The economy in Russia keeps going downhill. Thanks, Putin! Russia hikes key rate to 15% in bigger-than-expected rise https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...o-15-in-bigger-than-expected-rise/ar-AA1iWIg9
Blow to Putin as Russia faces UK trial over $60bn Yukos oil battle https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/oth...-trial-over-60bn-yukos-oil-battle/ar-AA1jeblI The Russian state will go on trial for failing to pay $60bn (£49bn) to former shareholders of defunct oil behemoth Yukos, after a British judge blocked the country’s bid for immunity. In a blow to Vladimir Putin, the ruling by London’s High Court means the Kremlin must now answer a case brought by Hulley Enterprises, Yukos Universal and Veteran Petroleum. The three ex-Yukos shareholders are fighting to enforce a 2014 arbitration award by a Dutch tribunal, which found Russia owed them $50bn in compensation. Yukos was seized by the Kremlin in 2003 after Mikhail Khodorkovsky – the company’s former boss and at the time Russia’s richest man – fell out with Mr Putin and was jailed for alleged tax evasion and fraud. His downfall was seen as a pivotal moment in Mr Putin’s rise, helping to cement the president’s power. Since the Dutch ruling nine years ago, a string of legal battles have ensued across the globe – causing the amount owed to balloon to almost $60bn as interest piled up. The shareholders are trying to enforce the arbitration ruling in Britain, the US and the Netherlands. In London, lawyers for Russia argued that it never submitted to the Dutch arbitration, that the UK was the wrong place to hear the case and that, regardless, it should be granted state immunity. But those arguments were rejected on Wednesday by Mrs Justice Cockerill, a High Court judge, who denied Russia immunity and an option to appeal. Russia can still apply directly to the Court of Appeal for permission to challenge the ruling. Tim Osborne, chief executive of the GML shareholder group, which previously held a majority stake in Yukos through its subsidiaries, welcomed the ruling as “getting us closer to the moment when the Russian Federation will have to pay for its illegal actions”. Before the company’s seizure, Yukos was a sprawling energy empire that produced more than a fifth of Russia’s oil, earning its owner, Mr Khodorkovsky, a vast fortune. But Mr Khodorkovsky became a target for Mr Putin’s wrath after he accused the Russian president of presiding over corruption and accepting huge bribes during a televised meeting in 2003. Just eight months later, Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested on the runway of a Siberian airport. He and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, were later jailed on charges of tax evasion and fraud, described by Amnesty International as “deeply flawed and politically motivated”. Yukos, meanwhile, was stripped of its assets by the Kremlin, which sold them on to political allies. In the years afterward, former Yukos shareholders waged a long battle to claim compensation by suing the Russian state in The Hague. The charges were brought on the basis of the Energy Charter Treaty, an agreement signed by Russia in 1994 and designed to reassure investors over its respect for the rule of law and the rights of international investors. In 2014, an independent tribunal overseeing that arbitration in The Hague unanimously decided that Yukos had been illegally expropriated as part of a political vendetta against Mr Khodorkovsky. The tribunal awarded GML, the holding company representing the oil firm’s former shareholders – not including Mr Khodorkovsky, who had already passed on his stake – compensation worth $50bn (£41bn), the largest-ever payout of its kind. However, getting the money has not proved easy as Russia has sought to challenge or evade the ruling. A lawyer representing Russia in the London case declined to comment on Wednesday’s ruling, according to Reuters.
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-...re-Sanctions-On-Russias-Oil-Gold-Players.html UK Dishes Out More Sanctions On Russia’s Oil, Gold Players By Julianne Geiger - Nov 08, 2023, 12:30 PM CST The United Kingdom sanctioned on Wednesday another 29 individuals and entities that are supporting Russia’s oil and gold sectors, adding to the list of 1,800 individuals and entities that have already been sanctioned by the UK. The list of sanctioned entities includes Russia’s largest gold refiner as well as Russian oligarchs and third-country enablers that the UK has said are helping to fuel Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine. Also finding itself on the list of newly sanctioned entities is a UAE-based network responsible for funneling $300 million in gold revenues to Russia, which includes gold trader Paloma Precious DMCC and Howard Jon Baker. Gold producers Nord Gold PLC and Highland Gold Mining Limited also landed themselves on the UK’s list. For oil-related entities, Paramount Energy & Commodities DMCC made the list, standing accused of deceptive shipping practices and opaque ownership structures. “Sanctions continue to deal a heavy blow to the Kremlin’s war economy, to date depriving Putin of over $400bn to fund his illegal invasion of Ukraine. But we must keep tightening the screws on Moscow. Today’s sanctions will hit those who have provided succor to Putin by helping him to lessen the impact of our sanctions on Russian gold and oil – two critical sources of revenue for the Russian war machine. As we root out and close down these circumvention avenues, we’ll continue to box Putin in and make sure his faltering war effort in Ukraine ends in failure,” UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a Wednesday press release. While Western alliances have sought to restrict Russia’s oil and gas revenues as a means for funding its war efforts in Ukraine, the country’s oil and gas revenues increased in October, more than doubling from September to $17.6 billion due to a cyclical surge in the profit-based tax.
