Sanctions - Page 10

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) – Bulgarians on Sunday cast their ballots in a general election – the fourth in 18 months – marked by a raging war nearby, political instability, and economic hardships in the European Union’s poorest member.

The Finnish government said Thursday it would significantly limit passenger traffic on Finland´s border with Russia.

Syrian Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad’s address to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday was a funhouse-mirror view of the world from the vantage point of a brutal dictatorship.

The German government has scrambled to wean Europe’s biggest economy off Russian oil, coal, and gas since coming to office last December.

The Iranian regime on Thursday sent new signals that it is preparing for a bloody crackdown on hijab protesters, as hardline Islamist President Ebrahim Raisi insisted his government respects “freedom of speech” but “acts of chaos are unacceptable.”

The Prime Minister of Estonia has warned that her country faces blackouts if Russia disconnects the three Baltic states — all NATO and EU members — from its grid amid the ongoing Russo-Western sanctions war. 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Poland´s top leaders celebrated the opening Saturday of a new – albeit unfinished – canal that they say will mean ships no longer must secure Russia´s permission to sail from the Baltic Sea to the ports of the Vistula Lagoon.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday announced sanctions against Boeing Defense CEO Ted Colbert and Raytheon CEO Gregory Hayes for their role in U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which supposedly “violate the One China principle” and “gravely undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests.”

Heavy industry experts have warned the European Commission that the EU faces the danger of “permanent deindustrialisation” should Brussels not act now to save the sector.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who the administration of leftist President Joe Biden personally sanctioned last year in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, received a visa to enter America for this month’s United Nations General Assembly, Moscow confirmed on Tuesday.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions against four Iranian companies and one individual involved in designing, producing, and shipping unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Russia for use against Ukraine.

Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced a freeze on energy bills, an end to the ban on fracking for shale gas, and new licences to drill oil in the North Sea.

Russia’s state energy company Gazprom released a video on Monday titled “And Winter Will Be Big.” The short presentation shows European cities freezing over, with occasional cuts to useless windmills and solar panels, while a mournful song plays in the background.

A U.S. intelligence report declassified on Monday said the Russians are buying huge qualities of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, a sign that heavily-sanctioned Russia is having difficulty obtaining or producing the munitions it needs to continue the invasion of Ukraine.

EU countries called to ban tourist visas, but some nations said ordinary Russians who may oppose the war shouldn’t be punished.

The economic powerhouses of the European Union, France and Germany, both set records on Friday for electricity prices, as the West’s sanctions war with Russia continues to bite.

China has been transporting millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil through a state-owned defense firm since 2020, evading U.S. sanctions imposed on Venezuelan oil, as part of a move to offset the socialist regime’s large debt to the Chinese Communist Party, Reuters reported on Friday.

Six months into a war that has killed thousands of Ukrainians and displaced over 12 million more, most of the pledges to drop Russian investments — some made with great fanfare during news conferences — have gone unfulfilled.

UK residents will see an 80 per cent increase in their annual household energy bills, the country’s energy regulator announced Friday, following a record 54 per cent spike in April. That will bring costs for the average customer from 1,971 pounds ($2,332) a year to 3,549 pounds.

At least one kindergarten in the UK has told children to wear more clothes to keep warm, as the business itself cannot afford to keep the heating on constantly.

The Associated Press found more than 3,600 shipments of wood, metals, rubber and other goods have arrived at U.S. ports from Russia since it began launching missiles and airstrikes into its neighbour in February.

Turkey doubled its Russian oil imports year-on-year over a period spanning January to August 2022, Reuters reported on Monday citing new data from the financial analyst platform Refinitiv Eikon.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday urged governments and private sectors worldwide to allow Russian food and fertilizer “unimpeded access” to the global market as they are “not subject to sanctions” imposed on Moscow by the U.S. government and its allies in response to Russia’s latest war with Ukraine, Turkey’s Hürriyet Daily News reported.

Russian energy export earnings are projected to rise nearly 40 percent year-on-year to $337.5 billion in 2022, Reuters reported Wednesday citing an official document from the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation.

China’s trade with Russia from January to July increased by nearly 30 percent from the same period last year to reach $97.71 billion, China’s state-run Global Times reported Sunday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday that five Turkish banks will begin using Russia’s Mir electronic payment system – a sign of deepening ties between NATO member Turkey and outlaw Russia, and a step toward dismantling the international financial system that allows Western nations to impose economic sanctions on rogue regimes.

(AFP) – Russian energy giant Gazprom suspended gas supplies to Latvia on Saturday following tensions between Moscow and the West over the conflict in Ukraine and sweeping European and U.S. sanctions against Russia.

China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday boasted that China’s “energy independence capacity” is at a record high of over 80 percent thanks to the Chinese Communist Party “beefing up energy security” by burning mountains of heavily polluting coal. Some of that coal is coming from North Korea, in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in Iran on Tuesday for a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It was Putin’s first foray beyond former Soviet Union territory since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February.

(AFP) – The European Union will discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of using the continent’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.

BERLIN (AP) – Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany’s decision to reactivate coal and oil-fired power plants to relieve energy shortages because of the war in Ukraine is only temporary and his government remains committed to doing “everything” to combat the climate crisis.

Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS, slammed Joe Biden for energy policies that he said are benefiting Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine by enriching his fossil fuel portfolio.

The Kremlin is hailing the downfall of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said he wanted to “lead the West” against Russia in February.

In a rather suspiciously timed coincidence, several billboards reading “Alaska Is Ours” appeared in Siberia on Thursday, the day after State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested Russia “take back” Alaska from the United States in retaliation for sanctions.

A potential cutting-off of Russian gas would lead to recession and “chaotic conditions”, various German officials are now warning.

BERLIN (AP) – Fearing Russia might cut off natural gas supplies, the head of Germany’s regulatory agency for energy called on residents Saturday to save energy and to prepare for winter, when use increases.