New Enemies
How registered In the text of the government decree dated July 20 and published on Friday, the Council of Ministers “updated” the list of foreign states that “have engaged in hostile acts against Russian diplomatic and consular missions abroad.”
“The list includes Greece, Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia and Slovakia,” the document says.
The government has announced that restrictions are imposed on the ability to recruit employees at embassies, consulates and representative offices of state bodies from among persons located on the territory of Russia, if a country is included in the list of non-hostile countries. In addition, a “complete ban” may be imposed on such actions.
In addition to the country names, the list approved by the government also indicates “the number of persons on the territory of Russia with whom diplomatic missions and consulates of unfriendly countries can conclude employment contracts”.
According to the document, “According to the new order, Greece has a border of 34, Denmark – 20, Slovakia – 16 people. Slovenia and Croatia will not be able to employ workers in their diplomatic missions and consulates.”
The Cabinet recalled that similar restrictions were imposed on the diplomatic missions of the United States and the Czech Republic in May 2021.
“The list approved by the government is not final and could expand, given the continued hostile actions by foreign states towards Russian missions abroad,” the government said.
Russia’s blacklist
In response to the imposition of sanctions against Russia following the start of military special operations in Ukraine, the Russian government approved A list of foreign states and territories that have committed unfriendly acts against Russia, Russian companies and citizens.
The blacklist then included 48 countries: Great Britain, Korea including Australia, Albania, Andorra, Jersey, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, European Union member states, Iceland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway Republic of San Marino, North Macedonia, Singapore, USA, Taiwan (China), Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland and Japan.
According to the government decree, Russian citizens, companies and the state itself received the right to pay foreign creditors in rubles from the list of hostile countries. To do this, the borrower may ask a Russian bank to set up a special ruble account in the name of a foreign creditor and transfer payments in rubles at the rate of the Central Bank on the day of payment.
“The new provisional procedure applies to payments in excess of 10 million rubles (or similar foreign currency equivalent) per month,” the government said.
“measures of influence” on enemies
As early as March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at a meeting with members of the government on aviation issues, said that he had signed a decree under which companies from “non-enemy countries” would have to pay for Russian natural gas supplies in rubles.
“Today I signed a decree establishing the rules for the trade of Russian gas with supposedly unfriendly countries. We offer an open and transparent plan to counterparties from such countries. “To buy Russian gas, they need to open a ruble account in Russian banks,” he said.
He explained that refusal of such a payment plan would be considered a default by Russia.
“No one is selling us anything for free. Also, we will not do charity work,” the Russian leader stressed.
April 23 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed “Decree on the application of measures of influence (against) to unfriendly acts of foreign states.”
The head of state instructed diplomatic state agencies to limit the conclusion of unfriendly employment contracts with people located on the territory of Russia (up to a complete ban, if necessary).
The Russian leader instructed the government to determine how many people it is possible to conclude agreements with on the territory of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, the presidential decree states that the provisions of the document do not apply to citizens of unfriendly states who come to Russia as employees of diplomatic missions and consular offices.
In addition, Putin instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to “determine a list of unfriendly foreign states” to which such measures of influence would be applied.