Tag: Sanctions

India assessing impact of Moscow sanctions on India-Russia trade: Govt

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The government on Friday said it is in the process of analysing the impact of sanctions on Moscow for India-Russia bilateral trade and economic cooperation. The US and several Western countries have imposed crippling economic sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

“Many countries have imposed sanctions on Russia due to the conflict. These are expected to have an impact on the global economy, including through disruption of supply chains. Its impact on energy and commodity prices is already visible,” Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi said. She was replying to a question in Lok Sabha.

Also Read: UK imposes new sanctions on Russian elites and businesses

“We are in the process of analysing its impact on India-Russia bilateral trade and economic cooperation, in consultation with all stakeholders. India’s relations with Russia stand on their own merit,” Lekhi said.

She also referred to discussions on the conflict at the United Nations and said India has called for an immediate cessation of violence and an end to all hostilities.

“We have expressed deep concern at the worsening situation and called for an immediate cessation of violence and end to all hostilities,” she said. Lekhi said India has reiterated that there is no other choice but the path of diplomacy and dialogue to resolve the crisis.

“We have emphasized to all member states of the UN that the global order is anchored on international law, UN Charter and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states,” she added.

Also Read: Rupee-ruble trade to be ready by next week: Report 

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

UK imposes new sanctions on Russian elites and businesses

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Britain on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Russian elites and businesses, targeting strategic industries including a defence company that makes drones, major shipping group Sovcomflot and top lender Gazprombank.

The government said the latest steps mean Britain has imposed sanctions on banks with total assets of 500 billion pounds ($658.65 billion) and oligarchs and family members with a net worth of more than 150 billion pounds.

Also Read: Sanctions on Russia may result in impairment losses for ONGC, others: Moody’s

Below are are the details of those sanctioned on Thursday:

– Alfa-Bank JSC, the largest of the private banks in Russia

– Alrosa, the world’s largest diamond producer with an estimated market value of $6.61 billion according to Refinitiv data.

– Defence company Kronshtadt, the main producer of Russian drones

– Eugene Markovich Shvidler, a billionaire businessman with close business links to Roman Abramovich, who was already been targeted by British sanctions

– Polina Kovaleva, step-daughter of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who the British government said reportedly owns a 4-million-pound property in London

– Oleg Tinkov, founder of Moscow-based commercial lender Tinkoff Bank and his net worth is estimated at $4.7 billion by Forbes

– German Gref, boss of Russia’s largest lender Sberbank, who served as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Minister of Economic Development and Trade between 2000 and 2007

– Oleg Aksyutin, the deputy chairman of the management board at energy group Gazprom

– Didier Casimiro, the first vice president of oil company Rosneft

– Zeljko Runje, the deputy chairman of the management board and first vice-president for oil, gas, and offshore business development of Rosneft

– Galina Danilchenko, who was installed as the mayor of Ukrainian city Melitopol by Russian authorities after their invasion

Also Read: Rupee-ruble trade to be ready by next week: Report 

For all the latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war, follow our LIVE blog here.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Japan imposes more sanctions on Russian officials, arms exporter

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Japan said on Friday it will impose sanctions on 15 Russian individuals and nine organisations, including defence officials and the state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport.

The sanctions, which include the freezing of assets, are the latest in a series of measures by Japan following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Japan has now put sanctions on 76 individuals, seven banks and 12 other organisations in Russia, according to the finance ministry.

The government said on Friday Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova and several military equipment makers including United Aircraft Corp, which manufactures fighter jets, would be sanctioned.

The U.S. ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, praised Japan’s action.

“These sanctions hit at the heart of Russia’s war machine,” the ambassador said in a statement.

>>Also Read | Ukraine-Russia War and India: Here’s how it’s impacting agri, pharma, oil space

This week, a U.S. Air Force cargo jet took helmets and other non-lethal military equipment donated by Japan to Ukraine.

Japan, a main U.S. security ally in Asia, still has stakes in gas and oil projects in Russia’s Sakhalin island, after Shell and Exxon Mobil pulled out from those projects.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday gave no clear indication of the fate of Japan’s investment in the projects, underscoring both their importance for Japan’s energy security and his intention to keep in step with G7 peers’ sanctions against Russia.

The Russian ambassador to Japan said on Thursday it was logical to maintain “mutually beneficial” energy projects in Sakhalin.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India buys Russian oil despite pressure for sanctions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) bought 3 million barrels of crude oil from Russia earlier this week to secure its energy needs, resisting Western pressure to avoid such purchases, an Indian government official said Friday.

