Page 68 - RusRPTJul22

people worked at the Central Bank at the end of 2021. The Central Bank was unable to promptly comment on the letter.
India is serving as a conduit for Russian oil to enter the US. Russian oil passes through the Suez Canal and Atlantic Ocean to Indian refineries and then is shipped to the US. This clashes with the US import ban on Russian oil..
On May 31 Hungary blocks new sanctions against Russia. Bloomberg reported citing unnamed officials that Hungary was blocking the EU’s sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes a partial ban on Russian oil imports. Hungary’s pro-Kremlin authorities asked for Patriarch Kirill, the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church who supports the war in Ukraine, to be removed from the next list of sanctioned individuals.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s planned visit to Belgrade is uncertain, and may be cancelled or postponed, after several of Serbia’s neighbours announced they would not allow his plane to overfly their airspace. A Russian foreign ministry official confirmed to Russia’s Interfax news agency late on June 5 that the three countries had banned Lavrov’s plane from entering their airspace. “We do not yet have the ability to teleport our diplomacy,” Interfax’ source added. Lavrov was due to visit Serbia on June 6-7, but two days ago, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also announced that Lavrov's visit had become complicated. However, Serbian media reports indicate that the visit may yet go ahead. Novosti reported that due to the new situation, Vucic will meet with Russian ambassador Alexander Bocan-Kharchenko at 10.00 am on June 6, .
Russian internet major Yandex has said it will contest the sanctions against its ex-CEO and founder Arcady Volozh in European court, the company said as cited by RBC business portal. Yandex shares lost about 9% on Moscow Exchange in the two trading days since the June 3 introduction of the sixth EU sanction package against Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine. As followed by bne IntelliNews, Volozh has already announced his resignation from all positions in Yandex and its board. Yandex previously saw a cascade of top-level resignations that followed the sanctioning of Yandex Deputy CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan. The family trust of Volozh owns an 8.6% economic and 45.3% voting stake in Yandex and is not a controlling shareholder of the company. Thus Yandex stressed that personal sanctions against Volozh do not extend to the company of its subsidiaries. Although Yandex has previously tried hard to maintain its independence from the Kremlin, the EU commented that state-owned banks such as Sberbank and VTB are shareholders and investors in Yandex. EU also reminds that in 2019 Yandex backed down to Kremlin pressure, and after dodging a takeover attempt from Sberbank it agreed to a restructuring that gave a “golden share” to a newly formed Public Interest Foundation built to “defend the Russian Federation interests”.
68 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com