May 14, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

The countries of the Group of Seven (G7) are planning broad financial support for Ukraine, informs the German Spiegel. At the meeting of the finance ministers of G7 in Petersberg near Bonn next week, the Group of Seven wants to initiate budget support for Ukraine worth almost 30 billion euros. According to the participants in the talks, Ukraine itself voiced this financial need by the end of the year. About five billion euros a month were spent, for example, on payments to officials or pensioners, which Ukraine cannot pay on its own. The International Monetary Fund considers these calculations fair and also comes to similar figures.

Assistance will be provided in the form of loans and grants. Therefore, Kyiv will not have to return the entire amount. The sum of 30 billion euros predicts that hostilities will end within a year.

 May 13, the United Kingdom announced new anti-russian sanctions. This time they are about people close to russian president putin, including russian gymnast alina kabayeva, who, according to many media’s information, is the kremlin leader's mistress. This is stated in the press service of the British government.

The new sanctions against russia were announced by Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom Liz Truss. She stressed that according to official documents, putin owns a small apartment in st. petersburg, two soviet cars from the 1950s and a small garage. However, all the real fortunes of the president of russia officially belong to his closest friends and relatives. So today's sanctions, Truss said, will hit people who owe putin their wealth and support his regime. “We are exposing and targeting a shadow network that supports putin's luxurious lifestyle. We will continue to impose sanctions on all those who promote putin's aggression until Ukraine wins”, said the British Foreign Secretary.

The United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on:

– alina kabayeva, retired Olympic gymnast. kabayeva rose to the level of chairman of the board of the national media group, russia's largest private media company. kabayeva is believed to have a close personal relationship with putin, and was previously a member of the state duma from “united russia”;

– anna zatseplina, alina kabayeva’s grandmother and associate of gennady timchenko – a longtime associate of putin, who came under British sanctions on February 22, 2022. It is from timchenko that Zazeplina got an elite apartment in moscow;

– lyudmila ocheretnaya, former first lady of the russian federation, putin's ex-wife. Having divorced putin in 2014, ocheretnaya benefited from preferential business relations with government agencies;

– igor putin, first cousin of president putin, russian businessman. He is the director of the “pechenga” international seaport;

– mikhail putin, a russian businessman, relative of president putin. mikhail putin is deputy chairman of the board of “sogaz”, deputy chairman of the board of “gazprom”;

– roman putin, vladimir putin's first cousin. roman putin publicly talks about his relationship with putin and emphasizes how a family relationship with the russian president has enabled his company, putin consulting, to help foreign investors in russia;

– mikhail shelomov, a russian businessman and putin's first cousin. shelomov through his company akcept llc is a shareholder of the bank “rossia”, which is associated with the kremlin. The United Kingdom imposed sanctions on the bank on February 22, 2022.

In addition to relatives of the russian president, his proxies were also subject to sanctions. In particular:

– aleksandr plekhov, putin’s close friend. His company vital development corporation received significant support from the russian authorities;

– mikhail klishin, executive director of “rossia” bank, member of the board of directors of “sogaz”;

– vladimir kolbin, the son of putin’s friend since childhood and likely business partner petr kolbin. vladimir kolbin received support from the russian government, acting as general director of “gelendzhik seaport”;

– yuri shamalov, son of nikolai shamalov (who has been under British sanctions since 2014) and brother of putin's former son-in-law kirill shamalov (who came under British sanctions on February 24, 2022). yuri is one of the new elite of children close to putin and quickly rose to become president of the gas fund and a member of the board of directors of “gazprombank”;

– victor khmarin, a russian lawyer and businessman, a friend and putin's in-law relative. Khmarin owned a number of enterprises, including “naftoproduktservis”, which operated in the russian energy sector.

In total, since the russian invasion of Ukraine, the United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 individuals and 100 legal entities, including oligarchs with assets worth more than 117 billion pounds.

