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The Mastercard logo appears on the credit card of this pictorial illustration August 30, 2017 REUTERS / Thomas White

March 1 – US payment card companies Visa Inc (VN) and Mastercard Inc have blocked a number of Russian financial institutions from their network, in line with government sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Visa said Monday that it is taking swift action to ensure compliance with applicable sanctions, adding that it will donate $ 2 million in humanitarian aid. Mastercard also promised to contribute $ 2 million.

“We will continue to work with regulators in the coming days to fully comply with our compliance obligations as they evolve,” Mastercard said in a separate statement late Monday.

Government sanctions require Visa to suspend access to its network of entities listed as specially designated citizens, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The United States has added various Russian financial companies to the list, including the country’s central bank and VTB’s second-largest lender (VTBR.MM).

On Saturday, the United States, Britain, Europe and Canada announced new sanctions against Russia – including blocking access to certain creditors to the international payment system SWIFT. Read more

The Russians rushed to the ATMs and waited in long lines on Sunday and Monday amid fears that bank cards may cease to function or that banks will restrict cash withdrawals. Read more

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.”

Many Western banks, airlines and others have severed ties with Russia, calling the country’s actions unacceptable. European countries and Canada have closed their airspace to Russian aircraft. Read more

Report by Maria Ponejat in Bengaluru; Edited by Christian Schmolinger, Kenneth Maxwell, Kirsten Donovan

Our standards: ‘ principles of trust.

March 1 – More Western companies are expected to withdraw from Russia on Tuesday, as corporations and investors in various industries follow the example of energy companies BP and Shell, which abandoned billions of dollars after the invasion of Ukraine.

Leading banks, airlines, carmakers and others have cut supplies, cut partnerships and called Russia’s actions unacceptable. Many others said they were considering action.

Late Monday Warner Bros. said it had withdrawn this week’s release of Batman from Russian screens, following a statement from Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) that it would suspend the release of theatrical films in Russia. Read more

Meanwhile, Mastercard said it had blocked a number of financial institutions from its payment network as a result of sanctions against Russia. Read more

The West has sought to punish Russia with a number of measures, including closing airspace to Russian planes, closing some Russian banks on the global financial network SWIFT and limiting Moscow’s ability to use its $ 630 billion in foreign reserves. Read more

“I would expect to see many similar announcements in the next few days,” said Sonia Koval, president of Zevin Asset Management in Boston, on Monday, adding that the sale by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund would support the move.

Some U.S. state-owned investors have been vocal in setting expectations for corporations.

“We must send a very clear and unequivocal answer that California will not oppose Russian aggression,” California Treasurer Fiona Ma said in a statement Monday, declaring support for the sale of Russian assets from state pension funds, some of the most the largest in the United States. .

Shell (SHEL.L), BP and Norwegian Equinor (EQNR.OL) have said they will leave positions in energy-rich Russia, putting pressure on other Western companies with stakes in Russian oil and gas projects, such as ExxonMobil (XOM.N) and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA).

Many companies are still considering options, such as freight forwarder Maersk, who said on Monday he was monitoring sanctions against Russia and preparing to enforce them. One scenario involved suspending cargo reservations.

Major car and truck manufacturers have cut off exports to Russia, including Volvo and GM (GM.N), although together the two companies sell only about 12,000 vehicles a year in Russia. Ford Motor (FN), which has a 50% stake in three Russian plants, has not commented on the substance of its plans, except to seek to manage the impact on its operations and keep workers safe.

Companies and asset managers who want to liquidate shares face barriers because many exchanges have stopped trading.

Some Western companies with large exposures to Russia have already noticed a decline in shares. Finnair, based in Russia’s neighbor Finland, has lost a fifth of its value after withdrawing its 2022 outlook amid the closure of airspace.

Airlines are preparing for prolonged blockades of east-west corridors after the European Union and Moscow issued airspace bans.

The White House has not decided to ban Russian flights, although White House spokesman Jen Psaki told reporters Monday: “There are many flights that US airlines fly over Russia to travel to Asia and other parts of the world. and we take a number of factors into account. “Read more

Senator Dick Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, voiced support for the ban.

