Daily: 04/13/2022

Санкції проти Росії. Швейцарія приєднується до останнього пакету обмежень ЄС

Влада Швейцарії приєднується до пакета санкцій, ухваленого раніше у квітні ЄС щодо Росії та Білорусі.

«13 квітня Федеральна рада Швейцарії ухвалила рішення приєднатися до нових заходів, розроблених ЄС щодо РФ та Білорусі», – йдеться у пресрелізі швейцарського уряду.

Винятком є заборона щодо транспорту, оскільки ухвалення цих обмежень не є необхідним через географічне розташування країни.

Крім того, Федеральний департамент економіки, освіти та досліджень (EAER) застосував фінансові санкції та обмеження на поїздки ще щодо 200 людей.

5 квітня ЄС оголосив про запровадження п’ятого пакету санкцій проти Росії, який, серед іншого, передбачає заборону на імпорт вугілля з Росії на суму 4 мільярди євро на рік, що скорочує ще одне важливе джерело доходу для Росії.

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Британія розширила санкції, зокрема на «короля оборонки» Євтушенкова, чиє майно у Лондоні знайшли «Схеми»

Велика Британія 13 квітня розширила список санкцій проти Росії та внесла у нього ще 206 фізичних та юридичних осіб. Серед них, зокрема – народний депутат та кум президента РФ Путіна Віктор Медведчук та російських олігарх, власник оборонного концерну, який виконує державні замовлення Міноборони РФ – Володимир Євтушенков.

Російський олігарх Володимир Євтушенков, який, як раніше з’ясували «Схеми», володіє елітною нерухомістю у середмісті Лондона вартістю 31 мільйон фунтів, також потрапив під санкції, які передбачають:

заморожування активів;
заборону на поїздки;
заборону на вхід суден у порти та посадку літаків у Сполученому Королівстві;
заборону на надання технічної допомоги повітряним бортам або суднам.

Причиною введення санкцій вказано: «Володимир Євтушенков – відомий російський бізнесмен та олігарх. Євтушенков бере або брав участь в отриманні вигоди або підтримці уряду Росії на підставі його власності на АФК «Система», конгломерату, який має бізнес-інтереси в російській енергетичній та інформаційній, комунікаційній та цифрових технологіях, які є секторами стратегічного значення для уряду Росії».

До санкційного списку також увійшли інші російські олігархи, зокрема Олег Дерипаска, Вагіт Алєкпєров, Андрій Бокарєв.

Також відповідно до цього рішення, введені санкції щодо Віктора Медведчука, якого напередодні затримали працівники СБУ. Його активи тут будуть заморожені, а в’їзд на територію Британії – заборонений.

Раніше журналісти програми «Схеми» у своїх розслідуваннях повідомляли, що Євтушенков володіє двома квартирами у центрі Лондона загальною вартістю понад 31 мільйон фунтів стерлінгів та трьома віллами на Лазуровому узбережжі Франції. А мати його дітей Олена Брусилова має чотири вілли в Італії.

Наближений до Путіна Євтушенков – один з найбагатших людей Росії. Він голова ради директорів і власник 64% акцій АФК «Система». Ця російська корпорація володіє концерном «РТІ Системи», що входить до сотні найбільших оборонних компаній світу, розробляючи для російського озброєння системи управління та зв’язку, радіотехнічне обладнання.

Віктор Медведчук, якого напередодні затримали українські правоохоронці, також неодноразово ставав фігурантом журналістських розслідувань «Схем». Зокрема, про те, як політик-бізнесмен під санкціями освоював ринок нафтопродуктів в США, як його завод співпрацював з білоруським олігархом Миколою Вороб’єм, про реконструкцію маєтку у Пущі-Водиці та видобуток кримського газу із анексованого чорноморського родовища, тощо. 

Велика Британія вже запровадила декілька пакетів санкцій щодо Росії. Серед тих, хто раніше потрапив під санкції, що передбачають заморожування активів та заборону на вʼїзд до країни, є відомі бізнесмени та чиновники, а також керівники підконтрольних Кремлю засобів інформації та їхні співробітники.

Прем’єр Британії Борис Джонсон після появи інформації про масові вбивства цивільного населення на Київщині під час окупації пообіцяв «заморити голодом військову машину Путіна».

 

 

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Шуфрич прокоментував затримання Медведчука

У коментарі Радіо Свобода він також відреагував на заяву Зеленського щодо можливого обміну свого політичного соратника

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Russian Netflix Users Sue Streaming Giant for Leaving Market – RIA

Russian users of Netflix NFLX.O have launched a class action lawsuit against the streaming giant for leaving the Russian market, demanding 60 million roubles ($726,000) in compensation, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. 

