The fresh OPEC+ deal struck between Russia and Saudi Arabia over the weekend will provide little support to the Russian economy, analysts believe. Instead, the deal — labeled “historic” by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) secretary general Mohammad Barkindo — will help avoid a further crash in oil prices which would have heaped even more pressure onto the Russian ruble and complicated the Kremlin’s economic response to the coronavirus pandemic. Markets were largely unmoved...

On a freezing Sunday in Moscow in March, Maria Mukhina received a phone call. The 27-year-old had recently returned from London with what she thought was a winter cold, traveling through Germany and Finland in a rush to get home before Russia sealed its borders to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Arriving at Terminal F of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport — the hub for all incoming flights from virus hotspots — she had her temperature checked, was swabbed and gave her details to testers in...

Last week, Alla Komissarova sent a letter to her landlords, asking them to show a little flexibility towards the rent due for her two Moscow chocolate workshops over the next few months. Hand-made cakes and artisanal confectionery are not top of many Muscovites’ shopping lists as consumers start to worry about the looming economic hit from the coronavirus pandemic, and income at one of her shops has fallen below 3,000 rubles ($38) a day. “At most, that’s the salary of one clerk,” Komissarova...

Since the coronavirus outbreak was officially declared a pandemic, and as Russia walked away from the OPEC+ deal, sending energy and financial markets into a tailspin, two questions have dominated analysis about the state of the Russian — and global — economy. How well prepared are we, and how bad will the damage be? As far as Russia goes, a tentative consensus has emerged on the country’s readiness for the onslaught that sees it as better shielded from a bout of global turmoil and low energy...

Yekaterina Shergova is scared. Her sick children’s charity Podari Zhizn — Russian for Gift of Life — has already seen donations drop since the start of the coronavirus outbreak and she fears she will have to turn down requests for medical support, care and drugs for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Shergova, 45, understands why people might not have spare cash to donate at a time of job losses, wage cuts and mass uncertainty about the future. But without funds, she...