August 30, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The Ukrainian military were taught a course on civil-military cooperation according to NATO standards in Poland.

South Korea will provide 520 billion won ($394 million) in financial aid to Ukraine next year, eight times more than this year. According to the country's budget for 2024, the aid package includes 130 billion won for recovery, 260 billion won for humanitarian aid and another 130 billion won through international organizations.

The Government of South Korea has chosen K-water (the government agency for water development in South Korea) as the executor of the project “Creating a Master Plan for the Smart City of Uman, Ukraine”, which will be implemented within the K-City Network program.

In response to another repression against Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged russia to halt its persecution of Crimean Tatars, put an end to its occupation of Ukraine, and release all political prisoners being held there.

Ukraine and Poland have signed a new agreement on the development of railway communication.

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office is investigating the entrepreneur, thanks to whom German electronics could end up in russian “orlan” drones.

The Federal Ministry of the Interior of the FRG has stated about russia's constant attempts to spread disinformation on social networks.

Authorities of Sweden have said the country remains a target for foreign, targeted information influence campaigns, from russia and Iraq included.

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“...Conviction in absentia to three judges is another escalation by the kremlin regime”, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis commented on the moscow court's decision to arrest in absentia three Lithuanian judges who announced verdicts in the case regarding the events of January 1991 in Vilnius.

The anti-terrorist headquarters of the Czech Republic is investigating Raiffeisen Bank because of its activities in russia.

The city authorities of Helsinki (Finland) may confiscate the 15,500-spectator Helsinki arena owned by putin's oligarchs timchenko and rotenberg.

Crypto giant Binance is considering a complete exit from the once important russian market, which today has turned into a “headache”. At the same time, crypto exchange OKX has banned transactions on its p2p platform using the russian ruble.

russian experts warn that in the coming months, consumer loan rates may increase by another 6-7 % and come close to 30 % against the background of the central bank of russia’s raising the key rate to 12 %.

The central bank of the rf on its website put in the first place the rate of the Chinese yuan instead of the US dollar.

The ministry of justice of the rf has developed a bylaw that will allow conducting unscheduled inspections not only of those recognized as “foreign agents”, but also of any other persons in any way connected with them. The explanatory note to the draft states that unscheduled inspections of persons associated with foreign agents will be carried out if “by their actions (inaction) they contributed to the violation by foreign agents of the rf legislation on foreign agents”.

The ministry of industry and trade of the rf proposes to allow storage in russian seaports of explosive fertilizers – ammonia, methanol, ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate.

russian authorities are discussing the possibility of allocating more than 650 billion rubles ($6.8 billion) from the putin-led national welfare fund for projects in the aviation industry. At this, most of this amount, about 410 billion rubles, can be allocated to the long-term (until 2030) program of updating the fleet of planes and helicopters of the FSBU “special flight unit “russia”, which serves putin and other russian high-ranking officials.

The revenue of the timber holding segezha group (controlled by afk “sistema”pao) in the second quarter decreased by 24 % to 21.1 billion rubles, while the net loss compared to January-March increased by 3 %, to 3.9 billion rubles. A year earlier, in the second quarter, the company received 19.8 billion rubles net profit.

Since the beginning of this year, the amount of government contracts in “r-farm” in russia has decreased by almost half, in “farmstandart” – by 36 %. At the same time, the entire segment of public procurement of medicines in the country decreased by 18%.

In the rf, the demand for the purchase of premises for catering establishments decreased by 22% over the year. Property owners refer restaurateurs to the group of “risky tenants”.

Producers of russian shawarma have warned about its rise in price by 10-15 % in September.

Turkey offers russians non-alcoholic all inclusive tours on vacation. russian tour operators in response call this offer a “niche option” and do not expect much demand.

aleksandr volfovich, the state secretary of the security council of belarus, reproached neighboring countries for not inviting belarusian military servicemen to observe the exercises. “Exercises are taking place in the adjacent territory. Recently, there has not even been an attempt to invite the belarusian side for observation”, volfovich said.

Even before the start of russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western countries “increased military, political and economic pressure on minsk, sponsored competitions, trained militants”, said aleksei shevtsov, the secretary of the rf’s 's security council. They wanted to turn Belarus into “second Ukraine, another anti-russia”. It is no coincidence that in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries, the figure of Kastus Kalinowski, an active participant in the Polish uprising of the 1860s, is now being intensively promoted.

The ministry of finance of belarus has reported that minsk has made another payment of interest income on Belarus-2030 Eurobonds. The total amount is $ 18.6 million in equivalent – the money was paid in belarusian rubles. Since last year, the belarusian government has been paying some external debts in belarusian rubles, explaining this by sanctions. Since changing the currency of payments violates loan agreements, international rating agencies recorded a default on such payments.

The ministry of taxes and duties of belarus has sent a request to banks to provide information on belarusians’ payments in foreign online stores. Presumably, this is done in order to find out who and when paid from belarus to abroad for goods, as well as to impose VAT on such purchases.

deputy minister of education of belarus aleksandr kadlubay has said that there is no need to immerse oneself in the culture and history of native speakers when learning a foreign language at school. One should know one’s own culture and history in a foreign language, there is nothing wrong with that, on the contrary, it is useful. In belarus, there are more and more  cases when in some belarusian schools British flags are asked to be removed from foreign language classrooms.