July 16, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

russian dictator putin has challenged the stability of the whole world, the war against Ukraine should be his strategic defeat – the USA will help Ukraine and its people in resisting the rf’s aggression. This was stated by US President Joe Biden.

The House of Representatives of the US Congress passed (329 votes “for” and 101 “against”) the bill on the US defense budget for the fiscal year 2023 in the amount of 839 billion US dollars. According to the bill, 1 billion US dollars will be allocated within the framework of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI).

The bill passed by the House of Representatives directs the Pentagon to establish a joint program with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which will relate to assistance with the treatment and rehabilitation – physical and mental – of Ukrainian military personnel. The program also includes the training of military medics. Among the approved amendments there was the provision to allocate 100 million US dollars for the training of military pilots of Ukraine on American F-15 and F-16 aircrafts.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Annalena Baerbock rules out easing sanctions against russia. According to her, this would not ensure the supply of gas from russia but at the same time would make Germany “doubly blackmailable”.

Germany is allocating an additional 2.4 billion euros this year to help Ukrainian refugees. Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Hubertus Heil has said that about 800,000 people from Ukraine, 30% of whom are under 14 years of age, have already found asylum in Germany. About 360,000 Ukrainians are registered in the social security system, of which 260,000 are looking for a job.

russia's impunity for war crimes committed in Ukraine is unacceptable, those responsible for the barbaric shelling of Vinnytsia and the murders of civilians in other cities will be brought to justice. This is stated in the joint statement of EU High Representative Josep Borrell and EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič.

July 14, a 115-page report on russia's war against Ukraine for the period from April 1 to June 25 was presented at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. It demonstrates “two new and extremely disturbing trends”: “creation and use of so-called filtration centers by the russian armed forces”; russia's circumvention of its international obligations by handing over detainees to the so-called “dpr” and “lpr” and allowing them to “participate in problematic practices, including the use of the death penalty”. Serious violations of international humanitarian law occur systematically and with “clear patterns” and are “mostly connected with the russian armed forces”. “russia humiliates at the Ukrainian people. The report shows that the scale and frequency of indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects are credible evidence that the hostilities were conducted in violation of international humanitarian law. These are war crimes. And here there is an element of trying to intimidate the population of Ukraine”, said Ambassador Michael Carpenter, U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France has announced the transfer to Ukraine of a mobile laboratory for express DNA analysis during the investigation of russia’s war crimes.

Hungary has promised to contribute to the expansion of grain exports from Ukraine. Minister of Agriculture of the country, Istvan Nagy, noted that an entrepreneurial zone should be created in the area of ​​the Hungarian-Ukrainian border, where new processing plants can be built, as this is a strategic issue that means long-term food security for the whole world.

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The first anticipatory indicators of the state of the russian industry are recording a significant decline in business activity in July 2022. As of July 14, the index of industrial optimism of the gaidar institute decreased by five points, renewing the minimum of the current crisis and falling below the indicator of March 2022. Deterioration occurred according to all indicators included in the index, and the assessment of current sales “below the norm” increased to 46%. This was the worst reading since July 2020, when the industry suffered a crisis due to the pandemic. “It seems that the bottom of the crisis from the sanction has not yet been reached and the situation is starting to deteriorate again”, experts of the gaidar institute emphasize.

russian metallurgists are currently operating with a negative profitability on sales both for export and on the domestic market. In particular, in June 2022, severstal worked with a profitability of minus 46% on exports and plus 1% on the domestic market, – has stated the company’s director leonov. Before putin's aggression against Ukraine, severstal was always one of the leaders of the sector in terms of profitability, but it suffered more than others from international sanctions.

In other large companies, profitability in June is also negative. the magnitogorsk metallurgical plant, which supplies up to 90% of its products to the domestic russian market, had an average rate of profitability of minus 5.9%. In June, the industrial and metallurgical holding was not engaged in export sales at all: in the enterprises of the tulachermet holding, the profitability was minus 6%, and in tula-steel – minus 49%.

The workload of metallurgical companies is also falling. In particular, the russian steel association has recently stated that in June, steel production decreased by 20-50%, depending on the company, and the cost of production increased by 50% (since many costs are constant and do not depend on the volume of output).

