April 8, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

International partners of Ukraine have allocated more than 700 million dollars for humanitarian demining. These funds are intended for humanitarian demining projects in Ukraine for 2022–2027.

Canada's Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland has said that her country has increased the support to Ukraine against the background of delays in approving aid to our country by the US Congress.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg believes that “true peace” will come when “Ukraine wins”. “... It is Ukraine that must decide what compromises it is ready to make, we must give it the opportunity to be in a position where it really achieves an acceptable result at the negotiating table”, said Stoltenberg.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg believes that by July, when the Alliance's summit is held in Washington, the allies will have agreed to establish a new multi-year fund to assist Ukraine.

Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz has promised that his country will not stop its efforts to support Ukraine in the war against russian aggressors. “The war in Ukraine will end when putin decides to withdraw his troops. However, he will make this decision only when he realizes that he cannot win the war on the battlefield”, said the head of the German government.

In the coming days, Ukraine will coordinate with Switzerland the date of the first inaugural Peace Summit.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has promised to “fight back” the far-right “putin’s friends” who want to “steal the future of Europe”.

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Italy has suspended the issuance of investor visas to russians and belarusians with dual citizenship, the country's Ministry of Economic Development reported.

Voter support in Germany for the far-right party Alternative for Germany has decreased due to the alleged connections of its MPs with a pro-russian network of influence that has been exposed in Europe.

At a tripartite meeting of the delegations of the Parliaments of Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and representatives of farmers of these countries, a declaration was agreed, the aim of which is to ban the import of russian and belarusian food products into these countries and transit through their territory.

The court of the Center sector in Chisinau (Moldova) recognized the black-yellow-white tricolor – the flag of imperial russia – as extremist. The court made the relevant decision after considering the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Information and Security Service of the country.

Following the Armenian payment system ArCa and the Kyrgyz Elkart, the belarusian belkart and the Tajik Korti Milli may refuse to work with the russian “mir” card due to fearing secondary sanctions.

“yakutia” airline company complained about the lack of spare parts for aircrafts. Due to this, the term of scheduled repairs has increased several times. While in the past the parts reached yakutsk within one to three days, now the process takes three months.

Residents of kaliningrad complain that they are stuck in the city by the prices for air tickets. Until 2017, flights to and from kaliningrad were subsidized for all citizens of the rf. The “pobeda”’s discount ticket to moscow cost 3.5 thousand rubles one way, to st. petersburg – 3.8 thousand rubles. In March 2024, the program was closed, leaving benefits only for pensioners, young people under 23, the disabled and those with many children. Now tickets already cost from 6-8 thousand one way. At the end of April they reach 12 thousand, and on May 1 – 15 thousand rubles. Residents of moscow will also feel trapped at home: a direct flight to Tbilisi at the end of April will cost at least 25,000 rubles one way, without luggage; to Yerevan – from 14,000, to Istanbul – 20,000, while to Sochi – from 11,000.

The russian association of air transport operators has complained to the authorities about the unreasonable tripling of tariffs at russian airports. In response, it received a formal answer that “regulated fees are calculated using the method of economically justified costs, and the minimum tariff should guarantee coverage of the costs of the aviation industry”.

On April 6, the russian airline “rusline” canceled 10 flights because of technical problems of the planes.

rosstat adjusted its estimates, reporting that in 2023 the share of the oil and gas sector in the GDP of the rf decreased from 18% in 2022 to 16.5%. The share of the total national gross profit decreased from 53.8% to 51.8%.

head of the central bank of russia elvira nabiullina has said that the second quarter of 2024 will be the time of the peak of inflation in annual terms.

According to primorskstat, the consumer price index in the primorsky krai increased by 100.3% compared to the previous month. Especially noticeable is the increase in prices for cucumbers (+8%), frozen berries and grapes (+5%), fruit juices (+6%), salted herring fillets (+5%), mineral and drinking water (+4), drinking cream and natural honey (+3%), semolina and ketchup (+2%).

