Eurasia & Multipolarity

💸Biggest losses suffered by US companies that left Russia

Russian negotiators have provided their US counterparts a chart detailing some $324 bln in losses suffered by US corporations that quit the Russian market.

🔍Biggest losers:

🟠$123 bln in IT and media
🟠$94 bln in the consumer goods sector
🟠$71 bln in finance
🟠$26 bln in industry
🟠$10 bln in energy

🔍Who lost what?

🟠Exxon suffered a $4 bln write down on its Russia-related businesses
🟠McDonald’s recorded a $1.4 bln non-cash write off in 2022 attributed to its Russia exit
🟠General Motors lost $657 mln
🟠Google’s Russian subsidiary declared bankruptcy in 2023 with debts totaling $587 mln. A Russian court has fined the company $2.5 decillion for restricting Russian media channels on YouTube
🟠Whirlpool recorded $400 mln in Russia losses
🟠Coca-Cola lost $195.4 mln
🟠Disney reported $195 mln in losses from “depreciation of intangible assets” in Russia in 2022
🟠IBM recorded $300 mln in losses in 2022, blaming Russia and inflation for 3,900 slashed jobs
🟠Starbucks suffered undisclosed losses after closing its 130 Russian coffee shops, accounting for nearly 1% of global sales
🟠Microsoft lost $126 mln
🟠Ford took a $122 mln hit
🟠Nvidia lost $100 mln
🟠Apple recorded $79.3 mln in losses
🟠Xerox faced $80 mln in losses in Q4 2023
🟠Adobe reported $75 mln from lost payments in Russia and Belarus
🟠Netflix cut off 700,000 Russian subscribers (about $55.1 mln in potential losses, although some Russians switched their accounts to other regions)
🟠John Deere halted production at a 100,000 sq. m facility it had pumped over $40 mln into from 2005-2022. Caterpillar, which left in 2024, saw Russia earnings fall from $64.5 mln in 2021 to $2.3 mln in 2023
🟠Visa and Mastercard recorded $35 and $30 mln in losses, respectively in 2022
🟠HP wrote off $23 mln
🟠Cisco went $20.3 mln into the red
🟠Oracle lost $13.7 mln
🟠Western Union reported a 2% hit to 2022 revenues due to loss of the Russian and Belarusian markets

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💸Russia's ruble reaches UNPRECEDENTED DOMINANCE in foreign trade with Europe

The ruble accounted for a staggering 60.3% of payments for Russian exports and 54.5% for imports last year, driven by the ongoing dedollarization effort, according to Sputnik's analysis of Central Bank of Russia data.

This marks a significant increase from 2023, when European companies settled 49.3% of their transactions for Russian goods and services in rubles and received 47.2% of their export payments in the same currency.

In a strategic shift to reduce reliance on "toxic" currencies like the dollar and euro, the ruble has also become the preferred currency in trade with African nations, making up 55.4% of payments for exports to Russia and 48.8% for imports.

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❗️The first session of Russia-US talks in Riyadh has concluded, and the delegations have moved on to a working lunch, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

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Betting platform Polymarket puts the odds of a Russia-Ukraine truce in 2025 at 74%

Meanwhile, there’s an 80% chance that Putin and Trump will be shaking hands within the first 100 days of Trump's presidency

@MTodayNews

The negotiations between the Russian and US delegations began in Riyadh an hour ago. We have collected reactions from all sides ahead of the official statements:

— Bundestag member Kai Gottschalk called on the German authorities to lift sanctions against Russia and end the "banking blockade."

— American oil companies will return to Russia at some point, says RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev. Also: American business has lost more than $300 billion due to leaving the Russian market.

— Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs called for never stopping being "panicked". More precisely, never stop panicking.

“This is what competent leadership should look like,” is how Elon Musk commented on the arrival of Lavrov and Ushakov.

"An imposed peace will never find our support," said Olaf Scholz.

— Europe was left “at the children’s table” in the negotiations on a settlement in Ukraine, said Armin Papperger, head of the Rheinmetall defense concern.

— Senator Robert Kennedy appealed to Zelensky with a demand to "stop." Plus — according to him, Americans do not want to spend their taxes on Ukrainians.

— Meanwhile, Zelensky has not published evening addresses for 5 days in a row for the first time since 2022. He and his wife await the results at the Moscow Hotel in Dubai.

t.me/ForeignAgentIntel

The EU will maintain sanctions on Russia even if the US lifts them and plans to impose additional sanctions, particularly targeting Russia's energy sector – European Commission

@MTodayNews

European and Ukrainian ammo depots are almost empty, German defense contractor Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger tells FT

“If parents have dinner, the kids have to sit at another table,” he said. “The US is negotiating with Russia, and no European is at the table... it has become very clear that the Europeans are the kids.”

