How Russia pays for aggression in Ukraine: Situation as of March 1

Author

Valery Moisieiev

After attacking Ukraine, Russia has already faced a large number of economic problems and various sanctions from many countries and international organizations. has made a compilation of recent posts about it.

Economy

The amount of cash withdrawn on February 28 in the Russian Federation amounted to 294.2 billion rubles, on February 25, the Russians cashed out 1.4 trillion rubles.

From March 1, by order of their president, Russians are prohibited from paying foreign mortgages, insuring and investing abroad. Including under existing contracts.

The Central Bank (CB) of the Russian Federation on the first day of the ruble backing sold the currency for almost 85 billion rubles. It began foreign exchange interventions for the first time since 2014.

Shell intends to withdraw from joint ventures with Gazprom, as well as to cease participation in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. At the end of 2021, Shell's fixed assets in Russia amounted to about $3 billion.

Norway-based Equinor has decided to start the process of withdrawing from Russian joint ventures. Its non-current assets in the Russian Federation at the end of 2021 amounted to $1.2 billion.

Ericsson suspends supplies to customers in Russia. It is a supplier of telecom equipment for the largest Russian operators.

The New York Stock Exchange suspended trading in shares of Russian companies MTS, Mechel, Cian, and HeadHunter, and the Nasdaq exchange suspended trading in shares of Yandex and Ozon. Delisting from US exchanges is not considered yet. Over five days, Yandex shares in the US fell by 53%, Ozon—by 33%, MTS—by 16%, Cian—by 46%.

Sberbank raised mortgage rates by 7.3 p.p.—up to 18.6%. The interest revision in the state bank was explained by "adaptation to market conditions." The bank also raised the minimum rates on consumer loans from 6.9% to 21.9%.

Canada was the first Western country to stop buying Russian oil.

New sanctions

The US imposed sanctions on the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), known as the fund of President Putin and his inner circle, two of his subsidiaries, and CEO Kirill Dmitriev.

The European Union imposed sanctions on the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, as well as the Russian businessman Alisher Usmanov, the owners of the Alfa Group consortium Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven. In total, sanctions were imposed on 26 Russians.

Society

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has decided to exclude all Russian and Belarusian teams and clubs from the competition under its auspices for an indefinite period. Also, Russia is deprived of the right to host the 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship.

The Walt Disney Company suspends screening its films in Russia, Warner Bros. has postponed the premiere of the film Batman (it was scheduled for March 3).

The National Hockey League (NHL) announced the cancellation of business relations with Russia.

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) decided to exclude Russian teams and clubs from participating in competitions under their auspices.

Netflix will not broadcast 20 Russian federal channels of the first and second multiplex, despite the requirement of the Russian legislation.

Recall that on February 24 at 04:50 Russian President Vladimir Putin actually declared war on Ukraine, and Russian troops began to invade the territory of our country.

Since then, has been following the situation and regularly informs about the most important events.