Due to the inability to once again control the prices of eggs, the federal antimonopoly service of the rf began to check russian retailers for possible anti-competitive agreements.

The rf has agreed to a ban on the export of sugar until August 31. The customs subcommittee of the ministry of agriculture is afraid of repeating the high-profile story with egg prices, when the cost of socially significant food products will have to be significantly increased.

In February, the population of the rf transferred 156.3 billion rubles to accounts in foreign banks – the largest amount of money since December 2022. Another 18.4 billion rubles was transferred to non-resident brokers, the highest since February 2023. The total amount transferred by russians to foreign banks is 7.14 trillion rubles, and this is much more than what remained in foreign currency accounts in russian banks (4.08 trillion rubles) or funds in escrow accounts (5.5 trillion rubles) and can be compared with the money in pension funds and insurance companies (7.2 trillion ).

China is not interested in building car factories in russia, said president of “avtovaz” sokolov; according to him, Chinese automakers are carrying out “aggressive” price expansion on the russian market, which lost other suppliers after the start of the rf’s war against Ukraine and introduction of international sanctions.

In March, the price of flats in new buildings in omsk and krasnodar increased by 2.2% to 136.2 thousand rubles and 176.5 thousand rubles per sq. m., respectively, in chelyabinsk – by 2.9%, to 109.3 thousand rubles per sq. m., in krasnoyarsk – by 3.1%, to 126 thousand rubles. per sq. m., in moscow – by 1.5% (by 9% within a year), to 350,000 rubles per sq. m. In general, the purchasing power of russians decreased by 12% in March.

The maternity ward of the central hospital in krasnokamsk of prikamye was closed due to a drop in the birth rate that has been going on for 10 years.

Propagandist of the rf gasparian openly stated in the talk show “solovyev live” that the launch of one missile can be compared in cost with the construction of a school, and he is extremely proud of this fact.

Too fast music has been banned in chechnya. According to the new rules, all musical, vocal and choreographic works must correspond to a tempo of 80 to 116 beats per minute, said minister of culture of chechnya dadayev.

The national research university of the rf has reported that 15-20% of teachers have lost their desire to work in russian schools, almost 30% have to combine teaching with work in the tutoring segment due to low salaries.

According to the results of the latest survey by the “obshchestvennoye mnenie” (“public opinion”- Transl.) fund, 44% of russians said they worried about the situation in the rf.

For the first time, Crimea, temporarily occupied by the rf, did not enter russians’ top ten vacation destinations during the May holidays.

This year, production capacity utilization at belarusian enterprises is 68-69 percent. According to independent economic experts, given the shortage of labor, increased competition in russia (the main market for belarusian goods), and difficulties in supplying components and equipment, the rb’s economy has very little room for growth.

Medical facilities of the rb are in dire need of general practitioners, laboratory diagnostics, radiologists, pediatricians, children's otolaryngologists and traumatologists, said igor yurkevich, chairman of the health care committee of the minsk executive committee. In general, minsk needs 2,300 medical professionals with secondary medical education and 1,300 with higher education.

The rb is among the top 10 countries with the highest divorce rate in the world. The rf is among the top 5, rb is the 6th, with the rate of 3.7 divorces per one thousand people. Vodka drinking, unemployment, poverty, family violence and lack of housing due to urbanization were named as the main reasons for the marriages falling apart in the country.

In rahachov district of the rb, a detachment of “people's militia” has been formed, which includes military pensioners, veterans of the war in Afghanistan, and former militiamen. As part of the exercises, the unit “occupied” the local polyclinic, and the regional TV channel explained that the unit would “maintain order”. In total, about 200 people were drafted into the formation of the territorial defense, all of whom had to pass a check for political reliability.

The extraordinary congress of the republican association “white russia” ended with a concert with the participation of the military choir, which sang the hit “Our father is cool, he is one of the kind in the world”. The audience listened to this composition standing.