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Russia has issued a list of states that have committed “unfriendly” acts against it, as nations around the world pile on sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow said on Monday that all corporate deals with companies and individuals from the so-called “unfriendly countries” would now have to be approved by a government commission.
The list includes Ukraine, all of the EU nations, the US, UK and Japan, among others.
It follows a presidential decree on March 5 allowing the Russian government, companies and citizens to temporarily pay foreign currency debts owed to overseas creditors from “unfriendly countries” in roubles.
To make such payments, the government said debtors should open a special type of rouble account with a Russian bank and transfer into it the rouble equivalent of the foreign currency amount owed, according to the central bank’s official exchange rate on the day of payment.
This temporary arrangement for paying foreign debts applies to payments exceeding 10 million roubles ($76,046) a month.
Western nations have frozen Russia’s central bank assets, keeping it from accessing $630 billion in dollar reserves, and seven Russian banks have been excluded from the SWIFT banking system which facilitates easy money transfer across borders.
Russian individuals and companies close to the Russian government have also been sanctioned.
Russia’s list of ‘unfriendly’ countries and territories
US
Canada
Albania
Andorra
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Republic of Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Micronesia
Montenegro
Monaco
Netherlands
New Zealand
North Macedonia
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
San Marino
Slovakia
Slovenia
Singapore
Spain
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Ukraine
Taiwan
Updated: March 08, 2022, 2:37 PM