April 17, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“:..We will be among those who help and mobilize others to help Ukraine. Denmark and Poland rule out any other scenarios, except for the one in which Ukraine preserves its territorial integrity and independence”, said Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk after a meeting with Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen.

Ukraine and Norway have completed negotiations on a bilateral security agreement and will sign it at the next meeting of the countries’ leaders.

The European Commission has supported the plan of reform proposed by the government of Ukraine – Ukraine Plan – within the framework of the Ukraine Facility mechanism, which determines the conditions for receiving EUR 50 billion of macro-financial assistance from the EU during 2024-2027.

At the EU Council of Ministers on April 22, Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Ministers of Defence will discuss ways to speed up military aid to Ukraine.

During this week's IMF and World Bank talks in Washington, participants will discuss ways to use “immobilized russian sovereign assets to support Ukraine's resistance and long-term reconstruction”.

The King Salman (Saudi Arabia) Relief and Humanitarian Aid Center has donated $10 million to the UN World Food Program to support Ukrainians affected by the war.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council, representatives of the EU, the USA and Ukraine laid the responsibility for the incidents at the Zaporizhzhia NPP on the rf, which temporarily occupied the nuclear facility.

rf

The Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Legal Issues and Human Rights has called on PACE not to recognize the legitimacy of putin.

Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk has promised to support Denmark's efforts to stop the movement of the rf’s “shadow fleet” in the Baltic Sea, which illegally transports russian oil.

The Ministry of Defense of Latvia intends to allocate up to EUR 10 million to support the plan to strengthen the borders with the rf and the rb.

The Seimas of Lithuania has supported the proposal to exclude companies related to the rf from the process of public procurement.

Sanctions on russian aluminum introduced by the USA and the United Kingdom may reduce “rusal”'s exports by 1.5 million tons (almost a third of total exports) to the level of the year 2008.

The commission of the state council on energy of the rf has stated that the coal industry of the rf is on the verge of a severe crisis, which will lead to losses of 450 billion rubles by the end of the year, which is twice the amount that the coal companies earned in 2020 and 2021. According to preliminary estimates, in the first quarter of 2024, the losses of the industry will amount to 40–50 billion rubles (in the fourth quarter of 2023, losses amounted to 13 billion rubles).

The cost of kuzbass coal has increased by 30% over the increase in the cost of imported equipment, railway tariffs, the cost of renting wagons, transshipment in ports, freight and insurance of sea vessels, the cost of credit interest due to the increase in the key rate of the central bank of the rf and China’s introduction of customs duties on russian coal. The situation was aggravated by the introduction of an export duty by the rf government.

According to the forecast, in 2024, the total profitability of the russian crop industry will be 20-25% – the minimum since 2019. Before the rf’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, profitability in crop production was growing: in 2019 it was 21.5%, in 2020 – 37.1%, in 2021 – 52.1%. From 2022, the situation began to deteriorate, in that year the profitability decreased to 37.9%, in 2023 – to 26%.

In the conditions of the russian crisis, agricultural producers have to spend more on upgrading their equipment: the breakdown of relations with foreign suppliers has reoriented them to the purchase of russian products, the prices of which are constantly increasing. Farmers are also forced to increase domestic costs for agricultural cultivation technologies due to international sanctions and to work in conditions of shortage of more than 200,000 workers.

According to the information of the company “solar” (the structure of “rostelecom”), in the first quarter of 2024, the number of cyber attacks on the russian public sector, financial market and IT doubled to 119 thousand. The strongest DDoS attack lasted 11 days, its maximum capacity reached 724 Gbit/s. russian energy companies suffered more than 2.5 thousand DDoS attacks – three times more than in the fourth quarter of 2023. Due to the growth of cyber attacks, russian banks have increased their information security spending by 60% in 2023.

In 2023, there were 21 aviation accidents in russia, including 11 disasters in which 20 people died.

After last autumn the authorities of the rb obliged state structures to purchase at least 90% of belarusian-made cement, russian companies lost the opportunity to participate in state procurement on an equal footing with belarusian ones.

The price of low inflation for the rf, which the authorities are trying to tame, may be full-fledged stagflation, when increased salaries will go on the purchase of mainly imported goods, since the expansion of domestic supply will be slowed down, and the state will put business even more on the needle of public money – public procurement and loans.

The government commission on legislative activity has supported the draft law, which allows clinics to disclose, at the request of the police, information about patients that constitutes a medical secret. This includes, in particular, people who suffer from alcoholism, drug addiction, mental disorders and are under administrative supervision.

The cost of issuing a military ticket on the black market in moscow has increased to EUR 10,000 or 1 million russian rubles. Compared to last year, the cost has doubled.

The United States Department of the Treasury has included the rb’s six state-owned enterprises, one legal entity, and five individuals “involved in facilitating deals for a major belarusian defense sector company listed in the US sanctions list”. Five organizations and five individuals “participating in the global arms network and doing business with a belarusian defense company included in the US sanctions list” have also been sanctioned.

Canada has imposed sanctions on 21 citizens of the rb, who are involved in repression after the 2020 presidential elections. They are individuals “were involved or participated in arbitrary arrests and detentions, brutality, intimidation and excessive use of force against belarusians who protested against falsified elections, as well as ill-treatment of them after conviction on false charges, sentence and imprisonment”. The sanctions lists include former and current heads of correctional colonies, employees of the ministry of internal affairs, prosecutors, and judges.

prime minister of the rb golovchenko has stated that the qualitative characteristics of investments from the rf in the republic “leave much to be desired”. According to him, the share of participation of russian investors in the capital is 2% of the total volume of direct receipts from the country.

At his meeting with prime minister of the rf mishustin, golovchenko was outraged by the predominance of Chinese-made equipment in the russian market. He stated that according to the results of last year, the share of Chinese machinery in the russian truck market, compared to 2022, increased from 29.5% to 58.8%, in the segment of wheeled agricultural tractors with a capacity of 150-250 horsepower – from 46% to 58%, and in the market of road construction equipment this indicator has exceeded 70%.

The amount of cash in circulation in the belarusian economy has exceeded 10 billion rubles. At the same time, the inflow of money to the population and businesses continues. According to banking analysts, these factors may have a negative impact on the foreign exchange market, as well as affect the overall stability of the country's banking sector. Preservation of such a deviation for a long time, as shown by practice, inevitably leads to the accumulation of macroeconomic imbalances.

The state telecommunications operator beltelecom is raising prices for telephone, Internet and television services. The main reason is prevention of unprofitable provision of services.

The kgb of the rb decided to recognize the belarusian medical solidarity fund (created in 2020 to help doctors who suffered from repressions) as an “extremist organization”.