April 16, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The leader of the majority in the US Senate “Democrat” Chuck Schumer has said that a consensus has been reached on aid to Ukraine and Israel, so Congress should act quickly to send aid to both countries in a timely manner. US President Joe Biden has called on Congress to urgently pass a bill on additional funding for Ukraine and Israel. At the same time, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby has reported that the House of Representatives has enough votes to pass a bill on additional aid to our country.

91 US congressmen – “Republicans” and “Democrats” – have signed a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Mike Johnson, calling for a vote on a package of additional funding for US national security priorities, including aid to Ukraine.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has appealed to the US Congress to vote for aid to Ukraine, so as not to harm the entire NATO. “Ukraine deserves the support of all the free countries of the world”, von der Leyen emphasized.

“The USA’s support for Ukraine is absolutely necessary”, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala said on the eve of his visit to the United States.

As part of the work of the international Drone Coalition, Canada will begin the transfer of 450 SkyRanger multi-purpose UAVs to Ukraine in the summer, Lithuania will allocate EUR 3 million for the production of FPV drones for our country, the Netherlands has confirmed its intention to contract a batch of Heidrun RQ-35 drones for EUR 200 million in cooperation with Denmark and Germany, Germany will transfer VECTOR 211 reconnaissance drones to Ukraine.

The Netherlands allocates an additional EUR 4.4 billion for military and humanitarian support to Ukraine in the period 2024-2026.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Espen Barth Eide has announced that the Fighter Jets Coalition will transfer to Ukraine a “significant number” of F-16s equipped with the latest weapons.

Portugal will soon hand over 6 Ka-32 helicopters to Ukraine, Minister of National Defense of Portugal Portugal will soon hand over six Ka-32 helicopters to Ukraine, Minister of National Defense of Portugal Helena Carreiras said.

Ukraine will receive a total of 5 anti-mine ships from NATO, in particular, 3 ships are being prepared for transfer from the Netherlands and Belgium, the crews of 2 more ships – “Chernigiv” and “Cherkasy”, which the Navy of our country received from the United Kingdom, have already undergone training.

“...We must do our best for Ukraine to be able to return all the territories that were taken from it”, said President of Poland Andrzej Duda.

rf

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has reiterated that during her meetings with representatives of the Chinese authorities, she made it clear that the United States will not tolerate violations of US sanctions by Chinese banks or firms that help the rf in its war against Ukraine.

In Lithuania, 70% of the population consider russia a threat to the country's national security.

Defense Minister of Bulgaria Atanas Zapryanov has announced that his country has created a working group that will deal with security in the Black Sea region.

“Europe is now experiencing a double attack: from the outside and from the inside”, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen pointed out that in parallel with putin's war of aggression in Ukraine, the anti-European activities of his left and right extremist political “friends” are growing in the EU.

Serbia has decided to buy 12 French Rafale multi-purpose fighters instead of russian MiGs. The Balkan country has also purchased French radar and missile systems and placed an order for Airbus transport aircrafts.

The London Metal Exchange has canceled warrants for russian nickel, aluminum and copper produced after April 13, 2024.

After the ban on trading in russian non-ferrous metals on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the London Metal Exchange (LME) on April 15, the shares of “nornikel” fell by 2% to 160.96 rubles per share, of “rusal” – by 2.18%, to 41.33 rubles, of “rusolovo” – by 3%, to 1.2 rubles.

The New Immo Holding company, which together with Auchan Retail is part of the ELO Group (formerly Auchan Holding), has sold its russian business – 19 shopping centers in different cities of the rf.

In January-February, the exports of goods from russia decreased by 7.6%, to $58.5 billion, imports – by 4%, to $41.6 billion, – the federal customs service of the rf has reported (the data take into account the statistical value of declared goods). Exports to European countries halved to $9 billion, imports from Europe and America decreased by more than 18%.

Mineral products exports from russia in January-February amounted to $36.6 billion (minus 10.7%), exports of metals and metal products – to $7.5 billion (minus 10.4%), and of agricultural products – to $6.3 billion (minus 19%). Imports of chemical products amounted to $8 billion (minus 16.8%), of food and agricultural raw materials – to $5.4 billion (minus 10.4%).

In 2023, investments in the venture capital market in russia amounted to $118 million, which was a seven-year low, and more than ten times lower than in 2022.