Netflix Inc said in March that it suspended its service in Russia and had temporarily stopped all future projects and acquisitions in the country as it assessed the impact of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Today, a law firm representing the interests of Netflix users filed a class action lawsuit against the American Netflix service with the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow,” RIA cited law firm Chernyshov, Lukoyanov & Partners as saying. 

“The reason for the lawsuit was a violation of Russian users’ rights due to Netflix’s unilateral refusal to provide services in Russia.” 

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Scores of foreign companies have announced temporary shutdowns of stores and factories in Russia or said they were leaving for good since Moscow began what it calls “a special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked war of aggression against its neighbor. 

($1 = 82.62 roubles) 

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«Росія не планує зупинятися». Зеленський закликав Захід надати зброю вже зараз і оприлюднив перелік необхідного

Володимир Зеленський наголошує, що Україні потрібен конкретний перелік зброї, аби продовжувати «героїчно захищати світ від російської агресії».

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Volunteers in Poland Compelled to Help Ukrainian Refugees

Volunteers are working alongside humanitarian organizations to help refugees inside and outside of Ukraine. VOA’s Celia Mendoza has more from Przemysl, Poland.

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Swiss to Unfreeze $430M as Egypt Money Laundering Probe Ends

Swiss prosecutors will not file any charges after concluding a decade-long investigation into alleged money laundering and organized crime linked to late former President Hosni Mubarak’s circles in Egypt, and will release some 400 million Swiss francs ($430 million) frozen in Swiss banks.

The office of the Swiss attorney general said Wednesday that information received as part of cooperation with Egyptian authorities wasn’t sufficient to back up the claims that emerged in the wake of Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 that felled Mubarak’s three-decade rule.

A Swiss investigation into claims that banks in Switzerland were used to squirrel away ill-gotten funds had originally targeted 14 people, including Mubarak’s two sons, as well as dozens of other individuals and entities that had assets totaling some 600 million francs frozen.

More than 210 million francs were already released in an earlier phase of the case, which also could not substantiate the allegations, and Wednesday’s announcement means about 400 million more will be “released and returned to their beneficial owners,” the attorney-general’s office said.

The final part of the Swiss investigation centered on five people, it said, without identifying them.

Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, hailed the decision as a full exoneration.

According to a statement sent to The Associated Press by the family’s representatives at Portland, a London-based communications firm, Gamal Mubarak said the decision “validates the position we have held all along” following more than a decade of “intrusive investigations, sanctions and mutual legal assistance proceedings.”

 

“The decision marks an important step in our efforts to assert our rights and prove our innocence from the flagrantly false allegations leveled against us over the past 11 years,” he said.

Swiss prosecutors say they didn’t receive a response to a request for information from “commissions” created in Egypt to analyze financial transfers connected to people under investigation in Egypt — notably the Mubarak family, the office said. Mubarak died in 2020, aged 91.

“As a result, in the absence of evidence relating to potential offenses committed in particular in Egypt, it is not possible to show that the funds located in Switzerland could be of illegal origin,” it said. “The suspicion of money laundering cannot therefore be substantiated based on the information available.”

Swiss banks, reputed for their discretion, have been a favored repository over the years for many wealthy foreigners — including Western industrial tycoons, Russian oligarchs, and autocrats and other leaders and their families and cronies in places as diverse as Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Swiss authorities have touted a recent crackdown against money laundering through Swiss banks, but advocacy groups and watchdogs say the effort has not succeeded in completely ending such activities.

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Медведєв погрожує українській владі через затримання Медведчука

«Варто уважно озиратися на всі боки і міцно зачиняти двері на ніч, щоб самим не опинитися серед осіб на обмін»

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ОБСЄ не вважає Білорусь учасницею міжнародного збройного конфлікту – доповідь

Натомість, за твердженням Києва, «є багато підтверджених фактів того, що Росія використовує територію Білорусі для здійснення нападів на Україну»

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Подоляк розповів, чим під час війни займається ексчиновник МВС часів Януковича Олег Татаров

Олег Татаров – колишній посадовець Міністерства внутрішніх справ. Він обіймав посаду заступника керівника Головного слідчого управління МВС – керівника управління з організації контролю за розслідуванням злочинів під час подій Революції гідності

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China’s Trade with Russia Slows but Still Beats Overall Growth

BEIJING — China’s overall trade with Russia rose over 12% in March from a year earlier, slowing from February but still outpacing the growth in China’s total imports and exports, as Beijing slammed Western sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. 

