May 18, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

In the United States, Republican and Democratic senators are working on a bill that would allow courts to hear war crimes cases, even if the perpetrators are not U.S. citizens. This was reported by The New York Times with reference to a copy of the bill. The publication connects the appearance of this bill with the actions of the russian military against civilian Ukrainians and the discovery of mass graves in those regions of Ukraine that were or still are under the occupation by russian troops.

The idea of ​​the bill is that someone who committed war crimes abroad and later came to the United States could be prosecuted.

“The United States should not be a safe haven for war criminals who want to evade justice in their home country ...”, said Senator Grassley, the author of the bill. It also abolishes the statute of limitations for war crimes, so that prosecution will be possible many years afterwards. Despite political differences, leading lawmakers from the Justice Committee believe the project has a real chance of becoming law quickly.

The Group of Seven countries (G7:the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan, the United States) plan to provide 15 billion euros (about $ 15.8 billion) in aid to Ukraine at a meeting in Bonn this week. This is grant funding, i.e. these funds will not have to be returned.

The package will cover three months with short-term financing, mainly in the form of grants, which, unlike loans, do not need to be repaid. The United States has already offered to pay half of the aid - $ 7.5 billion. The package is being discussed because the war has deprived Ukraine of the lion's share of budget revenues. Grants will be provided for three months, i.e. 5 billion euros per month. By the way, this is the amount the Ukrainian government estimates the monthly state budget deficit.

The countries of the European Union will continue to supply weapons to the Ukrainian Army. They will not let the Armed Forces of Ukraine run out of resources to defend the state at a critical moment. This was stated by EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell. He stressed the importance of this issue for the Organization. Borrel assured that the EU will not allow a situation in which Ukraine would have shortage of weapons and military equipment at the critical moment of hostilities in the Donbas. According to Borrel, Georgia and Moldova, which may feel aggression from russia, can also count on the support of the EU.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner has stated he is open to the idea of ​​confiscating russian state assets to finance Ukraine's reconstruction. He said this in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt and three other European publications. “I am politically open to the idea of ​​confiscating foreign assets of the central bank of russia. We are already having this discussion in the G7 and the EU, and the proposals are on the desk”, Lindner said.

As for private russian assets, according to the Minister, it is necessary to see what can be done in terms of the law. “We must respect the rule of law, even when dealing with russian oligarchs”, he added.

Ukraine has four possible ways to confiscate russian assets and companies related to the aggressor country: in particular, through the courts and confiscation due to martial law. The Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Malyuska told about this.

The first way is confiscation by court decision.

The second way is to use the new law on confiscation of russian assets, which is waiting for the President’s signature. The decision on confiscation will be made by the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court on the basis of criteria that will determine the persons who will be subject to sanctions, in particular in the form of recovery of property to state revenue.

The third way to confiscate involves the use of the law on the nationalization of property of the russian state – for example, sberbank and prominvestbank. In this case, the government’s decision is needed, after which the decision of the National Security and Defense Council signed by the President launches nationalization.

The last, fourth way – which Maluska calls undesirable – is the confiscation of property in view of martial law. This method is the simplest, because it does not require any argument. But then there is the obligation to reimburse the cost. Therefore, the Minister says, it has not been used yet.

Canada is preparing to send cargo ships to Eastern Europe to help export Ukrainian grain, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Melanie Joly said after the G7 and NATO summits.

“Many routes are being discussed with European, American and Canadian agencies. We are also in contact with other jurisdictions: from Poland to Romania, the Baltic States and Turkey”, the Minister said. Joly stressed the importance of exporting Ukrainian grain to the Middle East and Africa to avoid a food crisis in those regions.

The number of fuel trucks transporting fuel to Ukraine has increased by a third daily since the beginning of May due to the shortage of fuel at filling stations, the press service of the Ukrainian government said after an online meeting with representatives of the fuel business to supply the domestic fuel market. Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal pointed out that the European Union has already introduced so-called “solidarity corridors” for Ukraine – a platform for establishing alternative logistics routes by all possible types of transport.

The Ministry of Digital Transformation has opened the first Diya.Business Centre abroad— in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry in Telegram.

Temporarily displaced Ukrainians will be able to do the following for free:

– consult on starting a business in Poland;

– obtain information on refugee status or other legal grounds for staying in Poland;

– find out details about living and working in Poland.

The Diya.Business Center in Warsaw is located at: 12, Bagatela

The Diya.Business Center in Warsaw can be visited by prior registration.

