country also has experienced significantly less deaths caused by coronavirus compared to that of developed countries. Specifically the US have had 2501 deaths per 1 million, the Great Britain 2194 while Mongolia- 650.

Amid a worldwide surge in Omicron variant infections, the Government of Mongolia adheres a strategy to widely involve the population in the third dose of coronavirus vaccine and administer the fourth dose on voluntary basis to pass the new wave, avoiding from imposing strict lockdown.

The citizens will voluntarily get the fourth dose after three months since their third dose. In addition, coronavirus infected citizens, who had the third dose can receive their fourth dose after 21 days since their recovery. Citizens will be vaccinated with the fourth shot, choosing from Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine and ‘CorV’ vaccine developed by Sinopharm.

Also, children born in 2010 who will turn 12 this year are being offered a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Citizens who will turn 18 this year can be involved in their third dose of the immunization.

The city of Tianjin in northern China has begun conducting PCR tests on all residents, after two cases of coronavirus infection with the Omicron variant were identified in the city.

The state-run China Central Television reported that the infected are a 29-year-old woman and a 10-year old girl.

They are not from the same family and had not left the city in the 14 days before being tested.

The authorities believe they are the cases of community transmission.

Eighteen people who were in close contact with the two have tested positive.

Omicron infections have been found in mainland China among those who arrived from overseas and their close contacts.

City authorities began PCR testing on Sunday with the aim of covering all of its more than 13 million residents.

Tianjin is close to Beijing, where the winter Olympic Games will be held in February.

China has been seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 infections recently.

About 2,000 cases have been confirmed in the inland city of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province since December.

Authorities put the city under strict restrictions, forcing residents to stay home.

Infections are also spreading this month in Henan Province.

Mongolia registered 1,040 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, exceeding the 1,000 mark for the first time since Nov. 11, bringing the national tally to 394,797, the country's health ministry said on Saturday.

Among the latest confirmed infections, 45 were imported from abroad, the ministry said.

Less than 400 infections had been reported daily in the country until Tuesday, when the number of daily infections resurged due to New Year celebrations.

The viral disease has claimed 1,997 lives after two more patients aged over 40 died in the past day.

In addition, the Asian country on Friday confirmed its first 12 cases of the Omicron variant.

So far, 66.5 percent of Mongolia's population of 3.4 million have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses, while 934,120 people aged over 18 have received the third dose.

Starting from Friday, the country has offered a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to its citizens on a voluntary basis.