Gambling was legalised in Ukraine after a 10-year ban shortly before the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and has been a profitable avenue for Russians who want to make money in the country and collect the personal data of Ukrainian gamblers.
Ukraine's gambling regulator started revoking licences last September, and this spring Volodymyr Zelenskiy sanctioned more than 400 individuals and legal entities related to Russian gambling businesses, including five Ukrainian firms. Banks and other financial institutions suspected to have been aiding the laundering of gambling profits on behalf of Russian oligarchs have also been a focus.
But the exploitation of the sector remains a threat to which the authorities say they are determined to respond, despite concerns that even the supervising bodies have fallen foul of Russian influence.
Denne historien er fra November 03, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra November 03, 2023-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Finn family murals
The optimism that runs through Finnish artist Tove Jansson's Moomin stories also appears in her public works, now on show in a Helsinki exhibition
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Oulu is five hours north from Helsinki by train and a good deal colder and darker each winter than the Finnish capital. From November to March its 220,000 residents are lucky to see daylight for a couple of hours a day and temperatures can reach the minus 30s. However, this is not the reason I sense a darkening of the Finnish dream that brought me here six years ago.
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I see you
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Rumbled How Ali ran rings around apartheid, 50 years ago
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Trudeau faces 'iceberg revolt'as calls grow for PM to quit
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Lost Maya city revealed through laser mapping
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'A civil war' Gangs step up assault on capital
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Reality bites in the Himalayan 'kingdom of happiness'
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