March 29, 2023 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has officially confirmed that the British Challenger 2 tanks have arrived in Ukraine.

Three Leopard 2A6 tanks, which Portugal transfers in concert with partners, are already in Ukraine.

Bulgaria, through intermediaries, is likely to sell to Ukraine a large amount of ammunition, which can significantly affect the course of the war.

France will double the number of shells of 155 mm caliber, which it supplies to Ukraine, – to 2 thousand per month.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia Urmas Reinsalu believes that Ukraine's Western allies should be more active in providing Ukraine with weapons, including fighter jets, in order to bring closer the victory in the war.

Germany wants to increase military assistance to Ukraine to more than 15 billion euros in the coming years.

“... NATO must find formats of cooperation that will support both Ukraine's accession to NATO and the transition period, as well as help resolve security issues in Europe”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Jan Lipavský.

Belgium has provided Ukraine with more than 36 tons of equipment to restore its energy infrastructure.

Ukraine and Austria have agreed to hold the Ukrainian-Austrian Economic Forum in Lviv on May 23, which will consider, in particular, the issues of Ukraine's recovery, cooperation in energy, industry and renewable green energy.

The United Kingdom and Poland will provide housing for internally displaced persons in Lviv and Poltava. The UK Government has allocated £10 million for this project, and both countries will also provide £2.5 million worth of generators to support schools, hospitals and community centres across Ukraine.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Yoshimasa Hayashi has said Japan is ready to discuss with the Group of Seven partners tougher sanctions against belarus amid putin's statements about deploying tactical nuclear weapons in that country.

Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki has warned that Belarus will face further sanctions in view of russia's plans to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on its territory.

Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) has detained three other people operating within russia's recently uncovered spy network.

A Prague court will hear a case accusing of justifying genocide against a participant in a pro-russian rally who came with the russian letter z on his backpack and a chevron of the international criminal organization “wagner” on his sleeve.

The EU is working to allow EU member states to block imports of russian natural gas without the need for new collective sanctions. In particular, governments will be given the right to temporarily prohibit russian exporters to book in advance the infrastructure capacities necessary for the supply of natural gas.

The UN Security Council did not support russia's resolution on the investigation of explosions on the nord stream gas pipeline.

Canada has imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities involved in the production of unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic missiles.

rf

According to the Main Customs Directorate of the People's Republic of China, in January – February, China imported from russia steel semi-finished products three times less than a year ago, to 96,200 tons. In monetary terms, russian exports decreased five times, to $ 46.37 million.

In 2022, exports of russian goods to belarus decreased by 7.7 %, to $ 21.3 billion.

The German chemical-industrial company Henkel is completing the procedure for selling its business in russia.

The American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly has decided to finally leave russia. A year ago, the company announced the suspension of exports of medicines to the rf and investments in clinical tests, although international sanctions did not affect this segment.

The Financial Times reported that almost 2 thousand foreign companies are waiting for permission from the ministry of finance of the rf to sell assets in russia.

In 2023, for the first time, russia hid a third of state budget expenditures at once, which shows how a year of war against Ukraine changed the state finances of the aggressor country. According to the finance ministry, classified or unspecified expenses rose to 2.4 trillion rubles ($ 31 billion) by March 24, which, according to Bloomberg Economics, is more than twice the level for the same period a year ago. According to Bloomberg calculations, in 2023 alone, russia planned classified expenses in the amount of a quarter of the budget. By March 24, russian spending on “national defense” reached 531 billion rubles, having doubled compared to last year, another 379 billion rubles were spent on ensuring security and law and order.

The cost of building a super-powerful main nuclear icebreaker “russia” may increase by 40-60 % from the planned before the start of the russian war against Ukraine 128 billion rubles. The icebreaker, which is required for regular navigation throughout the year along the northern sea route, was to be built in 2027. However, already now there is significant lagging behind in the manufacture of large parts of the hull, the cost and timing of work on the production of individual parts of the nuclear power plant are increasing, due to which, according to the forecast of shipbuilders, the icebreaker will not be built on time.

During the period from March 1, 2022 to March 1, 2023, the number of mobile communication salons in million-plus cities of the rf decreased by 5.5 %; the largest decrease in points of sale and provision of services to customers occurred in omsk – by 14.7%, moscow, rostov-on-don, nizhny novgorod and novosibirsk – by 7%. The reason is the decline in incomes of the population and the attempt of operators to optimize their budgets for survival in the conditions of the russian crisis.

At the end of 2022, the federal budget of russia was closed with the most record deficit in the history of russia of 3.3 trillion rubles. The largest subsidies from moscow were provided to ingushetia (83% of the regional budget), chechnya (81%), tuva (81%), dagestan (75%), karachay-cherkessia (72%), temporarily occupied by the rf Crimea (66%) and Sevastopol (65%).

The general prosecutor's office has reported that in 2022 the number of murders and attempted murders increased by 4% – 7628 cases, the highest in the last 20 years. In particular, in tambov region during the year the number of murders and assassinations increased from 26 to 44 cases, in kirov region – from 45 to 62, in buryatia – from 134 to 177, in moscow – from 269 to 413.

russian soldiers participating in the aggression against Ukraine owe banks 69.3 billion rubles, which is why financial institutions, following the government's orders, had to provide them and their families with the so-called “loan repayment holidays”.

Due to the russian crisis and shortage of budgetary funds in 2022, the ministry of finance reduced the number of employees of the federal state-owned institution “nalog-servis”(“tax- service” – Transl.) by 924 positions, the center for ensuring the activities of the treasury of russia – by 2196. In 2023, the mnistry of finance intends to continue to reduce federal state-owned institutions.

According to the alliance of travel agents of russia (ata), since the beginning of the year, holidaying in sochi has already risen in price by 20-30 %. “Crimea, in my opinion, will be in the red by 3-4 million people at the end of the season. This year, the russians have no illusions, so booking tours to the Peninsula has fallen by 50%”, said ata's vice president aleksandr mkrtchyan.

The authorities of the German resort town of Baden-Baden has canceled the twinning agreement with the russian sochi.

More than 300 fencers, including nine medalists of the Tokyo Olympics, signed an open letter demanding that russian athletes not be allowed to compete until russia stops its aggression against Ukraine.

The Finnish company Moomin Characters has banned the use of the images of Moomin trolls in russia: the company will not grant the rf a license to use the Finnish writer Tove Jansson’s popular characters.

According to the government decree, it will be possible to export grain, rapeseed and sunflower from belarus within six months and only under one-time licenses issued by the ministry of antimonopoly regulation and trade. Export restrictions also apply to EAEU countries.

nikolay leschik, head of the main department of crop production of the ministry of agriculture of belarus, explained why it is difficult to find belarusian garlic in belarusian shops, and imported garlic is sold at a cosmic price. In his opinion, garlic is a “very laborious plant” in production, its cost is several times higher than the finished garlic supplied from the PRC. “Unfortunately, technologically, we are still far behind China”, the official concluded.

In belarus, from April 1, cigarettes are rising again. New prices for many types of tobacco products will increase from 10 to 40 kopecks.