April 12, 2023 Ukraine and the World - Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Denmark intends to provide Ukraine with CAESAR self-propelled howitzers next month and expects to start sending Leopard 1 tanks by the summer.

Minister of Defence of Denmark Troels Lund Poulsen did not rule out that the West's decision on possible transferring combat aircrafts to Ukraine will be made “before the summer”.

It is in Poland's interest to build an alliance with the Americans and Western Europe to help Ukraine, – Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said before his visit to the United States.

Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki has assured that the construction of weapons depots for NATO military equipment will continue in the country.

The United States calls on allies to strenthen financial pressure on russia and increase assistance to Ukraine.

Toughening the existing sanctions against russia may be more effective than introducing new ones, said Under Secretary for International Affairs of the US Department of the Treasury Jay Shambaugh.

The US Department of State has recognized as “illegally detained” WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in russia on espionage charges. This status is equated with a “hostage” and expands the powers of the State Department.

At the April 12 meeting of G7 Ministers of Finance in Washington, D.C., chaired by Japan, participants will discuss the global economy and financial markets, as well as strengthening supply chains and russia's war against Ukraine. During the meeting, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki will present and explain to his G7 colleagues the model of Japan's financial support for Ukraine. This is due to the fact that the government of the country introduces legislative changes necessary to provide loans and other support measures to a country at war.

Spain has initiated a campaign in which it offers European countries to accept children from Ukraine for the summer holidays.

Ukraine intends to export more electricity to Europe than last year.

During the full-scale war, Ukraine received more than 2900 power generators through USAID.

Over the year, Moldova reduced exports to russia by a third.

The Constitutional Court of Moldova has declared constitutional the ban on the use of symbols of military aggression, in particular the St. George ribbon, if they are used to justify or glorify military aggression or war crimes.

Austria’s Federal Minister for the EU and Constitution Karoline Edtstadler has confirmed that putin will be arrested if he visits the country. At the same time, Edtstadler assured that her country will continue to provide humanitarian and economic support to Ukraine.

Deputy Mayor of the Austrian city of Schwechat David Stockinger, resigned because of his own photo in the uniform of the NKVD during a trip to belarus.

russian-speaking Latvians consider the orientation of the country's foreign policy to the West more desirable than to the East.

In Estonia, the new coalition is going to deprive russian and belarusian citizens of the right to vote in municipal elections, if this does not involve amending the Constitution.

In Finland, the number of real estate buyers from the rf has halved this year.

On April 24 and 25, the EU summit on international sanctions against russia and the consequences of circumventing them will be held in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.

rf

The Commissioner for Human Rights in the rf, tatyana moskalkova, has been expelled from the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions (ENNHRI). This is the first time in the history of the Association that one of the members has been expelled.

The imposed by the USA 200 % duty on imports of russian aluminum, as well as on any aluminum products, regardless of the country of its production, containing even a minimum share of russian metal, significantly disrupts the plans of russian producers for their further development. At the same time, stagnation of production will threaten enterprises of China and the UAE, which buy primary aluminum from russia and manufacture wires, cables, rods, pipes, foil, aluminum packaging and other products, without marking the origin of the raw material of the final product.

Belgium received income of € 625 million for taxation of interests on the frozen russian assets.

The Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda is preparing for sale its plant in the rf, which will deprive the russian population of many innovative medicines.

Representatives of the ministry of justice of the rf were not granted visas to participate in the session of the UN Special Committee, which will be held in Vienna.

As of March 1, Finland had frozen almost €207 million in russian assets.

The new rules for receiving summons to come to military comissariats apply not only to conscripts, but also to all those liable for military service, – said chairman of the state duma committee on defense kartapolov. MPs approved amendments to the law, which equated electronic summons of military registration and enlistment offices to paper ones. Evaders from military service were forbidden to leave the rf, drive a vehicle, enter into real estate transactions, register a business, take loans, etc. At the same time, putin's herald peskov continues to reassure the population that “there is no second wave of mobilization in russia”.

kostin, president and ceo of vtb, proposed “to increase the national debt so that the economy receives an additional 70 trillion rubles”.

In order to support the aviation industry, the central bank of the rf has proposed that russian airlines should give up the service of providing passengers with insurance when purchasing tickets.

The state duma wants to allow the issuance of new bank cards not tied to the russian payment system to allow the population to buy foreign goods.

Despite putin's appeals, the central bank of the rf has officially recognized the impossibility to completely give up the US dollar and euro in russia's foreign trade.

sberbank of the rf has never considered the temporarily occupied Crimea to be a territory for future investment, but to reassure putin, promised to possibly open the first branches by the end of the year.

The governor of belgorod region gladkov has said that several municipalities of the region began to put up memos on the evacuation of the population, but “they did it wrong and caused particular concern” among residents.

The anti-terrorist committee of the rf has stated that the partisan movement and protest moods of people are spreading in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, so “special attention should be paid to the opposition of young people”.

On April 10, a systemic failure occurred in the russian information customs system, due to which the rf suffered enormous losses. Customs did not work for a day, after which it managed to partially resume its activities.

In 2022, only 35.3% of the country's population underwent medical examination in russia, while the ministry of health care promised that 53.5% – 80 million people would check their health condition.

The prosecutor general's office has banned the activities of the German non-governmental organization EU – russia civil society Forum because of “its work, in particular, to discredit the leadership of the rf”.

belarusian enterprises supplied cheese products to russia with a gross violation of manufacturing technology. According to rosselkhoznadzor, in semi-hard smoked cheese of ojsc “turov dairy plant” 26.3% of milk fat was replaced by beef one, in soft cream cheese beef fat falsified 29.1% of milk fat. In semi-hard cheese of the ojsc “babushkina krinka” cheese production firm, 30% of milk fat is replaced by beef one. At the same time, the products were accompanied by declarations of conformity and veterinary accompanying documents issued by the competent authority of belarus. rosselkhoznadzor demanded to stop the certification of products of these enterprises and to investigate into the causes of the incident.

In January–February, exports to the cis countries of products of belarusian enterprises increased by 91 %, while imports from them fell by 16.3 %. The picture from other countries is reversed: exports sank by 15.9%, and imports increased by 41.7%. During the sanctions, russia has increased its weight in belarusian foreign trade by 11 percentage points, while minsk in foreign trade of the rf – by only 4.

By the decision of the courts of the leninsky district of brest and baranovichi, the republican list of extremist materials was replenished with three resources of the belarusian diaspora living in Norway, Austria and Poland.

At a meeting with the heads of higher education institutions, aleksandr volfovich, the chief of the kgb of belarus, said that he considers it appropriate to return to the practice of conscripting students into the army.