April 15, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda has called on the EU to impose a full embargo on russia and sanctions against all russian banks. He stated this during a visit to Kyiv on April 13. “We stand for Ukraine. The complete embargo on natural gas and oil, sanctions against all, I repeat: all russian banks must be imposed now. We can't wait a year or two. Ukrainians suffer and die every day – children, women, the elderly. We must stop funding putin's war”, he said.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis and Finance Minister Skaiste called on their G7 counterparts to suspend russia's and belarus' membership in the IMF and World Bank indefinitely.

The USA’s Administration does not intend to return to russian businessmen their assets arrested due to sanctions. This was announced on April 14 by US President's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. “Our goal is not to return them. Our goal is to make better use of them…”, Sullivan said during a speech at the Economic Club.

Ireland has supported the inclusion of an embargo on oil purchases in russia in the sixth package of the European Union’s sanctions. In addition, the country has abandoned the principle of neutrality in russia's war against Ukraine and will allocate 33 million euros in military assistance to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was announced on April 14 by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence of Ireland Simon Coveney at a joint briefing with Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba. Koveney was the first foreign minister to visit Kyiv. According to the Minister, his country also continues to provide assistance to refugees from Ukraine – there are about 23 thousand of them in Ireland. At this, Koveney stressed that Ireland supports Ukraine's early accession to the EU.

Ukraine has signed a loan agreement with the Government of Canada to provide Ukraine with 500 million Canadian dollars on concessional terms. Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said it was a timely contribution to maintaining financial stability. The money will be used to finance the state's priority expenditures. The loan repayment period is10 years.

Due to the war in Ukraine, the Bologna Process Support Group decided to suspend russia’s and belarus’ right to be represented in the Bologna Process, as well as in working groups, all structures and the work program of the European Higher Education Area. The statement was signed by 39 government members, six advisory members of the Bologna Process and representatives of the European Register for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

Australia’s government has imposed economic sanctions on 14 russian companies, enterprises and organizations over russia's aggression against Ukraine. In particular, the list includes “gazprom”, “gazprom neft”, “transneft”, “kamaz”, “alrosa”, “roselectronics”, “rostelecom”, “rusgidro”, “sevmash”, “sovkomflot”, “sogaz”, “novorossiysk sea trading port, joint shipbuilding corporation, russian railways.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions against the partners of russian billionaire Abramovich - CEO of millhouse capital UK Ltd. tenenbaum and managing director of millhouse davidovich.

In a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced the French Embassy’s returning to Kyiv very soon. According to Kuleba, France supports the oil embargo against russia.

The Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has announced the suspension of russia's participation in the Organization.

The Baltic branch of the Swedish bank Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken has stopped servicing payments with russia and belarus in all currencies.

Google has suspended payments from russia. One cannot pay with any type of russian card. The subscription with mobile payments has also been canceled.

The developer of the most popular computer fonts Times New Roman and Arial has stopped working with russian companies. “Given the sanctions and the international attitude to russia, we cannot maintain any business relations with russian companies or their subsidiaries”, the organization said in a statement.

Adobe software developer has also stopped working with russia. Because of this, russian users cannot buy not only PhotoShop, but also other products, including Lightroom and Illustrator. At the same time, access to the services of Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud is closed for russian state media.

The Federal Office of the German Criminal Police (BKA, German counterpart of the FBI) ​​has identified the owner of the superyacht Dilbar. This is the sister of russian oligarch alisher usmanov - gulbahor ismailova. The agency says the yacht is subject to European sanctions. Investigators say the ship may now be legally left in Hamburg as subject to EU sanctions against russia. The cost of the Dilbar yacht is estimated at $ 600 million. It is the largest motor yacht in terms of displacement, its crew consists of 96 people and the length of the vessel is about 156 meters.

Australia Post has joined a number of countries that have stopped postal exchange with russia. “This means that the occupiers have lost another market where they could buy imports and sell their own goods. Besides, the termination of cooperation will affect the profitability of russia's national postal operator”, the statement says.

The Finnish company Huhtamaki, which is one of the world leaders in the production of disposable tableware and packaging, has stopped all operations in russia.

The Moldovan Parliament has imposed fines for demonstrating georgian ribbon.

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the russian stock market closed down 4.89% on April 14. According to the latest reports, the ruble is depreciating against the dollar and the euro, and bidders are working on the option of further easing currency restrictions in russia. The bank of russia is studying the possibility of easing the requirements for the sale of currency by exporters, who are now required to sell 80% of revenue.

The loss of half of the capital of the russian banking sector today is a very likely scenario, said the first deputy chairman of the bank of russia tulin during a speech in the state duma. At the same time, zubarev, deputy chairman of the bank of russia, said that restricting the import of foreign software licenses and IT equipment is a major cyber threat to the country's financial sector.

The increase in retail lending in russia in March was only 0.1% against the background of tough policies of banks and high interest rates, said the central bank of russia. They acknowledged that the debt burden of households in early 2022 reached a maximum value for the entire period of observation –10.6% (defined as the amount of mandatory payments on loans as a percentage of disposable income). It was also stated that foreign currency funds of individuals in banks in March decreased by $ 9.8 billion.

Shares of russia's largest gold producer, petropavlovsk, fell by 5 percent due to debt service and sales problems after gazprombank was added to the UK’s sanctions list. Against this background, petropavlovsk announced that it is considering selling assets in russia.

murtazin, a leading analyst at the mobile research group, believes that Apple's equipment may become useless in russia. “They want to de facto disconnect us from the ability to pay for Apple's phone and other equipment”, murtazin said.

Sanctions against russia have affected the timing of the implementation of “rostekh”'s aviation projects, and full import substitution will require additional time, said the head of the state corporation “rostekh” chemezov. According to him, production of the import-substituted version of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft will begin in 2024. Serial production of MS-21 aircrafts is also delayed for 1-2 years.

The 25th World Energy Congress, scheduled to take place in st. petersburg in October 2022, has been canceled, the World Energy Council said. The official website of the forum in st. petersburg is closed.

The yalta international economic forum has been postponed to the fourth quarter of 2022.

president of the russian academy of sciences sergeyev has said that most Western Academies of Sciences “have frozen” contacts with russia. Also, after the imposition of sanctions against russia, there are difficulties in contacts with scientists from China.

In –russia, prices for plastic products and polymer building materials increased by 10% in March, and in some segments – up to 50%, despite the freezing of the cost of basic polymers. The largest growth is demonstrated in the category of polymer pipes, complex construction and insulation materials. This trend is influenced by rising prices of imported equipment and components, rising bank rates and currency fluctuations. Due to this, suppliers demand foreign currency prepayment.

Employees of the pavlovsk bus plant will be transferred to part-time work due to problems with the supply of imported components.

The russian ministry of internal affairs has said that since the beginning of the russian invasion of Ukraine, 2,172 reports of terrorist attacks have been recorded in russia, the number of such reports has tripled compared to the average.

The organizers of the BraVo International Music Prize have announced the cancellation of the awards ceremony, which was planned at the bolshoi theater in moscow. “The ceremony on April 24, 2022 has been canceled”, reads the award's official website.