“Other countries have done it in Europe, and turning off the lights at the airport is not a bad idea for these boys,” he told reporters. Read more

The big technology companies are juggling calls for the closure of services in Russia with what they see as a mission to voice dissent and protest.

Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O), Facebook’s parent company, will restrict access to Russian state media RT and Sputnik on its platforms across the European Union, the company’s global affairs chief said Monday, in line with similar actions by major US companies. technology companies. Read more

Additional reports from Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo, Foo Yun Chee in Brussels, Jamie Freed in Sydney, Maria Ponnezhath and Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru, David Shepardson in Washington, Ben Kleiman in Detroit, Dmitry Zhdannikov, Carolyn Konledov in Carolyn Konlev. in Los Angeles; Screenwriters by Carmel Crimins, Edmund Blair, Jane Merriman and Peter Henderson; Edited by Leslie Adler and Kenneth Maxwell

Our standards: ‘ principles of trust.

Oil futures rose on Tuesday morning after a volatile start to the week as the market weighed in on a coordinated international release of crude stocks against disruptions in Russian supplies as a result of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

May Brent oil futures, which began trading fast on Tuesday, rose about 1% in 0141 GMT to $ 98.90. The figure reached a seven-year high of $ 105.79 since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began last week.

April West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose about 0.8 percent to $ 96.53. This contract peaked at $ 99.10 a barrel the day before and settled more than 4%.

THE UKRAINE-RUSSIA CONFLICT MAY POINT OUT THE PRICES OF PEFTA AT 130 STARA, EXPERT SAYS

Concerns about supply disruptions have come as major oil and gas companies, including BP and Shell, have announced plans to exit Russian operations and joint ventures. Russian oil buyers are also facing difficulties with payments and the availability of ships as Western sanctions are imposed in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

The market calmed as the United States and its allies discussed a coordinated release of raw materials in an effort to mitigate supply disruptions. The release could reach between 60 and 70 million barrels, media reported.

Oil futures rose on Tuesday morning after a volatile start to the week as the market weighed in on a coordinated international release of crude stocks against disruptions in Russian supplies as a result of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)

“This likely release is limiting the rise in oil prices for now,” analysts at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a note.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) will hold an emergency ministerial meeting on Tuesday to discuss the role its members can play in stabilizing oil markets.

Russia, which calls its operations in Ukraine a “special operation”, exports about 4-5 million barrels a day of crude oil and 2-3 million barrels a day of refined products.

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The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers – including Russia – will also meet on Wednesday and are expected to maintain a gradual increase in supplies.

LONDON, March 1 – Shell (SHEL.L) will leave all of its operations in Russia, including a large liquefied natural gas plant, it said on Monday, becoming the last major Western energy company to leave the oil-rich country after the operation. of the Moscow invasion of Ukraine.

The decision comes a day after rival BP abandoned its stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM) in a move that could cost the British company more than $ 25 billion. Norwegian Equinor (EQNR.OL) also plans to leave Russia. Read more

Shell said in a statement that it would leave Sakhalin 2, the leading liquefied natural gas plant, in which it owns a 27.5% stake and which is 50% owned and operated by Russian gas giant Gazprom.

Shell said the decision to leave the Russian joint ventures would lead to devaluation. Shell had about $ 3 billion in non-current assets in these plants in Russia at the end of 2021, it said.

“We are shocked by the loss of human life in Ukraine, which we regret as a result of a senseless act of military aggression that threatens European security,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement.

Rival BP CEO Bernard Looney convened an emergency meeting with his management team on Thursday, just hours after the first Russian bombs fell on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv last week, two BP sources told Reuters. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.”

During the unannounced meeting, Looney made it clear that the company’s investment in Rosneft had become insolvent, sources said.

“There was only one decision we could make,” said one BP insider. “The way out was the only viable way.”

Looney held two more board meetings over the weekend, after which board members voted to leave Rosneft immediately, sources said.

Looney also spoke with British Business Secretary Quasi Quarteng on Friday when Quarteng expressed concern about BP’s interests in Russia. Kwarteng welcomed BP’s decision to leave on Twitter on Sunday.

SHELL

Kwarteng had a similar announcement for Shell on Monday.

