Page 25 - RusRPTJul22

Netherlands joined Poland, Bulgaria, and Finland in no longer receiving Russian gas. Those countries’ gas companies also refused to pay in rubles.
Embargos will not bring the war to an end. Excluding borrowings, Russia’s oil reserves had reached about RUB8 trillion rubles ($130bn) on May 1. According to an estimate from an economist at a major Russian analysis center who asked for anonymity, that’s enough money to cover the country’s military budget and mitigate other spending decreases.
How long this will be true depends on how quickly military expenses increase. In April, Russia’s budget expenses earmarked “ national defence” increase by a factor of 2.5, or about 130% (630bn rubles/$10.3bn versus RUB275bn rubles/$4.5bn in April 2021). These funds finance the cost of the armed forces, mobilization training, nuclear weapons, and other expenses. Russia thus spent about 21bn rubles ($343mn) a day on its military in April.
2.7 Unblocking Ukrainian grain exports goes nowhere
Following the meeting on Wednesday, June 8, the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey stated: Russia is ready for a quadripartite meeting with the UN, Turkey and Ukraine on the export of grain from Ukrainian ports. The Turkish side proposes to organize it in Istanbul.
Turkey considers the idea of a safe export corridor with inspection of ships realistic.
The Russian and Turkish military are discussing the details of demining Ukrainian ports.
Ukraine (according to the Turkish side) is ready to ensure the passage of ships through mined waters.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry officially rejected such options the day before. Ukraine fears that Russia will use demining to attack Odessa and Nikolaev from the sea, and therefore demands not only “the involvement of the naval forces of third countries to patrol the corresponding part of the Black Sea,” but also the supply of anti-ship weapons.
Lavrov vowed that if Ukraine demines and releases ships from its ports, "we will not take advantage of this situation in the interests of the ongoing special military operation," echoing Vladimir Putin's words on the subject.
Negotiations on unblocking exports with the participation of the UN are now underway with Kyiv, Moscow, Anakara, Brussels and Washington, but disclosing any information about them means “undermining the chances on which the fate of millions of people depends,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said today.
How serious is this foreign media quoted Lavrov with bewilderment as saying that the blockade of Ukrainian exports had nothing to do with the food crisis: "the share of the grain in question is less than 1% of the global production of
25 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com