The German Minister of Agriculture condemned the theft of grain by russia in the East of Ukraine and called it a “disgusting form of war”. This was stated by German Minister Cem Ozdemir during a meeting of the G7, Ukraine, the European Union, the OECD and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Stuttgart, on the impact of the war on world food, according to AFP. He said that russia “stole, looted, took grain from the East of Ukraine” and called these acts “economic war”.

russia will be forced to pay a contribution to Ukraine. The terrorist country must rebuild everything that was destroyed in Ukraine during the war. This was stated by President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a press conference with President of Estonia Alar Karis on May 13. “We deeply believe that the international community will force russia to pay a contribution to rebuild what was destroyed in Ukraine”, he said.

Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said dictator putin is a more dangerous ruler than Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. He has more deadly weapons than the dictators of the twentieth century – nuclear missiles and the Internet, through which rashist(ruscist) propaganda is spread.

In response, russia called for putting Poland first in the queue for “denazification” after Ukraine. This is how the russian federation reacted to the statements of the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki about the ideology of the “russian world”. oleg morozov, the chairman of the state duma's control committee, wrote about this in his Telegram. “With its statements about russia as a “cancer tumor” and about the “contribution” we have to pay to Ukraine, Poland is urging us to put it first in the queue for denazification after Ukraine”, morozov wrote.

In the coming days, one of the checkpoints on the Ukrainian border will start working only to import fuel into the country. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Mustafa Nayem during an expert discussion. “There is an agreement with the border service: in the coming days to resolve the issue that one of the checkpoints will be only for fuel – that is, there will be a fuel lane”, said Nayem. Besides, in order to unload the border checkpoints, the Ministry of Infrastructure wants to make some checkpoints only cargo ones. Like Krakivets and Yahodyn on the border with Poland.

May 13, for the first time since February 18, United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held talks with russian minister of defence sergei shoigu. This direct contact was the first since the beginning of the large-scale russian invasion of Ukraine. “Minister Austin called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and stressed the importance of maintaining lines of communication”, Pentagon Spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement.

The Pentagon has said more than once that it cannot get in touch with shoigu. Both he and the chief of the general staff valery gerasimov refused any contacts.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a telephone conversation with russian president putin. One of the main topics was the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from the territory of the besieged Azovstal plant in Mariupol. This was reported by CNN with reference to the transcript of the call. It is stressed that discussions on these issues are not over yet. The heads of state discussed the course of negotiations between Ukraine and russia, the issue of evacuation and the situation in the blocked Mariupol. The russian president told Scholz that russia allegedly supported the rescue of civilians from Azovstal and gave everyone the opportunity to leave the plant and go in any direction. The russian leader also shared his vision of the future of peace talks. In his opinion, Kyiv is allegedly blocking the process. Further discussions on these topics will be conducted through various channels.

During the Kyiv Security Forum, an online discussion “Fight for Ukraine. Special Military Panel”, where Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment Svyatoslav Palamar, US Army Generals and Atlantic Council Specialists discussed the critical situation of Mariupol defenders, how America could better help Ukraine, including with what weapons, and how the West assesses the dangers of nuclear weapons.

For example, Philip Breedlove, a retired four-star General in the United States Air Force who served as the Commander of US European Command, as well as the 17th Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) of NATO Allied Command Operations, from May 2013 until May 4, 2016, said during the discussion that the United States unequivocally supports Ukraine, but this does not mean a clear victory or that we should stop supplying weapons: “I want to applaud my country for what it is doing, but we have not done everything for Ukraine and have not given everything it needs”. General Breedlove said that the United States should very quickly provide Ukraine with more volley fire systems, long-range artillery, air defense, which is still in short supply, anti-ship missiles similar to “Neptune” and other weapons. “We in the West are starting to celebrate when weapons are already on Ukraine's borders, but it's too early to rejoice. This is not a success when we delivered weapons to Poland or Romania. It will be a success when the Ukrainian military can hit the enemy with it”.

