🔹Booming trade flows with Russia’s 🇷🇺 neighbors may be a sign that sanctions are being evaded by EU 🇪🇺& US 🇺🇸 companies. German exports to Russia fell to 38% from May-Jul '22 compared to the average of May-Jul '17-'19. But they almost doubled to Armenia 🇦🇲 & more than tripled to Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬. The EU is poised to adopt a 10th package of sanctions next week.

🔹Latvia's 🇱🇻 PM K. Karins has called on the EU for a crackdown against anyone trying to evade the sanctions. He said It is clear that traders are finding ways to legally trade with Turkey, Kazakhstan, Armenia etc. which are then resent to Russia.

🔹2 weeks ago the US sanctioned nearly two dozen individuals & entities in multiple countries for assisting Russia to evade sanctions. Last week the US declared more focus on sanctions evasion is coming soon.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The US warns Oman 🇴🇲, UAE 🇦🇪 & Türkiye 🇹🇷 of possible embargo if they continue to evade US sanctions on Russia.

💠 European traders are evading sanctions with fake paperwork claiming Russian/Belarussian firewood is from Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 or Kyrgyzstan.

💠 Belarus 🇧🇾 president warns that sanctions will lead to global food crisis.

🔹Yevheniya Kravchuk, deputy head of the Ukrainian 🇺🇦 parliament's committee on humanitarian & information policy confirms the continuation of the policy for millions of Russian language books 📚to be confiscated from schools, kindergartens & libraries to be destroyed.

🔹Both Russian & Ukrainian are East Slavic languages, and most Ukrainians speak Russian. Ukraine had withdrawn from its libraries about 19 million copies of books, and 11 million Russian-🇷🇺 language books were destroyed in Ukraine last year alone.

🔹On 19 May 2022, the Ukrainian 🇺🇦 Ministry of Culture instructed the Ukrainian Book Institute to destroy all books 📖 published in Russia, printed in Russian or translated from the Russian language, amounting to millions of books. This includes some Ukrainian-language books from the Soviet era.

🔹Ukraine's SBU searched the premises of Sarny eparchy Ukrainian Orthodox Church ⛪️ in Rivne Region. The SBU confiscated books & newspapers dated from 2020 & 2013.

🔹The first 57 tonnes of Russian 🇷🇺 -language books have already been sent for recycling. The proceeds were used to buy a jeep for the AFU.

🔹Hungary's 🇭🇺 FM P. Szijjarto, completed a 2-day meeting with Belarusian 🇧🇾 FM Sergei Aleinik in Minsk, Belarus. Szijjarto stressed that without negotiations, there will be no peace in Ukraine. Aleinik said “we are on the same page with our Hungarian partners in many ways".

🔹Due to the Western imposed sanctions, the bilateral trade between the two countries has shrunk by more than a third. Belarus is ready to support their Hungarian partners in mutually beneficial investment projects.

🔹Szijjarto said "we are feeling the pain of the inflation, which is already double-digit, & energy prices, which have skyrocketed due to the erroneous sanctions policy,"

🔹The visit marked exactly 31 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Belarus & Hungary.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 USAID 🇺🇸 chief, Samantha Power accuses Hungary of eroding relations with the US.

💠 Hungary rebukes US ambassador for meddling in internal affairs.

💠 Western critics accuse Hungary 🇭🇺 of purging NATO officers from it's military.

💠 Hungary supports Türkiye 🇹🇷 in a call for negotiations with Russia.

💠 Hungary claim Germany 🇩🇪 is blocking the upgrade of Hungary's Paks nuclear facility by Russia.

💠 Ukraine 🇺🇦 disproportionately conscripting ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia.

💠 The EU 🇪🇺 withholds both Hungary's budgeted & post-pandemic recovery funds as punishment.

💠 Hungary has agreed with Russia 🇷🇺 to re-route gas transit to Hungary via the TurkStream.

Video courtesy People Say.

