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

Japan will contribute $37 million to the NATO trust fund for UAV detection systems in Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine and Japan agreed to actively work with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to support the Peace Formula.

As part of a new military aid package, Germany has handed over to Ukraine more than 160 Vector reconnaissance UAVs and spare parts for them, as well as more than 240 vehicles.

Prime Minister of Bavaria, head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Markus Söder has said that Germany should supply long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. At the same time, former German President Joachim Gauck criticized the cautious position of the current German government regarding the supply of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

The Parliament of Sweden has called for state guarantees for the Swedish defense industry to increase direct production of ammunition for Ukraine, said Magdalena Andersson, a member of the Riksdag and leader of the Social Democratic Labour Party.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said that 2024 is a “key year for democracy”, as elections to the European Parliament will be held against the background of serious challenges facing the continent, first of all due to russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

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The United Kingdom plans to invest more than $380 million to launch its own production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for nuclear reactors to reduce dependence on russia.

Head of the Norwegian Counterintelligence (PST) Atle Tangen has said that among the migrants who arrived from russia to Norway through the Storskog border checkpoint in 2015, there were people who received tasks from foreign secret services.

One of the main topics of russian media publications in 2023 was the catastrophic shortage of workers in all sectors of the economy, which arose due to the forced mobilization of the population for the war against Ukraine, involvement of so-called “volunteers” in the army, and the able-bodied people’s leaving the country.

The reliability of the all-russian census of the population in 2021 raises certain doubts among experts: according to the demographer of the higher school of economics evgeny andreev, information about at least every sixth resident of russia was taken from administrative sources, which led to large discrepancies in the results of the census and current estimates of the population in all sex and age groups.

Due to the weakening of the ruble and the decrease in the number of wealthy population of the rf, russians bought real estate in other countries by 45% less in 2023 compared to 2022; the top five priority countries are the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Cyprus and Spain. 75% of all real estate transactions were carried out in order to obtain migration status, that is, individuals acquired housing to obtain a permanent residence permit or second citizenship.

Real estate sales to russians in Greece and Italy have decreased by more than 20%, in Spain and Montenegro – by 40% due to the local realtors’ reluctance to cooperate with russians.

According to the ministry of internal affairs of the rf, in January-November 2023, 1.8 million crimes were committed in russia, of which 36.6 thousand were committed by foreign citizens. As of December last year, there were almost 10 million migrant workers in russia.

There has been no heating in cities near moscow for the third day.

The situation with freedom of religion in belarus is regressing, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a statement. “Instead of repealing an overly restrictive law on religion passed more than two decades ago that does not meet international human rights standards, belarusian officials have adopted with doubled zeal an even more repressive law on religion that gives the authorities unlimited control over religious communities and their affairs”, said Head of the Commission Abraham Cooper.