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American congressmen seek sanctions against Russian oligarch over 'large-scale investments in Crimea'
Shares of billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov's companies were pummeled on the Moscow Stock Exchange on Friday following news from the US that a group of congressmen is seeking sanctions against the businessman, who has already given the State key oil assets and lost 70% of his fortune due to a conflict with Rosneft.
US Congressmen affiliated with the Republican Party, Mark Walker and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, argued that the inclusion of Yevtushenkov, as well as his companies AFK Sistema and MTS, in …
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Russian companies prepare to be disconnected from SWIFT
Russia’s largest companies continue to report that they are ready for a possible disconnection from the SWIFT international payment system.
Gazprom Neft announced that it has followed Rostec and Rosneft in transitioning to the Central Bank of Russia’s SWIFT equivalent - the Financial Message Transmission System (FMTS).
The nearly 100% Gazprom-owned company, which holds the 4th place for oil extraction in Russia, has begun to use the Russian SWIFT equivalent instead of the traditional one, …
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Russia displeased by Canada’s legalization of marijuana
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that the Canadian parliament’s decision to legalize the recreational use of cannabis is a “gross and deliberate violation by the country of its international legal obligations”.
The Russian foreign policy department drew attention to the fact that Canada has signed a number of conventions which obligate its member states to restrict the use of drugs exclusively to medicinal and scientific purposes. The obligations are not open to alternative interpretations, the …
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Council of Europe Secretary General to officially request Sentsov’s release
On June 25, Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CE), will send Russian President Vladimir Putin an official request to pardon Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, a senior CE official told Deutsche Welle.
“On Monday, Jagland will file a petition for the pardoning of Sentsov,” Deputy Secretary General Daniel Holtgen announced. He also pointed out that the Secretary General has a right to do so according to the European Convention on Human Rights.
On June 20, Jagland …
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Crimea to harvest twice less grain this year than in 2017
The head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, wrote in a June 22 post on his Facebook page that the average cereal crop yield in the Crimea in 2018 will be half that of the previous year.
"Unfortunately, the average yield this year is 16 centners per hectare for grains, [which is] half as much as last year. Accordingly, the total amount collected last year was 1.7 million tons. This year will be 800,000 tons of grain and legumes," Aksyonov wrote.
According to Aksyonov, 132,000 hectares of cereals …