Chronicle of world's economic war against Russia: New as of March 28

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 compilation of the latest reports as of March 28.

Economy

The Moscow Exchange index in the first trading session without restrictions on shares opened with a decline of 3%, the RTS index — of 3.3%. As a result of trading, the decline was 2.15% and 0.8%, respectively.

Russia has no intention of "engaging in European charity" and export gas to "unfriendly" countries for free if they refuse to pay for it in rubles, said Peskov, a spokesman for the president. German Vice Chancellor Habeсk said that the G7 countries will not pay Russia for gas in rubles, Bloomberg reported. The Ministers of all G7 countries agreed that changing the payment currency would be a breach of contracts and demanded that their companies not pay in rubles.

Germany may stop importing oil and coal from Russia this year, Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated. According to him, the reduction of energy imports from Russia will happen quickly.

Qatar stops new investments in Russia. Qatar's QIA sovereign wealth fund now controls 20.7% of Rosneft.

The Dutch Heineken, the world's second largest beer producer, has decided to leave the Russian market and transfer the business to a new local owner. Until such a transfer, all seven Heineken breweries in Russia will continue to operate "in order to preserve jobs and serve their customers and consumers." The company does not expect any profit from the deal and expects depreciation and non-monetary expenses of 0.4 billion euros. Earlier, Heineken announced that it was suspending investments and imports in Russia, as well as the production and sale of its flagship brand Heineken. In addition, the company waived income from Russian business — all payments, royalties, and dividends were suspended.

Despite the new stage of capital amnesty announced in Russia, Russian customers of European banks are in no hurry to return the money to the country. "I do not know of a single case of recent relocation of money to Russia," said the director of an asset management company.

The Danish brewing company Carlsberg (brands Carlsberg, Kronenbourg, Holsten, Tuborg, and owner of the Baltika factories) decided to leave Russia completely. "We have made a difficult decision to sell our business in Russia, which we believe is right in the current circumstances. Upon the process completion, we will not be present in Russia," the official statement reads. The company apologized to 8,400 employees who worked in Russia.

Bloomberg will disconnect the Russians from the terminals on April 3. Earlier, the companies disconnected the sanctioned Russian banks from the terminals. Bloomberg Terminals is a program the users can actually monitor the state of the financial market through. This system is also a trading venue on the electronic trading platform.

Sanctions

In Moscow, the FSB confiscated Audemars Piguet watches worth millions of dollars. Russian authorities have stated customs violations as the reason for the seizure, but the Swiss Foreign Ministry said this step was "an arbitrary repressive measure in response to sanctions."

The Japanese government will revise the law on foreign currency to prevent circumvention of sanctions against Russia, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stated. "Allowing free conversion into cryptocurrencies will be a loophole to circumvent sanctions, so we are preparing to revise the law on foreign currency in parliament to further enhance the effectiveness of sanctions," Kisida said.

The European Commission has clarified that a company is considered to be blacklisted if the majority of its stocks (shares) collectively belong to two or more persons under sanctions. This rule has been in force in the United States since 2008, but has not been applied in the European Union.

Society

The stock of equipment of brands that have limited their supplies to Russia, including Apple and Samsung, will be enough for 2-3 months, local retailers said.

The European Commission has recommended that EU member states consider revoking European passports previously issued for investment ("golden" passports) to Russian and Belarusian citizens on the sanctions list.

Exceptions to the general trend

German DHL Express stopped delivering documents and cargo from / to Ukraine and closed its office. The reason is the termination of flights to Ukraine. Delivery of goods and documents to Russia has also been suspended. At the same time, "delivery of goods and documents from Russia abroad and by Russia is possible and carried out on a regular basis. Offices of DHL Express branches work on a regular basis," the company's website said. DHL also denied reports on social media about the transfer of six of its cars to Ukrainian security forces. She claims that the vehicles were confiscated.

Russia's largest supplier of packaging products, Tetra Pak, has long refused to talk about closing its business in Russia. It has now said that it will "temporarily abandon the production of two-liter packaging for wine and beverages and focus on the production of packaging for baby food and milk."

The Japanese authorities cannot confiscate or freeze the foreign exchange reserves of the Russian Central Bank, as this is not prescribed by law, said Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki.

One of the largest international banks, the British HSBC, edits the external reports of its analysts, replacing the word "war" with "conflict" over current events in Ukraine.