Translated material
The cost of war in Ukraine. Online January 23
The Bell continues to host an online video dedicated to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022.
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This online is complete. Read the new one here , the evening newsletter for January 23 is here .
21:51 The Prosecutor General's Office has recognized the Andrei Sakharov Foundation as an undesirable organization. “Based on the results of studying the materials received, on January 23, 2023, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation decided to recognize the activities of the foreign non-governmental organization The Andrei Sakharov Foundation (“Andrei Sakharov Foundation”), USA, as undesirable on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the agency’s website . says The report states that the foundation's activities "pose a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security" of Russia.
20:22 Latvia demanded that the Russian ambassador leave the country before February 24.
18:10 State Services began accepting applications for a deferment from the spring call for IT specialists, the Ministry of Digital Transformation reported . The application filed last year is no longer valid, it must be submitted again, the department stressed. Only employees of accredited IT companies can apply (check accreditation here ).
16:58 Uniqlo decided to leave several outlets in Russia, no more than five, writes Izvestia . Brokers of commercial real estate told about this publication. According to them, "the company is optimizing the number of its stores in the country, but does not leave the market." By February 1, Uniqlo will vacate part of its sites in Russian shopping centers, leaving up to five stores. From some retail outlets, for example, in the Kashirskaya Plaza shopping center, the company has already begun to remove signs.
In October, Vedomosti wrote that Uniqlo began to reduce its network in Russia. As of March, she had 50 outlets. Uniqlo stores have remained closed since March. The company then first announced that it would continue to work in Russia, because "clothing is a vital necessity." But after a couple of days, she nevertheless decided to suspend the work of Russian stores.
16:03 Germany will take years to replace Russian gas with LNG, writes Bloomberg, citing estimates by the German authorities. By 2026 alone, Berlin will be able to create the infrastructure necessary to import 56 billion cubic meters of LNG, which is about the same amount of gas imported from Russia in 2021.
15:42 Latvia, as a sign of solidarity with Estonia, will lower the level of diplomatic relations with Russia from February 24 and demands similar actions from Moscow, said Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.
15:12 Deliveries of Russian oil by sea in the week by January 20 lost almost all of the growth of the previous week, writes Bloomberg. They fell by 22%, or 820,000 bpd, to 2.98 million bpd. This time, Far Eastern deliveries fell the most.
The four-week moving average remained just above 3 million b/d, the average for the second half of 2022. Another thing is the income to the Russian budget from export duties: due to the low price, they fell by the same 22%, or $13 million, to $48 million, the four-week average - by $18 million to $69 million per week, the agency calculated.
Almost all Russian oil goes to Asia. Flows are split roughly evenly between China, India, an unspecified Asia (which includes Turkey), and tankers with an unspecified port of destination.
15:05 Estonia expels the Russian ambassador from the country in response to similar actions of Russia. The current ambassador is also due to leave Estonia on 7 February.
12:51 Billionaire Alisher Usmanov asked to be released from participation in the Bureau of the Board of the RSPP "in connection with his retirement and retirement from active work," RBC learned . Presumably, his application for withdrawal will be considered on January 25.
12:17 The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of the Estonian ambassador and the lowering of the level of diplomatic relations with Estonia to the level of charge d'affaires. This is a reaction to "a new unfriendly step towards a radical reduction in the size of the Russian embassy in Tallinn, confirming the line towards the collapse of relations between our countries."
- The Russian representation in Estonia wrote that over the past year, at the request of the Estonian authorities, the number of employees was reduced by 35 people, that is, by almost two-thirds, and consular offices in Narva and Tartu were closed.
- In early January, Estonia demanded from February 1 to reduce the number of diplomats of the Russian embassy in Tallinn, equalizing them with the number of current employees of the Estonian diplomatic mission in Moscow (8 people). After that, the Russian diplomatic mission stopped accepting applications for renunciation of Russian citizenship.
11:22 Vladimir Potanin gave a long interview to RBC. Main:
- Foreign business assets should not be nationalized. Otherwise, Russia will not even have “at least a moral and psychological advantage” in lawsuits for its own property abroad.
- Those who left Russia should not be “persecuted” and discriminated against, especially those who continue to work for it from abroad: “It seems to me that taking away property and stigmatizing people ahead of time is a sign of weakness, and we are a strong country, a strong nation, at least we dream about being perceived as such."
- Russian companies have entered a period of survival: “We, as a single company and as a country, must [remain] in good shape and just survive this period and get to the shore, on which we will then build new rules for relations with all other countries and among ourselves” .
10:47 Economist Vladimir Mau has been relieved of his post as rector of the RANEPA , which he held for 12 years. The wording is “of their own free will in connection with the state of health.” After being released from house arrest last August and the complete cessation of his criminal prosecution in the "case of Marina Rakova" last October, Mau left for Israel and did not return from there, wrote RIA Novosti . Alexey Komissarov, Vice-Rector, Director of the ANO "Russia - the Land of Opportunities" has been appointed Acting Rector.
The main thing for the night and morning:
- The Russian "anti-ceiling" of oil prices will do without harsh measures such as a "floor" of prices or a maximum discount to Brent. The government will require Russian oil companies not to mention price limits in export contracts and to ensure that this is observed throughout the further supply chain, learned Kommersant . As long as the price of Russian oil is below the ceiling, this means maintaining the status quo.
- in 2022. The There is a new absolute record in the investment market: Ken Griffin's Citadel hedge fund brought investors $16 billion previous annual record - $15 billion - belonged to John Poulson, who put in 2007 against mortgage derivatives. According to the total financial result since the founding, Citadel overtook the long-term leader - Bridgewater Ray Dalio - and became the best in history.
- The Ministry of Finance proposed introducing criminal liability of up to three years for the production and sale of counterfeit tobacco products. The share of illegal tobacco products has grown from less than 1% in 2014 to 11%, the budget due to counterfeiting lacks 50 billion rubles a year only excises.
- Germany's objections to the supply of Leopard-2 tanks to Ukraine appear to have been withdrawn. Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock said over the weekend that if Poland applies for permission to supply from its own aircraft, it will receive it. French President Emmanuel Macron has also more specifically pledged Leclerc tanks to Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky said that the supply of dozens of Western tanks would not solve the problem of thousands of Russian ones, but "motivate our soldiers to fight for their own [Western] values."
- Telegram has strengthened the status of the main national messenger. By . the end of 2022, it not only overtook WhatsApp (owned by the recognized extremist Meta) in terms of traffic, but also began to dominate, occupying 60-80% of messenger traffic thanks to video embedded in posts, according to the Russian four mobile operators