I did not heretofore know that Lukashenko is also an economics genius. Belarus dictator Lukashenko BANS price increases with immediate effect to curb rampaging inflation amid Western sanctions Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko has completely banned price increases with immediate effect to curb soaring inflation. The authoritarian ally to Vladimir Putin, who is known for his unusual policies, is desperately trying to slow consumer prices which have skyrocketed 18 per cent year-on-year. He told a meeting with officials today: 'From October 6, all price increases are forbidden. Forbidden! https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...mmediate-effect-curb-rampaging-inflation.html
Yeh. Well, newsflash for Vlad. Many of the Russians are fleeing to Mongolia and the various Crapistan countries. Not sure they need to worry about all the horrors of living in the U.S.
As shown in the highlighted paragraph without western technology oil production at many Russian sites is falling to record low levels. At some point Russia will have no oil to sell. Putin orders Russia to seize Exxon-led Sakhalin 1 oil and gas project https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...g-up-new-operator-sakhalin-1-tass-2022-10-07/ Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree, published on Friday, to set up a new operator for the Sakhalin 1 oil and gas project, following similar steps to seize other oil and gas projects with foreign participation. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N), with a 30% stake, was the operator of Sakhalin-1, a development in Russia's Far East. The largest U.S. producer has been trying to exit Russia operations since March, days after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Exxon declined to comment on Friday's decree. In April, Exxon took a $4.6 billion impairment charge for exiting its Russian activities, leaving Sakhalin-1 operation open for a takeover from a partner. It also proceeded to reduce oil and gas production volumes and remove personnel from the country. In August, Putin issued the Presidential Decree 520 which Exxon said impedes the company to conclude the exit safely. The producer then escalated the dispute and issued a note of difference that could ultimately end up in an arbitration process. Exxon's head of upstream operations said on Tuesday it was still working with its partners on its exit. A transfer of operation to a partner would be a positive outcome for Exxon. The Russian company Rosneft (ROSN.MM) is a partner in the project along with ONGC Videsh (ONVI.NS), the overseas investment arm of India's ONGC, and Japan's SODECO. The decree said the Russian government was setting up a new Russian limited liability company, which would own the investors' rights, including the operator's rights of Exxon Neftegaz Ltd. t said the foreign partners should apply to the government within a month after the new company is set up, to notify it of their agreement to take up shares in the new entity in accordance with their stakes in the previous company. The Rosneft subsidiary Sakhalinmorneftegaz-shelf is appointed as the manager of the new company. Oil production at the Sakhalin-1 project fell to just 10,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 220,000 bpd after sanctions were imposed on Moscow by Western powers over its military campaign in Ukraine. Putin also signed a decree in July seizing full control of Sakhalin-2, another gas and oil project in the Russian Far East created on the basis of a production-sharing agreement signed in 1990s.
Putin is going to have the country go broke -- just like the Soviet Union. Russia’s Soaring Defense Spending Is Unsustainable https://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/In...oaring-Defense-Spending-Is-Unsustainable.html Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to ramp up defense spending in a big way. The turbulence in Russian defense spending will probably increase in 2023. The skyrocketing defense budget means less flexibility and efficiency for Russian government spending. Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine and the Kremlin’s attempts to escalate the political situation and prevent defeat on the battlefield through mobilization, nuclear blackmail and possibly even sabotage on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea raise the question: How do all these factors influence the Russian defense budget? Since May 2022, the Russian government has not released much data on the defense budget. Nevertheless, defense spending from January to April totaled almost 1.6 trillion rubles ($26.4 billion), with about 500 billion rubles ($8.3 billion) of spending per month for March and April. Considering these dynamics in comparison with Moscow’s defense spending in previous years—roughly 300 billion rubles ($5 billion) per month—and the fact that the original defense budget in 2022 was 3.85 trillion rubles ($63.6 billion), the true amount for Russian defense spending in 2022 may well reach as much as 5.5 trillion rubles ($90.9 billion) by the end of the year (Budget.gov.ru, May 2022). This estimation correlates with two key facts. First, in June 2022, the additional planned spending for arms manufacturing was officially estimated at 600–700 billion rubles ($9.9 billion–$11.6 billion) (Interfax-AVN, June 10). Second, after revising it in September 2022, the estimate for the entire Russian defense budget in 2022 was adjusted to 4.7 trillion rubles ($77.7 billion), and this change will definitely not be the last (Vedomosti, September 23). In this way, defense spending itself is throwing the Russian state budget out of balance. And this spending does not include funding for security and law enforcement agencies, such as Rosgvardia (Russian National Guard) and the Russian Federal Security Service, which are also involved in the war against Ukraine. Originally, the 2022 budget for security and law enforcement organizations was set at 2.8 trillion rubles ($46.3 billion), but evidence shows that the plan has been significantly changed a number of times since then (TASS, September 21, 2021). The turbulence in Russian defense spending will probably increase in 2023. The budget proposal for 2023 considers almost 5 trillion rubles ($82.6 billion) for defense and 4.2 trillion rubles ($69.4 billion) for security and law enforcement, up from the previously planned 3.6 trillion rubles ($59.5 billion) and 2.9 trillion rubles ($47.9 billion), respectively (Ach.gov.ru, October 12, 2021; Vedomosti, September 23). However, the ongoing mobilization casts doubt on this plan from the outset, as clear parameters for this process have not been delineated, and it is already carrying on in quite a chaotic manner. In this way, if the war continues into 2022, then Russian defense spending will most likely be significantly higher than 5 trillion rubles ($82.6 billion). The skyrocketing defense budget means less flexibility and efficiency for Russian government spending. Consequently, Moscow made the decision to share the burden of defense spending with regional and local budgets. As such, regional and local administrations will now purchase dual-use equipment, commercial unmanned aerial vehicles, laser-guided systems and other supplies through direct requests from the Russian Ministry of Defense (Publication.pravo.gov, October 3). This process is closely paired with the ongoing mobilization, which is facing not only chaos but also a deficit in basic equipment, medicine and combat support systems for the newly mobilized soldiers. Thus, the Russian defense budget in 2023 may receive additional money, but that will depend on the scale and success of mobilization. Yet, the problem here is that, now, no regional budget in Russia is independent from the Kremlin’s whims, and, as a result, not one local budget is independent from regional directives. This means the government’s decision to utilize regional and local budgets for defense needs has created further imbalances and instability within the Russian political-economic system (Roskazna.gov.ru, March 31). And that is especially true as the Kremlin grapples with a deep economic crisis, an international embargo on supplies of technologies and industrial equipment and a decrease in its exports. Despite the fact that the main causes for the increase in Russian defense spending have been the massive losses of manpower and arms, this boost will most likely only drive up the costs of manufacturing and purchasing arms and military equipment, rather than improving the amount and quality of supplies. The deficit of employees in the Russian economy, including in the defense industry, was a serious issue even before the war, and Moscow’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine coupled with the mobilization only serves to further exacerbate this deficit (Nezavisimaya gazeta, December 29, 2021; Tpprf.ru, January 27). Therefore, the facts testify that, regarding defense spending, the Kremlin’s typical approach for solving troubles by throwing money at them does not promise positive and sustainable results. Although, despite the lack of tangible results, a short-term side-effect of this rampant spending is maintaining loyalty to the Kremlin among the armed forces and defense industry. Nevertheless, further imbalances in the Russian defense sector are inevitable, even if the intensity of the war in Ukraine decreases in the coming months. Moreover, considering that the ruble is not a freely convertible currency anymore and that it could unexpectedly depreciate in the foreseeable future, Russia’s skyrocketing defense spending may lose its purpose for the Kremlin without a further restoration of the command economy.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/08/asia/superyacht-oligarch-mordashov-hong-kong-intl-hnk/index.html "... $45 million to $70 million just to keep the yacht running each year, not factoring in variable costs of fuel or maintenance after any long journeys. That would break down to an average bill of $100,000 to $200,000 a day." ... how many poor people are there in russia?
