Eldritch Mlems

Two sanctioned Russian oligarchs have become part-owners of the UK's largest oil producer after it completed a deal to buy a German firm.

LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, now owns nearly 15% of Harbour Energy.

LetterOne itself is not sanctioned, and the two Russians have no contact with the firm and don't receive any share of its profits.

Harbour Energy is the largest oil and gas producer in UK waters. It has bought most of the oil and gas production assets of a Germany-based firm, Wintershall DEA, from the chemicals giant BASF.

Major Russian banks have called on the central bank to take action to counter a yuan liquidity deficit, which has led to the rouble tumbling to its lowest level since April against the Chinese currency and driven yuan swap rates into triple digits.

The rouble fell by almost 5% against the yuan on Sept. 4 on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) after the finance ministry's plans for forex interventions implied that the central bank's daily yuan sales would plunge in the coming month to the equivalent of $200 million.

The central bank had been selling $7.3 billion worth of yuan per day during the past month. The plunge coincided with oil giant Rosneft's 15 billion yuan bond placement, which also sapped liquidity from the market.

"We cannot lend in yuan because we have nothing to cover our foreign currency positions with," said Sberbank CEO German Gref, stressing that the central bank needed to participate more actively in the market. The yuan has become the most traded foreign currency on MOEX after Western sanctions halted exchange trade in dollars and euros, with many banks developing yuan-denominated products for their clients. Yuan liquidity is mainly provided by the central bank through daily sales and one-day yuan swaps, as well as through currency sales by exporting companies.

Chinese banks in Russia, meanwhile, are avoiding currency trading for fear of secondary Western sanctions.

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Russian companies have been able to purchase spare parts for outdated microchip-making machines produced by Dutch tech giant ASML through Chinese intermediaries since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Dutch daily Trouw reported Wednesday, citing Russian customs data.

Small Russian importers reportedly obtained these parts at least 170 times between February 2022 and December 2023. Trouw noted that Russian trading firms continued to obtain “countless” spare parts on the secondary market.

The imported parts are suited for ASML machines built from the late 1990s and to the early 2000s, which, according to the report, remain “very useful for chips in everyday devices and weapons.”

Although tools from that era are not considered “dual use” — or technology with potential military applications — Trouw suggested they could still be used in the production of missiles, drones, tanks and military aircraft.

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Wonder if cats love boxes because many are born in boxes. There are 3 pics in a slide show; source

source

https://mastodon.world/@exocomics/113087039277391570

I feel secure in the capital. An hour’s drive away, white-pride tattoos remind me that we Berliners can’t take our safe, hedonistic lives for granted any more

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17062466

Source: https://www.exocomics.com/469/

Germany is blocking tighter restrictions on Russian spy-diplomats across Europe.

The Czech Republic has proposed ending free movement for Russian diplomats and their families in the European Union’s Schengen zone amid a series of Kremlin-inspired attacks.

Warehouses containing aid destined for Ukraine, arms factories supplying Kyiv and railway infrastructure heading east have all been targeted by Russia’s mounting hybrid war on the Continent, it is claimed.

Moscow has often deployed its intelligence officers in Europe under the guise of diplomatic postings.

The EU’s free-travel area, which spans 29 countries, is “easing malign activities” across the bloc, Jan Lipasvsky, the Czech foreign minister, wrote in a recent letter to Josep Borrell, Brussels’ top foreign diplomat.

Mr Lipasvsky, backed by eight EU counterparts, urged Brussels to “restrict the movement of Russian diplomats and their family members to the territory of a state of their accreditation only”.

[...]

European diplomats who spoke to The Telegraph and diplomatic notes seen by this publication revealed that Germany is a key blockage to the proposed crackdown.

It prompted allegations that Berlin’s government is attempting to foster relations with Russia, despite promises to end its reliance on previously cheap Russian energy supplies.

“Germany has the approach of returning to business as usual with Russia and they think this is escalatory,” a diplomat said.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19418149

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/dNW9T

An ambitious new compilation, Transa, will collect music from Sade, Sam Smith, Jeff Tweedy, Laura Jane Grace, and more than 100 other artists to celebrate trans and nonbinary people. The album, which features nearly 50 tracks and runs nearly three-and-a-half hours, will come out Nov. 22 via the Red Hot Organization.

Paywall removed: https://archive.is/dNW9T

An ambitious new compilation, Transa, will collect music from Sade, Sam Smith, Jeff Tweedy, Laura Jane Grace, and more than 100 other artists to celebrate trans and nonbinary people. The album, which features nearly 50 tracks and runs nearly three-and-a-half hours, will come out Nov. 22 via the Red Hot Organization.

My at times very looong "kitten".