Vladimir Putin cruises to Russian election win

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Good morning. We kick off the week with information about Vladimir Putin’s victory in Russia’s presidential election. Early outcomes from yesterday confirmed the Russian president on monitor to be re-elected with a majority of the vote and a considerably excessive voter turnout, in line with the Russian electoral fee.

The end result — which included totals from 5 Ukrainian areas occupied by Russia — was a foregone conclusion after the Kremlin outlawed all criticism of Putin or the warfare and blocked any opposition candidates from operating.

Showing desperate to ship a message to the west, Putin exuded confidence that Russia would win the warfare in Ukraine and mentioned the excessive turnout confirmed that he loved overwhelming public help to wage it.

The primary challenges of his subsequent six-year time period, Putin mentioned, have been “reaching the targets of the particular operation [in Ukraine] and strengthening our defence capability and armed forces”. Learn the complete story.

Right here’s what else I’m protecting tabs on in the present day:

• Financial knowledge: The EU releases closing February inflation knowledge, whereas Rightmove publishes its month-to-month UK home value index.

• Democracy summit: South Korea hosts the third iteration of the occasion, which runs till Wednesday, with attendees together with US state secretary Antony Blinken.

• Autonomy trial: Mike Lynch, as soon as one of many UK’s most profitable tech entrepreneurs, is set to go on trial over what US prosecutors have known as “the most important fraud within the historical past” of Silicon Valley.

The FT and its analysis accomplice Statista are launching a challenge to determine the most effective firms to work for around the globe. Nominate a “Finest Employer” within the Asia-Pacific area with this straightforward on-line kind (two minutes to finish). There’s extra info right here.

5 extra high tales

1. Unique: The UK consulting market will fail to develop this yr for the primary time since 2020 as fears over the resilience of the financial system, an upcoming election and geopolitical tensions immediate companies to spend much less on company recommendation. The retail, telecoms, pharmaceutical and manufacturing sectors are anticipated to chop spending on consultancies, placing stress on an nearly £16bn market that boomed within the two years after the pandemic.

2. Non-public fairness is accelerating its pursuit of consultancies, expertise companies and accounting corporations because it targets skilled partnerships in one of many buyout business’s final unconquered territories. Grant Thornton and Baker Tilly have agreed to promote majority stakes to non-public fairness prior to now six weeks, and bankers and executives count on extra offers to come back.

3. European banks should brace for rising insolvencies, better geopolitical dangers and upheaval in energy-intensive industries, the eurozone’s new chief banking supervisor has warned. Claudia Buch, who grew to become chair of the European Central Financial institution’s supervisory arm in January, mentioned a rise within the benchmark rate of interest to a document excessive of 4 per cent “nonetheless has to filter its means via the monetary system”. Learn extra from her interview with the Monetary Instances.

• Suspended accounts scheme: Banks are clashing with the UK authorities over plans that will permit banks to switch trapped funds to the federal government to finance its efforts to crack down on financial crime.

4. Unique: The US Federal Reserve will likely be pressured to carry rates of interest at a excessive stage for longer than markets and central bankers anticipate, in line with tutorial economists surveyed by the FT. The FT-Chicago Sales space ballot suggests the Fed will make as much as two cuts this yr, with the primary happening between July and September. Learn extra from the survey.

5. Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at sharp criticism from western allies of Israel’s technique in Gaza, accusing them of searching for to orchestrate elections that will “paralyse” the nation and result in its defeat within the warfare in opposition to Hamas. The Israeli prime minister yesterday vowed to withstand intensifying stress to delay an offensive into the town of Rafah on the southern fringe of the Gaza Strip.

• Netanyahu’s American disaster: At a time when the nation wants US help essentially the most, Israel’s brazen chief has chosen to antagonise the White Home, probably placing that support in danger.

Be a part of the FT’s editor Roula Khalaf and colleagues on March 21 for a subscriber webinar on the Israel-Hamas warfare, fears of a wider battle and the possibility of a long-term settlement. Register now and put your inquiries to the panel.

The Huge Learn

Hindu litigants are mounting courtroom challenges to permit them to worship at websites the place India’s Muslim dynasties razed temples and constructed mosques. However for lots of the nation’s roughly 200mn Muslims, the wrangling over shared spiritual areas is an intrusion on their rights by a authorities they see as selling Hinduism above different religions. How the dispute performs out will form spiritual discourse, social equanimity and the path of secular democracy on the earth’s most populous nation.

We’re additionally studying . . .

• UBS-Credit score Suisse anniversary: A yr on from UBS’s rescue of Credit score Suisse, the merger’s success is changing into more and more dependent on the efficiency of the Swiss financial institution’s wealth enterprise.

• UK financial reform: The larger the challenges the UK faces in restoring its fortunes, the extra timid its politicians appear to turn into, writes Martin Wolf, as he attracts classes from a cross-country examine of profitable transformation.

• ‘Loud quitting’: Movies of younger staff resigning or being made redundant are going viral on social media websites corresponding to TikTok as they wage a marketing campaign for office transparency.

Chart of the day

Oceans have marked 365 straight days of record-breaking world sea floor temperatures, fuelling considerations that local weather change may push marine ecosystems past a tipping level. Amplified by the cyclical El Niño climate phenomenon that warms the Pacific Ocean, this distinctive warmth has bleak implications.

Take a break from the information

The primary ships of Chinese language immigrants arrived in what’s now Vancouver in 1858, on the heels of British Columbia’s gold rush. Now, the Canadian metropolis’s Chinatown is a flourishing vacation spot to find out about Chinese language heritage and tradition. FT Globetrotter goes for a deep — and scrumptious — dive into the previous and current of a storied neighbourhood.

Further contributions from Benjamin Wilhelm