“Shell has made the right call for liberation from Russia,” he said on Twitter, adding that he spoke with van Beurden earlier Monday.

The Sakhalin 2 project, located off Russia’s northeast coast, is huge, producing about 11.5 million tonnes of LNG a year, which is exported to major markets, including China and Japan.

For Shell, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas retailer, leaving the project is a blow to its plans to supply gas to emerging markets in the coming decades.

Shell said Russia’s exit would not affect its plans to switch to low-carbon and renewable energy.

The company also plans to end its involvement in the Baltic Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which connects Russia with Germany, which it helped finance as part of a consortium of companies. Germany halted the project last week. Read more

Shell will also leave Salym Petroleum Development, another joint venture with Gazprom.

Together, Salim and Sakhalin II contributed $ 700 million to Shell’s net revenue in 2021.

“It’s the right decision for the Shell board to leave its Russian companies,” said Adam Matthews, chief investment officer for the British Church’s pension council, which is investing in Shell, in a LinkedIn post.

“Following BP’s decision, the focus is on those who have not yet taken such a step,” Matthews said.

Japan’s Mitsui & Co (8031.T) and Mitsubishi Corp (8058.T), which hold 12.5% ​​and 10%, respectively, in Sakhalin 2, said separately that they were investigating Shell’s announcement. They said they would discuss the situation with the Japanese government and project partners without giving further details.

Norwegian Equinor, a majority owner of the Norwegian state, said earlier on Monday that it would start giving up its joint ventures in Russia. This came after the country’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, said on Sunday it would sell its Russian assets.

Other Western companies, including global bank HSBC and the world’s largest aircraft leasing company, AerCap, have said they plan to leave Russia as Western governments tighten economic sanctions against Moscow. Read more

Report by Ron Busso in London, Shanima A in Bengaluru and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Edited by Jonathan Oatis, Simon Webb, Richard Pullin and Kenneth Maxwell

Our standards: ‘ principles of trust.

The cryptocurrency alone will not allow Russia to circumvent a series of sanctions aimed at punishing Moscow for invading Ukraine, cryptocurrency analysts told Al Jazeera.

The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Canada announced new sanctions on Monday, this time against Russia’s central bank and the National Welfare Fund. The US Treasury Department has said it is limiting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to use $ 630 billion in the country’s foreign reserves.

The move came just a day after the United States and its allies cut off some Russian banks from SWIFT (Global Interbank Financial Telecommunications Society), a secure messaging network used for trillions of dollars in transactions.

Russia’s economy has already shaken on Monday. The roll fell to its lowest level ever, the central bank raised its key interest rate to 20 percent and the stock market remained closed.

The imposition of sanctions requires the ability to track transactions – usually through the banking system. Both Iran and North Korea have used cryptocurrencies that operate outside the financial system to circumvent sanctions.

“Crypto can be used to avoid sanctions and hide wealth,” Roman Bieda, head of fraud investigations at Coinfirm, a blockchain risk management platform, told Al Jazeera.

However, crypto experts said Al Jazeera’s case in Russia was different, with less room for movement due to the scale of the economic blow and the limited adoption of digital currencies.

Replacement of hundreds of billions of dollars

Unlike North Korea, Venezuela and Iran, Russia has been deeply rooted in the global financial system for decades, Ari Redboard of TRM labs, a blockchain intelligence company, told Al Jazeera. Eighty percent of its daily foreign exchange transactions and half of its international trade are in dollars.

“It’s very difficult to move large amounts of cryptocurrency and convert it into usable currency,” Redboard said. “Russia cannot use cryptocurrency to replace hundreds of billions of dollars that could potentially be blocked or frozen.

Measures have also been taken to stop the avoidance of sanctions through cryptocurrency. In a blockchain register – where cryptocurrency exchanges are published – each transaction and the address associated with it are visible to the public.

Bieda of Coinfirm told Al Jazeera that while sanctioning governments cannot know who owns the address sending the cryptocurrency, they can see the volume of the flow – in other words, the amount of money being moved. Once a suspicious address is flagged, these tools can be monitored.

Extracting cryptocurrencies with excess energy is an option, but not enough

Oil and gas are one of the sectors of the Russian economy that has not been subject to sanctions, although companies, including Shell and BP, have announced they are withdrawing from the country.