Looks like all the frozen Russian assets will be handed over to Ukraine for rebuilding. Ukraine wants frozen Russian assets for war damage, not just interest https://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-wants-frozen-russian-assets-145035795.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine told Western allies on Thursday that giving it the interest accrued from frozen Russian assets would not be enough to compensate for damage sustained by the war and that it hoped to receive the assets in full. Kyiv estimates $400 billion will be needed to rebuild the country devastated by Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, an amount it believes could double if compensation for the war's victims is taken into account. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last month the Commission was working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine and its post-war reconstruction. She said the value of frozen Russian sovereign assets was around 211 billion euros ($223 billion), noting the bloc had decided that Russia must pay for Ukraine's reconstruction. Iryna Mudra, Ukraine's deputy justice minister, told Reuters Kyiv's partners were considering introducing a tax on income or investment of frozen Russian assets, an idea she said Kyiv welcomed but saw as insufficient. There was "no alternative", she said, to the solution of confiscating the assets in full and handing them to Ukraine. "Yes, such a decision requires political will, and therefore it is especially dangerous if additional initiatives are considered a successful solution to all problems." "Any alternatives, no matter how sincere and noble they are, generate insufficient funds and can be solely as an intermediate and fast enough option to collect several billions for the immediate needs of Ukraine's reconstruction," she said. The issue of finding funds to rebuild the economy and wage war with Russia is more urgent than ever, as Kyiv fears a reduction in Western aid and the Ukrainian economy is unable to generate sufficient funds. "We need a joint decision to hold (this) money which is frozen now and take (this) money for renovation," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters NEXT in an interview on Wednesday. "We had (a) budget gap of $40 billion, it was last year, this year we managed better, and now (there is a) 5% increase of GDP but anyway we have a big gap. If we use only interest from all (this) frozen money, we can close about a half of this gap." Ukraine's 2024 state budget, passed by parliament on Thursday, envisages a deficit of about $41 billion or around 20% of GDP, with more than half of spending planned for defence.
They can have all they want.... right after they pay the U.S. and the rest of NATO back for what we've spent.
("good luck" with that ...) https://edition.cnn.com/travel/russ...egrown-widebody-passenger-airplane/index.html Russian manufacturer test-flies prototype widebody passenger airplane By Barry Neild and Anna Chernova, CNN Updated 12:07 PM EST, Wed November 8, 2023 Russia’s leading aircraft manufacturersays it’s completed a successful test flight of a new widebody passenger airplane that it claims could replace Western aircraft in the country’s skies. The United Aircraft Corporation said a prototype of its IL-96-400M long-haul airplane has taken off for the first time on a flight that lasted 26 minutes and reached altitudes of up to 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) and speeds of up to 390 kilometers per hour (242 mph), according to a news release posted by the company last week. UAC, which oversees Russian aviation brands including Tupolev, Ilyushin and Sukhoi, said the plane will be capable of carrying up to 370 passengers, a capacity that would put it alongside the likes of Airbus’ A340 or Boeing’s 777. It said the airplane marked a step up from the previous IL-96-300 aircraft, production of which reportedly halted more than a decade ago because it was unable to compete with Western models. “The first and successful flight of the modernized IL-96-400M is a demonstration of the highest level of competence of domestic aircraft manufacturers,” Russia’s deputy prime minister, Denis Manturov, said in the release. According to UAC, the IL-96-400M can be configured in up to three passenger classes and will be installed with a “modern infotainment system” offering internet, TV and satellite communications. It will also be equipped with a “modern” kitchen. The new airplane, which was photographed midair decorated in UAC corporate colors, could be seen as a public relations win for Russia at a time when its domestic aviation industry is creaking under pressure ofWesternsanctions imposed because of its invasion of Ukraine. US and European sanctions on leasing planes to Russia led to that country losing nearly10% of commercial aircraft before President Vladimir Putin enacted laws allowing Russian airlines to seize leased aircraft and re-register them domestically. But with limited access to parts for planes made by Boeing, Airbus and other Western manufacturers like Bombardierand Embraer, experts say keeping fleets airworthy will be increasingly difficult. As of 2022, only 144 active Russian airline planes were built in Russia, according to data provided by aviation analytics firm Cirium. “Although Moscow won’t admit it, the sanctions that followed the Ukraine invasion have really damaged Russian aviation,” Murdo Morrison, head of strategic content at FlightGlobal, tells CNN. ‘Massive gamble’ “The problem is that lack of spares – some get in through the back door undoubtedly – means that many Airbus and Boeing aircraft flying in Russia today are potentially dangerous. Although Russia has a proficient regulator, there is very little visibility as to the health of its fleet.” In September, an Airbus A320 operated by Ural Airlines, reportedly one of the leased aircraft appropriated by Russia, was forced to make an emergency landing in a field in Russia’s Novosibirsk region due to what was provisionally claimed to have been a midair failure of its hydraulic system. Last year, a safety audit by the International Civil Aviation Organization resulted in Russia being marked with a “red flag” indicating insufficient regulatory oversight – a status shared by only three other countries – Bhutan, Congo and Liberia. Addressing concerns, Russia’s Ministry of Transport said at the time that flight safety on Russia-operated aircraft meets international standards. UAC’s release said the new IL-96-400M’s safety and reliability was comparable to the “world’s best models due to the redundancy of the aircraft’s systems and its aerodynamic configuration.” The manufacturer also said it would meet international regulatory requirements. Yuri Slyusar, UAC’s general director, was quoted in the release saying it would, alongside other Russian-built aircraft, be deployed across the country’s aviation network and “replace foreign analogues.” FlightGlobal’s Morrison says that while the aircraft may be reliable, they will be significantly inferior to their Western counterparts and are unlikely to be manufactured in the quantities once seen under Soviet rule. “Trying to restore Russia’s pre-1990 aerospace industry is a massive gamble. In fact, it will lose the state billions, although Moscow probably accepts that the political price is worth paying, and, besides, it hasn’t any choice.”
Putin thinks Russia will win the AI race. LOL. Putin Wants Russia to Win the Artificial Intelligence Race. Here’s Why it Won’t https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023...al-intelligence-race-heres-why-it-wont-a83103
Say goodbye to Yandex, the Google of Russia. Putin's war with Ukraine has basically killed off one of Russia's most successful tech companies https://www.businessinsider.com/yan...d-russia-most-successful-tech-company-2023-11
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-...Firms-in-Clamp-Down-on-Sanctions-Evasion.html UAE Enforces Stricter Rules on Russian Firms in Clamp Down on Sanctions Evasion By Charles Kennedy - Nov 24, 2023, 9:30 AM CST The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has become an attractive destination for Russian business after the invasion of Ukraine, has increased checks and enforced stricter banking rules on Russian companies amid rising U.S. pressure on the UAE to help clamp down on sanctions evasion. Russian companies, which initially enjoyed easy money transfers and business dealings in the UAE, especially in Dubai, are now facing tougher rules and the need for more documents and proofs, entrepreneurs and consultants have recently told Bloomberg. The UAE is looking to come off the so-called ‘grey list’ for financial crimes of the Financial Act Task Force (FATF). Therefore, the Gulf state is unwilling to be linked with risks related to sanctions, including the Western sanctions on Russian businesses, money transfers, and the energy industry. The banking for Russian firms in the UAE has become more difficult, and the number of rejections from UAE banks have increased, according to Bloomberg’s sources. The clampdown on Russian firms in the UAE comes as the West is considering toughening up the sanction enforcement on evaders of the price cap on Russian oil, almost none of which now trades below the ceiling of $60 per barrel. Last month, the United States took a tougher stance on the sanctions against Russia and sanctioned two vessels for violating the price cap. Just last week, the U.S. imposed sanctions on three maritime companies based in the UAE and three vessels owned by the companies for shipping Russian oil sold above the price cap. This week, Reuters reported that three major Greek shipping firms had halted transport of Russian crude due to the heightened risk of facing U.S. sanctions. Greek shippers Minerva Marine, TMS Tankers, and Thenamaris have stopped carrying Russian oil to customers in the Middle East, Asia, Turkey, Africa, and South America, Reuters reported, citing trade sources and shipping data.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/currency-clashes-sour-russias-oil-070903238.html Currency clashes sour Russia's oil trade with Asia