Page 29 - RusRPTDec22

Oleg Tinkov, founder of Tinkoff Bank, became the fifth billionaire to
renounce his Russian citizenship over the invasion of Ukraine. “I can't
and won't be associated with a fascist country that started a war with their
peaceful neighbor and killing innocent people daily [sic],” Tinkov explained in
an Instagram post. His decision follows those of billionaires Nikolai
Storonsky (founder of British digital bank Revolut), Yuri Milner (founder of
internet investment firm DST Global), Timur Turlov (founder of investment
company Freedom Finance), and Ruben Vardanyan (founder of investment
companies Troika Dialog and VB Partners) to renounce their Russian
citizenship.
Under a new government decree, the personal data of individuals and groups on the “foreign agent” registry will be made public. Starting December 1, the names, birthdays, taxpayer identification, and insurance account numbers of the 184 foreign agents will be available on the Justice Ministry’s website. The site will also publish the grounds for inclusion on the registry for each entry. As Meduza points out, publishing this information will allow individuals to be certain who is on the list (in the case of multiple people with the same name, for example) but it will also leave people vulnerable to attack.
Additionally, a law signed by President Putin in July that comes into effect December 1 will expand the foreign agent registry to include anyone under “foreign influence.” The label previously only applied to those who receive foreign funding. The registry was created in early March to catalog information about the so-called foreign agents and those “affiliated” with them. The foreign agent designation has been used by the Kremlin to crack down on anti-government viewpoints, with many independent journalists, activists, and civil society figures making the list. The title comes with strict labeling requirements for publications and special auditing. It will now also prohibit these individuals and organizations from receiving state funding, teaching at state universities, and working with children. Furthermore, websites run by foreign agents can be blocked by Roskomnadzor without a court order.
The EU has frozen Russian assets worth 68bn euros with the majority of them located in Belgium, newswire Politico reported on Friday quoting a document of the European Commission. Belgium accounts for 50bn euros with the second biggest amount of 5.5bn euros arrested in Luxembourg. But the EU doesn’t know how much Russia’s national reserves were frozen in the union, with the approximate figure amounting to 33.8bn euros, Politico reported.
Moscow won’t reject further communication with Washington at a higher level following the upcoming meeting on New START Treaty in Cairo, if the US is interested in that, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on November 18. "If the Americans show interest and readiness for this, we will not refuse," he said in response to a question whether Russia
29 RUSSIA Country Report December 2022 www.intellinews.com