July 31, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The US Department of Defense has approved an agreement with SpaceX for the purchase of Starlink terminals and services for Ukraine.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has called on russia to abide by the “laws of the sky” and stop the russian military pilots’ irresponsible behavior in the air.

According to the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons, russians are taking children out of the occupied territories to exterminate the next generation of defenders of Ukraine. She called such tactics of russia “hybrid aggression” against Ukraine. “Like the bombing of Ukrainian cities. Child abduction is also part of the russia’s invasion”, Simmons said.

Representatives of 30 countries, except russia, have been invited to Saudi Arabia for a meeting on Ukraine.

Stephan Mayer, a member of the Sports Committee of the German Bundestag, believes that the case of the disqualification of Ukrainian athlete Olga Harlan and the decisions taken subsequently showed how problematic is the position of the IOC and some international sports federations about allowing athletes from russia and belarus to return to international competitions.

“The position of Georgians will be recorded to remind everyone that Batumi, Georgia belong to Georgians. It is important to understand that russians are a nation of ruthless murderers. A propagandist hidden under the name of a tourist enters and subsequently makes statements that Abkhazia was saved from us. We are against the occupation”, said Georgy Dumbadze, a representative of the youth wing of the opposition United National Movement party, regarding another protest against the visit to Batumi of the Astoria Grande cruise ship with russian tourists.

Pope Francis during the Sunday prayer “Angelus of the Lord” in the Vatican called on russia to restore the Black Sea Grain Deal.

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The Czech Republic Financial Analytical Office has frozen the accounts and property of several Czech companies owned by russian oligarch vladimir yevtushenkov and his son felix for a total of $100 million CZK (about $ 4.6 million), a company engaged in the production of electrical parts, and a five-star hotel and spa hotel savoy westend in Karlovy Vary included. The total value of Yevtushenkov's property in the Czech resort town exceeds 500 million CZK (about $23 million). Earlier, the government of the Republic included Yevtushenkov in the national sanctions list.

The russian government did not support the draft law on russia's withdrawal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association, saying that withdrawal from the IMF and the World Bank carries risks for russian assets invested in them, as well as participation in other international financial mechanisms related to IMF programs, in particular, the pool of conditional foreign exchange reserves of the BRICS countries.

The rf government has extended the ban on the export of rice and rice cereals from the country until December 31, 2023, explaining this by the need to maintain stability in the domestic market (for the first time the ban was introduced on July 1, 2022 and is extended every six months).

The ban on supplying russia with cars from Japan with an engine capacity of 1.9 liters and above, as well as with hybrid and fully electric power units, will soon lead to a rise in price of cars with mileage by 15%. During the first half of the year, the russians managed to import 130 thousand Japanese cars, which is twice as many as in the same period last year. Almost all of them were used, as a rule, Toyota Land Cruiser, RAV4, Camry, Toyota Prius were imported. From August 9, exports to the rf of these and other popular brands and models will be banned.

The russian automotive industry has finally lost hope for competing with Chinese cars: the head of avtovaz sokolov has said that russia is going to produce most budget modifications of granta and niva cars – “the simplest in terms of configuration and availability of options”. At the same time, he promised to complete the cars with one airbag.

Occupying special forces from the russian guard have conducted exercises to suppress riots in russia and belarus. The exercises were held in two stages: the first – counteracting mass disobedience of the mobilized and their families during measures of full mobilization of the population of the rf; the second – entering the territory of belarus to restore “order” after “missile strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Poland on the camps of the wagnerites”.

russian courts have introduced double standards of justice and are increasingly explaining the motives of their decisions by the special military operation (smo), even when considering cases that do not concern it: recently, the supreme court released one occupier from punishment after an accident he committed that killed a person. With reference to the smo, russian courts even explain the need to reduce administrative fines against state institutions: the fine for moscow metro (underground railway- Transl.) was reduced by three times, polyclinic No. 46 – by 60 times, the sports school of the olympic rezerve – by 100 times.

In novosibirsk, a criminal case was opened against a 67-year-old pensioner over a comment about setting on fire a military commissariat, which he wrote at the end of September after putin had announced mobilization. He is charged under three articles at once: participation in a terrorist organization (article 205.5 of the criminal code of the rf), mass riots (article 212 of the criminal code of the rf) and calls for extremist activities (article 280 of the criminal code of the rf).

The head of council of the rb, natalia kochanova, has said that belarusians who left because of repression and advocate tougher sanctions against the official minsk should be grateful to the state “for the opportunity to atone for their guilt by receiving legal punishment”. She called such people “escaped hangers-on”.

The ministry of defense of belarus is recruiting compatriots to military educational institutions of russia. belarusians are invited to join the mikhaylov military artillery academia, the military university of radio electronics, the ryazan higher airborne command school, the novosibirsk higher military command school, the tyumen higher military engineer command school and the branch of the military academy of the material-technical support.

In belarus, the admission campaign to universities has ended. Even the main university of the country – the belarusian state university - failed to completely close budget places. There is a shortage of freshmen at the faculties of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, geography, philology, social sciences, energy engineering.

belarus has had huge problems with the acquisition of hormonal medicines for breast cancer. Two foreign pharmaceutical companies that produce the necessary medicines have sharply reduced their supplies over belarus’s participation in russia’s war against Ukraine. And the Finnish corporation Orion Terhi Ormio, which produces the necessary medicine, has stopped working with belarusian distributors altogether. The ministry of health care of belarus cannot find a way to resolve the problem.