Russia is one of the world’s largest oil exporters, with 25 percent of European oil coming from Russia, according to Rystad Energy, an Oslo-based research firm. The country also supplies about 40 percent of Europe’s natural gas.

If future sanctions are really targeted at the energy sector, Moscow could emulate Tehran by using excess energy or computing power to generate cryptocurrency, Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a London-based blockchain analysis provider, told Al Jazeera.

“Cryptocurrency mining allows them to monetize their energy reserves on the world market without having to relocate them,” Robinson said.

But it will probably be just a drop in the bucket for a great power, an exporter of crude oil and gas like Russia.

Sanctions against oil and gas seem unlikely at the moment, Rystad Oil analyst Louise Dixon told Al Jazeera.

“Interruption of supplies of up to 5 million barrels a day of Russian oil would not only deepen the already fragile energy crisis worldwide, but could be interpreted by Russia as an act of war,” she said.

Reducing the global role of the dollar

The US Treasury Department recently warned that digital currencies and alternative payment platforms could undermine the effectiveness of US sanctions.

According to blockchain data platform Chainalysis, approximately 74 percent of ransomware revenue in 2021 – more than $ 400 million in cryptocurrency – has gone to entities “most likely to be connected to Russia in some way.”

New technologies have allowed malicious participants to keep and transfer money outside the traditional dollar-based financial system, according to the Ministry of Finance, while enabling “opponents seeking to build new financial and payment systems designed to reduce the global role of dollars. “

Although sanctions against Russia are intended to put pressure on Moscow, they could speed up the arrival of the new financial order warned by the United States, Ryan Selkis, founder of crypto research firm Messari, told Al Jazeera.

“Russia’s expulsion from SWIFT and the loss of access to its reserves will accelerate the dedollarization of trade,” Selkis said. “I don’t think the West believes the dollar will ever be displaced.”

“We appreciate the trust our parents place in high-quality and safe nutrition, and we will do whatever it takes to maintain that trust,” Abbott said in a statement emailed to CNN on Monday.

Other Abbott products should not be used if the first two digits of the batch code are 22 to 37; the container code contains K8, SH or Z2; and the expiration date is April 1, 2022 or later.

“The withdrawal does not include liquid formula products,” the FDA said. “Users must continue to use all products not included in the downloads.”

Cronobacter bacteria can cause severe, life-threatening infections or inflammation of the membranes that protect the brain and spine. Symptoms include unusual movements, wheezing, irritability, jaundice, lethargy, poor diet, rash, temperature changes, or blood in the urine or stool, according to the FDA.

The reports come as the United States faces a shortage of baby formula. Manufacturers have said they are producing at full capacity and making more formula than ever, but that is still not enough to meet current demand.

Russian government bond prices fell more than 50% on Monday as foreign investors worried that Western sanctions would undermine the country’s ability and willingness to repay them.

Russia’s 5.25% of dollar-denominated bonds due in 2047 were quoted at about 30 cents on the dollar, down from 70 on the previous trading day and about 100 before Russia invaded Ukraine, according to Advantage. Data Inc. April fell to about 50 cents on the dollar from 95.50 at the end of last week.

Actions by US and European governments to cut off Russia’s access to the international banking network Swift could prevent the country from distributing payments to bondholders abroad, bond fund managers in emerging markets said.

Bond trustees and clearing agents sitting between bond issuers and their lenders may also refuse to transfer such payments for fear of facing sanctions, they said.

Even if Russia finds a way to pay foreign bondholders, it may choose not to retaliate for sanctions imposed by Western countries and their military support for Ukraine, fund managers said.

The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine could also increase the rate of default on corporate bonds across Europe, which has been declining since early 2021, according to S&P Global Ratings. Ongoing geopolitical tensions, especially over the Ukraine-Russia conflict, could have an impact, a credit rating company said Monday.

The price of the 4.95% bond of the Russian energy company Gazprom, due in 2028, fell to 45 cents against the dollar on Monday from about 92 cents a week ago, according to MarketAxess. The bonds of the oil company Lukoil PJSC of 3.875% maturing in 2030 fell to 40 cents from 87 cents over the same period.