Page 44 - RusRPTSept22

supported and financed terrorist regimes and organizations in various ways — directly and indirectly."
Canada to return remaining gas turbines exempt from sanctions. Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Canada plans to return five turbines which are part of the Russian Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany. Previously, Canada released one turbine to Germany, but Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom refused to take it back.
Putin told Scholz that Ukraine and Belarus should not exist German chancellor Olaf Scholz told journalists that in a private conversation before the war Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Belarus and Ukraine should not be sovereign states. Analysts suggest that the Lukashenko regime understands the danger of such claims but has no space to distance from Russia as Lukashenko had gotten himself into full economic and political dependence on Russian resources and force. Dmitry Stratievsky, the political scientist and director of the Berlin-based Center for East European Studies, said in an interview with Bild that if Russia is defeated in Ukraine or fails to achieve at least one of its goals, Belarus might fall victim to Putin's need to present a success story domestically.
France and Germany don't support an EU-wide entry ban for Russian tourists. According to Bloomberg, both countries said the European Union should continue to issue visas to Russians with no ties to the government, such as students, artists, scholars, and professionals. “We should not underestimate the transformative power of experiencing life in democratic systems first-hand, especially for future generations,” reads the joint document viewed by Bloomberg ahead of the EU foreign ministers meeting in Prague on Aug. 31.
Germany raids a network of companies suspected of selling precursor chemicals to Russia. The key German company, Riol Chemie GmbH, had made more than 30 shipments of chemicals and laboratory equipment to Russia's Chimmed Group, a wholesaler, over the past 3.5 years without the necessary export permits, according to an investigation by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and its media partners published on Aug. 30. Russian procurement records acquired by OCCRP show that the Chimmed Group was contracted by the Russian intelligence agency FSB Criminalistics Institute in 2016. It is accused of attempting to use Novichok poison to kill the now-imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020.
Russia is likely to face an acute shortage of weapons by the end of 2022. According to The Insider, there are already very few guided missiles, while shells for artillery and armoured vehicles will be exhausted by the end of the year if the intensity of the war is maintained at the current level. The media
44 RUSSIA Country Report September 2022 www.intellinews.com