The official said India has not imposed sanctions against buying oil and will be looking to purchase more from Russia despite calls not to from the US and other countries.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to reporters.

Read Also | RBI directs banks to conduct due diligence on small Russian banks spared from sanctions

The United States, Britain and other western countries are urging India to avoid buying Russian oil and gas. Indian media reports said Russia was offering a discount on oil purchases of 20 percent below global benchmark prices.

Fuel prices have surged in recent weeks, posing a huge burden for countries like India, which imports 85 percent of the oil it consumes. Its demand is projected to jump 8.2 percent this year to 5.15 million barrels per day as the economy recovers from the devastation caused by the pandemic.

White House press secretary Jennifer Psaki said earlier this week that Indian purchases of Russian oil wouldn’t violate US sanctions, but urged India to think about where you want to stand when history books are written.

Asked by reporters about India buying oil from Russia, the spokesman for the External Affairs Ministry, Arindam Bagchi, said many European countries import Russian oil and gas.

“India imports most of its oil requirements. We are exploring all possibilities in the global energy market. I don’t think Russia has been a major oil supplier to India,” Bagchi said.

Iraq is India’s top supplier with a 27 percent share. Saudi Arabia is second at around 17 percent, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 13 percent and the US at 9 percent, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

Read Also | Explained: Why India and Russia are exploring alternative payment channels to continue trade

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Russia-Ukraine War: Potential buyers for Chelsea told to approach British government

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Anyone interested in buying the Chelsea Football Club can submit a proposal to the British government, a minister said on Friday after London sanctioned the club’s owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, and halted his planned sale of the former Premier League champions.

“As the licence conditions are written today, the sale would not be allowed,” Britain’s technology minister Chris Philp told Sky News.

“However, if a buyer emerged it would be open to that buyer or to that football club to approach the government and ask for the conditions to be varied in a way that allows that sale to take place.”

The government, which has been under pressure to ramp up sanctions on Russian oligarchs after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine late last month, imposed a travel ban and froze Abramovich’s assets on Thursday. The announcement brought to a halt his recently announced plans to sell the West London football club, which he had expected to fetch more than three billion pounds ($3.93 billion).

Also read: UK says Chelsea can keep playing after Abramovich sanction, sale halted

The club is now effectively controlled by the British government and permitted to operate under strict conditions which prevent transfer deals and new ticket sales and even forced the club merchandise store to close.

In a statement on Tuesday, Chelsea said it would seek changes to the licence under which it must now operate to allow the club to continue as normal as possible.

“If the club feels that those licence conditions need to be changed in order to safeguard jobs, then … at any time they can come and talk to the government about varying those licence conditions,” Philp told ITV in a later interview.

“The red line for the government is making sure that no financial benefit ends up in the hands of Abramovich.”

Separately, London-listed Russian steelmaker Evraz, in which Abramovich is the largest shareholder with a 28.6 percent stake, according to Refinitiv Eikon, said on Friday that 10 of its 11 board members had quit.

Catch CNBC-TV18’s live updates on the Russia-Ukraine war here.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Russia-Ukraine War: European Union to propose sanctions against disinformation

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The European Union’s executive will propose a new mechanism to punish disinformation around the world, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday, citing what he said were lies intentionally spread by Russian state-owned media.

Borrell told the European Parliament that the EU should be able to freeze assets and ban travel to the bloc of those deemed responsible, in order to highlight such abuses of information to manipulate and mislead.

“I will propose a new mechanism that will allow us to sanction those malign disinformation actors,” Borrell said, adding that he was not trying to define what was true or false in news, but to protect against manipulation of societies.

Information is the fuel of a functioning democracy.

We are not trying to decide what is true or what is false.

Foreign actors who try to manipulate our information environment to advance their own purposes and harm us, need to be stopped.@Europarl_ENhttps://t.co/L7tYB5703K pic.twitter.com/p0Ni2ZaM6f

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) March 8, 2022

He singled out Russian state-owned television network Russia Today and news agency Sputnik as examples of “instruments to push this narrative to manipulate and mislead” Russian people over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Borrell said Moscow was not just bombing houses and infrastructure in Ukraine but also targeting Russians with fake news and disinformation. “They are bombing their minds,” he said.

The proposal comes after European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen said the 27-member bloc will ban the channels following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Borrell did not give more details about the timing of his proposal. EU governments would have to agree, draw up legal acts and agree on the names of those to target.

