Startups are a lot like infants. They come into the world vulnerable and needy. And it's your job, as the founder, to protect your new business much like a parent would with a helpless baby. Businesses face numerous risks from the start. And in many regards, it's your ability to protect your fledgling business during these early days that makes or breaks your chances of long-term success. In light of this, here are a few practical tips you may find valuable in your pursuit of growth and stability: Form the Right Legal Entity One of the first steps every business owner should take is to form the correct legal entity. This legal entity will provide tax advantages as well as certain asset protections. The most common types of legal entities include:

The US will expand sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. The sanctions will now affect companies that provide services or funding to install equipment on board the vessels that take part in the project. Such a move may permanently halt the construction of the pipeline. The news to expand the sanctions was reported on the website of the US Department of State. Similar restrictions are to be imposed on the participants of the Turkish Stream and other similar projects.The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline provides for the construction of two sections of the gas pipeline system with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the coast of Russia to Germany along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Originally, the construction of the pipeline system was supposed to be completed in 2019. However, the work on the project was suspended after US Congress passed a package of sanctions against the participants of the project. The USA remains opposed to the project, claiming that it makes Europe overly dependent on Russian natural gas and increases political pressure on Ukraine, which transits natural gas further to Europe. Kiev and several countries of the European Union share the same position. "Russia uses its energy export pipelines to create national and regional dependencies on Russian energy supplies, leveraging these dependencies to expand its political, economic, and military influence, weaken European security, and undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. These pipelines also reduce European energy diversification, and hence weaken European energy security," the US State Department said in a statement. Russia, Germany, Austria and a number of other countries, whose companies are involved in the construction, insist that this is nothing but a business project.In late 2019, the United States imposed sanctions on Nord Stream-2, having demanded the companies involved in the construction should immediately stop their works on the project. Allseas, a Swiss company, pulled out of the project almost at once.Representatives of Russia's natural gas monopoly, Gazprom, stated that they would be able to complete the construction of Nord Stream-2 independently. For the time being, one needs to finish the construction of the section that is 100 kilometres long. On October 17, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in an interview with RND that the project would be completed.

Bankruptcy isn't a topic that anyone likes to discuss. Creditors, debtors, and government officials all get a little queasy at the thought of bankruptcy, but it exists for a reason. And in many situations, it can provide relief when financial friction is heightened. But bankruptcy isn't the same in every country. Laws, rules, and stigmas differ rather significantly - particularly between Russia and the United States. The what and why of bankruptcy Bankruptcy is one of the primary methods by which control over an asset can be transferred to more capable or efficient owners in the instance of market economies. Ultimately, bankruptcy serves three distinct purposes: To solve collective action problems among creditors as they deal with insolvent debtors. To give individual debtors a chance at a "fresh start" when they're overburdened by debt. To preserve/save the financial distress firms have by reorganizing rather than liquidating. Bankruptcy is basically government-sanctioned relief that allows individuals or businesses to have debts forgiven, granted they meet specific criteria and follow certain guidelines. It plays an important role in keeping the larger economic engine hitting on all cylinders. Without bankruptcy, millions of citizens would find themselves impoverished and unable to financially recover from dire situations.

The runaway owner of TogliattiAzot, Sergei Makhlai, is once again in the spotlight of Russian media. This time their interest was aroused, apparently, by the media publications sponsored by Makhlai. Recently several Russian media have suggested that the chemical giant TogliattiAzot needs a change of ownership, since the current main owners of the plant, headed by Sergei Makhlai, have ruined the enterprise and criminalized it drastically. This seriously scared Makhlai, who attempted to justify himself and lay the blame on the others.

How do famous film directors and athletes become baits for pyramid schemes? How are such prominent figures as Anatoly Karpov, Nikita Mikhalkov and other renowned personalities in Russia involved with the scammers from Anchor-Invest? Scarcely ever it is possible to catch and put into jail big-time operators of financial pyramids how it happened with Mavrodi, the famous "financier of Russia". Apart from Mavrodi, a variety of pyramids existed and continue to operate in Russia that have the same backbone; to take your money.