🔹The BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 group of nations plans to decide this year whether to admit new members and what criteria they would have to meet, with Iran 🇮🇷 & Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 among those who’ve formally asked to join. While BRICS accounts for 42% of the world’s population, its members have less than 15% of the voting rights in the World Bank and the IMF.

🔹BRICS founded the New Development Bank, in 2014, & Bangladesh & the UAE joined the institution in 2021. Egypt 🇪🇬 & Uruguay 🇺🇾 are expected follow suit soon.Other countries that have expressed interest in joining include Argentina 🇦🇷, the UAE 🇦🇪, Algeria 🇩🇿, Egypt, Bahrain 🇧🇭 & Indonesia 🇮🇩.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Russia sees the possibility of a single supranational currency being created for settlements within the BRICS.

💠 The EAEU 🇷🇺 🇦🇲 🇰🇿 🇰🇬 🇧🇾 is interested in setting up a common payment system with BRICS nations.

💠 South Africa expressed that BRICS economies wants to find a way of bypassing the USD.

💠 Egypt has officially become a member of the New Development Bank of the BRICS.

💠 BRICS plan an international reserve currency based on a basket of the national currencies, backed by commodities such as gold.

🔹India 🇮🇳 appears to be pulling off a diplomatic high-wire act between Washington & Moscow as imports from Russia have surged nearly 400% so far this fiscal year (Apr '22 - Mar '23), fueled by purchases of discounted crude oil. The total value of Russian 🇷🇺 imports came to $37.31 billion, up from $7.71 billion in the same period of the previous year.

🔹Russia became India's top crude supplier in Nov. 2022, receiving around 1 million bpd 🛢 & in the first two weeks of Jan. '23, nearly 1.3 million bpd.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Around 70% of Jan. 2023 loading cargoes of Russian Urals was destined to India 🇮🇳.

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production in March by 500,000 bpd.

💠 India’s ambassador to Russia, considers jointly building oil-carrying ships & establishing energy insurance companies.

💠 India now buying thirty-three (33) times more 📈 Russian oil than a year earlier.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Russia’s crude grades re-routed from Europe to China 🇨🇳 & India.

Compilation video of India's External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar.

🔹The European Commission 🇪🇺 is exploring options to confiscate Russian 🇷🇺 state & private assets. This includes $300 billion frozen Russian central bank 🏛 foreign exchange reserves / bonds & applies also to assets of individuals / entities.

🔹The EU disregards that assets of private entities are considered foreign investments, which enjoy protection against expropriation without compensation & a right to fair & equitable treatment under international treaties that Russia has with a lot of EU countries.

🔹The 'UN Convention 🇺🇳 on Jurisdictional Immunities of States & Their Property 2004' is not yet in force & the EU believes that Russia's Central Bank reserves can be "legally" confiscated.

🔹EU member states must report if their financial institutions hold Russian central bank assets. Switzerland 🇨🇭has said it is legally impossible for it to confiscate the assets of sanctioned Russians which violates Swiss law. EU Commission President U. von der Leyen says she is "disappointed” over Switzerland’s decision.

🔹The EU is also planning an "exit tax" on the assets of sanctioned individuals that want to transfer their wealth out of the EU.

Last reported on this channel:

💠The EU has undermined ‘Lex Mercatoria’ (Latin – ‘Merchant Law’). The autonomous legal order of international economic relations for trade & rules for settling disputes. The west has now destroyed, how money & currencies function in relationship to trade & private property rights.

Video courtesy IntelRepublic & Sean Foo

🔹Is the EU's 🇪🇺 plan to confiscate Russian assets an indication of the EU undermining key concepts of western civilization? These include private property rights, free markets & the right to exchange property by mutual agreement.

🔹While the EU claims Russia 🇷🇺 wants to re-create the USSR, is the EU becoming it's own version of the USSR? Is the EU pursuing policies in a direction that coincides with some of the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto, 1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx?

💠 Plank I - Abolition of private property.

