October 8, 2022 Ukraine and the World – Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

France is creating a 100 million euros fund, the money from which will be used for direct purchases from manufacturers of weapons that Ukraine needs to counter russian armed aggression, – President of France Emmanuel Macron announced on October 7. According to him, 100 million euros is the starting amount, and the fund will make it possible to “work with the French defense industry base”. Macron said that negotiations had already taken place with Denmark to provide Ukraine with more Caesar howitzers, in addition to the 18 units that France had already handed over to Kyiv.

The Swiss Federal Council has announced the provision of machinery and equipment for extinguishing fires, cleaning contaminated water and eliminating rubble: 20 construction machines, three fire engines and a car for transporting equipment and personnel, two mobile containers for collecting and cleaning contaminated water, electricity generators, equipment for lifting and carrying heavy objects, etc.

From Moldova, 17 trucks with 1.1 million euroth in humanitarian aid are heading to Ukraine. The cargo includes tents, mattresses, sleeping bags, heaters for tents, hygiene products, medicines and food.

Estonia is going to announce the next military assistance package for Ukraine, which should include ammunition and winter equipment.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Chairperson of the German Parliament's Defense Committee, again called on the German government to transfer modern Western tanks and armored personnel carriers to Ukraine.

Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin has stated that there is only one way for russia to end the war in Ukraine – to leave its territory.

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On October 7, the eighth package of EU sanctions against russia came into force, including 7 legal entities and 30 individuals. Among the companies that fell under the sanctions are the irkut corporation, moscow machine-building plant avangard, gosznak, the degtyarev plant, and the machine-building design bureau fakel.

The new list of the EU sanctions includes a ban on the export to russia of technical components for the aviation industry as well as any operations with the russian maritime register of shipping, which automatically closes access to the ports and gateways of EU countries to vessels certified by the rmrs. At the same time, the EU has decided that if the vessel violates the price cap condition for oil from russia, it will be deprived of access to financial and maintenance service in future shipments.

European companies are prohibited from transporting, insuring ships and cargoes, as well as providing brokerage and other services to companies engaged in the transportation of oil and petroleum products from russia if the price of such supplies exceeds the established limit.

Sanctions also apply to tankers of third countries – if a vessel owned, for example, by an Asian company, once transports russian oil at a price above the ceiling, it will no longer be able to get European insurance, maintenance, etc.

The European Union has toughened sanctions against russia on cryptocurrencies. Companies with a European license are prohibited from opening accounts and crypto wallets for russians.

Sanctioned now are consultations of lawyers from EU countries on the application and interpretation of regulations, including advice on commercial deals, participation on behalf of a russian client in commercial transactions and negotiations on them, as well as preparation, execution and verification of legal documents. First of all, the consequences will be felt by those russian entrepreneurs and companies whose assets or businesses are located in the EU.

The new package of sanctions also contains a ban on providing IT consulting services to russian individuals and legal entities. Banning the provision of these and other services, including legal ones, is intended to “weaken russia’s industrial capabilities”. In particular, it is prohibited to provide consulting services with setting up computer networks, installing hardware and software or assisting in installation, as well as consulting on the development of the implementation of computer programs.

The EU sanctions list also includes head of russia's central election commission pamfilov, first deputy defense minister tsalikov and deputy defense minister yunus-bek evkurov, a number of odious politicians and entertainers.

The Japanese government has imposed sanctions on 9 legal entities and more than 80 individuals of the rf, including the concerns kalashnikov and sozvezdie, odk-klimov, the holding roselectronics, the state corporation rostekh, the sabotage and assault reconnaissance group rusich. Personal sanctions have also been imposed against the relatives of the head of chechnya kadyrov, prime minister of the rf mishustin, head of the soviet of federation matvienko, deputy head of the soviet of security medvedev, minister of defense shoigu, director of the russian guard zolotov. The sanctions list includes gymnast kabaeva, the leader of the biker club “night wolves” zaldostanov. All assets of these individuals will be frozen.

The Foreign Ministry of Norway has stated that it is restricting the entry of russian fishing vessels to the country's ports.

Another legal barrier on the russian tourists’ way to Europe has been put by Germany, Malta and Slovenia. We mean the mandatory receipt by tourists not of Russian, but of European insurance, which under the current circumstances may be an impossible requirement. In the future, the list of such countries is expected to expand.

After the end of the moratorium on bankruptcy imposed in the rf from April 1 to October 1, in the first five days of October alone, creditors announced the intention of almost 2.5 thousand of their clients to bankrupt. Lawyers anticipate a wave of bankruptcies in 2023-2024.

During September, the national welfare fund decreased by 1.08 trillion rubles, the russian ministry of finance has reported. At the same time, the central bank has said russia's international reserves declined by $25 billion in September.

For the second year in a row, russia is experiencing a shortage of winter diesel fuel: in early October, the prices at the st. petersburg international commodity exchange rose by 25 % compared to last year and amount to more than 70 thousand a ton. Prices for winter diesel fuel in the rf are rising due to a decrease in the production of surrogate fuel.

In September, sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in russia decreased by 59.6% to 46.7 thousand, the European Business Association said. For nine months, sales in the rf decreased by 59.8 % – to only 506.7 thousand cars. russian lada of the cheapest configuration sells best of all.

The decrease in demand for logistics parks in moscow and moscow region led to the construction beginning only at facilities with a total area of 1.9 million square meters– half as much as a year ago. According to experts, in 2023 this will be the worst indicator regarding the number of commissioned new logistics sites.

Russian planes have been banned yet again from flying to 11 airports in southern and central russia.

In russian st. petersburg, leningrad region and nizhny novgorod, they refused to hold New Year's celebrations due to the mobilization that had begun, but stressed that they would not cancel the children's New Year celebrations. Earlier, all festive events were canceled in krasnodar, voronezh, sovietskiy, chernyakhovsk, rostov-on-don, zelenograd, bryansk and other cities.

Poland’s Border Guard has received additional funds to create electronic barrier systems on the border with kaliningrad region of the rf: special sensors, thermal imagers and surveillance cameras will be installed there.

The international holding Global Fashion Group is selling its online clothing and footwear store Lamoda in russia.

The largest Spanish bank, Santander, has said it has stopped servicing Chinese UnionPay cards issued by russian banks.