According to the estimates of the president of the “osnova” group of construction companies ruchyov, the share of falsified building materials on the russian market has already reached 20-25%. At the same time, tkachenko, an expert of the commission on building materials industry and technologies of the public council under the ministry of construction, believes that the annual loss to the russian economy from low-quality building materials can amount to 1 trillion rubles, not counting indirect losses. According to him, in large retail chains, for example, the share of falsified pipes is up to 80%.

In the first half of 2022, gazprom reduced gas production by 10.4% and exports by 33.1%.

For the 24th time, rosaviatsia (russian aviation) could not arrange flights to 11 airports in the center and south of the russian federation due to the continuation of russian aggression against Ukraine, now until July 24.

European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders has reminded that the EU will block the assets of the bank of russia in the amount of 200-300 billion euros in case the russian federation refuses to participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Foreign companies continue to leave the russian market against the background of the rf’s continued military aggression against Ukraine. The Norwegian company Elopak, which produces cardboard packaging for drinks under the Pure-Pak brand, has sold its russian assets.

Poland’s producer of frozen vegetables, fruits and mixes Hortex has sold its russian division. The new owner will be able to produce products under the brand name of a well-known brand until the end of the year, after that it is prohibited. Hortex is one of the leaders in the market of frozen vegetables and fruits in Central and Eastern Europe. In the rf, the products were produced at two factories in moscow region and one in karelia.

The government of Canada has imposed previously announced sanctions on the russian oil and gas and chemical industries. They will apply to land and pipeline transport, metal manufacturing, vehicles, computers, electronic, electrical and mechanical equipment. Canadian businesses are given 60 days to complete all contracts.

The new government coalition in Estonia plans to ban russians living in the country from owning weapons, according to the text of the coalition agreement.

The Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia has decided to cancel the agreement with the russian federation on the simplification of travel between residents of the border regions from August 1.

July 15, the law on border guarding entered into force in Finland with new amendments that allow the construction of barriers on the border with russia – “in order to better prepare for various threats to the country's security”. The planned “major construction” involves laying new roads, felling trees, as well as necessary earthworks and hydraulic works. Part of the fence can be erected already this summer. “It won’t be just a fence. It includes a technical control system. we have a common border with Russia that is 1,340 kilometers long. It would be worth fencing off 100 to 250 kilometres”, said head of the Border Guard’s International Cooperation Department, Matti Pitkäniitty.

Car sharing services in russia, having lost their European and Japanese partners, are forced to switch to Chinese cars – the only ones available to them in the conditions of the russian crisis. According to nikolayev, the founder of the trushering company, switching to the cars from the PRC for car sharing poses risks for the reputation: clients are used to driving Volkswagen, BMW, Kia, Toyota, and now they are offered Haval, Chery and Geely.

Due to the fact that russians do not have the opportunity to get to traditional places of tourist recreation, the deputy chairman of the state duma committee on tourism kryvonosov offered to organize a vacation for them in the DPRK. It is planned to discuss the issue of providing subsidies to tour operators of the rf for arranging tours to North Korea at the autumn session of the state duma.

The Congress of the International Bobsled Federation suspended the russians from the competition indefinitely. At the same time, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected the appeal of the russian football union regarding the decision of FIFA and UEFA to remove national teams from international competitions.

head coach of the russian national diving team moiseyeva, has stated that there is a shortage of modern springboards in russia due to supply problems: “There are great difficulties in supplying American equipment to russia. We are trying to resolve the issue through Italy, but things are moving very slowly”.

Suppression of freedom of speech and glasnost continues in russia. the prosecutor general's office has banned the websites of Bellingcat, the russian-language edition of The Insider and the Central and Eastern European Law Initiative Institute (CEELI Institute) in the russian federation with the standard conclusion: “their activities threaten the foundations of the constitutional order and security”. Bellingcat is a project specializing in the analysis of military conflicts; The Insider is an investigative journalism site; CEELI Institute is a non-profit organization from the Czech Republic that promotes the development of democracy and human rights.

The international rating agency Moody's called the payment of the foreign debt of belarus in the national currency a default. This is contrary to the bond documentation, which does not allow settlements in alternative currencies. The grace period, during which belarus had to pay off the debt for ten-year Eurobonds for 22.9 million dollars, passed on July 13.