Translated material
The cost of war in Ukraine. Online January 27
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+
21:18 The Ministry of Justice has included Little Big leader Ilya Prusikin in the register of foreign agents. The explanation states that Prusikin “received support from foreign sources, carried out concert activities in unfriendly countries with calls to stop the special military operation in Ukraine, and disseminated false information about the activities of state authorities.”
The list of foreign agents has also been expanded today:
- Fidel Agumava, journalist for The Moscow Times;
- Erdni Ombadykov, Supreme Lama of Kalmykia;
- Rafis Kashapov, Tatar human rights activist;
- Daria Serenko, activist, artist, poetess;
- Society "Philosophy of non-violence";
- Digital Rights Development Fund.
18:58 The Foreign Ministry ordered the Latvian ambassador to leave Russia within two weeks. The ministry today summoned Latvia's Charge d'Affaires in Russia, a strong protest was expressed to her, the report says . “The provocative demarche of the Latvian authorities to lower the level of diplomatic relations will have consequences,” the Foreign Ministry threatened.
The diplomatic conflict between Russia and the Baltic countries escalated at the beginning of the week. On Monday, the Russian Foreign Ministry first 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 move to radically reduce the size of the Russian embassy in Tallinn," the agency said.
In response, Estonia announced that it was expelling the Russian ambassador from the country. Estonia was supported by Latvia, which announced that, as a sign of solidarity, it was also lowering the level of diplomatic relations with Russia and expelling the Russian ambassador.
16:25 Roskomnadzor blocked the websites of the CIA, the FBI and the State Department platforms for counterintelligence and combating terrorism. As explained in the department, the reason was the spread of fakes about the Russian military and materials aimed at destabilizing the social and political situation in Russia. Roskomnadzor also noted that these resources belong to "state structures of hostile countries."
15:43 Mi-8 helicopter crashed in Vnukovo. When landing, it caught the ground with its blades and received damage to the tail section, emergency services and the airport told Interfax. According to RBC , this is a helicopter of the Rossiya special flight squad (provides air transportation for the president, prime minister, speakers of the State Duma and the Federation Council, heads of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, the prosecutor general and chairman of the Investigative Committee, the head of the Kremlin administration and the minister of foreign affairs, follows from the TASS certificate ) .
Data on the victims differ - according to some reports, no one was injured, according to others - there are still victims, but their number is not specified. Difficult weather conditions and equipment failure are cited as probable causes of the incident. “The helicopter spun before takeoff, the tail rotor was damaged,” was told RIA Novosti in the presidential administration. According to the agency, there were no passengers on board.
15:36 The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on yesterday's missile attack on Ukraine with the help of "high-precision weapons" and drones. The report says that as a result of the strike, the transportation of weapons and ammunition to the areas of hostilities, including those supplied by NATO countries, was disrupted, as well as the work of the production facilities of enterprises for the repair and restoration of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was disrupted. According to Ukrenergo, the strikes led to new power outages in residential buildings.
13:48 The Russian banking system still did not go to zero , but in profit for 2022 as a whole (203 billion rubles) thanks to the results of December (342 billion rubles). But the December result is associated, among other things, with currency revaluation, and last year's annual profit was the lowest since 2015, follows from the data of the Central Bank . In 2021, banks earned a record 2.4 trillion rubles.
The profit of the country's largest bank, Sberbank ( 300 billion rubles ), is more than the total positive result of the entire banking system. Profitable were 84% of banks with 77% of assets. In 2023, analysts expect banks to profit in the range of 1-2 trillion rubles.
12:54 The Central Bank recommended that brokers include in the contract with the client a clause on forced currency conversion due to sanctions, writes RBC. The procedure and conditions of such transactions, as well as the procedure for determining the exchange rate, should be prescribed.
about forced conversion - but only if it is prescribed in the contract - last year spoke Elvira Nabiullina, chairman of the Central Bank, . She also urged banks and brokers to ensure that customers have time to make an informed choice. “Citizens, clients should have a choice: leave their funds in foreign currency, taking risks, commissions, and so on, or convert them into rubles,” she pointed out.
11:58 Vladimir Putin is preparing for a counteroffensive in Ukraine, based on the prospect of dragging out the war for years, writes Bloomberg, citing officials, experts and people familiar with the situation. “The Kremlin intends to demonstrate that its army is able to seize the initiative and put pressure on Kyiv and its allies to reach an agreement on some conditions that leave Russia with the now occupied territories,” the agency said.
Bloomberg sources name February-March as the deadline for a new offensive, while some of them believe that it would be an achievement to hold the current front line. They expect a new wave of mobilization (which the Russian authorities have repeatedly denied) in the spring.
Bloomberg sources in the United States admit that the wasteful tactics of "grinding" the opposing forces used by the Russian Armed Forces in Bakhmut markedly depleted the Armed Forces of Ukraine and weakened Kiev's ability to carry out offensive operations in other directions.
The main thing for the night and morning:
- The sale of VimpelCom to management has been stopped at the government level, learned Kommersant . They do not want to release the foreign shareholder - Veon - from the asset until there is clarity with payments to Russian holders of the company's Eurobonds, including, for example, Gazfond. It also turned out that after the future resale, Gazprom and MTS were considered as the core investor of VimpelCom.
- The IMF is preparing a $16 billion aid package for Ukraine for three to four years. In the best case, the first tranche will come in April, and in total in 2023 the IMF will receive $5-7 billion. According to the latest estimates, Ukraine will need $50 billion in external financing in 2023, including $8 billion for the priority restoration of infrastructure destroyed by Russian attacks.
- Roman Abramovich is losing his image in the West as a useful intermediary between Russia and Ukraine, and his assets are under increasing pressure, writes The Wall Street Journal. hopes for Abramovich's mediation in the negotiations At the beginning of the war, there were great , and Volodymyr Zelensky asked not to impose sanctions on him.
- Investors are pouring funds into emerging markets at near-record pace as inflation slows down and China's economy reopens. Last week, net inflows into EM stocks and bonds exceeded $1.1 billion per day, second only to the post-coronavirus peaks of 2020 and 2021.
- BuzzFeed’s quotes jumped 150% on two news at once: about content collaboration with (recognized as extremist in Russia) Meta and about the start of using OpenAI artificial intelligence, on which the sensational chat bot ChatGPT is based.
- The Union of Speakers asks the State Duma to regulate speech synthesis technologies, including the introduction of licenses for the use of an individual voice. The fact is that modern technologies allow sampling the speaker's voice with high quality and then unlimitedly use it for dubbing, depriving a person of work. But putting a copyright on the voice is unlikely to succeed.