Investments in the production and sale of cars, legal and accounting services, and the timber industry also declined in russia. The largest decline in investment was in vologda, pskov, murmansk, kaluga, orel, and lipetsk regions.

Due to the inability to sell its products, yakutia’s largest coal mining company, “kolmar”, shut down two enrichment factories on March 12, and another one was reduced to 50% of its capacity (“kolmar” employs almost 6,700 russians).

In the first quarter of 2024, the number of insolvent russians increased by 18.2% to 89.8 thousand (a total of 1.19 million russians have gone bankrupt since October 2015). In 96.7% of cases, they file for bankruptcy themselves.

During the entire period of simplified out-of-court bankruptcy from September 2020 to March 2024, 42,102 procedures were initiated for a total amount of debts of 17.26 billion rubles. A total of 21,267 people completed simplified bankruptcy.

Due to the decline in solvency, russians are increasingly taking out mini-hull insurance policies for cars that cover only part of the damage caused (the average price of full hull insurance is 51.7 thousand rubles, while mini-hull insurance is 13 thousand rubles). According to rosgosstrakh, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the number of reduced hull insurance contracts concluded increased by more than 21% compared to the first quarter. In 2023, the number of such mini-policies in the vsk insurance house increased by almost 60%, exceeding 277 thousand, “renessans strakhovanie” – doubled to about 40 thousand, “sovcombank strakhovanie”– by 15%.

Less than 10% of children's goods are produced in russia, and the market's needs are compensated by supplies from China and “parallel imports” from other countries.

The medicine Bravecto (for diseases transmitted by ticks and fleas) has disappeared from russian veterinary pharmacies. Representatives of rosselkhoznadzor confirmed that Bravecto has not been imported into the rf since 2022.

In the rf, raids were conducted in a number of cities of sverdlovsk region to identify persons who received citizenship of the rf, but did not register for military service. Similar raids were carried out in yekaterinburg, nizhny tagil, pervouralsk, bogdanovych, sukhaya loza in places of mass concentration of labor migrants – in food markets, wholesale vegetable stores, hostels, etc.

About 80 percent of employers cannot find professionals in the russian labor market, according to data from the “rabota.ru” research.

Chicken eggs had been the most affordable product in the rf until 2023, last year they increased in price more than one and a half times, to 150 rubles for  ten eggs.

Abnormal floods in the regions of russia may lead to a sharp increase in the price of construction materials and services already in the coming months.

According to the all-russian center for the study of public opinion, every fifth russian citizen lives in a state of stress.

Commenting on inflation data in the rb for March (5.6%), the Eurasian Development Bank stated that administrative regulation of prices continues to deter their growth in the country, but inflationary pressure will increase in the near future.

minister of industry of the rb rogozhnik has stated that the export of belarusian tractors to the rf has fallen significantly due to Chinese manufacturers, who last year alone imported more than 12 thousand units of their products to the rf. The Chinese are belarusians’ competitors in the russian  market for refrigerators and freezers as well.

“maz” in the first quarter reduced sales of trucks and buses to russia, during this period 504 new trucks of the belarusian plant were sold, which is by 11.4% fewer than a year ago. All in all, during the first quarter, the “maz”’ sale fell by 4.6% to 1,354 vehicles.

According to experts, lukashenko's idea to resolve the problem of the lack of workers in the rb by involving pensioners will not give the desired results. At the end of last year, about two million belarusians received old-age pensions. Almost 400,000 pensioners, i.e. a fifth of the total number, continue to work. And the rest, for a number of objective reasons, could not be lured back to work by any special invitations.

The operational-analytical center under the president of the rb decided to cancel the record of registration of the domain name reform.by. A popular Internet site with this name is included in the republican list of extremist information products.

At an operational meeting, representatives of the grodno police department threatened employees of the “grodno azot” enterprise with responsibility for subscribing to “extremist” resources and stated that they have “sets of tools and technologies capable of accurately establishing the time of the last activity and the identity of the profile owner”.

The judge of the minsk city court found the policeman's testimony about the minsk resident who “disruptively waved his hands” in leninskyi district police to be sufficient, and sentenced the man to 12 days of arrest. Previously, neither the courts of the first nor of the second instance considered any objective evidence of the defendant's guilt, simply because there was no guilt.