💠 Plank II - A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

💠 Plank IV - Confiscation of the property of all emigrants & rebels.

💠 Plank V - Centralization of credit in the hands of the state. (The ECB determining EU member states monetary policy).

Video: Vladimir Bukovsky in 2005 - USSR defector in the 1970's to the West.

🔹People burned several banks in Lebanon 🇱🇧, as the Lebanese pound fell to a historic record low of 80,000 against the US dollar. Protestors are against informal restrictions on cash withdrawals in place for years & rapidly deteriorating economic conditions. Protesters also gathered outside the house of Salim Sfeir, head of the Association of Banks 🏦 in Lebanon, and started a fire.

🔹Lebanon has been facing its worst economic crisis since October 2019 & Beirut's port blast in 2020. Banks in Lebanon were on strike, over haphazard judicial decisions against the sector.Late in 2022, the Lebanese 🇱🇧 parliament approved an amended banking secrecy law, a key demand of a $3 billion bailout out from the IMF.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 denied that it was considering imposing sanctions on Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh, for his involvement in “covering Hezbollah's financial activities". Hezbollah claims that it has succeeded in establishing its own banking & monetary system away from the Lebanese banking system, geared towards dodging existing US sanctions.

🔹Hezbollah leader S. H. Nasrallah said “if the Americans or some inside are planning chaos & the collapse of the country, I tell them that you will lose everything in Lebanon.” He stressed the need to revive the industrial & agricultural sectors, & look for other markets, such as Russia 🇷🇺 & China 🇨🇳.

🔹India’s 🇮🇳 FM S. Jaishankar has labelled US 🇺🇸 billionaire investor George Soros as “old, rich, opinionated & dangerous” for his comments on India & said that Soro's comments were typical of a "Euro Atlantic view." Soros criticized India’s PM Narendra Modi saying India was a democracy but Modi was not a democrat.

🔹FM Jaishankar continued by saying such people (Soros) with such views & such organizations (Open Society Foundation) actually invest resources in shaping narratives. "It worries us. We are a country that went through colonialism, we know the dangers of what happens when there’s outside interference,".

🔹A report shows, many fronts that target India's image with fake data & fabricated stories, exploiting India's fault-lines, are found to be linked with George Soros.

🔹The Adani Conglomerate run by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani (until recently the richest man in Asia) has been a target for short selling 📉 and co-ordinated timed allegations of fraud by Western instigators including Soros.

🔹K P Singh, who helmed India's 🇮🇳 biggest listed private real estate company DLF Ltd said Soros is a "crazy nut" and an aged "barking dog.

Notice from the video in the above post, George Soros has a problem with India buying discounted Russian crude.

Below is a previous post on the India-Russia oil market developments for context.

🔹India 🇮🇳 appears to be pulling off a diplomatic high-wire act between Washington & Moscow as imports from Russia have surged nearly 400% so far this fiscal year (Apr '22 - Mar '23), fueled by purchases of discounted crude oil. The total value of Russian 🇷🇺 imports came to $37.31 billion, up from $7.71 billion in the same period of the previous year.

🔹Russia became India's top crude supplier in Nov. 2022, receiving around 1 million bpd 🛢 & in the first two weeks of Jan. '23, nearly 1.3 million bpd.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Around 70% of Jan. 2023 loading cargoes of Russian Urals was destined to India 🇮🇳.

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production in March by 500,000 bpd.

💠 India’s ambassador to Russia, considers jointly building oil-carrying ships & establishing energy insurance companies.

💠 India now buying thirty-three (33) times more 📈 Russian oil than a year earlier.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Russia’s crude grades re-routed from Europe to China 🇨🇳 & India.

Compilation video of India's External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar.

🔹Protests continue in Moldova 🇲🇩 on Feb. 19, as protesters demand that the gov't pay gas, heating and electricity bills for the three winter months. Protestors also called for the resignation of president Maya Sandu.

