May 13, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The UN Human Rights Council overwhelmingly supported a resolution to investigate the crimes of the russian armed forces in Ukraine. 33 member states voted in favor of the resolution, 12 abstained, China and Eritrea opposed it. russia was expelled from the UN Human Rights Council in April.

The EU will pay Ukraine a second tranche of € 600 million in emergency macro-financial assistance by 20 May. This was stated during a press briefing by European Commission Spokesperson Dana Spinant. “Yesterday, the European Commission adopted a decision that is necessary for the second tranche of the emergency macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine and for the loan of these funds on the capital market. The second tranche is 600 million euros. The practical payment of this amount is expected by May 20”, said a Spokesperson for the European Commission.

President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Werner Hoyer has supported the plan to rebuild Ukraine worth several trillion euros, according to Reuters. Hoyer said Europe could not be left alone to pay the huge bill from russia's invasion of Ukraine, which he predicted could reach trillions. “Political leaders need to make decisions as soon as possible. But I think we need a structure that is really focused on a global audience, not just taxpayers in the European Union”, he said.

Lithuania officially revokes its Ambassador to russia and closes the Consulate General in st. petersburg. Ambassador Eitvidas Bayarunas is returning home on June 1, and the consulate is closing on June 7. In early April, due to the russian invasion of Ukraine, the Lithuanian government decided to reduce the diplomatic mission between Lithuania and russia to charge d'affaires.

Besides, Lithuania proposes to impose a full trade embargo against russia –not to sell anything, not to buy, not to invest. According to Lithuanian MPs, such a step will give political freedom in decision-making to NATO member states and affect the rf’s economy.

 Chairman of the National Electronic Mass Media of Latvia Council (NEPLP) Ivars Abolins has said that the country will block several major russian social networks, including “vkontakte” and “odnoklassniki”, according to LSM. “In accordance with the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU), NEPLP has decided to limit the work of social networks “vkontakte”, “odnoklassniki” and “moi mir” in Latvia”, said Abolins. The platforms will be blocked next week, he said. NEPLP claims to have evidence that the platforms belong to russian businessmen yuri kovalchuk and vladimir kiriyenko, who are on the EU sanctions list.

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine has decided to forcibly withdraw the assets of the “daughters” of the russian sberbank and prominvestbank in Ukraine. This is stated in the documents to the draft law № 7371 on the website of the Verkhovna Rada. 99.772644% of the property of PJSC “Joint-Stock commercial industrial and investment bank” (prominvestbank), owned by the state development corporation “web.rf”; 100% of the shares of JSC “international reserve bank” (formerly sberbank), owned by PJSC “sberbank of Russia”, – reads the statement.

In addition to corporate rights, Ukraine will forcibly withdraw financial assets, i.e. the right to claim the debt of “web.rf” to prominvestbank, sberbank to “mr bank” and both “daughters” of Russian banks to legal entities. Financial assets in the form of funds on savings and correspondent accounts, IGLBs, and NBU certificates of deposit will also be withdrawn.

The German government has rejected speculation that it may activate the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline from russia to Germany to compensate for the reduction in gas flows through Ukraine. According to the press secretary of the Ministry of Energy Anika Einhorn, the pipeline “has died” – and no one thinks about its “resurrection”. Nord Stream- 2 really died after russia attacked Ukraine. And no one is thinking of switching to it”, said Einhorn. The spokesperson pointed out that after “gazprom” stopped supplying gas through the Sokhranivka gas metering station, located in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region (about a third of all russian gas transit through Ukraine passes through this route), transit gas volumes fell for Germany by 25%. However, this deficit, she said, was “partially offset by increased supplies from Norway and the Netherlands”. Einhorn also noted that most of russia's gas does not come to Germany through Ukraine, but through russia's Nord Stream-1 gas pipeline. It was launched in 2011 and has a capacity of 27 billion cubic meters per year. Nord Stream - 2, which was to become the world's largest energy project to supply gas to the EU, will be transformed into a local pipeline. “gazprom” has decided to use the land section for supplies to the north-western regions of russia. The russian company has concluded that even if Germany lifts all sanctions and decides to launch Nord Stream - 2, which is virtually impossible at the moment, the launch may not take place until 2028. “If the German authorities decide to put the sea gas pipeline into operation, it will be possible to include only one line with a load of 100%. It will be possible to put the second line of the gas pipeline into operation not earlier than in 2028”, “gazprom” said.

