The two countries’ ostentatious alliance has been hollowing out for years, and the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to bring this process to completion. Still, beyond this celebration of brotherhood and solidarity, other less obvious developments bode ill for the Russian presence in Serbia. In the April parliamentary elections, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, pro-Russian with minor reservations, received 44 percent of the vote, while political movements with even stronger pro-Russian agendas gained an aggregate of 25 percent, leaving little hope for politicians who want to bring Serbia closer to the EU’s policies toward Moscow. Leading Serbian media uncritically reproduce Moscow’s version of the events Gazprom still controls local oil giant NIS and Belgrade refuses point-blank to join the EU sanctions against Russia. According to polls, only 26 percent of Serbs blame Moscow for the invasion, while the majority view the West and Ukraine as the real culprits. The war in Ukraine has made Russia’s seemingly omnipresent influence in Serbia even more conspicuous. But is Russia able to deliver on its promises? When neighboring Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Montenegro closed their airspace to Lavrov’s plane, making the visit impossible, the Russian leadership minced no words in expressing its outrage and called for redoubling efforts to preserve the country’s “eternal friendship” with Serbia. On June 6–7, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was scheduled to visit Belgrade-just days ahead and in clear defiance of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s June 10 trip to Serbia. On May 29, the presidents of the two countries spoke on the phone and reached a gas agreement that secured Serbia another three years of Russian gas at a price several times lower than the current one in the EU.

IBIT comes with a rather steep expense ratio of 4.70%, which includes 95 basis points for annual fund operating expenses, and lists on the Nasdaq stock market.The events of the past few days have shown that Russia remains determined to preserve its special relationship with Serbia despite its confrontation with Europe over the war in Ukraine. dollars that mature in 2032, BSJU holds junk bonds maturing in 2030.įinally, Defiance ETFs launched the Defiance Daily Short Digitizing the Economy ETF (IBIT) which will look to provide investors with the inverse returns of the $544 million Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF (BLOK) via swap agreements and short sales on the reference ETF. While BCSW holds investment-grade corporate bonds denominated in U.S. The Invesco BulletShares 2032 Corporate Bond ETF (BCSW) and Invesco BulletShares 2030 High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (BSJU) list on the Nasdaq stock market and come with expense ratios of 0.10% and 0.42%, respectively. Invesco also added to its lineup of target maturity bond ETFs that invest in bonds maturing in a designated year. The firm thinks such companies should exhibit sustainable growth and compound earnings over the coming five years and beyond. stocks that are deemed to be “compounders” by C WorldWide Asset Management, which serves as the fund’s subadvisor. The actively managed ETF targets non-U.S.

Among the rollouts that took place was the Harbor International Compounders ETF (OSEA), which launched on the NYSE Arca and has an expense ratio of 0.55%.

Defiance actions