🔹Police detained six people who behaved suspiciously. Police also prevented buses of protestors from entering the city because the transport did not comply with "technical standards".

🔹Last September, state-backed gas distributor Moldovagaz failed to fulfil wholesale payments to its sole gas supplier, Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom. Moldova's gov't has been taking actions to cut ties with Russia to grow closer to the EU under the guise of neutrality.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Moldovan 🇲🇩 PM N. Gavrilita resigned & was replaced with an even more pro-EU PM. Moldova forced several Russian-language media outlets to shut down after not renewing their broadcasting licenses.

Previous 2022 Moldova posts on this channel:

💠 Nov 28th, Protesters call for the resignation of the president & the gov't

💠 Nov 13th, 60,000 protestors marched, escorted by retired military.

💠 Oct. 30th, Stand-offs between Moldovans & police 🚓 grow violent amid protests.

💠 Oct. 23rd, police brutalities continued amid a breakout of protests.

💠 Oct. 16th, 50,000 protestors marched🇲🇩 Weekend before 60,000 protested.

💠 Thousands protest high energy prices during Sep.

Video courtesy NewsMaker

🔹Mexican 🇲🇽 President A. M. L. Obrador signed a decree handing over responsibility for lithium reserves to the energy ministry. A review will be done on foreign companies that have active mining concessions. Plans are for the state to have a majority stake in any future joint venture.

🔹General Motors 🇺🇸 plans to invest $650 million into Lithium Americas to secure access to lithium. CEO of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence believes this is the first of a growing land grab for acreage which is required for the processing of mined lithium. It takes two years or more to build a giga factory and 10 years-plus to finance & build a lithium mine.

🔹Sigma Lithium's new Grota do Cirilo Project lithium mining operation in Brazil 🇧🇷 is being considered for a takeover by Tesla.

Previous lithium posts on this channel:

💠 Canada 🇨🇦 ordered three Chinese companies divest their investments in Canadian lithium & critical minerals.

💠Report on the vast resources needed to be mined for an EV 🚙 vehicle which is clearly unsustainable.

💠 Lithium carbonate, hit a new record high in China 🇨🇳 during September.

💠 Lithium mining pollution and the growing scarcity.

💠 Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 lithium reserves & China investment.

🔹Russian 🇷🇺 exports of discounted crude and fuel oil to China 🇨🇳 have jumped to record levels. Overall flows last month surpassed a record set in April 2020, & exports of fuel oil surged to an all-time high. China is toe-to-toe with India 🇮🇳 as the biggest buyer of Russian crude.

🔹Russia’s overall crude & fuel oil exports to China reached 1.66 million barrels a day last month. Offers for Russian Urals & ESPO 🛢 crude were pegged at a discount of $13 and $8 a barrel, respectively, to Brent. Russian exports of straight-run fuel oil & high-sulfur fuel oil to China hit a record of about 142,000 barrels a day in January.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production in March by 500,000 bpd.

💠 Oman 🇴🇲 & the UAE 🇦🇪, imported more Russian oil in the first 10 months of 2022 than in the previous 3 years combined. Russia oil is blended & re-sold to Europe.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Russia’s 🇷🇺crude grades re-routed from Europe to China & India.

💠 Chinese 🇨🇳 refiners see refining profit margins jump, due to discounts for Russian crude.

💠 US 🇺🇸 bans sale of SPR oil to China.

🔹With China’s 🇨🇳 imports from and exports to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 (KSA) now exceeding the major oil-producing country’s combined trade with the U.S. & the EU, China has become the KSA’s dominant trading partner.

🔹Gulf monarchies are concerned that the West may impose sanctions on China – as it did on Russia 🇷🇺. This is pushing Gulf countries & China into projects to shield China-Gulf relations from potential economic coercion, especially in strategic domains such as energy.

🔹The KSA’s oil 🛢 revenues hit $326 billion in 2022, the highest level since Crown Prince MBS’s reign began & led to the booking of its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The KSA 🇸🇦 is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the USD, such as the Chinese yuan.

