What's in the ninth package of sanctions, Ukraine asks for more help, Musk quarrels with the press

The EU countries agreed on the eve, and today they will approve the ninth package of sanctions against Russia. It contains sanctions against drones, banks and Russian officials.

THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) IS PRODUCED AND DISTRIBUTED BY A FOREIGN AGENT OF THE BELL OR IS RELATED TO THE ACTIVITIES OF A FOREIGN AGENT OF THE BELL. 18+

The ninth sanctions package was agreed the night before by EU ministers after difficult discussions. The formal stages remain - written approval by all member states (today by noon) and publication in the official journal of the EU, after which the sanctions will come into force. In general terms, the contours of the sanctions are defined.

• Almost 200 people personally. Part of the list is known - it includes media personalities and the owner of the National Media Group, Yuri Kovalchuk, with his family (more details here ).
• Bloomberg learned that the list will also include seven governors allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children (Russia insists that the children are taken out for their own safety), as well as officials involved in the theft of Ukrainian agricultural products. Western media investigations into the concealment of the origin of grain and the change of ownership of farmland were retold by The Bell.
• A ban on the supply of motors for drones to Russia and to “any third countries, such as Iran, that can supply drones to Russia.”
• Three banks, including Rosneft Bank RRDB, four media channels and dozens of companies.
• Ban on the export of dual-use products, including chemicals and electronics.

What about fertilizers and grains

The last obstacle to the approval of the ninth package was the position of Poland and Lithuania, which protested against the exemptions proposed by Western European countries for companies and businessmen associated with the supply of food and fertilizer to the world market.

According to Euronews, as a result, European companies will be allowed to do business with companies in the sector owned by sub-sanctioned "oligarchs", but only if they supplied products for export before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Unblocked - only for such transactions - can be the accounts of Andrey Melnichenko with his wife (EuroChem), Andrey Guryev (Phosagro), Moshe Kantor (Akron), Dmitry Mazepin (Uralchem ​​and Uralkali) and Vadim Moshkovich ("Rusagro").

Opponents of the easing managed to achieve other important reservations: each deal must be approved by the European Commission on an individual basis, and all of them can be blocked for reasons of national security at the national level. Thus, Lithuania will be able to block the transit of Russian fertilizers through Klaipeda. However, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called the exceptions "a blow to the entire sanctions regime."

What do I get from this?

The ninth package of sanctions so far looks “safer” than the previous one, and the position of Poland and Lithuania on fertilizers will allow Russian propaganda to claim that it is the EU that is starving developing countries. Particular attention should be paid to the fine-tuning and tightening control of the sanctions regime, including the new institution of the sanctions commissioner .

WAR

Ukraine asks for more help

Russia's strikes on energy infrastructure have increased Ukraine's need for Western aid by one and a half times, writes The Washington Post. Until now, Kyiv has called the amount of $55 billion for the next year, but now it is talking about an additional $2 billion per month.

The publication outlines the contents of a closed meeting of the National Bank of the country, which spoke about the threat of a new mass exodus of Ukrainians to the West (with an increase in demand for foreign currency), the collapse of the hryvnia, the complete depletion of gold and foreign exchange reserves and the fall of the economy by another 5% in 2023 after 33% in the current. The sources of the newspaper say that in recent weeks, President Zelensky's entourage has been asking Western donors for assistance of $50 a month for each Ukrainian for a period of six months, but so far this has not met with understanding.

The same WP learned that Washington intends to transfer to Ukraine JDAM satellite guidance kits that turn conventional weapons into high-precision ones. This is a new stage in the supply of Western weapons: the kits can be mounted on conventional bombs, are inexpensive - from $ 25,000 per kit - and will give the Ukrainian Air Force the ability to accurately strike stationary targets.

Since Friday morning, there have been new reports of attacks on Ukraine, including Kiev, Poltava and Kharkov have been de-energized.

COMPANIES

Henkel changes name

The German Henkel, which has invested heavily in Russian production for a long time, decided to leave the country according to a business spin-off scheme : Lab Industries will start operating in Russia next year. It is possible that this is a way to buy time to find non-sanctioned buyers of assets that the concern wants to sell without a big discount to the valuation of about 600 million euros. However, Henkel can hand over to business management and be content with a buyback option.

Musk quarreled with the press

Twitter suspended the accounts of several well-known journalists (from the Washington Post, The New York Times, Mashable and CNN) covering the activities of the owner of the service, Elon Musk, without warning. The latter said that the accounts were spreading information about the location of his private jet in real time - "ready-made coordinates for hired killers", which is clearly contrary to the rules of the service. CNN responded by urging all users of the platform to take care of its "growing chaos and instability," while a Bloomberg expert called what is happening a "black management play" that once again showed the danger of media power being concentrated "in the hands of big tech moguls."

What else is going on

• The consumer spending of Russians from December 5 to 11 grew by only 4.9% yoy, writes MMI, citing Sberindex data. This is the smallest increase since the end of September. The effect of sales has come to naught, people do not go to restaurants, but they are noticeably stocking up on food before the holidays. In general, the savings rate is still very high - "people are preparing for the worst," the channel believes.
• Deliveries of laptops to Russia in January-November decreased by 65% ​​in physical terms, writes Kommersant . The market is undergoing a structural redistribution - the share of conditionally "white" brands is decreasing - HP, Acer and Apple, Lenovo hold positions, and the "old" (MSI, Huawei, Honor) and "new" (Tecno, Infinix, Realme) "Chinese" are increasing their share . The trend will continue in 2023.
• In Russia, there are 20-30 thousand new unsold foreign cars left - for about a month of work of car dealers, learned Izvestia . Parallel imports are still not well established and will not be able to cover demand even next year, market participants say.
• After regulators in the UK and the EU raised rates by half a point following the Fed, markets became convinced that the fight against inflation would be a long one, and a recession almost inevitable. Given the alarming data on consumer demand in the US, all three major indexes - S&P 500, Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average - fell markedly and closed at the levels of early November.
• SUPPORT THE BELL

Dear readers!

As you noticed, The Bell is now also a foreign agent. We have been waiting and preparing for this for a long time. Of course, we will continue to work: someone should tell what is really happening with the economy and business (and what do you get out of it). But we must admit that after such news we will be even more dependent on our readers. You can support us here . This will help us a lot! We stay with you

Ваш The Bell