Chronicle of world’s economic against Russia: New as for March 24

Author

Valery Moiseev

After the attack on Ukraine, Russia faced economic problems and sanctions from many countries and international organizations. In the Russian Federation itself, the authorities call it an economic war. has prepared a compilation of the latest reports about this as of March 24th.

Economy

Inflation in Russia as of March 18 was 14.5% compared to the same period last year. The price increase during the week accelerated by two percentage points at once. Sugar has risen in price by 50% in annual terms, and cabbage — by 200%.

After almost a month's break, trading in the shares of Russian companies on the Moscow Exchange began. But only blue chips were put up for sale, foreigners were not allowed to trade, and the National Wealth Fund poured about $10 billion for bidding.

Western Union, in accordance with an earlier decision, halted making money transfers in Russia.

Poland blocked the bank accounts of the Russian embassy in Warsaw. According to Russian Ambassador Sergey Andreev, this was done under the pretext of "financing terrorism."

Foreign manufacturers refused to supply Russia with components for the MC-21 aircraft. According to the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the production of the "import-substituted" MC-21 will begin in 2024. The "import-substituted" SSJ100 is promised to be certified in 2023, and supplies to airlines are planned to begin in 2024.

The largest Japanese oil refiners Eneos and Idemitsu Kosan announced suspending imports of Russian crude oil after implementing current contracts.

AvtoVAZ has begun working on "import-substituted" versions of Lada models that will have fewer imported components.

The defense corporation Almaz-Antey, under the sanctions, cannot receive payment from foreign customers for the supplied products in the amount of $1 billion.

French automaker Renault has suspended operations at its Moscow plant and is considering options for its stake in AvtoVAZ.

Hackers from the group Anonymous hacked into the website of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and promised to publish 35,000 files within 48 hours, including those with secret agreements. The first screenshots of documents from the hacked site have already begun to appear on hacker resources.

Sanctions

The UK has expanded the sanctions list to include 59 more individuals and organizations from Russia and six from Belarus. The list includes: Gazprombank, Russian Agricultural Bank, Alfa-Bank, Sovcomflot, RusHydro, Russian Railways, ALROSA, and Defense Initiatives. The list of individuals includes bankers Oleg Tinkov, German Gref, and Lev Khasis.

The US Treasury has expanded the sanctions list related to Russia. In particular, the head of Sberbank German Gref was included in it.

The French authorities have arrested two yachts on the Cote d'Azur. They may belong to Alexey Kuzmichev, a member of the LetterOne board of directors and the Alfa Group supervisory board. The total value of the arrested yachts is estimated at 90 million euros.

Society

The Wealth and Asset Management Department of investment bank Rothschild said it would no longer accept new clients with Russian citizenship. At the moment, Rothschild has about 70 clients from Russia. Also, the bank will no longer provide consulting services in the Russian Federation. Its employees from the Moscow office have been relocated to other countries.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov announced his intention to recall the Bulgarian ambassador from Moscow for consultations. Earlier, he pledged to give a diplomatic response to the statements of the Russian ambassador to Bulgaria who stated that "the Bulgarian people do not support the anti-Russian rhetoric and the government's policy in Sofia." "It is unacceptable for a foreign ambassador to act on behalf of the Bulgarian people against the Bulgarian government," Petkov said.

Concerts of Nikolay Rastorguev and the group Lyube were canceled in Germany, although tickets for their performances were on sale on March 22.

Russian TV channels should reduce broadcasting the number of entertainment programs given the changed situation in the world, Vladimir Medinsky, aide to the President of the Russian Federation, believes. Instead of entertainment programs, he advised screening "good Soviet, Russian" and "good foreign", even if this would require copyright infringement. "Who needs these copyrights now? People will be very grateful."

The German glove brand has decided to end its partnership with three-time Olympic champion Russian skier Alexander Bolshunov. The reason was the participation of the athlete in a rally-concert on March 18 at Luzhniki.

Writer Stephen King has suspended cooperation with publishers from Russia on all new contracts. The novel "Billy Summers" that is to be released on April 6 will be the last novelty by the "king of horrors" in Russian.

Russian tour operators have launched the sale of tours abroad for those willing to issue cards of international payment systems in local banks, the Association of Tour Operators of the Russian Federation reports. Now such tours are offered to Uzbekistan, and in the near future it is planned to organize similar tours to Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey.

The Kinotavr Film Festival will not be held this year. Its president, Alexander Rodnyansky, said: "It will be rescheduled for a period when we will make it through the current political developments and be able to return to the cinema, including to reflect on what happened to the country and all of us."