Image: JOE KLAMAR (AFP)
Image: Agrana
Since yesterday, Sunday, petroleum products from Russia can no longer be imported into the EU. This will tighten the sanctions against Russia even more. With a few exceptions, Russian crude oil has not been allowed to be imported since December.
In addition, there is now a regulation intended to force Russia to sell oil products abroad below the market price. Both measures should help to reduce Russia’s profits from the oil business, but also to avoid further price jumps.
Dealing with Russia economically is not easy in detail. This is also shown by a current study by the University of St. Gallen. Four percent of Austrian companies in Russia have withdrawn from there, but 8.5 percent of companies from the EU and the G7 countries. Austria is more hesitant than other EU countries.
Image: Agrana
Agrana boss Markus Mühleisen says that the 300-strong team at an Agrana fruit preparations factory in the Moscow area “is struggling to keep the business going under extremely difficult conditions”. At the same time, he condemns the “Russian colonial war. We don’t want to support the Putin regime in any way, but we don’t manufacture armaments or lifestyle products, but rather fruit preparations.” The Russian army is not a customer.
“Observe location closely”
It’s also about access to food for normal people, Agrana plays a supply role, says Mühleisen. Your field of activity is not subject to sanctions. “But it is an option to stop, we are monitoring the situation closely. The situation may change next week.”
OMV still has a stake in the Yuzhno-Russkoye gas field in Russia. This participation has already been written off from an economic point of view, but this gas field is also of strategic importance for Russia, “and so the legal framework for exiting there is very limited,” explained OMV CEO Alfred Stern last week at the presentation of the balance sheet.
A distribution of dividends to companies from “enemy countries” is forbidden in Russia, so there is no longer a contribution to earnings from Russia.
Source: Nachrichten