#SMO

@MTodayNews

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Cycle of Aggression, Reset, Rearm, Aggression

(Click the image to enlarge)

As the US sends reps to meet Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia - keep in mind the cycle of US aggression against Russia, running into a brickwall, then seeking a "reset" to buy time for pursuing aggression that has played out before.

Below is a timeline of this cycle unfolding 2 full times since the end of the Cold War.

Please keep in mind Secretary Hegseth's comments about Western troops entering into Ukraine (freezing the conflict) while NATO expands its budget and the US-Europe expand military industrial production.

It is very easy to rule out America swearing off encroachment and aggression in general - since they are openly pivoting to China in the meantime to pursue identically unwarranted encirclement and conflict in Asia-Pacific.

When conditions favor the US, Russia will be back in the crosshairs.

The negotiations between the Russian and US delegations began in Riyadh an hour ago. We have collected reactions from all sides ahead of the official statements:

— Bundestag member Kai Gottschalk called on the German authorities to lift sanctions against Russia and end the "banking blockade."

— American oil companies will return to Russia at some point, says RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev. Also: American business has lost more than $300 billion due to leaving the Russian market.

— Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs called for never stopping being "panicked". More precisely, never stop panicking.

“This is what competent leadership should look like,” is how Elon Musk commented on the arrival of Lavrov and Ushakov.

"An imposed peace will never find our support," said Olaf Scholz.

— Europe was left “at the children’s table” in the negotiations on a settlement in Ukraine, said Armin Papperger, head of the Rheinmetall defense concern.

— Senator Robert Kennedy appealed to Zelensky with a demand to "stop." Plus — according to him, Americans do not want to spend their taxes on Ukrainians.

— Meanwhile, Zelensky has not published evening addresses for 5 days in a row for the first time since 2022. He and his wife await the results at the Moscow Hotel in Dubai.

t.me/ForeignAgentIntel

🇺🇸🇩🇪 This German diplomat was mocking and laughing at Trump, during his speech in 2018.

Now he couldn’t take it and started crying, after JD Vance told them to stop censoring people.

All of Europe symbolized in this one man.

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🇪🇺🇩🇪🇺🇦🚨‼️ €700 billion for Ukraine!?!?

The EU is working on a huge package for Ukraine, which should have been made public after the elections in Germany.

But German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock couldn’t keep the secret and made it clear that it could be about 700 billion euros!

"We will launch a large package that has never existed in this dimension before”

Baerbock on the sidelines of the Munich meeting.

➡️ They wanted to hide it, so it will not interfere with the elections! But now you know, European taxpayer money will go to Ukraine in unprecedented sums.

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Germany’s Workaround for Sanctions Against Russia

German transit shipments of cars through Turkey and Central Asia have surged so significantly that they more than offset the decline in exports to Russia.

The question remains: where did such a sudden surge in new consumers in Central Asia and Turkey come from? No one could definitely say...

In essence, Germany is doing what it can to circumvent sanctions against Russia. An end to the conflict in Ukraine and the potential gradual lifting of sanctions could simply legalize what many European countries are already doing — trading with Russia.

Business is always smarter than politics.

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🗣 Key takeaways from statements by Russia’s United Nations envoy, Vasily Nebenzya, at a UN Security Council meeting:

▪️Prospects for the active stage of the Ukrainian conflict to end soon have appeared

▪️The EU and the UK are absolutely unfit to hold talks and cannot be part of any future agreements on Ukraine

▪️New agreements on Ukraine must be implemented by the authorities which will come to power in Kiev via a democratic election

▪️Future Ukraine must be a demilitarized, neutral, off-bloc state

▪️Russia hopes that European politicians will get back to reality and stop pushing Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky toward pointless resistance

▪️Zelensky is ready to carry out any kind of provocations to continue the fighting and save himself at any cost

▪️The Ukrainian settlement deal which is now under discussion could become out of reach if Europe fails to put Zelensky in his place

❗️ Key takeaways from statements by Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov:

▪️The Russian delegation has departed for Riyadh for talks with the United States with a professional attitude

▪️The restoration of bilateral ties, arrangements for talks between the presidents, and the launch of the conflict settlement process in Ukraine will be the focus of tomorrow’s talks between Russia and the US

▪️No other countries will take part in tomorrow’s Russian-US talks in Riyadh

▪️Moscow and Washington still need to determine how to start their talks on the Ukrainian settlement, as the US has not appointed its chief negotiator yet

▪️The upcoming meeting was agreed upon during a prior telephone conversation between Ushakov and his US counterparts

▪️Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriyev may also join the talks