Chronicle of world's economic war against Russia: IT companies lack servers

Author

Valery Moiseev

After the attack on Ukraine, Russia faced economic problems and sanctions from many countries and international organizations. In Russia itself, the authorities call it an economic war. has prepared a selection of the latest reports on April 25.

Economy

The European Union intends to cut off gas supplies from Russia by 2027, said Austrian Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler.

The EU plans to return to trade talks with India to reduce its dependence on Russia. India wants to be friends with the West, but needs Moscow's support to protect its borders, said the head of the Indian Ministry of Finance.

Shell has launched the "nightmare" talks on selling its stake in the Sakhalin-2 joint project with Gazprom. It is unlikely that anyone other than Chinese state-owned corporations will be interested in this asset, so the deal is likely to be signed on terms unfavorable to the British company.

The UK is discussing the possibility of launching the first coal mine for 30 years amid cuts in energy supplies from Russia. The Cumbria mine project in England was ready a few years ago, but its implementation did not begin due to protests by environmental activists.

Due to the "difficult situation" in the aviation industry, Moscow's Vnukovo Airport is working to optimize costs and has introduced a downtime regime for employees. During the downtime, the employees will receive two-thirds of their salary, they retain the job and the right to medical care under insurance. At the end of March, Sheremetyevo Airport and its subsidiaries sent 20% of employees to downtime.

The VK Internet group asked the Russian Ministry of Finance to help with the purchase of "tens of thousands of servers" amid a shortage of imported equipment. Yandex may also have problems with expanding computing volume. Problems will soon arise with Russian servers running Baikal and Elbrus processors, market participants say.

For the first time since 2020, the UAE will send an oil tanker to Europe to replace Russian oil supplies, which are about to stop. To do this, the French TotalEnergies chartered the tanker Moscow Spirit, which is scheduled to be loaded in early May.

Russia's STS Logistics has begun shipping containers from India to Russia via Iran. It is stated that in the future this route will allow unhindered delivery of goods from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Gulf countries and back.

Sanctions

The European Union has not yet been able to agree on a common position on an energy embargo on Russia, said European Foreign Minister Josep Borrell. According to him, these measures have not yet received sufficient support among Allies. This topic will be discussed again at the EU summit on May 30-31. The European Commission is currently developing a sixth package of sanctions against Russia.

NASDAQ exchanges in the United States and Northern Europe (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland) will cease operations in Russia on April 29, which will lead to the cessation of access to exchanges for residents of Russia.

Russian mining company Alrosa has been in talks with Indian clients to find a way to continue supplying Russian diamonds to the country bypassing sanctions. At the meetings, in particular, the sale of precious stones for rubles or rupees was discussed.

On April 22, Russian singer Philip Kirkorov was banned from entering Estonia for five years. Singer Polina Gagarina was also banned from entering the country for five years. In early April, the Tallinn City Council proposed to compile a list of "pro-Putin artists" and ban them from entering Estonia.

Society

The accounts of the Russian Consulates General in Houston and New York were closed by Bank of America. The embassy is practically under blockade, said the Russian ambassador to the United States.

About 8,000 Lexus, Cadillac, and Mercedes cars did not reach Russia. They are blocked in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, one of Europe's largest ports for transshipment (up to 2 million cars a year). They could not get to Russia due to sanctions from the European Union, which banned the supply of luxury goods worth more than 50 thousand euros.

The International Skating Union ISU has canceled the Russian stage of the Grand Prix series in figure skating in the season-2022-2023. The union has banned Russia and Belarus from applying for skating competitions under its auspices.