Hey guys, the new episode of Kremlin File’s Week in Review is out. It covers the most impactful Russian-related news stories affecting Ukraine, Europe, and the United States. Delve into the headlines often overlooked, which shed light on Russia's aggressions, intelligence activities, assassinations, espionage, and beyond.
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Show Notes…
Economic News: some interesting stats about the Russian economy:
the Russian domestic national wealth fund reserves are sufficient to fund the war for another two years;
the 7.5% reduction of oil primary processing volumes is already impacting the domestic gasoline and diesel prices. However, it has no impact on the world markets unlike what the FT claims.
Russia's Kuibyshev mid-sized oil refinery near the city of Samara has halted all production following damage from a Ukrainian drone attack last week, two industry sources told Reuters. Via Reuters
Steel production is down this year by 3.2% for the first two months year over year.
Inflationary pressure continues to hit the regions harder than Moscow, estimates by the central bank are hogwash.
Russia increased gasoline imports from neighboring Belarus in March to tackle the risk of shortages in its domestic market because of unscheduled repairs at Russian refineries after drone attacks. Via Reuters
Prague has successfully completed negotiations for the supply of 1 million artillery shells to the Ukrainian army to be delivered sometime in April. Around fifteen EU countries took part in the initiative, led by Czech President Petr Pavel. The estimated value of the supply contracts is around 1.8 billion euros. The original plan called for the purchase of 800,000 shells, but during negotiations, this number increased to 1 million. Via Corriere
Putin gave the green light to the nationalization of the property of businessmen-“saboteurs” Russia continues to nationalize private companies. During 2022-2023 more than 180 private enterprises came under state control, and demands for nationalization that came to the courts in two years concerned almost two hundred companies. Via The Moscow Times
Paid by the Kremlin: The government of Petr Fiala has added two more people and one company to the Czech sanctions list. The decision is related to the recent BIS revelations that Russians are trying to influence the European Parliament elections in Germany, France, and Belgium.
The Czech government placed Voice of Europe, a Czech company based in Prague that operates a pro-Russian news website, on the sanctions list as well as Viktor Medvedchuk and Artem Pavlovich Marchevskyi. Medvedchuk was running a “Russian influence operation” from Russia on Czech territory using Voice of Europe, authorities said in a statement.
The BIS has documented that the cash money also went to some politicians spreading Russia-friendly narratives—in particular, that an end to the war would be achieved by stopping the supply of weapons to Ukraine. According to the BIS, hundreds of thousands of euros have been paid from Russia for these purposes in the last year alone.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said Thursday that Russia had approached EU parliament members (MEPs) and "paid [them], to promote Russian propaganda.”
MEPs have called for an "urgent" debate into a Russian influence scandal.
Via Politico and Poland’s Ministry of Internal Affairs
The Netherlands will temporarily deploy Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems in Lithuania, the Republic's Ministry of National Defense reports. “This summer, the Netherlands decided to deploy the Patriot long-range air defense system in Lithuania for several weeks. The Dutch military unit will undergo training in Lithuania together with units of the Lithuanian army,” the statement says. This is as Poland scrambled jets a second time in a week because of Russian missiles.
Bloomberg: US and UK tracking $20 billion in crypto transfers to Russia. The U.S. and U.K. are investigating several cryptocurrency transactions valued at more than $20 billion that passed through a Russian-based virtual exchange, Bloomberg reported on March 28.
The payments under scrutiny went through Moscow-based crypto exchange Garantex using the dollar-pegged cryptocurrency Tether, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that hasn’t yet been made public. The transfers have taken place since Garantex was sanctioned by the US and UK on suspicion of enabling financial crimes and illicit transactions in Russia, they said.
Lukashenko has been discussing a possible attack on the Suwałki Gap. "They shouldn’t be behaving like this. But now you will have to confront the Baltic republics... And you will take part of Poland," Lukashenko said. Via Ukrainian Pravda
The Lukashenko dog pic we were laughing about…
Crackdown on Western components getting to Russia: The U.S. Commerce Department sent letters to at least 20 American companies telling them to cease shipments of materials abroad that may end up in Russian weapons, a department official said on March 28.