Shipments to and from Russia increased 12.76% in March to $11.67 billion, Chinese customs data showed on Wednesday, slowing from 25.7% growth in February, when Russia launched its invasion.

Still, the growth in March was faster than the 7.75% increase in China’s trade with all countries and regions to $504.79 billion that month.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in a move that Moscow described as a “special military operation” designed to demilitarize and “denazify” its southern neighbor.

Beijing has refused to call Russia’s action an invasion and has repeatedly criticized what it says are illegal Western sanctions to punish Moscow.

Several weeks before the attack on Ukraine, China and Russia declared a “no-limits” strategic partnership. Last year, total trade between China and Russia jumped 35.8% to a record $146.9 billion. 

As sanctions against Russia mount, China could offset some of its neighbor’s pain by buying more. But analysts say they have yet to see any major indication China is violating Western sanctions on Russia.

China’s economic and trade cooperation with other countries including Russia and Ukraine remains normal, customs spokesman Li Kuiwen said at a news conference. 

In the first quarter, China’s trade with Russia jumped 30.45% from a year earlier, within the range of gains seen in previous quarterly increases. 

Russia is a major source of oil, gas, coal and agricultural commodities for China. 

Russia’s economy is on course to contract by more than 10% in 2022, former finance minister Alexei Kudrin said on Tuesday, hit by soaring inflation and capital flight.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Tuesday revised down its forecast for global trade growth this year because of the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war.

 

($1 = 6.3646 Chinese yuan) 

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Посольство РФ у США вважає «провокаційними» заяви про можливе застосування Росією хімічної зброї

Коментарі посольства є відповіддю на заяву речника Держдепартаменту США Неда Прайса, що у Вашингтоні «занепокоєні» тим, що Росія «може спробувати вдатися до хімічної зброї».

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US Officials Warn of ‘Dramatic’ Increases in Space Competition with Russia, China

Space is being increasingly militarized, says the ‘Challenges in Security in Space Report – 2022’

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Turkey Positions Itself as Key to Ending Europe’s Dependence on Russian Energy

With the European Union pledging to end its dependence on Russian gas, Turkey is positioning itself as a key bridge to alternative energy supplies from other nations. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
Produced by: Rob Raffaele

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Russia Arrests Opposition Figure Following Prediction About Putin

A prominent Russian opposition activist was arrested Monday near his home in Moscow and sentenced to 15 days in jail for allegedly disobeying a police order. 

The arrest comes just hours after Vladimir Kara-Murza gave an interview to CNN in which he called the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin “murderous” and predicted the war in Ukraine would lead to Putin’s downfall. 

“I have absolutely no doubt that the Putin regime will end over this war in Ukraine,” he told CNN, adding that it “doesn’t mean it’s going to happen tomorrow. The two main questions are time and price. And by price, I do not mean monetary — I mean the price of human blood and human lives, and it has already been horrendous. But the Putin regime will end over this, and there will be a democratic Russia after Putin.” 

In 2015 and again in 2017, Kara-Murza claimed he had been poisoned by Putin’s government. He said the poisonings were a result of his effort to get the United States and Europe to sanction Putin and other Russian officials. 

The first case reportedly left him with kidney failure. 

“Twice in the last seven years, Russian authorities have tried to kill (Kara-Murza) for seeking personal sanctions against thieves and murderers and now they want to throw him in jail for calling their vile and bloody war a war. I demand his immediate release!” Kara-Murza’s wife, Yevgeniya, tweeted. 

On Twitter Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he was troubled by the arrest. 

“We are monitoring this situation closely and urge his immediate release,” he added.  

 

Kara-Murza’s lawyer said he will appeal the sentence. 

In March, Russia passed strict laws making use of the words “war” or “invasion” to describe Russia’s action in Ukraine prosecutable. 

 

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Former Executive Gets Prison for $1 Billion Solar Fraud

A former energy executive in California who took part in $1 billion solar power fraud that bilked Warren Buffett’s company and many others was sentenced Tuesday to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $624 million in restitution.

Robert A. Karmann, 55, of Clayton was the chief financial officer for DC Solar, a company based in Benicia in the San Francisco Bay Area that sold mobile solar generator units mounted on trailers.

The company marketed the generators between 2011 and 2018 as being able to provide emergency power for cellphone companies or to provide lighting at sporting and other events.

But the company executives started telling investors they could benefit from federal tax credits by buying the generators and leasing them back to DC Solar, which would then provide them to other companies for their use, prosecutors said.

The generators never provided much income, and prosecutors say the company ran a Ponzi scheme, in which early investors were paid with funds from later investors.

