January 12, 2025 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

“I know that there are a significant number of Democrats and Republicans on the [Capitol] Hill who think we should continue to support Ukraine”, US President Joe Biden commented on the USA’s continued support for Ukraine.

The USA has announced a one-and-a-half year extension of temporary protection for refugees from Ukraine.

Ukraine and Italy are studying the possibility of using the proceeds from the rf’s frozen assets to purchase Italian-made air defense systems and ammunition.

On January 14, the European Commission will start consultations with EU member states on the 16th package of anti-russian sanctions.

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The Government of the United Kingdom following the USA, has imposed sanctions on the russian oil market.

“putin is in tough shape right now, and I think it’s really important that he does not have any breathing room to continue to do the awful things he continues to do”, US President Joe Biden commented on the introduction of large-scale sanctions against russian oil by the United States and the United Kingdom.

“We think this should increase the pressure (on russia) and contribute to the already bleak economic outlook for 2025 and beyond for putin and his wartime economy”, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby believes that the new anti-russian sanctions will put significant pressure on the rf’s economy.

Given the new US sanctions against russia’s oil sector, “gazprom neft” has 45 days to withdraw from the Serbian oil company NIS.

“By maliciously using a fleet of rusty tankers, putin not only circumvents sanctions but is also content with halting tourism in the Baltic Sea, whether in the Baltics, Poland, or here in Germany”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of the FRG Annalena Baerbock about russia's use of a “shadow fleet” to transport oil.

For safety reasons, the German Central Maritime Rescue Service will tow eastward the Eventin tanker of the russian “shadow fleet” with almost 100,000 tons of oil, which is drifting off the German island of Rügen due to problems with electricity on board.

russia has failed putin's plan to transport goods across the Arctic Ocean. Cargo transportation via the Northern Sea Route in 2024 amounted to 37.9 million tons. In 2018, putin signed a decree that provided for an increase in the NSR cargo flow to 80 million tons by 2024.

russian firefighters have been extinguishing the fire at the oil depot in engels, saratov region, for four days in a row.

Overdue credit card debt among russians increased by 2.3% to RUB 491 billion in November. During the month, the number of credit cards overdue for more than 90 days increased from 7.5 to 7.65 million, which is 8% of all cards held by pussians (96 million at the end of November). And the amount of overdue payments is the highest in recent years.

The profitability of bank deposits of russians in terms of the dollar rate fell by half. In 2024, the dollar rate rose from 90 rubles to 100 rubles, and the return on deposits at 18-20%, calculated at the exchange rate, more than halved. Among the reasons – in russia, as before, there remains a high level of dependence on imports, especially in equipment, components and spare parts. The second factor of jumps in the ruble exchange rate is currency speculation by banks based on the system of determining exchange rates introduced by the central bank - they are fixed based on the results of interbank trades. Unless the central bank changes the monetary policy and regulation of the foreign exchange market, exchange rate fluctuations will continue.

Pro-kremlin media outlets have lost up to a third of their audience, while channel one dropped to fifth place in the TV ratings for the first time in its history. Among the most “affected” was putin's favorite tabloid, “komsomolskaya pravda”, which saw its average daily traffic drop from 6.5 million to 4.3 million over the year. “moskovsky komsomolets” has lost 22% of its readers, gazeta.ru - 14%, “ria novosti” and lenta.ru - 12% and 11% respectively. All this – despite the huge flows of money to support state media.

In 2024, russia’s courts imposed 81 administrative fines on journalists and readers of media outlets declared “undesirable” organizations by the rf’s authorities. For the most part, the courts imposed fines on journalists or experts who were involved in the creation of the materials in one way or another. Some of the fines were imposed on readers who shared materials from “undesirable” media outlets on social media.

metropolitan yevgeny of yekaterinburg and verkhoturye has proposed to introduce a new practice of interaction between the russian orthodox church and the media. At a meeting with media executives from sverdlovsk region, he announced that a clergyman would be assigned to each media outlet in the region. yevgeny pointed out that a similar initiative has already been successfully implemented in universities, where, according to him, it has brought “bright and mutually satisfying results”. The journalists supported the idea unanimously.

A new fuel oil spill from the “volgoneft-239” tanker that crashed in December has occurred in the Black Sea. The oil spill covers 2,800 square meters.

The trial of a 53-year-old citizen of the rb suspected of spying for belarusian special services from 2018 to February 2023 begins in the Lublin District Court.

In 2021-2024, 15 thousand specialists left the belarusian IT market altogether.

The rb’s authorities have legalized another form of pressure on disloyal citizens. The government has issued a new decree, according to which children will be recognized as being in a socially dangerous situation if one of their parents has been punished for political reasons.

On January 1, a law on employment came into force in the rb, which obliges employers to first post vacancies in the national job bank on gsz.gov.by, and then on other platforms. The publication must be accompanied by a hyperlink to the original publication. Violators face a fine of 5 to 15 basic units (210-630 rubles).