On Monday, September 20, during a trading day on the Hong Kong stock exchange, the shares of Chinese developer Sinic collapsed by 87 percent. Experts point out that the shares collapsed due to the "domino effect", which was caused by the crisis of China's another developer giant, Evergrande. In 2020, Evergrande owner Hui Ka Yan was among the top three Chinese wealthy men. Today, however, the development company that he owns has found itself on the verge of default. Evergrande's debts are overwhelming and reach an astronomical amount of $302 billion. How did Hui Ka Yan lead his development empire to such a deep crisis? Evergrande is due to pay its investors $83 million on September 23rd. S&P Global believes that the Chinese government refuses to bail out the debt-stricken company. However, Hui Ka Yan is full of optimism. He assured his employees that his company will extricate from the crisis, although he did not specify how.

It's difficult to highlight any positives of the recent pandemic. However, if one exists in the business world, it's the virtual infrastructure that was built on the fly to allow companies to make the shift away from traditional brick and mortar operations. If you've been on the fence about a permanent shift in the virtual direction, this is your time to shine. The benefits of going virtual

Many foreign companies, including oil and gas enterprises, are leaving the Russian market due to high risks associated with the sanctions war between Russia and the West. In addition, it will be too difficult for them to withdraw their income from Russia abroad, economist Marcel Salikhov believes. At the same time, oilfield service companies that used to work in Russia back during the days of the USSR, will stay in the country, he added, lenta.ru reports. It is up to company administrations to decide whether they want to leave the Russian market or not. The sanctions that were imposed on Russia following the military operation in Ukraine do not limit their participation in the Russian economy. Russia's response to Western sanctions may in one way or another affect the position of foreign companies in the country, especially with regard to strategic sectors of the economy. In addition, Putin banned foreign companies from withdrawing their funds abroad to parent companies. All this combined has tarnished the assets.

On March 8, McDonald's fast food restaurant chain announced a temporary closure of all of its restaurants in Russia. It goes about 850 outlets that employ 62,000 employees. McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski said that employees would still be paid their salaries during this period, but did not specify for how long and in what amount. McDonalds' decided to suspend its activities in Russia due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine as the company cannot ignore the human suffering. Starbucks coffee chain made a similar decision the same day. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that all activities in Russia were suspended, including all shipments of all products.

Russia's refusal to pay $50 billion to former Yukos shareholders will lead to new investigations.On March 31, the Moscow City Court will consider an appeal, which was filed against the ruling to pay $35 million to former Yukos shareholder Alexey Golubovich by his ex-wife Olga Mirimskaya. Allegedly, she received the money for the sale of Yukos shares 15 years ago, and her ex-husband asked for his share as part of the divorce proceedings that have been ongoing for the last ten years. These are unusual demands as Mirimskaya has never owned shares in the oil company. In addition, Golubovich was not only its shareholder, but also served as the director for strategic planning and corporate finance at OAO NK Yukos and was aware of all information related to the financial dealings of the oil giant. A journalistic investigation conducted by Pravda.Ru showed that Alexey Golubovich likely still works in close collaboration with other ex-owners of Yukos. Alexey Golubovich, a former shareholder of Yukos oil company, and Olga Mirimskaya, the chairwoman of the Board of Directors of BKF Bank, divorced in 2012, but the litigation over the division of their marital property continues to this day. Olga Mirimskaya is the founder of the Russian Product Company. She is also President of BKF Bank. Mirimskaya is charged with giving a bribe — two vehicles worth a total of 3.25 million rubles — to Yury Nosov, an investigator at the Moscow Region Department of the Investigative Committee in 2017. He handled the case, in which she appeared as a victim in connection with the kidnapping of her daughter. Nosov and Mirimskaya were arrested in the bribery case. They plead not guilty, claiming that the case has been initiated under false pretences with malicious intent. "According to the defendant, the case was initiated by Alexey Golubovich, as well as by her former common-law partner Nikolai Smirnov, a co-owner of the Golden Crown payment system, as an act of revenge for the return of her daughter, in order to seize her property," Mirimskaya's lawyer Alexander Chernov said.

