International sanctions

Greece's trade deficit shrank by 21% in July as imports fell more than exports in the month, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said in a report on the country's merchandise trade.

The value of imports totaled 6.721 billion euros in July, down 17% from July 2022 (excluding oil products, imports fell 3.9%, while excluding oil products and ships, imports fell 4%).

The Russian ruble's wobble in value has exposed a crack in President Vladimir Putin's fortress economy, a vulnerability quickly plastered over by the Kremlin's economic team in a move that allowed the currency to regain its footing, at least for now.

After Russia's withdrawal from the agreement to export grain and fertilizers from Ukrainian and Russian ports on the Black Sea, prices have begun to rise again, Moscow has declared ships sailing to and from Ukraine are enemy vessels (they were already hard to insure), and the Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the humanitarian fallout from the Russian decision.

The Greek trade deficit shrank 11% in May during a month which showed a 15.4% drop in exports and a 13.6% decline in imports, the Hellenic Statistical Authority said on Friday.

Three Cypriot companies are included in the new list of sanctions imposed by the US. A press release by the US Department of the Treasury says that with over 300 sanctions, the US is targeting Russia's circumvention and evasion of previous sanctions, military-industrial supply chains, and future energy revenues.

The business registrar in the Republic of Cyprus has been flooded with requests from companies scrambling to make changes to their structures, after hundreds of firms on the island saw their assets frozen due to new sanctions targeting agencies viewed by Washington and London as "Russian enablers."

About a week ago the US imposed sanctions on Turkish entities it said violated US export controls and helped Russia's war effort.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the State Council Presidium on developing Russian industry under sanctions during a trip to Tula, Russia, 04 April 2023. EPA-EFE/GAVRIIL GRIGOROV

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on at least four Turkey-based entities it said violated US export controls and helped Russia's war effort, in the biggest US enforcement action in Turkey since the invasion of Ukraine last year.

Osman Mehmedagic, former director of Bosnia's Intelligence and Security Agency and now sanctioned by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, reacted to the penalty by saying that the "accusations are unfounded and false".