The heads of four committees of the US House of Representatives have sent official inquiries to the management of social networks YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. They are asking to archive evidence of russian war crimes in Ukraine that could be used in courts in the future. The inquiries emphasize that the material should be preserved, as social networks may, in accordance with their policies, remove sensitive content to protect users. “We ask Meta (the parent company of Facebook) to take steps to preserve and archive content posted on its platforms that could potentially be used as evidence, as the US government and international observers ... are investigating russian war crimes”, reads the letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Letters were also sent to YouTube, TikTok and Twitter.

A set of measures has been developed to help Ukraine export agricultural products, the European Commission informs. According to Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean, 20 million tons of grain should leave Ukraine in less than three months using EU infrastructure. “This is a huge challenge, so we need to coordinate and optimize logistics chains, establish new routes and avoid delays as much as possible”, she said. It is noted that despite the emergency efforts of the EU and its member states aimed at facilitating the crossing of the border between Ukraine and the EU, thousands of wagons and trucks from the Ukrainian side are waiting for customs clearance. The average current waiting time for wagons is 16 days, but within some limits – up to 30 days. The European Commission calls on national authorities to use maximum flexibility and provide proper staff to speed up procedures at border crossings.

Ukraine and Poland have agreed on the work of veterinary and sanitary services 24/7 on the Ukrainian-Polish border, said First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko. She stressed that control procedures will be simplified for Ukrainian agro-exports. In addition, the parties agreed to remove barriers to trade in animal products, including pork. “It is important for Ukraine to ensure the transit of pork, beef and mutton to third countries through the territory of Poland, which requires appropriate veterinary solutions”, said Svyrydenko.

It was also agreed to use all transportation options more efficiently, including container transportation through Polish ports.

Because of the war, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine will open the Diya.Business Center in Warsaw for IDPs – it will work temporarily, during the war. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry. It will allow Ukrainians to:

– consult on obtaining refugee status or other legal grounds for staying in Poland;

– obtain information on living and working in Poland;

– learn how to open a business in Poland.

Opening of the Diya.Business in Warsaw will take place on May 17, and the reception of visitors will begin on May 18 with prior registration.

The Polish postal operator printed 99 sheets of stamps with the image of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy – despite the high price of the set, they were sold out within an hour. A total of 99 sheets of 9 stamps on each of them. The price of one set was PLN 4,500 (about UAH 30,000). Demand was so great that the sale was stopped within an hour, writes Ukrposhta. Thus, about UAH 3 million was collected from the sale. All funds will be used to purchase aid for Ukraine.

Apple has disabled payment in the AppStore from russian mobile numbers “megaphone”, yota and tele2.

Nike sportswear and takeover company has terminated its contracts with “Spartak” and “ural” football clubs.

The German company Siemens has announced the cessation of business in russia. Already on May 13, the company cancels service contracts with “russian railways”, in particular contracts for the maintenance of high-speed passenger trains “sapsan”.

The Finnish energy company Fortum has announced the closure of its activity in the russian market and the sale of business in russia. “Before the previously announced freeze on investment and financing, we decided to make a controlled exit from the russian market. In particular, this decision concerns the sale of the russian business Fortum”, said CEO Markus Rauramo. The company also announced the rapid alienation of russia's “daughter” Unipro.

Finnish company Nurminen Logistics has launched the first container train from China to bypass russia. The Trans-Caspian route connects rail and sea transport. The train travels through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania to Central Europe. Delivery time from China to Central Europe proved to be faster than shipping. The route is already quite popular. Seats for the next train, departing on May 25, have already been sold out. From June they plan to organize weekly journeys.

Europe's largest insurance company Allianz SE has stated a high probability of stopping operations in russia.

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In the first quarter, the turnover of the market of funeral services in russia increased by 16% compared to last year. The greatest dynamics was recorded in the primorsky territory, where the turnover doubled, ryazan region – by 68%, tomsk region – by 52%, samara region – by 51%, moscow region and udmurtia – by 50%. In moscow, the turnover of funeral homes remained at last year's level, and in st. petersburg increased by only 9%.

According to the logic of the central bank of russia, “the strengthening of the ruble is largely due to lower imports through sanctions”. This is stated in the bank rossia’s report on monetary policy. In other words, there are no imported goods – there is nothing to buy for wooden rubles.

rosaviatsia has extended the ban on flights to southern and central russian airports until May 19.

In a military unit in the khabarovsk territory of the russian federation there was a powerful explosion, one person is dead and some are injured. The cause of the explosion is probably careless handling of ammunition during unloading.