Continued. Read Part I of the article here. Alexey Golubovich, Yukos's former director for strategic planning and corporate finance was one of the main witnesses in the case against Yukos. How can one determine the basis of his testimony? Was it a wish to help the Russian justice system or the subtle game of a "double agent"? In order to understand this, one may need to recall a few facts from his business biography. In the first part of our investigation, we talked about Alexey Golubovich's business projects and lawsuits in 2010–2022, in which one could see both the shadows of his former Yukos colleagues (for example, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Yuri Beilin) ​and the non-systemic opposition.

Rising global commodity prices and falling economic growth around the world are the result of the decision by Biden and his European "acolytes" to declare economic war on Russia. The U. S. and the European Union announced tougher sanctions against Russia because of the "Bucha incident" without an international investigation. Nevertheless, as Pravda previously wrote, the "atrocities in Bucha" were most likely staged by the Zelensky regime. The economic war of Western civilization against Russia has in any case been declared and its goal is clear: the complete destruction of Russia, the seizure of its territories and natural resources. Most likely, the total energy blockade of Russia will only intensify, throwing the world financial markets into chaos.

The losses that American, European and Japanese companies have suffered after they left the Russian market are evaluated at tens of billions of dollars, RIA Novosti reports. Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine to the present, foreign companies have lost a total of $70 billion. Companies of the fuel and energy complex have suffered the biggest losses. Many companies in this sector have deconsolidated and devalued Russian assets by ceasing to report the results of their activities in the country, they have not completely stopped working in Russia. For example, the UK-based BP, having made a number of statements about its decision to withdraw from Russian projects, was forced to retain shares in local assets. According to Putin's decree from August 5, shareholders from unfriendly countries will no longer be able to make transactions with shares in companies of strategic significane, fuel and energy companies and banks without the consent of the state. In its report for the first quarter of 2022, BP depreciated Russian assets in the amount of $25.5 billion, but it did not take practical steps to exit the projects.

Retail theft in the U.S. is reaching critical levels, costing businesses around $100 billion annually. While shoplifting and various forms of employee theft are rising, a particularly challenging issue is "sweethearting."

Check Point Research (CPR) has released a report revealing that ransomware remains the top cyber threat. RansomHub has quickly emerged as the fastest-growing group, operating through Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS).

With Halloween coinciding with school half-term and the religious festival of Diwali this year, UK shoppers embraced spooky season, delivering a boost to in-store shopper traffic, the latest data from Sensormaic Solutions, the leading retail traffic consulting and analytics group from Johnson Controls, shows.

Shipster, a custom shipping integration platform, and Futura Retail Solutions, an advanced retail and warehouse management software, have announced a strategic partnership to target growing omni-channel retail markets.

By Marc Malafronte, director of sales, VIPRE Security Group.

As cyberattacks increase in frequency and sophistication, businesses must prioritize cybersecurity as a critical investment area. Managed service providers (MSPs) are crucial in supporting organizations on their cybersecurity journey.

By Aviram Ganor, General Manager EMEA, Riskified.

Retailers have plenty to keep them awake at night, whether it’s enticing consumers to shop,  utdoing their competition or – most worrying of all – how to ensure their long-term survival in a rocky economy. Yet the latest insight from the British Retail Consortium offers some hope.

By Gareth Hunt, freelance writer.

One of the world's most important currencies is information. That information could be about anybody and anything and may be used in a million different ways. With this much personal information people put on the internet, it becomes effortless for cyber criminals to get that information and perpetrate identity thefts.

By Jo Bradley, Business Development Manager at Sparck Technologies.

Companies can be schizophrenic about packaging and its costs. On the one hand, product packaging is closely scrutinised – a battleground between buyers seeking to drive costs down and marketers looking for ever greater impact and ‘shelf appeal’.

