The government presented a list of countries unfriendly to Russia

The Russian government, on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, approved a list of foreign states and territories that commit unfriendly actions against Russia, Russian companies and citizens.

As follows from the order signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the list includes Australia, Albania, Andorra, the United Kingdom, including Jersey, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, the member states of the European Union, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, San Marino, North Macedonia, Singapore, USA, Taiwan, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Japan.

Thus, in accordance with the document, “Russian citizens and companies, the state itself, its regions and municipalities that have foreign exchange obligations to foreign creditors from the list of unfriendly countries will be able to pay them in rubles.” “To do this, the debtor can ask a Russian bank to create a special ruble account “C” in the name of a foreign creditor and transfer payments to it in ruble equivalent at the Central Bank rate on the day of payment,” the message on the Cabinet’s website emphasizes.

At the same time, it is clarified that “the new temporary procedure applies to payments exceeding 10 million rubles per month (or a similar amount in foreign currency equivalent).”

Recall that on February 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), and on February 24 he made an emergency appeal to the Russians and announced a special military operation in Donbass. In his speech, he stated that “circumstances require decisive action from Russia” and stressed that “Russia will not allow Ukraine to have nuclear weapons.”

In response to Russia’s actions, Western countries (USA, Canada, European Union, Great Britain, Japan) announced new, tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation, including financial and economic ones.

In particular, Russian banks fell under the sanctions, including Sberbank, VTB, Novikombank, FC Otkritie and Sovcombank, and for a number of state-owned companies it was difficult to attract foreign capital.

Later, the EU countries and the United States agreed to disconnect Russian banks that fell under sanctions from the international system of interbank transactions and information exchange SWIFT. In addition, it was decided to freeze the assets of the Bank of Russia, which will create difficulties for its use of international reserves. EU countries also pledged to take steps to limit the sale of citizenship — the so-called “golden passports” that allow wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government to become citizens of EU states and gain access to their financial systems. In addition, the European Union, the United States, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the sky for Russian aircraft.

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