Argentine authorities have officially informed the leaders of the BRICS member countries of their decision not to join the association, Argentine newspaper Clarin reported Friday, citing sources in the Argentine government.
“The government has sent letters with this information to the presidents of each of the BRICS countries to make official the decision made a few weeks ago,” the newspaper wrote.
Later, Argentine President Javier Milay confirmed the country’s refusal to join the association in official letters sent to the leaders of BRICS member countries.
“Some decisions taken by the previous government will be reconsidered. Among them is the creation of a specialized unit for the country’s active participation in BRICS,” Milei said in a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“At this stage, Argentina’s accession to BRICS as a full member as of January 1, 2024, does not seem appropriate,” Miley added.
Milay, who came to power earlier this year, opposed Argentina’s accession to BRICS as early as during his election campaign. In late November, Diana Mondino, who was then set to take over as foreign minister, said that “Argentina will not join BRICS” because it could not make the contribution to join the BRICS New Development Bank.
Argentina, along with Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, was invited to join the grouping as of January 1, 2024.
Law enforcers have reported the suspicion of Yevhen Chernyak, an entrepreneur and owner of one of Ukraine’s largest alcoholic holdings, as well as six top managers of his companies. They are suspected of financing Russia’s armed aggression, the Security Service of Ukraine said.
“The security service has collected the evidence base on the owner of one of the largest alcoholic holdings of Ukraine Evgeny Chernyak, who is suspected of financing armed aggression rf. According to the investigation, despite the full-scale invasion, his companies continued to do business with the aggressor country,” the SBU said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Friday night.
Reportedly, during 2022 only in the form of payment of taxes and fees controlled by Chernyak companies transferred to the budget of the Russian Federation about 6 billion in the hryvnia equivalent. The investigation documented that the enterprises of the defendant, located in four countries of Central Asia and the South Caucasus, purchased industrial quantities of alcohol and other related products in Russia. During searches in the office premises of the holding in Ukraine, documents and other physical evidence of illegal activities in favor of the aggressor country were found.
“Based on the collected evidence, the investigators of the security service reported on suspicion Chernyak and 6 other top managers of his companies on part 2 of article 28, article 111-2 of the Criminal code of Ukraine (aiding the state-aggressor, committed by prior conspiracy by a group of persons)”, – informs the SBU.
Reportedly, the issue of seizure of their private and corporate property for transfer to the ARMA management is now being decided. The investigation was conducted under the procedural guidance of the Kyiv regional Prosecutor’s office.
According to open sources, Chernyak, the founder of the Khortytsa brand, is the head of the supervisory board of the Global Spirits alcohol holding company.
financing Russia's armed aggression, GLOBAL SPIRITS, Khortytsa, SBU, Yevhen Chernyak
State-owned enterprise National Atomic Energy Generating Company Energoatom has been transformed into a joint-stock company with 100% of its shares owned by the state, Cabinet of Ministers representative in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk said in Telegram. According to him, the government decisions adopted on Friday provide for the establishment of Energoatom JSC, approval of its charter and provisions on the supervisory board and principles of its formation.
“It is established that the joint-stock company is the legal successor of all property and non-property rights and obligations of SE NAEK Energoatom from the date of state registration of the joint-stock company,” Melnychuk specified.
“Corporatization according to the best international standards will strengthen the quality of management, transparency and accountability of the company. It also opens up new opportunities for the development of our nuclear power industry and partnership with international companies,” – says the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmygal.
As reported, the plan to transform Energoatom into a JSC, 100% owned by the state, was approved by Government Order No. 571-r of June 27, 2023. The process should be completed by March 2024.
The start of the tender procedure for the election of members of the NAEK’s nabsoobet by November 30, 2023 and the transformation of the SOE into a JSC by December 31, 2023, in particular, is a condition for Ukraine to receive an additional $100 million in energy assistance.
“Energoatom is the operator of all four operating nuclear power plants in Ukraine. It operates the Zaporizhzhya, Pivdenno-Ukrainian, Rivne and Khmelnytskyi plants with 15 power units equipped with water-water power reactors, with a total installed electrical capacity of 13.8 GW. ZNPP with a capacity of 6 GW has been under the occupation of the Russian Federation since May 4, 2022.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) on Thursday, the penultimate day of trading, weakened the official hryvnia exchange rate by 0.96%, or 36 kopecks, to a new low of 37.98 UAH/$1. According to the NBU rules, this rate will be valid for the remaining days of the year – December 29-31.
The reference value of the hryvnia exchange rate set by the National Bank at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday also decreased by 1%, or 39 kopecks, to 37.9404 UAH/$1.
According to market participants, trading on Thursday was active from the very morning: in the first hour and a half their volume amounted to about $150 million, and transactions even before noon were concluded at the rate of 37.97-37.99 UAH/$1, with offers at the rate of 38.03 UAH/$1.
According to the calculations of the ex-head of the analytical department of Sense Bank Alexey Blinov, the average official rate at the end of 2023 was 36.57 UAH/$1, which is almost identical to the fixed rate, which was in effect for 14 months until October 3 of this year.
The expert specified that the official year-end closing rate for the euro is 42.21 UAH/EUR1.
On the cash market on Thursday, the dollar exchange rate rose even more – by about 45 kopecks, to 38.72 UAH/$1.
The weakening of the hryvnia in recent weeks, the National Bank attributes to the seasonal increase in demand for foreign currency.
As reported, the National Bank’s net sales in November fell to $2.46 bln from $3.34 bln in October and $2.69 bln in September. However, the reduction of external financing to $2.04 billion led to a decrease in international reserves for the fourth consecutive month – by 0.5%, or $187.8 million – to $38 billion 785.2 million.
Interpipe reported that it is currently implementing three investment projects. The largest of them, worth about $40 mln, is the construction of a new pipe heat treatment section. Two more projects are being implemented in the railroad division at the Interpipe NTZ plant in Dnipro.
Nikopol-based Centravis has planned to modernize its pipe-pressing line in the first half of 2024, which will reduce metal waste in the production process. The volume of investments in this project is about $3.5 million.
First Deputy Prime Minister noted that on the day of the visit to the enterprises in Nikopol and Kryvyi Rih these cities had been shelled by the occupants. Therefore, against this background, information about bold investment plans of Dnipropetrovsk enterprises looks particularly impressive.
According to her, metallurgy has always been a fundamental branch of the Ukrainian economy. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the domestic MMC created about 10% of GDP and brought about a third of cash proceeds from all commodity exports. This industry was and still is export-oriented, with more than 80% of metal products shipped abroad.
“The most important thing the government can do now for Ukrainian metallurgy is to ensure unimpeded exports by sea. We have an important achievement in this direction. In September, the first ships with metal traveled through the temporary sea corridor. And in November, we recorded a total increase in exports by sea by 70%. Metal exports are starting to work. This means that metallurgists and miners will have work, and the Ukrainian budget will receive additional taxes. Now we are working on the full unblocking of maritime logistics and launching the mechanism of ship insurance, which is already in place,” Sviridenko summarized, as quoted by the press service.
The company “Biosphere” used the state credit program “5-7-9” and in January 2024 will launch a new shop for tea production, about $20 million has been invested in this project, according to the press release of the Ministry of Economy following the visit of the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko.
It is specified that Sviridenko visited industrial enterprises of Dnipropetrovsk region to get acquainted with production, investment plans and check the effectiveness of state programs to stimulate the economy.