At the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, the court has arrested more than UAH 300 million from railway wagons of russian companies. This was reported by the press service of the National Police.

Currently, 434 wagons have been transferred to the ARMA with the right to commercial use, possession and disposal of money.

Proceeds from the commercial use of the wagons will be used for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom personally appeared at the opening of the new Elizabeth Line at Paddington Station in London. To appear, Her Majesty chose an outfit in blue and yellow. Relevant photos appeared on the royal family's Instagram page. To go public, the monarch wore a yellow coat and a hat of the same color with a blue decor in the form of a flower. Users consider this outfit a sign of attention and support of Ukraine.

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Five top managers have resigned within two days from sberbank under full US sanctions that may soon be disconnected from SWIFT. deputy chairman of the board aleksandr buriko and sergey maltsev and member of the board natalia alimova decided to “quit the work in the bank”. These changes took place “as part of the transformation of the management model and updating the strategy”, the bank said. buriko, who oversaw the finance bloc at the bank, maltsev, who ran the sales network bloc, and alimov, who oversaw sales management, were blacklisted on May 8 by the USA. They are banned from entering the United States, concluding any agreements with U.S. legal entities or individuals, and their assets in the United States are blocked.

The day before, it became known that two more top managers had resigned from sberbank: andrei shemetov, head of the sberbank's corporate investment business, and yulia chupina, curator of the strategy and development bloc and senior vice president, whose work was overseen by german gref himself.

All in all, seven senior bank executives have resigned since the start of the war, and some have left russia. lev khasis, the first deputy head of sberbank, who had held the post for more than nine years, was the first to resign on February 25. He was followed by david rafalovsky, head of the “Technology” unit and curator of the creation of the Christofari supercomputer.

As part of the sixth package of sanctions over invading Ukraine, the European Union is considering disconnecting from SWIFT the sberbank and two major credit institutions: mkb (whose client in 2017 became “rosneft”) and rosselkhozbank.

At the Renault nationalized plant in moscow, russians want to launch the assembly line. “kamaz” will become a new partner of the enterprise. The company is going to soon resume production of cars under the brand “moskvich”. The mayor of moscow sergey sobyanin declared it, as reported by “kommersant”. According to Sobianin, the foreign owner closed the plant, and so that the staff would not lose their jobs, it was decided to establish the production of cars under the brand “moskvich” and keep most of the employees.

There is no information about the new models yet, but it is known that “kamaz” will become the company's key technological partner. It is known that it mainly produces trucks, although in its history there was a car “oka”.

The Renault plant in moscow closed on February 28. Recently, Renault Group has sold it together with avtovaz to the state for only 1 ruble. Under the agreement, the company is now on the balance of the city.

Previously, Renault Duster, Arkana and Kaptur crossovers were assembled in moscow, and before that “moskviches” were produced there. Back in 1945, the Opel plant was exported from Germany to the USSR and the Opel Kadett called the “moskvich-400” was launched on trophy equipment. After the bankruptcy in 2006, the company was bought out by Renault.

minister of industry and trade of the rf manturov has announced that the main terms of the agreement between Renault and avtovaz are assistance in the supply of components and the ability to produce cars “moskvich” on their platform. At the same time, he said that Renault does not have an “option” to buy the plant transferred to moscow, the agreement was really made “for rubles”, but the “wooden” ones, say market experts.

This summer, russians are massively refusing to rest in the temporarily occupied Crimea – because of this, up to a third of hotels and guest houses on the peninsula may not open. Hoteliers dread the reduction of up to 30-40% of the projected load at the peak of the tourist season, and they cannot attract vacationers by further reducing prices in conditions of significant inflation. Tourists refuse to travel to the Crimea due to the closed Simferopol airport, lack of train tickets and fears about the closeness to the hostilities in Ukraine. Bad expectations of hoteliers began due to the “failed” May holidays, when hotel occupancy was only 10-15%.

svetlana vozna, executive director of the Crimean tourist alliance, says that the expected summer load is 30-40%, but does not rule out that already booked tours may be canceled. Other representatives of the tourist market claim that sales of summer tours to the Crimea have decreased by 85% compared to last year.

