April 1, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen does not rule out the possibility of sending foreign troops to Ukraine in the future.

The government of Sweden allocates about SEK 40 million (3.7 million US dollars) for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Head of MBDA's German subsidery Thomas Gottschild has said that the German industry is capable of restarting the production of Taurus cruise missiles, which the authorities had previously stopped ordering.

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In Austria, Egisto Ott, an ex-employee of the now disbanded Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism has been detained on suspicion of espionage for the rf.

The American computer and equipment manufacturer Hewlett-Packard has completely withdrawn from the russian market and closed its russian website. In February 2022, the HP company stopped the supply of equipment to the rf, in November 2023 it began the liquidation of its russian “daughter”, it planned to completely end operations in the rf in May 2024, but did so ahead of schedule.

Fearing secondary sanctions, the banks of the United Arab Emirates First Abu Dhabi Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD continue to systematically block the accounts of companies related to trade in russian goods. russians complain about increased control over their business, the forced closure of more than 10,000 accounts over the past three months, which pushes them to return to the rf.

In russia, the average cost of renting one-room apartments in 16 cities with population above one million, in moscow and leningrad regions in March alone rose by 2.7% (to 27.4 thousand rubles), of two-room apartments – by 2.3% (to 40.5 thousand rubles). At the same time, prices rose by 5.6% in voronezh, by 5.2% in novosibirsk, by 4.5% in tyumen, and by 4.7% in yekaterinburg.

Since the beginning of russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, rosstat has recorded an increase in the number of russians with a diagnosis of “alcohol addiction” – 54,200 such patients have been identified, of whom 12,900 have alcoholic psychosis. minister of healthcare of the rf murashko has stated that every fourth patient undergoing inpatient treatment has problems with drinking alcohol.

According to the audit and consulting network finexpertiza, in 2023, sales of strong alcoholic beverages in russia increased to 7.2 liters per person and reached a maximum in the last seven years. At the same time, the director of the center for federal and regional alcohol market studies vadim drobiz called on russian producers to “make vodka for beggars – social vodka, mass vodka, call it as you like – at a price of 100 rubles”.

In the rf, the number of complaints regarding the delay in monetary payments to wounded occupiers, the disabled, as well as those whom putin has awarded with state awards is increasing, – said prosecutor general krasnov.

putin has issued a decree on the conscription of 147,000 people aged 18 to 30 from April 1 to July 15.

According to official data, up to 400,000 people are in russian prisons, which is about half as many as 10 years ago.

“I want to tell the russian and belarusian athletes that they are not welcome in Paris, and to tell the Ukrainian athletes and the entire Ukrainian people that we support them very actively and very strongly”, said Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.

According to russian investors, the rf defaulted on five bond issues. The initiative group owns the securities of these issues in the total amount of 178 million dollars, and their total nominal value is about 3.25 billion dollars. The investors have reported that they are considering the possibility of applying to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) with a claim to recover bond payments from the rf.

According to the national bank’s statistics, the indebtedness of belarusians to banks for loans for March increased by 282.2 million rubles – to 20 billion 979.2 million. As of March 1, the total amount of the population’s loans for consumer needs amounted to 7 billion 186.2 million rubles. This is by 144.2 million rubles more than a month earlier. Debts for real estate loans at the beginning of last month amounted to 13 billion 744.4 million rubles. According to the forecast of some belarusian banks, the national currency in 2024 may weaken to 10% to the current values.

From March 31, new utilization fee rates for some types of cars began to work in the rb. Instead of three age categories, two have been introduced. For legal entities, rates have increased several times. There are no rates for cars made in the rb, as they are already included in the price of the car.