September 26, 2023 Ukraine and the World - Against russia’s Aggression. Sanctions in Action

Ukraine has received $ 100 million from the World Bank under the guarantee of the United Kingdom. These funds are part of the 5th additional financing of the project Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance in Ukraine (PEACE in Ukraine).

The United States and Ukraine have signed a memorandum of cooperation to ensure the stability of Ukraine's energy system in the amount of $522 million.

“Ukraine has regained half of its territories in 18 months, not a single American has died, NATO has grown, the russian economy is collapsing, the russian army has been destroyed – it was a good investment for the American people... This is the partner I've been dreaming of. They are ready to fight. They just need our economic and military help.... If we defeat him (putin) in Ukraine, the world will be a better place. All that is needed is American military support”, said US Senator Lindsey Graham.

First American M1 Abrams tanks have already been delivered to Ukraine.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda supports his country’s transferring to Ukraine used military equipment after the latter is replaced with new one.

Ukraine and Poland intend to create a military medical hub within 3-5 years, where Poles will help treat the Ukrainian military, train Ukrainian personnel and learn from Ukraine's experience.

UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps called London's support for Kyiv “watertight”.

Head of the UN Commission for Investigation War Crimes and Other Abuses Committed during russia's invasion of Ukraine, Erik Møse, said his team “has collected additional evidence indicating that the use of torture by russian armed forces in areas they controlled was widespread and systematic”. “In some cases, torture was used with such cruelty that it caused the death of the victim”, he added.

Human rights defenders, in cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, are preparing a dossier of war crimes for submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) accusing russia of deliberately causing famine during the war against Ukraine.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s mission is starting technical discussions with representatives of Ukraine in preparation for the second review of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.

165 defense companies from 26 countries have already confirmed their participation in the Ukrainian Defense Industries Forum in Kyiv in the autumn.

The German Ministry of Defense has refuted the fake spread by russian state media that a German Leopard tank “with a crew from the Bundeswehr” was allegedly destroyed in the war zone in Ukraine.

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland Elina Valtonen is not sure that a change of leader in russia can turn it into a normal peace-loving democracy.

rf

The State Security Service (VDD) of Latvia has begun additional verification of information on the possible export of microcircuits by Latvian companies to russian military plants.

The Riga City Court has sentenced the founder and administrator of the russian-language Facebook group “Criminal Latvia” Yuri Mikhailov to two months in prison for publicly justifying and glorifying war crimes and crimes against peace, as well as for inciting national and ethnic hatred.

The American fund Baring Vostok has sold its majority stake in the collection agency “first client bureau” in russia. Baring Vostok has been working in russia for more than ten years, and during this time the agency has become a leader in providing collection services with a market share of almost 20%.

The investment fund Da Vinci Capital has sold its business in the rf.

The Chinese company Haier is closing the Candy home appliance plant in kirov, russia. The candi s.n.g. llc is being liquidated due to “low profitability”: “the production of candy household appliances in kirov has been stopped, since the plant was supposed to work, in particular, for Europe”. Before the start of the war against Ukraine, the plant planned to produce up to 1 million units of equipment per year.

central bank of the rf claims that in the coming months, officially recognized inflation in russia will continue to grow and will be 6-7% by the end of 2023. At the same time, the ministry of economy of the rf has warned the population that inflation in 2024 “will be at fairly high levels”(the average figure is 7.2%, but it is actually expected to be much higher).

russians continue to accumulate debts: according to central bank, in August, loans for the population increased by 979 billion rubles (4.1 trillion rubles since the beginning of the year), which is 3.2% of the increase for the month and 20.7% for the year.

Due to the large-scale international sanctions imposed since March 2022, russians have not been able to use Visa and MasterCard cards issued by russian banks in other countries. Today, only the Chinese UnionPay payment system is available for them, but the circle of russian banks issuing them is small. In addition, the cost of service is high, and one will have to pay a hefty commission for withdrawing cash.

After the suspension of the supply to the rf of the original medication from the American company Celgene based on lenalidomide for the treatment of multiple myeloma, many fakes (“replicas”) appeared in the rf, which led to a sharp drop in prices for this medication. russian pharmaceutical companies sell the medication with almost zero profitability.

The ministry of finance of the rf has lowered the estimate of dividend revenues to the russian budget for the next three years: for 2024 – by 23%, to 650.4 billion rubles, for 2025 – to 585.1 billion rubles (previous forecast – 823.6 billion rubles). The main sources of dividends to the budget will be gazprom, sberbank, transneft, rosneftegaz.

Already this winter, gas tariffs will be raised by almost 20% for russians. Such an increase in tariffs is a record for the last decade – this is the only way to fill the budget of gazprom, which has lost almost a third of its usual revenue, mainly due to losses in the European market. russians will see the first changes in bills in July 2024 – tariffs will increase by 11%, and from 2025 – by 8.2%.

From October 26, 2023, the new law “on citizenship of the rf” will come into force. To obtain a russian passport, a foreign citizen, in addition to permanent residence in the territory of the rf, knowledge of the russian language and provision of the necessary documents, will have to study the history of russia and russian legislation. It is not yet known in what form this knowledge will be confirmed. It will be possible to obtain citizenship in marriage with a russian only if there is a common child.

In 2024, the salaries of employees of the federal civil service in russia will not be indexed.

Luminor Bank, a commercial bank operating in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, has announced that from September 25, it will no longer be possible to pay with its payment cards in belarus at retail and service outlets operating in the country, as well as in online shops. It will be impossible to withdraw money from ATMs located on the territory of belarus.

The ministry of healthcare of belarus has identified the top specialties of doctors who are currently in short supply in the regions. First of all, there is a shortage of anesthesiologists and resuscitators, more than 17% of whose positions are vacant. Diagnostic doctors and dentists are also urgently needed. According to a survey conducted by a group of independent sociologists and the trade union of doctors, 31.7% of medical professionals are not at all satisfied with working conditions.

minister of forestry of the rb, aleksandr kulik, said for the second time that the West does not want to buy belarusian pellets, and producers have not been able to find a replacement for the EU market, which was closed to them due to sanctions.

In belarus, they continue to look for “parasites”. Employment information is being collected across the country to update the dependency database. It is necessary to provide such data to the “parasite” commission by October 21, so as not to be among the “not employed in the economy” in December. In the last month of the year, there will be another update of the database.

On October 4, the minsk city court will consider the claim of the ministry of justice regarding the liquidation of the public association “belarusian committee “children of chernobyl”. Established in 1986 after the accident at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the association was engaged in the protection of physical and mental health, rights and interests of belarusian children affected by the accident.