Russia’s attack in Ukraine has, in addition to the consequences of a war, numerous economic implications. Here is the latest.
STOCK EXCHANGE | Moscow Stock Exchange to stay closed Wednesday, for the third day in a row. But, for the first time this week, limited operations will be allowed.
(Wednesday, March 2 – 10:00 EET)
SOUTH KOREA | South Korea will ban financial transactions with seven major Russian banks and their affiliates, says CNN.
The seven Russian banks are Sberbank, VEB, PSB, VTB, Otkritie, Sovcom and Novikom.
(Wednesday, March 2 – 09:00 EET)
SHIPS | United Kingdom introduced new sanctions against Russia, including a ban on ships with Russian connections from accessing British ports.
”By banning Russian ships from our ports, we are further isolating Russia and crushing its economic capabilities, starving Putin’s war machine”, the statement shows.
Additional economic measures, ”including against the Russian Central Bank and the state’s sovereign wealth fund, also mean the majority of Russia’s financial system” is now covered by UK sanctions.
(Tuesday, March 1 – 23:00 EET)
RUBLE | Russia’s Central Bank has decided today not to intervene in the market to support the ruble.
”Due to the restrictions on the use of foreign exchange reserves in dollars and euros, we did not carry out any intervention today”, Elvira Nabiullina told RT.
To support the currency, Russian Ministry of Finance has ordered companies trading abroad to sell 80% of their foreign exchange earnings and convert them into rubles.
Western sanctions following the Ukraine conflict have pushed Russia down to historic lows.
The ruble lost about 30% of its value on Friday. On Monday, it fell to 109 rubles for 1 dollar and 122 rubles for 1 euro before recovering some of its losses.
The exchange rate for Tuesday, March 1, was set at 93.5 rubles for 1 dollar and 104.4 rubles for 1 euro.
(Monday, February 28 – 4:50 EET)
ENERGY | Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor will stop all new investments in Russia and withdraw from its joint ventures in that country.
The company had long-term investments in Russia with a cumulative value of over $ 1.2 billion at the end of 2021.
(Monday, February 28 – 3:50 EET)
AIR SPACE | Russia is closing its airspace to 36 countries in response to the EC’s decision to ban Russian aircraft.
Flights from these countries may be operated with a special authorization issued by the Federal Air Transport Agency or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
Over the weekend, the Russian airline S7 interrupted flights to Europe until March 13, 2022.
(Monday, February 28 – 3:45 EET)
OIL | BP will no longer hold a share of 19.75% in Russian’s oil company Rosneft. CEO Bernard Looney is resigning from Rosneft’s board with ”immediate effect”.
”BP has operated in Russia for over 30 years, working with brilliant Russian colleagues. However, this military action represents a fundamental change”, BP says in a statement.
(Sunday, 27 February – 19:30 EET)
NO MORE RUSSIAN PLANES AND MEDIA | European Commission is shutting down EU airspace to Russian planes.
”They won’t be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU. Including the private jets of oligarchs”, Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.
The President of the European Commission also said the EU will ban Russian state-owned media RT and Sputnik.
(Sunday, 27 February – 18:39 EET)
AIR SPACE | Italy closes airspace to Russian flights, according to Ferdinando Giugliano, an adviser to the Italian prime minister.
(Sunday, 27 February – 14:50 EET)
CRYPTO | Ukraine has received millions of pounds in cryptocurrency donations in order ”to destroy as many Russian soldiers as we can”.
Addresses for Bitcoin and Ether wallets were shared on the country’s official Twitter account, as well as on the profile of deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, SkyNews reports.
(Sunday, 27 February – 14:10 EET)
SWIFT | Japan will join the United States and other Western countries in blocking certain Russian banks from the international SWIFT payment system, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said today.
Tokyo will also personally sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin and send more than USD 100 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
(Sunday, 27 February – 13:50 EET)
STARLINK | Elon Musk says SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service is ”active” in Ukraine.
Musk posted a reply on Twitter to the Ukrainian Minister of Digital Transformation asking for his help.
Starlink is a satellite-based Internet access system that SpaceX has been building for years to make the Internet accessible to emerging countries.
(Sunday, 27 February – 10:50 EET)
AIR SPACE | Ireland is the last country on the list of nations to ban Russian aircraft from entering its airspace.
In recent days, many countries have banned Russian planes from using their airspace, including Romania, Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Denmark.
(Sunday, 27 February – 09:10 EET)
GOOGLE | Google has banned Russian media sources from accessing revenues from ads on their websites, apps and YouTube videos.
Russian media will not be able to purchase ads through Google Tools or place ads on all Google services.
Moreover, it blocked the possibility to download Russia Today app (state media channel) in Ukraine.
Yesterday, Meta (Facebook, Instagram) made a similar decision.
(Sunday, 27 February – 07:10 EET)
SWIFT | United States and the EU have taken steps to block access by some Russian banks to the international SWIFT payment system.
The decision targets Russian banks that have already been sanctioned by the international community, but can be extended to other Russian financial institutions if necessary.
Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT is a global institution with members from 200 countries and is required to comply with EU regulations.
In addition, the European Union is imposing restrictions on Russia’s central bank to limit its ability to support the exchange rate and finance Putin’s war.
On Friday, the EU blocked access to assets held in Europe by Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russian officials.
(Sunday, 27 February – 05:10 EET)
OLIGARCHS | Western countries agreed for a working group to identify and freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs, government officials and companies.
These include yachts, planes, cars and luxury apartments in the West that belong to Russian billionaires.
Bloomberg notes that Russia cannot rely on Chinese financial institutions to cushion the economic blow either.
At the moment, at least two of China’s largest state-owned banks are restricting financing for purchases of Russian commodities
(Saturday, February 26 – 11:10 EET)