Wesley Clark, a four-star U.S. Army General and Commander-in-Chief of NATO's Allied Command Europe in 1997-2000, said in a speech that no one would see US forces invading russia and fighting in Ukraine. According to him, this will not happen, but it is quite possible to constantly increase the package of military aid. Regarding the possibility of a nuclear strike, the General pointed out that russia and the soviet union “had been nurturing fear of nuclear weapons” for 60 years. It was about nuclear disarmament and the modernization of nuclear weapons: “What will happen then? First, he will kill people on the battlefield, but he is doing it with his artillery right now. Second, he will frighten the West with World War III, but it will not be the beginning of a war. The West may say that in response to nuclear weapons, we can start our own conventional war, and that will be the end of the russian army. The West should not be afraid of this misinformation that russia is spreading in Western countries. The fact that putin has nuclear weapons does not matter – he is a criminal, and President Biden said he could not stay in power”.

Regarding the collection of evidence of war crimes, Melinda Haring, the Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasian Center, explained at the conference that in order to work effectively against a common enemy, russian crimes should be documented as much as possible, including in concentration camps: “We hear a lot of gossip about what's going on in the filtration camps, but we must document it all – take satellite images, talk to people. Some may say that “allegedly” there are such camps, but we know that this is a fact of life and should be documented”.

Wizz Air has provided 10,000 free tickets for Ukrainian migrants heading to London, according to the press service of the Steve Morgan Foundation, in cooperation with which the initiative was launched. It was also supported by Choose Love, The Shapiro Foundation and Ukraine Sponsorship Pathway UK (USPUK).

In support of the British government's Home for Ukraine visa scheme, Ukrainians will be able to travel free of charge from Ukraine's neighbors Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Under this program, the United Kingdom has issued more than 95,000 visas to Ukrainians, of which more than 37,000 have already arrived in Britain. The joint initiative will run from May 14 to June 15, 2022.

Spanish authorities have identified assets, including homes, companies and at least one luxury yacht owned by 15 russian oligarchs on the EU sanctions list. This was reported by Reuters. Mariano Garcia Fresno, the head of the General Council of Notaries' money laundering prevention unit, said the unit was active after the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, when oligarchs tried to transfer shares in some companies to relatives or partners to avoid detection.

“We found out about 15 people from this (sanctions) list of the EU and another 105 people related to them or members of their families... There are lesser-known people on the list, but some of them were some of the most famous”, he added. According to Garcia Fresno, companies associated with russian oligarchs own about 35 properties in Spain, including several luxury homes, as well as bank accounts and shares in companies operating in Spain and other European countries.

In Latvia, all children from the 2025-2026 school year will study in schools only in Latvian. In three years, they plan to coordinate the language issue with schools and embassies of other countries. According to the Minister of Education and Science of Latvia Anita Muizniece, the country needs a transition period, as haste could provoke the opening of a case in the Constitutional Court, which in any case will delay the process. Besides, during this time all issues will be discussed with schools and embassies of other countries, as well as parents of children from schools of national minorities will be prepared. According to her, additional courses will be organized for teachers. It is assumed that first students of 1st , 4th , 7th grades and then students of 2nd, 5th and 8th grades will switch to Latvian. And from the school year 2025-2026, all students will study in the state language. It is noteworthy that Latvia has the largest Russian ethnic minority in the world in percentage terms – about 24.5% of the population.

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russia began a gradual decline in gas supplies to the EU and this boomerang hit russia itself. Due to the sanctions imposed by russia, “gazprom” will not supply gas to Germany via the Yamal-Europe pipeline, as well as to its former sales companies. But such counter-sanctions have turned against russia: now novatek is unlikely to be able to sell 3 million tons of LNG a year to “gazprom”, and “Gazprom” itself – up to 1 million tons from the “sakhalin-2” project.

the russian shipping company “sovcomflot” is forced to sell ships to pay off Western banks while being under sanctions. the company is engaged in maritime transportation of liquefied gas, crude oil and petroleum products. “sovcomflot” has already been banned from entering US waters, and its russian partners and financiers are blacklisted. It is not known how much the company owes Western banks, but according to the company, as of December 31, 2021, the total amount of debt was about $ 2.4 billion.

