Russian troops abducted Ukrainian mayor after capturing city of Melitopol March 12, 2022 Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russian troops of kidnapping the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Melitopol, after he refused to cooperate with their demands. In a video briefing, Zelensky said: “Today in Melitopol the invaders captured mayor of the city, Ivan Federov – a mayor who courageously defends Ukraine and the people of [...]
Seizing companies’ assets would take Russia back to Bolshevik revolution, Putin ally says March 12, 2022 Russian mining billionaire Vladimir Potanin has warned Putin against seizing control of assets owned by the foreign firms that have exited Russia, after arguing that doing so would drag Russia back to the time of the Bolshevik revolution. Multi-billionaire mining magnate Potanin, who in 2018 appeared on the US Treasury’s list of 210 individuals with [...]
£24bn Brexit rebound: UK goods imports from EU overtake non-EU trade while Russian influx soars March 12, 2022 Goods imports from the EU rebounded fat the start of 2022, despite uncertainty over changes in HMRC methodology, to overtake Non-EU countries, after non-EU imports of goods to the UK surpassed those from the EU for the first time in 2021 since the ONS started recording the data in 1997. Over £24bn worth of goods [...]
US law firm Squire Patton Boggs drops Russia’s Gazprombank as client March 12, 2022 US law firm Squire Patton Boggs has dropped Russia’s Gazprombank as a client, after closing its Moscow offices. Squire Patton Boggs’ decision to exit its relationship with Russia’s third largest bank comes after the US law firm was hired by Gazprombank in 2014 to lobby against US sanctions, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Gazprombank’s relationship [...]
Russia to block Instagram on Monday after branding Meta an ‘extremist organisation’ March 12, 2022 The Kremlin has told Russian Instagram users they have until the end of the weekend to transfer any photos or videos they have saved on the social platform, onto their own computers, after confirming Instagram will be “definitively blocked” from midnight on Monday. The comments come after Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said it will be [...]
US vows to target crypto exchanges that allow sanctioned oligarchs to use their services March 12, 2022 The US has said it plans to target cryptocurrency exchanges that help sanctioned oligarchs move dirty money. The US Department of Justice’s (DoJ’s) KleptoCapture taskforce, which was set up this month to enforce sanctions on Russian oligarchs, is set to prosecute banks and cryptocurrency exchanges that fail to prevent sanctioned individuals from using their services. [...]
Barclays suspend Chelsea FC bank account: Reports March 11, 2022 Barclays has temporarily suspended Chelsea FC’s bank account as it assesses the impact of sanctions, according to multiple reports. The club’s owner Roman Abramovich was placed on the UK’s sanctions list yesterday morning over his links to Vladimir Putin and his part-ownership in a firm allegedly linked to the production of Russian military equipment. The [...]
Putin’s girlfriend Alina and their four children go into hiding in luxury chalet in Switzerland March 11, 2022 The long-term girlfriend of Russian president Vladimir Putin - Alina Kabaeva - has reportedly gone into hiding in Switzerland, together with the couple's four young children.
Law giant CMS closes Moscow offices after coming under fire for links to oligarchs March 11, 2022 European law giant CMS has said it will close its Moscow offices and withdraw from the Russian market, after Conservative MP Bob Seely named CMS partner Geraldine Proudler as one of four “amoral” lawyers working for oligarchs to silence the press. In a post on Linkedin today, the law firm said it had decided that [...]
Business of Space: Has Roscosmos imposed its own restrictions? March 11, 2022 This week Russian space chief hits out on Twitter… again SpaceX takes in-orbit satellite tally above 2,000 Range applications sent off for UK’s first-ever vertical launch site Roscosmos Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has seen a number of governments impose sanctions on the country, which range from having assets frozen to being locked out of certain [...]