Also read: Russia-Ukraine War: Attacks on hospitals, ambulances increasing rapidly, warns WHO

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Russia-Ukraine War: Bankers share forex and trade concerns with RBI, says report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Several bankers have shared their concerns with the Reserve Bank of India regarding trade transactions with Russian entities. The banks have expressed concerns about their current exposure to Russian entities. Among the bankers present were representatives of the public sector, private and foreign banks who met with RBI executive directors on Friday, Mint has reported. The meeting comes after the central bank had asked all banks to share the details of their level of exposure to Russia.

“RBI wanted to know details of banks’ exposure and the total banking sector’s exposure to Russian entities. There are issues on SWIFT and payment. It’s an uncharted territory. It’s different from the Iran sanctions as this is on a bigger scale. Our clients are worried about inflation and rising costs,” one of the bankers present in the meeting told Mint.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US, NATO, Australia, Japan and EU have imposed several financial sanctions on Russia. These include kicking several Russian banks out of the SWIFT communications network, as well as sanctions dealing with the other sections of the Russian economy.

Also read: Can CIPS, China’s potential SWIFT competitor, help Russia?

With Russia being now blocked out of international markets, conducting trade with Russia is much more difficult as the country no longer has access to currencies like the dollar which are mainly used to conduct international trade.

India routed all of its payments for Iranian crude, which has been under sanctions, through a single bank with limited foreign exposure, UCO Bank. These payments were made in euros and rupees instead of dollar.

While India has circumvented US sanctions in the past, the scale of the new Russian sanctions add to its troubles. Talks of activating a rupee-ruble trade pact to process payments have been floated but no decision has been taken on the matter yet. While Russia is not a huge trade partner for India, it is a key strategic arms supplier to India, with trade between the two countries worth $8.1 billion in FY21.

Catch live updates of the Russia-Ukraine war here

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Bitcoin has a higher m-cap than Ruble amid raging Russia-Ukraine war

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The crippling sanctions on Russia after it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine have led to the collapse of the ruble. At the same time, Bitcoin’s value has once again risen. In this shifting dynamic, Bitcoin’s market cap has now eclipsed that of the Russian ruble.

Bitcoin has a market cap of $839.1 billion while ruble’s market cap as of February 1 was around $629 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Sanctions by the US, UK, France, Germany, NATO allies, EU, Japan, and Australia have caused the ruble to collapse almost overnight with the current exchange rate being $1 = 109 ruble, compared to 77 ruble on February 20.

At the same time, Bitcoin has once again defied expectations by reversing its bearish trends and climbing back up to above $44,000. Bitcoin is up by over 15 percent in the past week, paring much of the losses it had suffered earlier in the year.

The sudden change in Bitcoin’s fortunes comes as a result of the ruble’s collapse. Russians have stored their wealth in Bitcoin as a measure of safety against further erosion of wealth.

“Bitcoin was created for the same purpose where it acts as a store of value on one side and also to enable fast and free transactions on the other side. Both these utilities are becoming visible now. A lot of people in Russia are going in for Bitcoin due to the ruble drop. Ukraine’s government had also announced accepting Bitcoin as donations. This is a very good use where governments are looking at cryptos during such crisis and anonymously people are also able to contribute,” Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder, Unocoin, said to Financial Express Online.

“In these uncertain times, we have seen an uptick in the utility of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It goes without saying the defining characteristics of Bitcoin allow it to act as a safe haven during turbulent times,” Paolo Ardoino, CTO of the crypto exchange BitFinex, told The Independent.

With Bitcoin quickly emerging as a haven for wealth for Russians, fears have emerged that many of Russia’s oligarchs may also store their billions in cryptocurrencies. For President Vladimir Putin’s closest associates, who happen to be billionaires, sanctions would be unacceptable. The US government has already amended its sanctions to include digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

Read Also | Ukraine legalises cryptocurrencies amid tensions with Russia

“All property and interests in property that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person of the following persons are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in … deceptive or structured transactions or dealings to circumvent any United States sanctions, including through the use of digital currencies or assets or the use of physical assets,” read new regulations from the US Treasury Department.

But cryptocurrencies seem to be mostly used by the masse. While the Russians are trying to hold on to their savings, the Ukrainians are receiving crypto donations to defend against Putin’s aggression.

Read Also | Cryptocurrencies today: Bitcoin, Ether, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, other cryptos rise amid Russia-Ukraine conflict

Follow Russia-Ukraine war latest updates on CNBCTV18.com’s blog

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow