Russia

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has suspended its operations in Russia after local tax authorities in Moscow initiated bankruptcy proceedings against its Russian entity, the Wall Street Journal reported. RFE/RL, a U.S. government-funded organization known for broadcasting uncensored news during the Cold War throughout the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries, said that the involuntary filing was part of a series of “Kremlin attacks” that has intensified since Russian forces began their invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on using the country's rainy-day National Wealth Fund to buy OFZ government bonds and stocks, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. Putin also signed a series of laws enabling a new "capital amnesty" designed to encourage people to return money or financial instruments to Russia without facing tax or other penalties, RIA reported. Read more.

Banks are having conversations with potential buyers on how to get rid of their exposure to Russian corporate loans, but sanctions fears and pricing uncertainty are limiting trading activity and the ability of buyers to act, Reuters reported. Punishing Western sanctions on Moscow in the aftermath of its invasion of Ukraine have prompted some distressed debt buyers to approach banks holding Russian loans to sound out their appetite to potentially sell that exposure at a discount.

Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, issued a stern warning on Tuesday to Chinese companies that might defy U.S. restrictions against exporting to Russia, saying the United States would cut them off from American equipment and software they need to make their products, the New York Times reported. The Biden administration could “essentially shut” down Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation or any Chinese companies that defy U.S. sanctions by continuing to supply chips and other advanced technology to Russia, Raimondo said.

The European Commission has prepared a new package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine that will hit additional Russian oligarchs and politicians and three Belarusian banks, three sources told Reuters on Tuesday. The draft sanctions were adopted by the EU executive on Tuesday morning and will be discussed by EU ambassadors at a meeting starting at 1400 GMT, one source said. The draft package will ban three Belarusian banks from the SWIFT banking system and add several more oligarchs and Russian lawmakers to the EU blacklist, the sources told Reuters.

The European Commission published plans on Tuesday to cut the EU's dependency on Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end its reliance on Russian supplies of the fuel "well before 2030," Reuters reported. he European Union executive said it will do so by switching to alternative supplies and expanding clean energy more quickly under the plans, which will largely be the responsibility of national governments for implementing.

Russia's central bank announced on Tuesday a series of steps to help financial market players such as private pension funds and management companies cope with the current "crisis situation," including relaxing some regulations, Reuters reported. Russia's financial markets have been thrown into turmoil by severe economic sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine.

Securities traders and hedge funds trying to trade Russian securities that aren’t subject to foreign sanctions over the country’s invasion of Ukraine have been running into the problem that some clearinghouses are still refusing to settle the trades, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bank of New York Mellon Corp.’s Pershing, one of the main clearinghouses that settle securities trades, told clients on Thursday that both U.S. and non-U.S. custodians, mutual-fund companies and liquidity providers have imposed restrictions “above and beyond” sanctioned Russian securities.

Foreign companies that want to leave Russia will receive fast-tracked bankruptcy protections or can hand their stakes over to local managers until they return to Russia, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said on Friday, Reuters reported. Western sanctions imposed on Russia in punishment for its invasion of Ukraine have prompted dozens of global companies to pause operations in the country and some, including energy majors BP and Shell have said that they will exit the country entirely.

The cost of insuring Russia’s government debt rose to a record high after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing it to repay foreign creditors in rubles, raising concerns about the prospects of a default across the country’s $33 billion of dollar bonds, Bloomberg News reported. Credit-default swaps insuring $10 million of the country’s notes for five years were quoted at about $5.8 million upfront and $100,000 annually on Monday, signaling around 80% likelihood of default, according to ICE Data Services. ICE is the main clearing house for European CDS.