I hope that Russia is not planning on buying anything from Samsung in the future... Russian Missile Reportedly Hits Samsung's R&D Center In Ukraine Extensive damage to the 101 Tower office center in Kyiv https://www.tomshardware.com/news/russian-missile-reportedly-hits-samsungs-randd-center-in-ukraine
Starting from April 8, 2023, the EU will not allow Russian ships to enter its ports New EU sanctions prohibit vessels certified by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping from entering ports and locks of EU member states after April 8, 2023. This decision is justified by the fact that on October 7, the EU Council adopted a resolution in connection with the military activities of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, according to which additional restrictive measures are introduced for vessels that are in the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, Ukrinform reports with reference to the press service of the Estonian Transport Department.
Unlike the Russian IT Industry... The Ukrainian IT Industry Is Alive And Healthy https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes...ndustry-is-alive-and-healthy/?sh=40b93f257f2c
How are things going over in Russia? "Everything has collapsed". Hmm, maybe you're throwing the wrong people out of windows? 'Everything Has Collapsed': Mobilization Tanks Small Businesses https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022...ed-mobilization-tanks-small-businesses-a79075 In his brand new co-working space in Chelyabinsk, a city in central Russia, entrepreneur Maxim Novikov is counting the empty seats. The space is usually overflowing with designers, programmers and young Russians working on their start-ups. But since President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of young Russian men last month, the 33-year-old has lost much of his clientele. "Many have stopped coming," he told AFP by phone. Instead, they are filling the depleted ranks of Russia's army or they are among the tens of thousands of others who have fled south for neighboring Kazakhstan. The Kremlin's mobilization has brought uncertainty and chaos to businesses already hard-hit by sanctions and still recovering from the fallout of the pandemic. In the last three weeks, a little more than half of the 77 spots in Novikov's co-working place were occupied. He has "no idea" if the people who fled or were drafted will keep paying subscription fees, which cost between $70 and $130. And now Novikov is worried about his loans. "Turnover has already dropped by more than 40% this year," Novikov, an architecture graduate, said. "I wanted to buy a third space but for the moment it is not possible to take the risk." But he is far from the only business owner in Russia who is growing more nervous over the workforce vacuum. "It means projects are being put on hold and private companies will be afraid to invest," said Natalia Zubarevich, an economist at Moscow State University. Russia's economy has already been battered this year by unprecedented Western sanctions in response to Putin's decision to send troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24. But Zubarevich said mobilization was an "additional aggravating factor." She added she was not surprised young men from the provinces were joining the army, attracted by monthly payouts that are sometimes almost as much as their annual salaries. Meanwhile, in glitzy central Moscow, 45-year-old Yelena Irisova is distraught at seeing her company, which produces luxury leather bags, stop production. She employs around 10 people in the small business, but two of her craftsmen left the company in recent weeks – one fearing mobilization, another to help her daughter whose husband had been sent to the front. "After Sept. 21, everything collapsed," Irisova said. "Our sales fell threefold – from 10 to three orders a day." She says her savings will keep her going "a month or two, but not more." No Russian business seems unscathed. Katerina Iberika, 39, who owns a pastry shop specializing in birthday cakes in Moscow, is also facing ruin. Her five employees are women with exemptions from mobilization. But it's the low morale among the public that's endangering her business. "Cancellations of orders for big events started two days before mobilization," Iberika told AFP. Now she gets nearly no orders at all, except for "very small" ones, and is considering leaving Russia. In increased isolation – and hit by sanctions and mobilization – an anxious Russian society is watching its spending closely. "People are looking to put their money aside," Sofya Donets, chief economist for Russia at Renaissance Capital, said. "They're not going to overspend." Some industries have been harder hit than others by a sudden lack of men. Employers have sounded the alarm in recent days, asking the government for exemptions from mobilization, in particular for small and medium-sized companies. Russia's economic development ministry told AFP that it had drawn up a list of measures for these "problematic issues" and had facilitated grants and microcredits. "A mobilized entrepreneur will be able to suspend the fulfillment of obligations" to pay the loans back, the ministry said. Donets expects "more intervention and state aid" to calm the effects of mobilization, however, especially since Russian coffers continue to fill up thanks to its energy exports.