October 5, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

October 4, the Pentagon published a full list of weapons and military equipment, which Ukraine will soon receive within the new $ 625 million aid package. This will include:

Four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems(HIMARS);

HIMARS ammunition;

Sixteen 155mm Howitzers(probably M777);

75,000 155mm artillery rounds;

300 precision-guided 155mm artillery rounds (probably M982 Excalibur);

Sixteen 105mm Howitzers;

30,000 122 mm mortar rounds;

Claymore anti-personnel munitions;

200,000 rounds of small arms ammunition;

200 MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles;

Other equipment.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has officially received Ukraine's application for joining the North Atlantic Alliance. “The next stage will be to discuss this application at the level of the North Atlantic Council, that is, at the level of NATO member states in Brussels”, he said at a briefing on October 4.

President of Latvia Egils Levits believes that Ukraine is ready to become a full member of NATO and will be able to strengthen the Alliance’s defensive capabilities. “The Ukrainian society and the Ukrainian Army are powerful motivators of Ukraine's accession to NATO, and for NATO it is a very good opportunity to get such a strong country in its composition”, Levits said at the Warsaw Security Forum.

During the Warsaw Security Forum, Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki stated that russian aggression against Ukraine is “…not putin's war, as some, especially in the West, would want to see it, it is russia’s war”. According to the Polish Prime Minister, modern russia has re-awakened the worst demons of the 20th century – colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, and the kremlin uses them as a weapon of propaganda in the russian society.

The war unleashed by russia should end with the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity, and the rf should pay reparations to Ukraine, – said in Warsaw the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. He and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock are convinced that nothing separates Poland and Germany in the issue of support of Ukraine. Baerbock stressed that the European community will not leave “unanswered” the seizure of Ukrainian lands by russian president putin. To this end, the EU is preparing the eighth package of sanctions that will hit the russian regime on “where it really works”: on oil revenues.

Luxembourg's Defense Minister François Bausch believes in the victory of Ukraine over the russian aggressor. “This is the first time in history when my country spent money on military assistance to a European state”, Bausch said.

EU Finance Ministers have agreed to integrate the EU's support payments to Ukraine into its 2023 budget to make disbursements more structured and predictable.

The US Department of the Treasury believes that the G7 countries’ plan to implement the ceiling of prices for russian oil will allow 50 developing countries to save $ 160 billion a year.

The last monument to Lenin in the country has been dismantled in Finland.

rf

Italy's Financial Guard has frozen assets – real estate objects belonging to two russian oligarchs. They are located at the sea resort of Portofino, in Sirmion on Lake Garda and in Rome. This property worth 57 million euros belongs to eduard khudainatov (former head of the russian energy giant rosneft), as well as grigory berezkin (chairman of the board of the russian direct investment group “esn”).

Japan has deported an employee of the russian consulate general in Sapporo.

Norwegian oil Johan Sverdrup (JS Blend) is increasingly replacing russian urals in the European market. This is facilitated by the EU embargo on raw materials from the rf.

Finland banned transferring to russia the icebreaker, ordered by nornikel.

russia has finally been deprived of seats in the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) at the UN.

According to the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan, during the first half of the year the russians transferred to their country $ 5.3 billion, compared to the same period last year, the volume of transfers has increased by 2.4 times.

In September, the rf’s export of metals significantly decreased because their transportation, especially of steel, was on the verge of profitability. The introduction of international sanctions coincided with the decrease in prices in the world markets, which made it too expensive to transport russian metals to the East of the federation and then to the Asian countries. Previously, transport expenditures amounted to 10 % of the final price, and this was considered economically justified, now the figure is 30 %.

Due to the politico - economic crisis, russians continue to withdraw cash. In particular, according to the Central Bank of the rf, on September 30 the amount of cash increased to the record since the beginning of March – 144.8 billion rubles.

For the first time in russia’s history, the mobile Internet traffic has got reduced, – the Ministry of Defense said, stressed that in the second quarter of this year the decrease was 2.3 % compared to the first – from 8.54 billion GB to 8.35 billion GB. Market participants and experts associate this with the gradual isolation of the rf through blocking foreign online resources. At the same time, telecomdaily predicts that in 2022 the cost of mobile and broadband internet will increase by 15-18 %.

Following the announcement of mobilization, in the secondary housing market in moscow, the number of applications for the urgent sale of apartments has increased. Their owners are ready to sell housing with a discount of up to 20 %. According to Forbes, nearly 700,000 citizens have left russia since the beginning of mobilization.

Last week (from September 26 to October 2), the average sales of cars in the rf decreased to 1.2 thousand cars per day, the decrease is 19.3 % – this is the largest weekly fall in the last two months. Experts say that sales dropped against the background of mobilization: the russians are not after new cars now.

The ministry of transport of the rf is raising fare for paid roads: the marginal price for 1 km for cars will increase from 3 rubles to 5-8 rubles. This decision is “made due to important socio-political events”.

In the third quarter, moscow offices, including their premium segment, have lost almost 15 % of tenants.

According to edtech-companies, in russia, the demand for additional vocational education of the population, including marketing, programming, analysts, design, language training, etc., has decreased by 10-30 % since the beginning of mobilization.

Families of mobilized residents of russian sakhalin will receive 5 kg of fish per person as part of the state support.

Self - proclaimed president of belarus aleksandr lukashenko during a meeting on military safety for the first time publicly said that belarus was involved in the war against Ukraine on the side of russia.

The national bank of belarus has reported that since the beginning of the year belarusians have handed over to banks $ 1.2 billion more than they bought. In August alone, they gave $ 143.5 million (equivalent) more than they bought. The active sale of cash foreign currency occurs against the background of high inflation and the fall of real incomes of the population. In August, annual inflation was 17.9 %. The average real salary for the same month decreased by 4 % as compared to last year.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 21 thousand professionals have been fired from IT companies in belarus. This is almost twice as many as in the same period of 2021. In just 8 months of this year, four thousand more specialists left the companies than last year.