December 6, 2024 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“We've now managed, on the basis of the frozen sovereign (russian) assets, to get $50 billion to Ukraine that will be going out the door in the coming weeks. Both from the United States and Europe, and that will carry Ukraine for some time into next year”, said US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.

Ukraine has signed an agreement with the EU on the launch of the Ukraine Loan Cooperation Mechanism, which will allow the use of proceeds from frozen assets of the rf to cover the loans in the amount of up to EUR 45 billion received from partners under the G7 initiative.

The Board of Directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved investments in Ukraine worth more than EUR 1.3 billion, including eight projects to support the public and private sectors.

The Netherlands will provide Ukraine with additional EUR 22 million for cyber resilience and air defense systems.

Ukraine and Norway have agreed to intensify cooperation in the production of certain weapons.

“If we want peace in Ukraine, there is no other way. We will have to provide security guarantees, and from our point of view, there is no better, cheaper way to provide security guarantees than actual NATO Article 5 security guarantees”, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis has called on NATO countries to provide Ukraine with everything it needs, stressing that military support is the key to success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.

President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola believes that the EU should not get tired of supporting Ukraine, as protecting our country is also protecting European security.

“One thing is clear to us: russia is the biggest threat to our security, and it will remain so for the foreseeable future”, said Minister of Defence of Germany Boris Pistorius.

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The US Department of State has announced visa sanctions against five individuals associated with forced deportation, displacement, and imprisonment of Ukrainian children. These are officials of the rf and of the so-called “governments” created by russia.

The United States has imposed new sanctions against five individuals and four legal entities aimed at dismantling the illegal financial network TGR Group, which helped the so-called russian elite circumvent restrictions with the help of digital assets.

Authorities of Malta have cancelled the visa of the official representative of the russian foreign ministry maria zakharova on the eve of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is taking place in Valletta on December 5-6.

In Finland, the Public Prosecutor asks the Helsinki District Court to sentence russian neo-Nazi and one of the leaders of the “rusich” terrorist group, voislav torden (aka jan petrovsky), to life imprisonment.

The State Security Service of Latvia has appealed to the Prosecutor's Office to initiate criminal proceedings against a Latvian citizen who fought against Ukraine on the side of the rf.

In the week from November 26 to December 2, the consumer price index in the rf increased by 0.5%, and annual inflation accelerated to 9.07, the highest since February 2023. The weekly inflationary surge was one of the strongest in the last two years: prices rose more only in the first week of July (by 0.77%), when the authorities sharply indexed tariffs. Monthly inflation in November was 1.5% compared to October, the highest for this month in the last 10 years. In terms of annualized rates, this translates into an inflation rate of 14.5%.

russia’s state-owned vtb bank, which is under Western sanctions and is cut off from the SWIFT system, is closing its only subsidiary in Africa.

putin has declared russia the world leader in attractiveness for investors after the $1 trillion capital outflow over 25 years.

russia's international reserves decreased by over $18 billion in November and by $100 million in the first week of December.

Tax authorities of the rf charged citizens and businesses two and a half times more penalties and fines for 10 months of this year than for the same period in 2023 – 783 billion rubles.

russian authorities have reduced 1.5 times the plan to produce engines for SSJ-100, MS-21 and Tu-214 aircrafts – instead of 192 power units, aircraft manufacturers will receive only 128 in the next two years.

In the first six months of 2024, russia recorded significantly more cases of the use of a dangerous additive in food products – microbial transglutaminase, an enzyme banned in the food industry that causes intestinal problems, suppresses immunity, and provokes Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, the enzyme reduces the cost of production of sausages, frankfurters and other meat products, improves their saleable condition and increases their weight.

russia's largest grocery chains, x5 group (pyaterochka, perekrestok), auchan and magnit, have started to hire schoolchildren on a massive scale amid a labor market shortage.

Due to the inaccessibility of mortgages in the capital, prices for land plots around moscow rose by 15% last year, and by 25% or more – in 2024.

roskomnadzor has banned and restricted access to popular anime libraries such as Jut.su, AnimeGO, Yummy Anime, Kara.su, and Animedia.

yelena yampolskaya, chairperson of the state duma committee on culture, has proposed to regulate the publication and distribution of books in russia. In fact, to introduce censorship in this sphere.

In January-October, the rb’s foreign trade turnover amounted to $71 billion 605.5 million. Exports grew by 5.4% compared to the same period last year, to $34 billion 15.4 million, while imports increased by 7.1% over the same time, to almost $37.6 billion. The difference is $3 billion 574.7 million in favor of imports. A month earlier, the difference was $2 billion 426.2 million in favor of foreign goods.

The rb has banned the import of dried tench produced by “rio fish” from astrakhan because “the fish cannot be identified as the product it is claimed to be”: the mass fraction of moisture in the dried product was 34.8%, while the norm is no more than 20%.

While prices for most goods and services (sanatorium treatment included) are being raised for the population of the rb, the republican center for health improvement and sanatorium treatment of the population of the rb has reported a record number of tourists from russia.

Independent journalists and linguists have chosen “incommunicado” as the main belarusian word of 2024. It means complete isolation and lack of communication with the outside world. Nowadays, it is often used to describe the conditions of detention of belarusian political prisoners.