FirstFT: Russia takes passports of senior officials to stop defections and leaks

We start the week with a report on how Russia’s security services are confiscating the passports of senior officials and state company executives, in a move to prevent overseas travel as paranoia over leaks and defections spreads through Vladimir Putin’s regime.

With Russia’s war on Ukraine still raging, security officers have tightened up travel requirements within the state sector, demanding the surrender of travel documents from some prominent figures and former officials, said several people familiar with the matter.

The tightening of the Soviet-era rules reflects deep suspicion in the Kremlin and the FSB about the loyalty of Russia’s civilian elite, many of whom privately oppose the war in Ukraine and are chafing over its impact on their lifestyles.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, confirmed Russia had tightened the restrictions on foreign travel for some who work in “sensitive” areas.

“There are stricter rules for this,” he told the Financial Times. “In some places they are formalised and in some places they depend on a specific decision . . . about specific employees. Since the start of the special military operation, more attention has been paid to this issue.”

As Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues, one of Russia’s most influential pro-Kremlin war bloggers, Vladlen Tatarsky, has been killed in a blast at a restaurant in St Petersburg yesterday. The city’s governor said the attack also injured 25 people, with 19 of them admitted to hospital.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: S&P Global publishes its manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices for Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the UK and the US.

• UK strikes: Passport Office workers start five weeks of industrial action while British Library staff continue a two-week stoppage that started yesterday.

As always, thank you for reading FirstFT and let us know if you have any feedback at firstft@ft.com.

Five more top stories

1. The largest US regional banks began this year with less cash on hand than at any time since the 2008 financial crisis, leaving them ill-prepared for a rush of deposit withdrawals that led to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. Read the full story.

2. Oil prices soared after Opec+ members announced they would cut production by more than 1mn barrels a day yesterday, leaping 8 per cent when Asian markets opened this morning. Here’s why the move will raise tensions between Saudi Arabia and the US.

3. Switzerland’s status as the world’s banker to the super-rich is not “god given”, the boss of Julius Baer, one of the country’s biggest banks has warned, as he cautioned about a continuing crisis of confidence. Read more from the FT’s full interview with Philipp Rickenbacher.

4. Donald Trump’s lawyers will move to dismiss the charges against him as the former president said he plans to deliver a speech after his arraignment tomorrow. Here’s the latest on the case involving alleged hush money paid to a porn star.

5. Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin has conceded defeat as the country’s conservative National Coalition party claimed victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections over her centre-left Social Democratic party. Here’s how Marin lost despite her party winning more seats.

The Big Read

Known as “white gold”, lithium’s high electrochemical potential makes it critical to electric vehicle batteries. China already dominates processing of the metal for use in such batteries and is now investing heavily in mines in Africa, leaving western operators scrambling to keep up in a market expected to see a near fivefold increase in demand by 2030.

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Take a break from the news

Perfectionism, the theory goes, holds people back instead of propelling them forward. Research suggests that perfectionists are intensely self-critical and unwilling to take risks for fear of failure or criticism, which can be devastating to their fragile self-image. But not everyone believes perfectionism is a scourge.

Additional contributions by Annie Jonas