💠 China 🇨🇳 urges the KSA to help speed up efforts for a Gulf free-trade zone.

💠 The Shanghai Gold Exchange will be used by the KSA for its yuan to gold transactions.

💠 President Xi Jingping boosts cooperation in energy supply chains with the KSA during his state visit.

Photo courtesy Visual Capitalist

🔹Kazakhstan’s 🇰🇿 state-run pipeline operator, Kaztransoil applied to it's Russian 🇷🇺 counterpart Transneft to transport Kazakh oil through the Druzhba pipeline to Germany. Russia’s section of the Druzhba pipeline is controlled by Transneft. Russia granted Kazakhstan permission to transport oil 🛢 through the Druzhba pipeline.

🔹The EU has exempted pipeline imports of Russian oil from sanctions but Germany seeks to replace some Russian crude with Kazakh crude. Poland, which is still buying Russian crude, said there are no guarantees the shipments to Germany will originate in Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, rather than Russia. Germany said some mixing of Kazakh and Russian crude is unavoidable.

🔹Transneft spokesman Igor Demin noted that Kazakhstan is only able to supply a quarter at maximum of what Russia previously supplied to Germany 🇩🇪 & Poland. The northern branch of the giant Druzhba pipeline system feeds two refineries in eastern Germany as well as plants in Poland.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Poland 🇵🇱 to supply re-sold sea borne Kazakh oil to Germany so as to cut Russian supply.

💠 Oil leak on the Druzhba pipeline in Poland temporarily cuts oil to Germany 🇩🇪.

💠The German gov't confiscates Russia's state-owned Rosneft's German assets in order to keep the PCK Schwedt refinery 🏭 (which receives crude from the Druzhba pipeline).

🔹Moscow 🇷🇺 & Beijing 🇨🇳 are seeking to strengthen ties and remain committed to building a “multipolar” world, Chinese State Councilor Wang Yi said as China’s top diplomat met with Russia's FM S. Lavrov in Moscow. He also met with Nikolay Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Security Council & Russian President V. Putin.

🔹Wang confirmed that Beijing would continue to conduct an independent foreign policy based on “the spirit of mutual benefit.” China is seeking to “open new horizons in terms of further cooperation not just with Russia, but other countries as well.”

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Russian exports of discounted crude 🛢& fuel oil to China have jumped to record levels.

💠 Chinese refiners see refining profit margins jump 📈, due to discounts for Russian crude, re-routed from Europe to China.

💠 The share of trade between Russia & China in national currencies has reached roughly half of turnover (yuan- ruble).

💠 Chinese-owned supertankers 🚢 are shipping Russian Urals crude to China.

💠 Russian electricity 💡 supplies to China up 16% in 2022.

💠 The yuan's share of the Russian currency market has risen to as much as 45%, up from less than 1% at the start of 2022.

Video courtesy AZgeopolitics

🔹Ex-Moldovan 🇲🇩 President Igor Dodon has voiced concerns over a possible provocation against Transnistria by Ukraine 🇺🇦. Russia reported that the Kiev regime was plotting a provocation against Transnistria. Transnistria, a largely Russian 🇷🇺-speaking region, broke away from Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

🔹The pro-EU 🇪🇺 Moldovan gov't uses elements of transport & economic blockade of Transnistria. Moldovan officials ignored Tiraspol's repeated requests for negotiations. Transnistria says it is ready for a dialogue with Moldova at any level.

🔹Moldova’s gov't has begun to scrap several agreements signed within the Commonwealth of Independent States countries (Russia & other former soviet states). About 1,100 Russian troops are currently deployed to Transnistria as peacekeepers, keeping an eye on the ceasefire reached in 1992, & warehouses of weapons left over from the USSR.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Feb 19th Moldovan protestors call for resignation of president Maya Sandu.