Sales of smartphones in the russian market in April fell, according to retailers, by 30% – in quantity and value. Users' preferences have shifted towards budget models, especially Chinese manufacturers. According to analysts, this market is unlikely to return to at least last year’s growth.

According to analysts at FocusEconomics, in 2022, the decline in russian demand for goods will be by 13.9%, real wages – by 11.7% (inflation at 22.3%), capital investment – by 20%, industrial production – by 10.1% , imports – by 32.5%, exports – by 15%. In April, expectations of a budget deficit of up to 1.8% of GDP and unemployment of up to 7.3% significantly worsened.

russian banks are rapidly reducing the yield on deposits: by the end of April, the average maximum rate of the largest credit institutions fell below the key and is in a negative zone of high inflation. According to the central bank, in the third decade of April the average maximum rate on deposits in the top 10 largest banks fell to 11-13% from 15-16.58% within the first and second ten days. At the same time, according to the macroeconomic forecast of the bank of russia, inflation at the end of 2022 will be 22%.

Due to the growing crisis, investments in housing construction sites in russia are under threat. Among the main reasons – the difficulty of obtaining loans from banks, fearing a decline in demand for new buildings and rising construction costs. Experts predict that this year the volume of transactions for the purchase of sites will be reduced by a third.

The International Energy Agency has reported that russia's oil and condensate production fell by 960,000 barrels per day in April – to 10.4 million (the lowest level since November 2020).

Putin has stated that in 2022 a record in Russia’s history grain harvest could be harvested. The world's main outcast forgot to clarify that his occupying forces are actively exporting stolen grain from Ukraine. Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Ukraine Taras Vysotskyi said that the russians had already stolen several hundred thousand tons of grain in the occupied territories of Ukraine and expressed concern that most of the 1.5 million tons of grain stored in the occupied territories could be taken away to russia.

Due to international sanctions, “ural airlines” has suspended 931 employees till May 31, the sverdlovsk region department of labor and employment reports.

The development of the russian market for unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) due to sanctions against russia may slow down for several years, said the head of the aeronet market of the national technology initiative alyoshin.

The trade union organization of the avtovaz plant announced the cessation of production from May 16 to 20 due to a shortage of components. Earlier, the line at the enterprise stopped on May 4-6 and May 11-13. From June 6, the plant will switch to a four-day mode of work for a period of three months due to the crisis in the supply of parts.

During the long May holidays, russians saved money and did not allow themselves to travel actively. The analysis of “megaphone” specialists showed that among the residents of moscow alone, the number of those who stayed at home increased by 20% compared to the same period in 2021. Russians’ travels to anapa, gelendzhik and krasnodar decreased by 17%.

The ceremony of awarding the tefi national television prize, which was scheduled to take place in russia in May-June this year, will be postponed “until the end of the special military operation in Ukraine”, said the chairman of the industrial television awards committee. “It is extremely impractical to hold a tefi ceremony in the near future. Because the awarding of the tefi prize is always a holiday, an atmosphere of such heightened joy, I think that such a festive event is inappropriate today”, he stressed

Russian authorities have begun drafting a law that, through “compulsory licensing”, will allow to keep in the rf the films, series, music and other content of “unfriendly countries”’ companies that have left russia. After the start of the war in Ukraine, almost all major film and music distributors left russia: Universal, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount. New music from them has stopped appearing in russian streams, movies have not been shown in cinemas, and TV series have stopped appearing on online platforms. At this, content released by foreign rights holders until February 24, 2022, is still available on domestic platforms: such licensing agreements are usually concluded for a year, said two top managers.

According to the authors of the draft law, the russian licensee has to apply for a compulsory license for a film, TV series or album in court. But only if the contract with a partner from the “unfriendly country” was terminated unilaterally – and on grounds not related to breach of contract. At this, at the suit of the foreign right holder, the validity of the compulsory license can be suspended if “the circumstances as a result of which it was granted cease to exist”. For example, if a new contract has been concluded.

The adoption of such a draft law threatens russia with violations of international conventions, including the TRIPS Agreement and the Berne Convention, said the director of the institute for internet studies karen kazaryan. “TRIPS clearly limits the scope of the compulsory licensing procedure with patents, industrial designs, etc. The Berne Convention requires authors to be granted a number of exclusive rights and prohibits discrimination against national and foreign works. Adoption of these changes in the legislation and their application in practice can have an extremely negative impact on the remaining prospects for international cooperation”, said kazaryan.