Companies that mine precious metals in magadan region are experiencing a shortage of fuels, lubricants and spare parts for heavy machinery, the regional government said. The average level of supplies on both criteria averages 80%. In the context of international economic sanctions, a shortage of parts is forecast due to the lack of russian analogues. Also, the cost of russian-made vehicles (kamaz, urals, uaz) has increased by 30%. All this will increase the cost of mining precious metals.

russia still chaired the Arctic Council this week, but it was only formal. In protest against russia's invasion of Ukraine, seven of the eight countries in the Arctic Council have stopped working. Currently, the Arctic states (Denmark, Iceland, Canada, Norway, the United States, Finland and Sweden) are deciding whether it is time to form a new alliance – without the participation of the rf.

Exports of russian oil to foreign countries began to decline significantly in May, and within 12 days of the month they decreased by almost 12% compared to April – an average of 658 thousand tons per day. At the same time, oil exports, bypassing the “transneft” system (mostly sakhalin projects), fell by almost a third. The situation is expected to worsen due to EU sanctions, which came into force on May 15 against “rosneft” and “gazpromneft”. In addition, the EU is thoroughly preparing for an embargo on oil from russia.

According to the center for macroeconomic analysis and short-term forecasting (CMASF), in March 2022 the index of investment activity, which records a change in the supply of investment goods in the russian economy, decreased by 19.5% – from 127 points in February to 103.6 points in March 2022.

“Unfortunately, under the new circumstances, an accelerated decline in investment activity is expected”, the CMASF said. This is confirmed by the data of the new consensus forecast of FocusEconomics, which predicts a reduction in capital investment in russia in 2022 by 20% with a fall in GDP by 10.2%.

The russian version of the Forbes magazine will not be published from June due to the lack of advertisers and rising production costs, said development director dmitry ozman.

The russian government is increasingly unable to support russian film production and has refused to provide cinemas with a subsidy of 6.5 billion rubles, said a member of the association of cinema owners isayev.

The government has also cancelled the requirements for car certification in russia – now the country is allowed to produce cars of all environmental classes, including the lowest “Euro 0”.

The international investment and financial group PPF and Home Credit bank, owned by it, are selling their russian banking assets and subsidiaries.

The government of New Zealand has imposed sanctions on four belarusian companies and 23 citizens, including unrecognized president lukashenko, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has said. Earlier, New Zealand imposed sanctions on more than 650 russian citizens, including putin and members of the state duma, as well as 55 of russia's largest companies.

“rosrybolovstvo” was forced to report to russian deputy prime minister abramchenko about the lack of white tin for the production of cans. Large russian canneries have the capacity to produce tin cans, but they depend on supplies of metal from abroad, and supplies have been halted by sanctions. russia used to buy packaging in Europe, Japan and China. According to the “fish union”, packaging has risen in price by 60-80%, and canned food has become more expensive by almost 28%.

The Finnish company Gasum refused to pay for russian gas in rubles and filed a lawsuit in arbitration. At the same time, the French company Engie has stated that it will pay for russian gas in euros in accordance with the recommendation of the European Commission, the next payment will be made by the end of May.

According to the national institute of statistics, the russians became leaders in buying real estate in Turkey in April, they bought 1,152 objects, significantly surpassing representatives of other countries.

russian diplomats, who were accused of intelligence activities for the FSB and expelled from the world's leading countries, “are now being employed in other areas, russia will increase the number of diplomatic missions in Africa, Asia and the CIS”, lavrov said.

“sovcomflot”, which is rapidly going bankrupt due to US, EU and British sanctions, has reduced its fleet to 111 vessels, temporarily reducing its debt to $ 1.7 billion.

Radio Liberty was once again fined by 10 million rubles for failing to remove information about putin's invasion of Ukraine.

A Latvian court has sentenced a businessman to five years in prison on charges of espionage in favor of russia, the Latvian news agency LETA reported.

Rising food or energy prices are the fault of russian president putin alone, said the German Foreign Minister.

In russia, after the start of the war, prices for sanitary ware have risen significantly, writes RBC with reference to a study by construction company pridex. From February to April, faucets, sinks and toilets in economy class rose in price by an average of 20 to 70% compared to the same period in 2021. Premium items rose in price by 5 to 25%. The increase in prices for economy class shower cabins was 30 to 70%, for bathroom accessories – up to 40%. In 2021, for the same period of time, price growth was only 5 to 10%.

As explained in the pridex, against the background of the departure of European brands, Chinese and Turkish suppliers “are in a situation of high demand and raising the cost of their products”.

Other market representatives also talked about the increase in prices for sanitary ware by tens of percentage points.

“Despite the return of the ruble to pre-crisis levels, supply cuts, complicated logistics chains and rising raw material prices remain important factors affecting the cost of the final product”, summed up the commercial director of pridex aleksandr aleinikov.