US President Joe Biden said that Vladimir Putin would become a “pariah” for the invasion of Ukraine, and applied a veritable tsunami of sanctions to him and his Western allies that are hitting the Russian economy.
But not only the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other Western powers are sanctioning Russia. FIFA removed him from the Qatar 2022 World Cup, UEFA from European competitions, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) excluded Russian athletes, and the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) removed him from the venue of the next World Cup, and so on. dozens of sports organizations. Russian basketball teams were removed from the Euroleague.
Badminton, skiing, rugby, ice hockey, swimming: Russians are excluded from all sports. There will also be no more boxing matches and the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sochi has been cancelled.
The Russians will not be invited to play ping-pong, the International Table Tennis Federation has decided.
Sponsors of Russian teams are canceling their contracts.
The Russians were also left out of the Davis Cup and the Billie Jean King Cup, two competitions in which Russia is the defending champion. However, Russian players will be able to continue to enter tournaments on the ATP and WTA circuits, including the Grand Slams. Daniil Medvedev is the brand new N.1 in the world.
Many of these sanctions also cover an athlete from Belarus, an ally of Putin in the invasion of Ukraine.
business exodus.
But not only sport turned its back on Russia. Many multinational companies announced their withdrawal from that country, and canceled business and associations with Russian partners.
The exclusion of some Russian banks from the payment system SWIFTthe closure by the United States, the European Union and Canada of their airspace to Russian aircraft, and the effect of international penalties, with a 30% drop in the ruble, make companies judge the risk of continuing in Russia too high .
US oil giant ExxonMobil will phase out of the Sakhalin-1 project, a major oil field it operates in Russia. ExxonMobil has been managing the Sakhalin-1 project since 1995, located in the east of the country and north of Japan, and owns 30% of it. The consortium comprises subsidiaries of the Russian company Rosneft, an Indian company and a Japanese company.
The British oil groups Shell and BP also plan to sell their participation in the numerous joint projects with Russian companies.
Equinor, the largest Norwegian energy company, with state participation, plans to give up its business with Russian entities, valued at about 1,200 million dollars.
General Motors has suspended vehicle exports to Russia, while Detroit rival Ford has shut down its remaining operations in that country, including making commercial trucks.
German truckmaker Daimler Truck has suspended business in Russia and Volvo and Land Rover will stop sales, as will Harley-Davidson, General Motors and Volkswagen.
Maritime transport is also closed for Russia: the United Kingdom has blocked all its ports to Russian-flagged ships, including those chartered by or owned by Russians. The shipowners Maersk, CMA CGM, Hapag Lloyd and MSC announced that they will suspend the delivery of goods in Russian ports.
Apple and Boeing are also withdrawing or freezing their business in Russia.
In the case of Apple, it announced that it would stop all sales of its products in Russia and limit the use of the Apple Pay payment solution and other services in the country.
Ukraine’s government, which has urged its citizens to fight Russian forces, has asked Apple boss Tim Cook for help. “I appeal to you… to stop supplying Apple products and services to the Russian Federation, including blocking access to the Apple Store!” Ukrainian Minister of Digital Affairs Mykhailo Fedorov wrote in a letter posted on Twitter on Friday.
For its part, US aviation giant Boeing suspended its support services to Russian airlines and its operations in Moscow, a move that preceded President Biden’s announcement to ban Russian planes from using US airspace.
Disney and WarnerMedia suspended releases of new films in Russia (see page B9), while tech heavyweights like Facebook, TikTok and Microsoft moved to curb the reach of Russian state-affiliated media accused of misinforming about the invasion. of Ukraine by Moscow.
Banks and cards.
Credit card companies Visa, Mastercard and American Express joined the sanctions and blocked Russian banks from their payment networks.
It is that the Russian financial sector is the one that Western sanctions are attacking the most. The United States and the European Union chose to target the Russian Central Bank directly, prohibiting all transactions with that institution and immobilizing its assets in foreign currencies. Consequence: the ruble is in free fall against the dollar.
In Russia, queues are drawn out at banks in an attempt to withdraw currency, in an attempt by the public to limit their losses.
Another severe blow was the exclusion of the most important banks from the SWIFT system, an essential device for global finances to communicate transactions quickly and securely.
As a direct effect of these sanctions, the largest Russian bank, Sberbank, announced that it is withdrawing from the European market and its bankruptcy in Europe.
The sanctions affect the private banks Alfa Bank and Bank Otkritie and several public banks, but the financing of public companies such as Kamaz, Rostec or Almaz-Antey is also stopped and the opening of new deposits of more than 100,000 euros to Russian citizens is prohibited. in European banks.
Actions against Russia.
In the case of Apple, it would stop all sales of its products in Russia and limit the use of the Apple Pay payment solution and other services in the country. The Ukrainian government had asked Apple boss Tim Cook for help.
Withdrawal and cancellation of operations
General Motors suspended vehicle exports to Russia, Ford canceled its operations in that country. So did Daimler Truck, Volvo, Land Rover Harley-Davidson, General Motors and Volkswagen.
Visa, Mastercard and America Extress
Credit card companies Visa, Mastercard and American Express joined the sanctions and blocked Russian banks from their payment networks. The Russian financial sector is one of the hardest hit by Western sanctions.
UEFA broke its contract with the Russian energy giant Gazprom, estimated at 40 million euros and covering the Champions League and Euro 2024, following the wave of sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine.
Leave the Russian Football Federation
It suspended its sponsorship with the Russian Football Federation on Tuesday due to the invasion of Ukraine. In 2020, the company made 2.9% of its turnover in the region of Russia, Ukraine and countries of the former Soviet Union.