In recognition of Cyber Security Awareness Month, Uswitch Broadband experts set out to explore how well people are protecting themselves online. The survey uncovered common mistakes that leave people vulnerable to cyber risks, along with actionable tips on how to safeguard personal information.

By Craig McPherson, freelance writer.

Think of this. You've got a serious deadline to cover and are working on it. After one hour of work, you turn back to social media for a "state of relaxation". But guess what? You keep on scrolling your favourite social media platform for hours and end up missing the deadline. Sounds familiar, right?

Online retailers saw a significant increase in online Halloween sales, bolstered by the event (31 Oct) falling during school half-term as well as coinciding with Diwali, according to data from Wunderkind, the AI-driven performance marketing solution.

By Kumar Abhishek,Pixelo Digital.

As retailers gear up for the annual Black Friday rush this month, Supply Chain Managers, Production Planners and Inventory Managers face unique challenges in preparing for one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

72% of FTSE 100 companies list threats to their supply chains amongst their principal risks, shows new research by supply chain management consultancy INVERTO, part of Boston Consulting Group.

The 2024 festive period could be a tricky one for retailers as shoppers hunt down the best deals amidst an ongoing cost of living crisis and focus the majority of their bargain hunting on the Black Friday weekend.

By Georgia Leybourne, Chief Marketing Officer, Linnworks.

Success in ecommerce and retail today hinges on consumer convenience. It is fast becoming a powerful tool in the e-commerce industry, transforming the way businesses engage with their customers and increasing sales through social commerce.

With the holiday season fast approaching, retail payroll teams around the world are bracing for the strain of seasonal hiring. The influx of workers means added payroll runs, and yet too few are turning to technology to ease the pressure.

By Umar Butt, CEO of UK and Europe at Aramex.

The pre-loved market is taking the fashion industry by storm. Reminiscent of the continued popularity of charity shops, thrift stores or vintage boutiques, the appetite for second hand clothes has been a constant for centuries, however in recent years a paradigm shift has moved this growing market into the mainstream.

CrowdStrike has agreed to acquire SaaS security solutions provider, Adaptive Shield. With this acquisition, CrowdStrike reports that it will be the only cybersecurity vendor to provide unified, end-to-end protection against identity-based attacks across the entire modern cloud ecosystem – from on-premises

Supply chain agility critical to success in biggest retail golden quarter for years. Chris Clowes, executive director at global supply chain and logistics consultancy, SCALA, discusses how the agility of supply chain and logistics operations will be critical for businesses looking to make the most of this year’s golden quarter...

Veracity Trust Network (Veracity) has been awarded the Cybersecurity Co-Innovation and Development Fund (CCDF) CyberCall grant of S$1 million by the Cyber Security Agency Singapore (CSA).

Russia's Vkusno i Tochka (Tasty and That's It) fast food chain, which appeared n the country instead of McDonald's, will have meal combos for children similarly to Happy Meal, the company's press service told RBC. The sets will be called "Kids Combos." The company will remove toys from the sets to replace them with books. The new products will be available at restaurants of the network from December 12 in Novokuznetsk, Novosibirsk, Berdsk, Barnaul, Tomsk, Kemerovo and Krasnoyarsk. Kids Combos will be available throughout Russia starting from January. Kids Combos will include nuggets, cheese snacks, classic burgers, salads, carrot sticks and apple wedges, as well as a drink of choice, a representative of Tasty and That's It said.

Sberbank — Russia's largest state-owned bank — has the only foreign branch in India. In early November it was reported that Sberbank was going to open a branch in China. According to Alexander Vedyakhin, deputy chairman of the board, all the necessary documents have been sent to China, RBC reports. "We have been communicating with the People's Bank of China a lot lately. We have sent a massive package of documents there, as the Chinese regulator is very meticulous about documents. I hope that by the end of 2023 we will be able to open a branch in China. It usually takes 1.5-2 years, but we hope that by the end of 2023 we will already have a branch in this country,” Alexander Vedyakhin said. Sberbank opened a representative office in China in 2010; A representative office of Sberbank appeared in Germany in 2009; Sberbank has only one branch abroad — in New Delhi, India. After the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, Sberbank came under sanctions from Western states: the United States and Great Britain froze the bank's assets and banned citizens from doing business with it, whereas the EU disconnected Sberbank from the SWIFT interbank data exchange system.

