The US Treasury Department has published general licenses that allow trade with Russia for certain categories of goods.

Also, the US Treasury specified the scope of sanctions against Russia in the field of telecommunications and Internet technologies, as well as financial services.

The agency stressed that it did not prohibit Russia from exporting agricultural products and fertilizers. “The United States has not imposed sanctions on the production, manufacture, sale or transportation of agricultural goods (including fertilizers), agricultural equipment and medicines associated with Russia,” the report says.

With a separate general license, the United States allowed until December 16 to make transactions with the SEFE Securing Energy for Europe GmbH group of companies, a former subsidiary of the Russian Gazprom Gazprom Germania GmbH. The group of companies has been administered by the German regulator since April, and in July the German federal government passed a law allowing the government to acquire a stake in the group.

In addition, the Kazakh "daughter" of the Russian "Alfa-Bank" was excluded from the sanctions list, which, together with its co-owner, Russian oligarch Mikhail Fridman, is under EU and US sanctions.

Certainly, it is not a weakening of sanctions, but just a "cherry picking", selecting only those, that are harming US economy most.
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Russian oil tanker arrives in Cuba.
About 700,000 barrels of Russian oil were delivered to the island.

Translated from source.
Today in Vinnitsa, two children were killed as a result of our missile attack. It is unlikely that any excuses are appropriate here. We are always to blame for the death of hostages - it does not matter whether they are being held by terrorists or Nazis are hiding behind them. We do not strike at civilians, but this is little consolation to the families of the victims today.

We came to Ukraine to stop the Ukrainian conveyor of children's and any other deaths. We have no funds left to stop attacks on civilians by Ukraine. It is pointless to negotiate with the Ukrainian leadership as with terrorists. And this coercion to peace, alas, is not without casualties among civilians. Including our fault.

These are accidental casualties of the war. We didn't want them to die, we didn't want to hurt them out of vengeance or malice. And we are very sorry that such tragic incidents are inevitable. We don't hit civilians like they do. And we apologize for these accidental victims of our blows. The children who died in Vinnitsa are the same pain for us as the children who died in Donbass. We grieve together with their loved ones, because we do not divide children into our own and others. And this distinguishes us from the Ukrainian adherents of neo-Nazism, hooting gloatingly after strikes on civilians.

We want no more children to die under the bombings. Nowhere. We have been asking for a long time to stop the bloodshed. We were not listened to. We will stop this war ourselves. Necessarily. And we will punish those who forced us to pay such a price for peace. We'll find them wherever they are. In the meantime, all we can do is express our condolences to the families and friends of the victims.
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🇺🇦 Ukrainian soldiers with the help of a quadrocopter tried to drop a grenade to Russian positions, but something went wrong.

A very good and positive news about those strange Russians...

VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Centre) has published results of a public pole with only one simple question: “Everything happens in life - both good and bad. But generally speaking, are you happy or not? (closed question, one answer, % of respondents and index in points)”.

- certainly YES - 35%
- rather YES than NO - 49%

Cumulatively 84% of Russian population consider themselves “happy” to some degree.

It is not what could be expected from the people of a country, which is under all types of sanctions and involved in an armed conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.
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Well, you may ask: “How reliable this data is?”
I can assure you, that it IS true from my personal contacts and relationships and then - if it is not - than certainly there would be already a shower of messages from angry and unhappy citizens in the social media. However, there are none.
That is information about VCIOM itself:

VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Centre) is the first and the largest polling firm in the Former Soviet Union (FSU). Established in 1987 it is most widely known polling company in Russia. VCIOM is especially known for its weekly nationwide representative opinion polls (Omnibus type of survey conducted face to face), daily telephone surveys and regular on-line studies. In 2017, the company launched its daily telephone-based survey project called ‘Sputnik’ (1600 respondents per day) and today VCIOM is the only company in the post-Soviet space which measures public opinion on the current issues in real-time mode (the data is collected every day).

VCIOM has membership in global and regional professional communities such as ESOMAR and OIROM (Russian Association for Market and Opinion Research) and owns 80% of the Mediascope Company’s stock (Mediascope is the leading audience research company in Russia). VCIOM is a co-founder of ‘Eurasian Monitor’ International Research Agency and of the Independent Institute of Social Policy (NISP) – due to this VCIOM is capable of conducting regular studies throughout all FSU countries (former Soviet republics).

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📸 Zelensky’s overseeing the huge counter attack on Kherson.

Unlike much of the West that is creaking under the weight of rising fuel prices and reshaping its military and geo-strategic policies against what it perceives as an existential threat caused by Russia, India has chosen a path of strategic balance. 🕉❤️👍💤
#India #TransFormator

Same story, new angle
The Russian Defence Ministry publishes footage of artillery strikes on Ukrainian positions in the Zaporozhye region - according to its data 11 armoured vehicles were destroyed.
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Abandoned Ukrainian Saxon. People of older age may remember that type of a vehicle in another country and different circumstances.