Russia

The commercial hub of Delaware is blocking startup ventures with past ties to Russia from maintaining their corporate standing in the state, ensnaring some tech firms that say they have little or no current connection to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed on Wednesday a new package of Russia sanctions, designed "to make the Kremlin pay" for escalating the conflict in Ukraine with what she called "sham" votes in occupied territory, Reuters reported. "We do not accept the sham referenda and any kind of annexation in Ukraine, and we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation," she told reporters in Brussels.

Russia's National Settlement Depository has demanded that the European Union recognise sanctions imposed on it as illegal and pay for any legal costs incurred, a filing on the EU's Official Journal dated on Monday showed, Reuters reported. Owned by Moscow Exchange, the NSD, Russia's domestic paying agent, is equivalent to the Euroclear and Clearstream clearing houses, and plays an important role in the country's financial system as a key intermediary with international markets.

Russia's banks have lost an estimated 1.5 trillion roubles ($25.5 billion) as a result of the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine, a central bank official said on Friday, Reuters reported. Maxim Lyubomudrov, who heads the regulator's department that supervises the country's largest banks, said this was an "acceptable" level of losses and that the government had plans in place to support Russia's lenders through the crisis. Read more.

Russian employees at airlines and airports have started to receive conscription notices after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilisation, the Kommersant newspaper reported on Friday citing sources, Reuters reported. Employees of at least five airlines, including Russian top carrier Aeroflot, and staff at more than 10 airports received notices within a day of Putin ordering the mobilisation, the paper reported.

Russia's economy is not likely to return to pre-war levels before the end of this decade as the Ukraine war and stricter sanctions worsen long-standing economic deficiencies, Scope Ratings said in a report seen by Reuters on Friday, Reuters reported. By the end of 2023, gross domestic product (GDP) will be about 8% below where output was in 2021, according to the credit rating watchdog's forecast. The Russian economy expanded by 4.7% in 2021, according to federal statistics service Rosstat.

A painful push by businesses to cut their natural-gas use is bringing Europe closer to its goal of weaning itself off Russian energy. Getting consumers to follow suit might prove more difficult, the Wall Street Journal reported. Businesses, facing skyrocketing prices during a widening economic conflict running in parallel with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have ratcheted down their gas use in recent months. The reduction has exacted a significant economic cost, with slowing production at chemical plants and closed metals factories now widely expected to tip Europe into a recession.

A Moscow court on Monday accepted a bankruptcy application by Google's Russian subsidiary and started initial bankruptcy proceedings, placing the company under supervision, Russian news agencies reported, according to Reuters. Alphabet Inc.'s Russian unit filed for bankruptcy this summer after authorities seized its bank account, making it impossible to pay staff and vendors. Free services, including search and YouTube, have continued operating. Read more.

Investors placed orders for over $1 billion of Russian bonds as part of a long-anticipated credit-default swap auction on Monday, more than three months after the Kremlin was ruled in default for failing to pay back creditors, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The high demand for Russia’s sovereign bonds reflects growing investor appetite for its bonds despite punishing sanctions on the Kremlin. While U.S. investors were forbidden from purchasing Russian debt this summer, the U.S.

A Swiss court has granted the operating company for the never-opened Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was built to bring Russian gas to Germany but put on ice shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, a four-month extension to its “stay of bankruptcy,” the Associated Press reported. The stay for Nord Stream 2 AG was extended from Sept. 10 through Jan. 10 by a regional court in Zug canton (state), according to a notice published Thursday in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. The company, a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom, is based in Zug.