December 3, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“Ukraine can rely on Germany. We say what we do. And we do what we say”, said Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz. The Chancellor also promised by the end of the year, to have transferred to Ukraine a EUR 650 million military aid package, part of a larger, EUR 1.4 billion package promised in October. The tranche includes IRIS-T air defense systems, Leopard 1 tanks, attack drones, and winter gear.

EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas has said that the EU’s support for Ukraine is not a charity, but an investment in own security.

“This month the European Union will provide Ukraine with additional EUR 4.2 billion to support the Ukrainian budget. In addition to this, starting next month, we will be providing EUR 1.5 billion of assistance every month for another year. These funds come from the use of frozen russian assets, and they can also be used for military purposes”, said President of the European Council António Costa. Mr. Costa is also convinced that only Ukraine can define what a “just peace” is in the russian-Ukrainian war.

President of the European Council António Costa believes that Ukraine, after joining the EU, can have a positive impact on overcoming vulnerabilities in the EU's competitiveness.

On January 1, 2025, Ukraine will become a full member of the Assembly of Member- States of the International Criminal Court.

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Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Margus Tsahkna believes that it is time for the international community to fully recognize the seriousness of the deepening alliance between the rf and the dprk, which strengthens both of them and makes them increasingly dangerous for the United States, Europe and the Indo-Pacific region.

The Austrian oil and gas corporation OMV’s victory in the international arbitration against the russian gazprom may become a precedent in a number of similar cases. Many buyers, from Italy's Eni to Germany's RWE, want compensation from gazprom. Decisions on some of the cases are expected in the coming months and will have a significant impact on gazprom's financial position.

According to first deputy chairman of the board of sberbank tsarev, the bank of russia expects to raise its key policy rate by another 1-2% in December, to 22-23%.

sberbank has also acknowledged an increase in the share of overdue loans in its retail portfolio.

In January-September 2024, “bashneft” oao earned by 49.8% less profit than in the same period of 2023.

The rf’s ministry of finance is obliged to coordinate decisions on the sale of foreign currency or gold from the national welfare fund with prime minister or the head of his or her staff.

As a result of the abolition of mass affordable mortgages and the decline in the purchasing power of russians, the number of transactions involving the purchase of flats in new buildings will decline by 19-35% in 2025. In terms of money, sales could fall to 5.3 trillion rubles, compared to 7.5 trillion rubles in 2023. At the same time, construction costs will rise sharply.

It is premature to talk about new measures to support mortgages until inflation falls, said deputy minister of construction of the rf stasishin.

russian construction companies may face the risk of bankruptcy in 2025 due to the central bank’s high key rate and the decline in sales of new flats.

In order to maintain the stable operation of the industry, which has been significantly affected by the sanctions, russian companies need to transfer more than 800 business processes to domestic software. At the same time, russian software is simply not available to solve 412 tasks, and in other cases, the existing programs cannot fully replace Western software and require significant improvements.

Prices for new cars in the rf will rise by 5-15% by the end of the year due to the fall of the ruble against the dollar, euro and yuan.

russian railway wagons manufacturing plants have accumulated more than 2,500 railway wagons that cannot be shipped to customers. They are forced to be disassembled again, as at “altaivagon”, or simply stored in several tiers, as at “kanashsky vagonostroitelnyi zavod”, where more than 430 railway wagons are stored.

transbaikalia governor osipov has confirmed the insulin shortage for 400,000 patients. In 2023, russian authorities reduced federal spending on the purchase of medicines from other countries by 65 billion rubles, redirecting them to the needs of the war against Ukraine. In 2024, 78.5% of doctors complained about the shortage of medicines in the rf.

Due to more than 50 violations, the russian city of novosibirsk, where the air temperature is already -10 degrees Celsius, has not been issued a passport of readiness for the heating season, which in russian cities had to start not later than November 15.

Since 2010, in the rf, more than a thousand criminal cases have been opened and more than 35,000 administrative protocols have been drawn up for publications on social networks – posts, pictures, comments and reposts.

russian travelers are being massively denied entry to Mexico because of suspicions that they intend to illegally emigrate to the United States.

The Riga City Council has approved by a majority vote the dismantling of a statue of russian commander mikhail barclay de tolly in the park in the city center.

Poland has imposed sanctions on a belarusian exporter of nitrogen fertilizer. The intermediary firm NFT LLC had been helping “grodno-azot” circumvent the West’s sanctions imposed three years ago. NFT LLC had been supplying carbamide from “grodno-azot” to the EU.

In 2024, several well-known mobile developers (Playtika, Belka Games, Apalo) decided to close their companies and leave the rb. On November 14, the most popular belarusian game publisher (about 4 billion downloads), SayGames, completed the process of liquidating its legal entity.

The rb will retain state control over alcohol and tobacco, said self-proclaimed president lukashenko.

The rb will penalize all taxi drivers who operate without being included in the register of road carriers. They will be detected with the help of dispatchers. The transport inspection of the rb threatens to block “yandex go”.

According to the state vacancy database, as of December 1, employers needed about 130 part-time workers, who would be paid up to 100 rubles a month.

The rb’s security forces continue to raid citizens – they have searched the house of the 85-year-old grandmother of former Belsat TV journalist Sergei Skulovets, against whom a criminal case has been opened.