Chronicle of the world's economic war against Russia: New as of March 22

Author

Valery Moiseev

After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia faced economic problems and sanctions from many countries and international organizations. In the Russian Federation, the authorities call it an economic war. has prepared a compilation of the latest reports about this as of March 22.

Economy

Banks Goldman Sachs and Barclays downgraded their forecasts for the Russian economy, they expect it to decline: Barclays — by 12.4%, Goldman Sachs — by 10%. The Russian economy has faced the most severe decline since the beginning of the 21st century, and before the start of the war in Ukraine, it was predicted to grow for the second year in a row.

The international rating agency S&P Global Ratings will withdraw the credit ratings of all Russian companies and organizations until April 15. Earlier, S&P announced the suspension of commercial activities in Russia amid the situation in Ukraine.

Nestle and Unilever, which continue operating in the Russian Federation, will raise prices for their products for the Russian market by up to 45% from April.

According to Kaiko (one of the main providers of data on the cryptocurrency market for investors and enterprises), at the end of February, sales of cryptocurrencies for rubles increased to a ten-month high. The bitcoin transactions reached 2 billion rubles, and in early February, the average daily turnover was 300 million rubles.

Novartis, the world's second largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, has joined four other companies (Pfizer, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, and Eli Lilly) that announced they had refused new clinical trials in Russia. It will be very difficult for new medicines to enter the Russian market.

Oil and gas services company KCA Deutag suspends new investments in the Russian Federation and evaluates further options for the work of its Russian structure. Earlier, the "big four" oil services announced the termination of investments in the Russian Federation: Schlumberger, Halliburton, Baker Hughes, and Weatherford.

Danish-Swedish dairy producer Arla has decided to stop selling kefir because of "unpleasant associations" – its packaging depicts Russian ornaments and St. Basil's Cathedral. Sales will resume, but with new packaging.

The Swedish bank SEB and the French group BNP Paribas suspend operations in Russia.

The Japanese electrical corporation NEC has suspended the processing of new orders.

The Dutch energy company Eneco said it would sign new contracts for the supply of Russian gas.

The British company OneWeb, which creates a space Internet network, has transferred an order to continue satellite launches from Roscosmos to SpaceX Elon Musk. The first launch is expected this year.

Sanctions

Italy has frozen the 800 million euros in assets belonging to Russian businessmen.

Almost 400 million euros of Russian assets have been frozen in the Netherlands.

A superyacht associated with Dmitry Pumpyansky, the owner of Russia's largest steel pipe manufacturer, who is under UK and EU sanctions, was seized by the authorities in Gibraltar.

In Bern, a property belonging to Petr Aven, whom Switzerland has named Putin's confidant and a major shareholder of the group that owns Alfa-Bank, was seized.

In Finland, 21 yachts were seized, allegedly related to Russian businessmen. If it turns out that they belong to sanctioned Russians or companies, then these yachts can be arrested.

The Russian Federation has already lost 78 civilian aircraft due to sanctions — they were arrested abroad.

Society

In February, the Russians withdrew a record amount of money from bank accounts since 2008 — 1.2 trillion rubles. This is 3.5% of all funds placed in banks.

Sportswear manufacturer Speedo terminated the contract with Russian swimmer Yevgeny Rylov. This happened a few days after the two-time Olympic champion took part in the Crimean Spring concert in Luzhniki. Speedo will donate the rest of its donation to a UN project that helps refugees. Also, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) launched an investigation against him for supporting a "military special operation" in Ukraine.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) disqualified grandmaster Sergey Karyakin after he published an open letter in support of Russia's "special military operation".

The Italian group Maneskin, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021, will not visit Russia as part of their world tour due to the war in Ukraine.

Due to the massive influx of Russians in Turkey, rental prices have jumped. The number of requests for rental housing in Antalya and Alanya has increased almost four times.

One of the Estonian museums took the paintings of Moscow and Baltic conceptual artists off the wall at the exhibition (left only the captions to the paintings). The museum said that Russian artists and art are not to blame for what is happening now in Ukraine, but in a "completely new context," some of the works may be "hard to perceive."

What countries have imposed sanctions against Russia (as of March 21)