EU Sanctions, iPhone Resellers Lawsuit: Breaking News on September 22

World

• The new EU sanctions package against Russia will include both personal and sectoral restrictions. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that it is planned to introduce new sanctions as soon as possible.
• Japan intends to extend export sanctions against Russia in connection with the situation around Ukraine. This was stated by Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi during a meeting in New York with his G7 counterparts, the Kyodo news agency reported.
• As of September 23, Belarus introduces a temporary ban on the export of a number of industrial goods outside the country, in the list of more than 250 nomenclature codes of products whose export is prohibited.
• Latvia has limited the validity of a residence permit for Russians until September 1, 2023. It will be possible to extend the document only in case of passing the Latvian language knowledge test. Also, Russians will no longer receive long-term work visas.

Russia

• The Ministry of Economy has published the figures of the base budget forecast for 2023-2025, which have been used in the calculation of the new three-year budget. The government’s main assumptions are slightly higher inflation in 2023, very low unemployment, almost no drop in investment, and moderate growth in household income. The lowest point of the fall in GDP will already be exceeded in the fourth quarter of this year.

• The Chamber of Accounts proposed to sell the confiscated light industry instead of destroying it.

• In August, 4.3 thousand trucks were produced in Russia, while in August 2021, 3.9 thousand trucks rolled off the assembly lines of car factories. This is the only car production that has grown, the number of units produced of all other types of equipment has decreased.

• Aeroflot and S7 Airlines announced that they will issue an involuntary refund of air tickets with full reimbursement of expenses to citizens summoned as part of the partial mobilization. Tickets must be issued before September 21 (inclusive). The tickets can be returned both by the mobilized themselves and by their failed travel companions. Everyone will have to provide documents or copies that confirm the call at the place of purchase of the tickets. For those mobilized (if they themselves cannot be present), third parties can present documents.

• Russian companies have begun preparations for mobilization: some hope to get a reservation for employees, which is explained by their own social or strategic importance.

Finance

• The news of the partial mobilization caused a wave of sales in the Russian financial market. However, at the end of the trading, investors calmed down a bit, and by the end of the day, the Moscow Stock Exchange index lost only 3.8%, although it fell by 10% at the beginning.
• In addition, the head of the supervisory board of the Moscow Stock Exchange did not rule out the refusal to trade with the dollar. This pair will hold as long as there is a need for the Russian economy.

• The Turkish lira hit a new record low due to a cut in the central bank’s key rate.

Business

• Big retailers, whose range of imported alcohol is already down 40-95% year-on-year, expect up to half of leftovers to disappear from shelves in the next three months and prices to rise. Market participants see the parallel import of alcohol as a way out of the situation.
• Over the past week, Russians have started searching for iPhone resellers twice as often. These sellers receive up to 100 messages per day from those who want to buy phones. The most popular models among buyers are the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max in Deep Purple. Smartphones are brought from the United Arab Emirates, Europe and the United States.
• The rental market will show a significant drop in 2022 even if the economic situation stabilizes. The volume of new business can be reduced by 30%, and the number of transferred leased objects by 60%.

• Softline Acquires Turkish Cloud Services Partner Microsoft

• Gazprom promised to pay interim dividends in the amount of 1.208 trillion rubles.

• Finnish authorities seized the assets of “Yandex” after the co-founder of the company Arkady Volozh was subjected to EU sanctions.

• Kitty Hawk, the flying car startup of Google co-founder Larry Page, has closed.