As part of an effort to crack down on sanctions evasion, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order in December 2023 threatening that even companies that inadvertently did business with Russia could be sanctioned as well.
The Commerce Department's warning is similarly concerned with companies that do not appear to be deliberately providing Russia with military components.
Via Reuters
In Ukraine: During the night, the Russian army attacked three thermal power plants of the Ukrainian energy company DTEK. The shelling severely damaged the equipment at the plants. A power engineer was injured. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has shelled DTEK's thermal power plants more than 160 times. Source: DTEK The Russians launched 99 missiles and drones. Via Reuters
The top manager of Rosatom was arrested on charges of a large bribe. The Basmanny Court of Moscow took into custody Gennady Sakharov, Director for Capital Investments, State Construction Supervision, and State Expertise of Rosatom, on charges of bribery on a large scale (Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code). He will remain in pre-trial detention until May 26. The top manager faces up to 15 years in prison. Via The Moscow Times
Nato is considering shooting down Russian missiles that stray too close to its borders, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Andrzej Szejna, told Polish media outlet RMF24.
Szejna said that “(Russia) knew that if the missile moved further into Poland, it would be shot down. There would be a counterattack.” Poland’s armed forces said that Russia violated Poland’s airspace at 4:23am (0323 GMT) on Sunday morning with a cruise missile launched at targets in western Ukraine. Via VOA News
Russia’s Ministry of Transport noted the collapse of the infrastructure of Russian airports. This is as The Moscow Times reported that a Gabonese-registered company Ter Assala Parts supplied $1.5 Bln in Aircraft Parts to Russia in 2023. Via The Moscow Times
Russia vetoes a UN resolution, effectively abolishing the monitoring of the organization’s sanctions against North Korea. The Security Council resolution sponsored by the United States would have extended the mandate of the panel for a year, but Russia’s veto will halt its operations. (AP)
The experts monitor enforcement of UN sanctions which have been in place against North Korea since 2017 over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programme. The move comes amid US-led accusations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia, which Moscow has used in its war in Ukraine.
According to RUSI, at least five North Korean oil tankers visited Russia's Vostochny port starting March 6 to reload oil products. This contradicts the oil embargo imposed on North Korea. The satellite images are provided by the analytical center. The visits, which were tracked by RUSI in recent weeks, mark an unprecedented development in Russia-NK relations after deliveries of munitions and ballistic missiles that have been fired by the Russian forces at Ukrainian infrastructure and civilians. Via RUSI
Sergey Naryshkin, Director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, has spent three days in North Korea against the backdrop of reports of weapon supplies from North Korea to Russia and oil from Russia to North Korea in violation of international sanctions. Via Ukrainian Pravda
Latvian Broker Arrested for Allegedly Smuggling Advanced U.S. Aircraft Technology to Russia. In a superseding indictment returned by a grand jury, a citizen of the Republic of Latvia is charged with crimes related to a years-long conspiracy to sell sophisticated avionics equipment to Russian companies, in violation of U.S. export laws. The defendant is the third to be arrested and charged in connection with the conspiracy led by a Kansas company and two U.S. nationals. Via The U.S. Department of Justice
A former Hungarian government insider turned critic released an audio recording on Tuesday that he says proves that top officials conspired to cover up corruption, the latest development in a scandal that has shaken Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s domination of the country’s politics.
The country’s largest protests in years erupted in early February when it was revealed that the president had issued a pardon to a man imprisoned for covering up child sexual abuses by the director of a state-run orphanage. Via the Washington Post
Zelenskyy spoke with Speaker Johnson. He briefed him on the situation on the front lines and made another plea for Congress to send additional aid overseas, as officials in Washington and Kyiv sound the alarm about Ukraine’s waning resources. Via The Hill
This article is about women:
https://www.cbpp.org/blog/to-honor-womens-history-month-strengthen-care-infrastructure-and-care-workforce