Now five oil tankers and four liquefied natural gas vessels have been sold to buyers from the Middle East and Asia: Dubai-based Koban Shipping and Singapore's Eastern Pacific Shipping. The $ 700 million got for the vessels will go to pay off the debt. Sources point out that the russian company is currently negotiating with the Chinese China Merchants Group. According to analysts at Lloyd's List, the “sovkomflot” expects to sell up to one third of its fleet. The agreements are signed on the eve of May 15 – the date from which companies in the EU should almost completely terminate financial relations with russia's largest oil companies. These sanctions do not yet provide an embargo on russian oil, but already exclude the purchase of oil from “rosneft” and “gazpromneft”, which the EU does not consider “strictly necessary” to ensure its energy security.

Almost 100 administrative cases of “discrediting the russian armed forces” were submitted to the courts of st. petersburg by May 12: 99 cases were registered and 75 were considered. There was no acquittal.

At the same time, a russian court fined Radio Svoboda 12.8 million wooden rubles for having not removed information about russian military crimes in Ukraine.

russia's central bank said that russia's international reserves fell by $ 1 billion within a week.

According to the study, 30% of russians reduced their visits to Facebook and Instagram due to the need to include a VPN. 26% – continue to use services blocked in russia. The majority of Facebook and Instagram users live in the urals (32%), as well as in moscow region (30%), the least – in the southern federal district (15%).

After Facebook, Instagram and other social networks had been blocked in russia, 39% of respondents have stopped using them out of the principle. This answer was most often given by residents of st. petersburg and leningrad region (48%), the north caucasus (24%) and the far east (31%). Another 5% have stopped using blocked social networks due to fears of repression by the authorities.

The russian government is urgently agreeing on the idea of ​​the ministry of digital development, communications and mass media of the rf to deregulate public procurement for the IT industry in order to speed up the purchase by government agencies of remnants of imported electronic and other information and communication equipment. Due to large-scale sanctions and disruptions in supplies, there is already their deficit in the market, jeopardizing the government's plans to digitize public administration. Even russian officials are well aware that, unlike other industry procurement, additional funding will not resolve the problems in the IT segment – there are simply no analogues of many types of such products, and in russia they will not be created in the coming years.

The ministry of digital development, communications and mass media expects to abandon the general rules of procurement regulation for the IT industry, namely – cancelling of the requirement to control government spending. The government has approved of this idea in general. The main question that is holding back such a decision is who of the corrupt will steal more budget money.

Siemens has started to close down its activities in russia, the concern is leaving the joint ventures and has already terminated contracts for the maintenance of high-speed trains “sapsan”. According to experts, even if the service is set up by russian structures, providing trains with components will be a serious problem and will be resolved by dismantling part of the fleet for spare parts, as is already the case with russian airlines.

The cost of the russian oil urals has fallen to a nine-month low – less than 5 thousand rubles per barrel. In particular, within the last two months alone, the urals have fallen in price twice. According to market analysts, provided that current prices remain and production and supply costs increase, the industry's budget may be in deficit by 2% to 2.5% by the end of the year.

Japan's largest oil company ENEOS has stopped buying russian oil.

the head of the ministry of economy of belarus chervyakov has said that due to international sanctions, the country's GDP fell by 2% in January-April.

The American company Sylvamo Corporation, which produces paper under the SvetoCopy brand, which was very popular in russia, is leaving the rf. At the same time, Sylvamo will sell the svetlogorsk pulp and paper mill in leningrad region, which is the corporation's main asset in russia.

Finnish food manufacturer Raisio has sold its consumer business in russia.

The barnaul city council decided not to coordinate with the local communist party of russia a meeting against rising prices, “because people may have a negative attitude to the special operation against Ukraine”. It was the communist party of russia that initiated the recognition of the so-called dpr and lpr, after which putin declared aggression against Ukraine.

russia's foreign ministry recommends that russians refrain from traveling to the UK and applying for British visas.

The accounts of the russian embassy in Poland are blocked till September 2.