Economist Vladislav Inozemtsev writes about the change in the leadership of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers “At the end of last week ... at a meeting of the Council of the Federal Chamber of Lawyers of Russia, its long-term president, Yuri Pilipenko, who has held this post since 2015, was not re-elected for another term. (It is noteworthy that on the morning of December 15, he, being a president of the Chamber, sent a letter to the head of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, James MacGuill, expressing concern about the situation with the protection of the legal rights of Russians in European countries).” Inozemtsev notes that Pilipenko is a “highly experienced lawyer” who, as it would seem, “talentedly led a professional organization of lawyers, skillfully resolving any sensitive issues in the interaction between the legal community and the authorities, and at the same time demonstrating a willingness to independently make important decisions for the legal workers without waiting for the initiatives of the Ministry of Justice and the Kremlin.”

Russian-Indian joint enterprise Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited intends to completely localise the production of AK-203 assault rifles in India, TASS reports with reference to Russia's defence export giant Rosoboronexport. "The production plans of the joint venture include plans for the 100-percent localisation of the production of AK-203 assault rifles in India," the company noted. "In addition, the joint venture may increase production and upgrade to produce prospective models on the platform of the Kalashnikov assault rifle,” Rosoboronexport said. In October, the company promised that the Russian-Indian plant for the production of AK-203 Kalashnikov assault rifles (7.62 by 39 mm caliber) in the Indian city of Corva would be ready to begin the production of weapons before the end of 2022.

Russians should start selling dollars and buy euros, yuan and gold instead, businessman Oleg Deripaska believes. In his recent post on Telegram, Deripaska reacted to the statement from the author of the best-selling book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" Robert Kiyosaki about the future economic crisis in the United States. Kiyosaki, who predicted the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, encouraged investors to buy more gold, silver and bitcoin. In his post, Deripaska published a link to Kiyosaki's interview with Fox Business.

The Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region arrested all assets of German automaker Volkswagen in Russia, Interfax reports. Since March 17, Volkswagen has been banned from conducting any registration actions, such as actions to liquidate, reorganise or change the composition of participants, increase and decrease the authorized capital of the Russian subsidiary of Volkswagen and its legal entities. Volkswagen's assets in Russia ere banned following a court appeal from Russia's GAZ automobile group from March 14. The document was published in the file of arbitration cases.

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International considers selling the Russian division or withdrawing it from the structure of the group. Raiffeisen's "daughter" will continue running "certain banking activities" in Russia to maintain license. At the moment, the bank can not get rid of all of its business in Russia, but is striving for this to happen, RBI CEO Johann Strobl said. The RBI Group in Russia is represented by Raiffeisenbank, as well as leasing, insurance and management companies. The company's subdivisions employ over 9,000 people.

Reckitt Benckiser, a British company that produces, among other things, Durex condoms, decided not to leave the Russian market, Baza Telegram channel said with a reference to an anonymous source. The UK-based company does not intend to either wrap up its business or transfer it to anyone. Former CEO Laxman Narasimhan, who left the company in September 2022, earlier spoke about Reckitt Benckiser's pullout from the Russian against the background of the crisis in Ukraine. Reckitt Benckiser manufactures and distributes a variety of products in more than 200 countries of the world. It is widely known for such brands as Vanish and Cilit Bang cleaning products, Nurofen pain reliever, Strepsils cough drops and Durex condoms.

Former McDonald's restaurants in Kazakhstan have changed signs yet again. "We're Open" signs have been replaced with new "I am…" signs that contain proper names (in Kazakh language). For example, the signs of a restaurant in the city of Alma-Ata says "I am Madiyar." Other restaurants were called "I am Daniyar," I am Yulia," "I am Aray," I am Alexander," etc. Food Solutions KZ restaurant management company confirmed that the signs of former McDonald's restaurants were changed in six cities.