The company eventually stopped building the mobile generators altogether, and prosecutors say a least half the company’s claimed 17,000 generators didn’t really exist.

Among those suckered by the business were Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

DC Solar founder Jeff Carpoff was sentenced last November to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay $790.6 million in restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

His wife, Paulette Carpoff, 47, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and will be sentenced in May.

Prosecutors said the Carpoffs used the money to buy and invest in 32 properties, more than 150 luxury cars, a subscription to a private jet service, a semipro baseball team, a NASCAR race car sponsorship and a suite at the new Las Vegas Raiders stadium.

One other man was sentenced to three years in prison last year and three others pleaded guilty to criminal charges and await sentencing.

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Elon Musk Accused of Breaking Law While Buying Twitter Stock

Elon Musk’s huge Twitter investment took a new twist Tuesday with the filing of a lawsuit alleging that the colorful billionaire illegally delayed disclosing his stake in the social media company so he could buy more shares at lower prices.

The complaint in New York federal court accuses Musk of violating a regulatory deadline to reveal he had accumulated a stake of at least 5%. Instead, according to the complaint, Musk didn’t disclose his position in Twitter until he’d almost doubled his stake to more than 9%. The lawsuit alleges that the strategy hurt less-wealthy investors who sold shares in the San Francisco company in the nearly two weeks before Musk acknowledged holding a major stake.

Musk’s regulatory filings show that he bought a little more than 620,000 shares at $36.83 apiece on Jan. 31 and then continued to accumulate more shares on nearly every single trading day through April 1. Musk, best known as CEO of the electric car maker Tesla, held 73.1 million Twitter shares as of the most recent count Monday. That represents a 9.1% stake in Twitter.

The lawsuit alleges that by March 14, Musk’s stake in Twitter had reached a 5% threshold that required him to publicly disclose his holdings under U.S. securities law by March 24. Musk didn’t make the required disclosure until April 4.

That revelation caused Twitter’s stock to soar 27% from its April 1 close to nearly $50 by the end of April 4’s trading, depriving investors who sold shares before Musk’s improperly delayed disclosure the chance to realize significant gains, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of an investor named Marc Bain Rasella. Musk, meanwhile, was able to continue to buy shares that traded in prices ranging from $37.69 to $40.96.

The lawsuit is seeking to be certified as a class action representing Twitter shareholders who sold shares between March 24 and April 4, a process that could take a year or more.

Musk spent about $2.6 billion on Twitter stock — a fraction of his estimated wealth of $265 billion, the largest individual fortune in the world. In a regulatory filing Monday, Musk disclosed he may increase his stake after backing out of an agreement reached last week to join Twitter’s board of directors.

Jacob Walker, one of the lawyers that filed the lawsuit against Musk, told The Associated Press that he hadn’t reached out to the Securities and Exchange Commission about Musk’s alleged violations about the disclosure of his Twitter stake. “I assume the SEC is well aware of what he did,” Walker said.

An SEC spokesperson declined to comment.

The SEC and Musk have been wrangling in court since 2018 when Musk and Tesla agreed to pay a $40 million fine t o settle allegations that he used his Twitter account to mislead investors about a potential buyout of the electric car company that never materialized. As part of that deal, Musk was supposed to obtain legal approval for his tweets about information that could affect Tesla’s stock price — a provision that regulators contend he has occasionally violated and that he now argues unfairly muzzles him.

Musk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment posted on Twitter, where he often shares his opinion and thoughts. Alex Spiro, a New York lawyer representing Musk in his ongoing dispute with the SEC, also didn’t immediately respond to a query from The Associated Press. 

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Колишній керівник «Аерофлоту» закликає «саботувати воєнні дії»

Наразі Андрій Панов перебуває в Ізраїлі

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UK PM to Be Fined Over Attending Parties During Lockdowns

Britain’s prime minister and finance minister will have to pay fines for attending parties and violating the country’s pandemic lockdown rules, the government said Tuesday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak have been under investigation for 12 parties at both No. 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet Office, some of which were attended by the ministers and their staff.

“The prime minister and chancellor of the exchequer have today received notification that the metropolitan police intend to issue them with fixed penalty notices,” a government spokesperson said.

Police said some 50 people would face fines or other penalties over the parties.

The political opposition in Britain has called for Johnson’s resignation over the scandal.

Johnson apologized over one incident saying he thought it was a work event.

The parties were held during 2020 and 2021, according to news reports.

One event, captured in a photo published by the BBC, shows Johnson and others gathered at the No. 10 Downing Street garden drinking wine in May 2020 when other citizens were not allowed to leave their homes without a reason, and outdoor gatherings were limited to two for exercise.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.

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