💠 Moldovan 🇲🇩 PM N. Gavrilita resigned & was replaced with an even more pro-EU PM. Moldova forced several Russian-language media outlets to shut down after not renewing their broadcasting licenses.

💠 Nov 28th, Protesters call for the resignation of the president & the gov't

💠 Nov 13th, 60,000 protestors marched, escorted by retired military.

💠 Oct. 30th, Stand-offs between Moldovans & police 🚓 grow violent amid protests.

💠 Oct. 23rd, police brutalities continued amid a breakout of protests.

💠 Oct. 16th, 50,000 protestors marched Weekend before 60,000 protested.

💠 Thousands protest high 📈 energy prices during Sep.

Video courtesy The Duran

🔹Molybdenum — which boosts the performance of alloys in pipelines, jet engines & power-generation turbines ⚙️ — surged 122% in the past year 📈 to 5,510 yuan ($799) a ton driven by a series of supply disruptions & growing demand from the renewables & military sectors.

🔹The silver-gray metal is typically extracted as a by-product of copper mining ⛏. Molybdenum has extremely high hardness, corrosion resistance, & the third-highest melting point (2,623°C) of all metals.

🔹For Freeport, a copper producer, a $5 change in molybdenum prices translates to $375 million in cash 💵 flow. This is is also a way for mining companies to fight inflation given byproduct revenues are deducted prior to calculating cash costs for the primary metal. Molybdenum price surge has also meant that some stainless-steel producers have already been forced to cut output.

🔹China 🇨🇳, one of the major molybdenum-rich countries, is the world’s biggest consumer & producer of the metal, contributing to 38% of the global supply in 2021. The metal has hit a 17 year high on the LME.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 special inspector general who has overseen aid to Afghanistan 🇦🇫 since 2012, & some House Republicans, warn of the need for closer oversight of the military & humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

🔹With more than $100 billion in U.S. weaponry & financial aid flowing to Ukraine in less than a year & more on the way, concerns about arms falling into terrorists' hands & dollars into corrupt officials' pockets are mounting.

🔹The Pentagon, for example, was "unable to provide end-use monitoring in accordance with DoD policy" in Ukraine. Ukraine 🇺🇦 has a history of corruption & ranks 116 out of 180 nations on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Nigerian 🇳🇬President urges heads of neighbouring states to confront the issue of Western arms smuggling from Ukraine into Africa. Finland 🇫🇮 warns of weapons sent to Ukraine making their way to different countries criminal gangs.

💠 Weapons from NATO countries to Ukraine being sold on the dark web.

💠 Caesar self-propelled howitzers ($7 million each) sold by Ukrainians to Russia 🇷🇺 for $120,000 though an intermediary.

*Note: Infographic shows, U.S. financial support (not including vehicles or weapons) for Ukraine.

🔹Three separate fires 🔥 broke out on Feb. 23rd at different facilities operated by state-owned Mexican oil company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Fires were at the Tuzandépetl Strategic Storage Plant, in Ixhuatlán del Sureste & the Lázaro Cárdenas Refinery, Minatitlan, both in the Mexican 🇲🇽 state of Veracruz & Pemex's crude distillation unit at its Deer Park refinery in Texas, USA 🇺🇸.

🔹The fires come at a bad moment for Pemex, ahead of its earnings report on Feb. 27th. Pemex is currently the most indebted of all major oil 🛢 companies, with a total debt of $105 billion at the end of September, around $8 billion of which is due this year.

🔹The Mexican gov't already provided Pemex with about $45 billion in tax breaks, capitalizations & other financing since 2019. Two days before the fires, Pemex was negotiating with Goldman Sachs & JPMorgan Chase for at least $1 billion in financing. A month ago,

🔹Last week Pemex planned to pay its debt due for 1Q23 on its own, with no 🇲🇽 gov't help and without resorting to the emission of more debt in the market. Earlier in the month Pemex completed a $2bn bond sale, with investors demanding a double-digit yield to lend to the heavily indebted co. Pemex's bonds were taking a hit on the market in January.