IKEA extended the right to its trademark in Russia until August 2033. The IKEA trademark package included: the yellow-blue logo, a full list of company services and the right to officially sell its products in Russia. The headquarters of the corporation in the Netherlands submitted an application to Rospatent on August 1, 2023. The application was approved on February 2.

The Russian authorities lifted temporary state management from the assets of French food giant Danone in Russia. The decision was made for reasons of expediency, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. On March 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to cancel the nationalisation of Danone's business and its transfer to Russia's Federal Property Management Agency. According to Peskov, all factors and conditions need to be weighed accordingly in every situation like this. Therefore, it does not mean that the Russian leadership will make similar decisions in relation to other foreign companies.

Gold prices rose to a record high on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) on April 1, RBC reports with reference to data from the trading platform. June contracts for the supply of gold rose in price by 2.14 percent, to $2,286 per ounce. The price neared the level of $2,300 and reached a new all-time high. Gold is rising in price amid expectations for the US Federal Reserve to cut the rate in June, Warren Patterson, head of commodity strategy at ING Groep NV said.

Belarus suddenly banned the sale of Russian-made tea. According to the Ministry of Health of Belarus, the reason for this decision was a violation of requirements for microbiological indicators of product safety. Sanitary services of Belarus found traces of fungus in several types of tea produced by Orimi LLC, a Russian legal entity. Belarus banned all brands of tea produced by this company, their import into Belarus was restricted as well. The list of prohibited products includes such tea brands as: Greenfield, TESS, Princess Nuri, Princess Java, as well as some types of Jardin and Jockey coffee. Orimi LLC is taking necessary measures to prove the stability of production processes and effectiveness of the safety control system, the Belarusian Ministry of Health added. Restrictions on the sale of products may be lifted as soon as the company meets all relevant requirements of the Health Ministry of Belarus.

The Italian Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador to Rome Alexei Paramonov after President Vladimir Putin transferred the Russian subsidiary of Italian equipment manufacturer Ariston to Gazprom. The decision was made in accordance with last year's decree, according to which the assets of foreign companies in Russia can be transferred to temporary administration. Italy called the transfer unexpected and demanded clarification from the Russian diplomat. On April 26, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the transfer of Russian subsidiaries of Ariston and BSH Hausgerate (structures of Ariston Thermo Rus and BSH Household Appliances) to temporary administration of JSC Gazprom Household Systems. One hundred percent of shares in the authorised capital of both companies were transferred to  Gazprom temporarily.

Vladislav Bakalchuk, co-founder of one of Russia's largest marketplace platform Wildberries, announced an attempted gangster-style takeover of the company. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov posted a video of his conversation with Bakalchuk on his Telegram channel. Bakalchuk said that in early July, Russ Outdoor company, headed by Levon and Robert Mirzoyan, tried to take over the assets of Wildberries by means of legal schemes. According to the co-founder, they deceived his wife, Tatyana Bakalchuk, after which she left home without an opportunity to see her husband to discuss what was happening. The marketplace merged with Russ Outdoor Company in June; the shares of both companies in the business were approximately equal.

Nornickel's plans to move copper plant production to China have raised questions both in the government and among experts. In April, Nornickel (Norilsk Nickel) announced plans to "create a joint venture with international partners and transfer part of the copper plant's capacities from Norilsk to China." The copper plant will continue to operate "modern copper concentrate preparation facilities and industrial 3D printers." "We are transferring our environmental problems, settlement problems, problems of market access and customization of our goods for the consumer market to where they can be solved most effectively — to China," Vladimir Potanin, co-owner of PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel said in an interview with Interfax.

Omni-ID, the developer of passive industrial radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, used by major global organisations for monitoring the location and identity of assets, has appointed Amir Mobayen as Chief Revenue Officer.