Translated material
The cost of war in Ukraine. Online January 20
The Bell continues to host an online video dedicated to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022.
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+
21:21 The Ministry of Justice has included the singer Monetochka (Elizaveta Gyrdymova) and the founder of the Gulagu.net project Vladimir Osechkin in the register of foreign agents. The explanation states that Monetochka "received support from foreign sources, raised funds in support of an unfriendly country - Ukraine, spoke out against a special military operation in Ukraine."
Also on the list are:
- Daria Besedina, Moscow City Duma deputy from Yabloko;
- Anton Ustimov (Pikuli), blogger reviewing Russian propaganda;
- Vadim Kharchenko, an opposition blogger from Gelendzhik;
- Ibragim Yaganov, Circassian political and public figure;
- "T9 NSK", a project for transgender people and their loved ones.
17:09 PMC "Wagner" finances its activities in Ukraine at the expense of a mine in the Central African Republic, writes Politico. Over the past year, Yevgeny Prigozhin's company has significantly expanded its activities in this African republic, the newspaper notes. According to him, the group can increase its profits from mining in the Central African Republic up to $1 billion.
15:43 The Washington Post wrote that the Russian "Rosatom" (which is already threatened with the sanctions of the tenth EU package) directly fulfills military orders.
The newspaper refers to the materials obtained by Ukrainian intelligence of the October meeting of the head of the Rosatom department with the Ministry of Defense and defense industry companies (including the sanctioned Almaz-Antey and NPO Splav). It follows from them that Rosatom offered its resources for the production of rocket fuel (in the text, aluminum oxide powder, most likely aluminum powder) and lithium-ion batteries, a large batch of which it purchased from South Korea after the start of the war.
So far, Rosatom, positioning itself as an exclusively civilian company and controlling a third of the world market for enriched uranium, has avoided sanctions.
13:54 RBC learned that Dmitry Kozak, deputy head of the presidential administration, is the main candidate for the post of chairman of the Accounts Chamber.
Alexei Kudrin was dismissed from this post at the end of November. He will manage the Russian Yandex. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Kozak tried to organize negotiations, and already this January, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that Kozak was promoting in Europe the option of resolving the conflict according to the “Korean version”. this The Kremlin denied .
13:18 A meeting of Ukraine's allies has started in Ramstein, at which decisions should be made on its further military support.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin praised the courage of the Ukrainian people and the professionalism of the Ukrainian military, called the current moment a turning point and promised that support for self-defense would continue as long as necessary.
Speaking via video link, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky again said that “the Kremlin must lose” and asked the allies for tanks (“Can you give Leopards? Give it!”), long-range missiles and aircraft. The authorities of the Netherlands today did not rule out the supply of F-16 fighters.
11:24 Russian officials, at the suggestion of Vladimir Putin, are discussing relinking the price of Urals oil, on which the budget's oil and gas revenues depend, to other reference grades - Brent or Dubai, writes Vedomosti . The government believes that the actual average discount to Brent is now $10-15, and not $35-40, as it turns out from the calculated prices of Urals in Rotterdam (where it is no longer supplied).
The purpose of the changes is to ensure an economically justified level of budget revenues, and it is possible that new price indicators will be introduced not only for oil.
For oil companies, this means higher taxes, lower revenues and lower valuations. The average price of Urals oil for the period from December 15, 2022 to January 14, 2023 was $46.82 per barrel, which means a reduction in the export duty from February 1 by $3.9, to $12.8 per ton. The severance tax also depends on the price of Urals.
10:40 The cost of insider “breakthrough” services in communication companies, banks and government agencies increased last year by 22% compared to 2021, and monthly call detailing even by 60%, Kommersant . writes We wrote about what punching tools are available to the average user here .
The main thing for the night and morning:
- CIA Director William Burns secretly visited Kiev last week, where he met with Vladimir Zelensky and gave him speculation about Russia's military plans, has learned The Washington Post . On the eve of today's meeting of Ukraine's allies in Ramstein, the US approved a new military aid package, but deliveries of German tanks remained suspended.
- Financial troubles continue to spread across the crypto market as landing platform Genesis has filed for bankruptcy.
- Russia Only 9% of foreign companies completely left , according to the first independent study of this issue. This is the minimum estimate, but the share of those who left is unlikely to exceed 20-25%.
- Oilfield services giant SLB (formerly Schlumberger) increased its revenue in Russia and Central Asia by 25%, "picking up" the best projects of competitors who left the country, and even recruited new staff.
- The US does not want to revise the oil ceiling for Russia (currently $60), but to wait for the first results of the embargo on petroleum products, which comes into effect on February 5. In practice, this means that the current level of the ceiling will remain for another two months.
- The role of the dollar as the world's reserve currency (about 60%) will decline even without shocks, geopolitical or economic, but will not disappear altogether, according to Credit Suisse. The dollar's position is threatened mainly by the change in the very nature of reserves: floating rates, portfolio diversification and swaps reduce the need for central bank dollar "pots".