CRYPTO NEWS - MetaMask and Infura digital asset wallets are unavailable in certain jurisdictions due to US sanctions. Infura, the infrastructure service also owned by Ethereum conglomerate ConsenSys, has imposed new geoblocks. Infura is complying sanctions and has blocked access to users in Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Syria, and the Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. As a centralized entity, funded by investors like JPMorgan, Infura is subject to regulatory concerns. https://tinyurl.com/3t8sa7rm

New York state’s efforts to enforce sanctions against Russia have ramped up a gear with the Department of Financial Services, or DFS, expediting the procurement of additional blockchain analytics technology to help detect exposure to Russian individuals and entities subject to federal sanctions, by the virtual currency businesses licensed by the department. https://tinyurl.com/7m822szu

Interesting article on Russia and China’s de-dollarization strategy.

“These types of economic sanctions were predictable because this is exactly how the West responded when Russia took the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. Strategically, Putin chose to invade now because the U.S. and E.U. would be incapable of mounting a more serious response at the end of the global long-term debt cycle when their economies faced record high-debt levels, the highest inflation in 40-years, and supply chain shortages fomented by lockdown policies implemented in response to covid-19.” https://kanekoa.substack.com/p/inflation-de-dollarization-and-russias?s=r

Aluminium has hit yet another record high, rising to $3,824 on the London metal Exchange (over 30% YTD). The London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in Russian aluminium producer EN. "Maersk, which handles shipments for Russian aluminium giant United Co Rusal has suspended operations in Russia. which accounts for about 6% of the world's aluminium." Shortages have meant draws on inventories, which in LME-approved warehouses have more than halved to 855,525 tonnes since March last year.

Including sanctions, and estimated lower wheat planting this spring, after these cases in the Black Sea, shippers will no longer be sending cargo ships into the Black Sea. Prepare for drastic increase in wheat prices.

Bangladeshi-flagged vessel ‘Banglar Samriddhi,’ which came under a missile attack at a Ukrainian port on Wednesday, have been taken to a safe place after their evacuation from the damaged ship. Estonia-owned Helt sank off the port of Odessa after an explosion. Two of the crew are in a raft on the water and four others are missing.
Turkish bulk carrier Yasa Jupiter and Japanese cargo vessel the Namura Queen were both damaged - reportedly by shells or missiles - and later docked for repairs. Russia claims the two ships were hit by Ukraine's forces.

European natural gas futures hits a new record, rising as much as 27% to 203.865 euros a megawatt-hour. In BTU-equivalent context, that is a new record spread to US (henry Hub) gas (almost 6x the high end of the range for this arbitrage over the last 15 years). for comparison, the new record high natural gas prices are equivalent to a $367 barrel of oil. On the leading European TTF gas hub, the front month contract has now jumped 60% over the course of a week, as the market tries to digest the consequences of the Nord Stream 2 failure and the possibility of no Russian gas to Europe during the coming years.

Wheat prices have hit record highs on intensifying fears over a supply shortage. Prices rose to as high as $13.40 a bushel yesterday while European milling wheat in Paris hit a record of €405 per tonne. The last time the wheat price catapulted higher like this we got The Arab Spring. Social stability in the Middle East depends on the wheat price.

Turkey, a leading buyer of Russian wheat, was forced to reduce its volumes for an international tender to 285,000 tonnes this week, down from a target of 370,000 tonnes. Hungary - one of Europe's most grain rich nations, just announced that it will banning all grain exports effective immediately. China's Agriculture Minister : "China's winter wheat crop condition could be worst in history due to rare heavy rainfall last year delayed the planting of about one-third of the normal wheat acreage".

The IMF is deeply involved in the CBDC process, including by providing technical assistance to many of its members. CBDC networks are also a potential weapon for defanging future sanctions. Cross-border CBDC networks are in development across Asia (like the mCBDC Bridge, which involves Thailand, Hong Kong, China and the United Arab Emirates). Russia’s central bank is working on a digital rouble and Governor Elvira Nabiullina has expressed interest in its value as a means of facilitating cross-border payments, particularly with China. There is very little to no public consultation by most countries in the CBDC development phases. https://tinyurl.com/3f5cm722

Cyberattack knocked out remote access to 5,800 wind turbines in Germany and Central Europe with a combined output of 11 gigawatts. "There is no danger to the wind turbines" which continue to produce energy but can no longer be reset remotely if needed. About 9,000 subscribers of satellite service NordNet were affected. Viasat is a US satellite provided of which Nordnet is a client. The affected were mainly in the countries of Greece, Germany, Hungary, France, Poland and Italy. https://tinyurl.com/2v3kbtph

The Swiss federal government plans to freeze crypto assets owned by Russian citizens & businesses held within Switzerland's borders. The freeze would coincide with sanctions already imposed by the EU. 1,128 blockchain firms have selected Switzerland or Liechtenstein as their home base as of December 2021. Switzerland has been historically a neutral country until now. https://tinyurl.com/38wvws6w

With a population of 62,000, Lugano is the ninth largest city in Switzerland and announced that Tether and LVGA (a CHF stablecoin), as well as Bitcoin, are now “de facto” legal tender. https://tinyurl.com/2npwejf8

This post & comments are a summary of an independent investigation into a developing story since The Ukraine's 2014 Maidan colour revolution.

Today's newly released documents (sourced from RIA Novosti) point to the Bio-Safety-Labs (BSL) funded & operated by the USA in Ukraine to be violating Article 1 of the UN prohibition of biological weapons. The US Embassy officials there recently stated that 'non-lethal' pathogens were being used at these BSLs. The US Pentagon has instructed to destroy allegedly Anthrax and Plague pathogens at these BSLs. The untranslated pages of the document along with the context of evidence being collected these past 8 years are posted in the comment section.

Nickel futures contracts jumps sharply to trade above $30,000 a ton for the first time since 2008. The London Metal Exchange (LME) raised its margin requirements for nickel contracts by 12.5% to $2,250 a tonne effective at close of business on March 8. (A Margin Requirement is the percentage of marginable securities that an investor must pay for with his/her own cash). Russia accounts for 7% of global nickel and is one of the world's biggest exporters of nickel traded on the LME. Nickel is used in stainless steel and rechargeable batteries and superalloys. https://tinyurl.com/25tkurs5

Sanctions on Russia since 2014 did not stop European banks being exposed to Russia debt which has been steady since 2015 (see chart). European banks suffer collateral damage by excluding the country from the SWIFT making it harder for them to collect payments on their loans. With over $100 billion of Russian debt in foreign banks, this raises questions about the risks to banks outside Russia – and the potential for a default to kick off a 2008-style liquidity crisis, where banks panic about the state of other banks' solvency and stop lending to one another.

Figures from the (BIS) show that France and Italy's banks each have outstanding claims of about US$25 billion on Russian debt, while Austrian banks had $17.5 billion. Bad news for European banks is there has been a sharp rise in the cost of raising US dollar funding in the euro swaps market. Banks use this market to raise the dollars that are essential for most international trade, so higher rates will put additional pressure on their margins.

The pan-European STOXX 600 fell to post its worst weekly decline since the COVID-19 pandemic-fueled sell-off in March 2020. Dutch bank ING dropped 6.1 percent after it said that about 700 million euros (US$771 million) in outstanding loans were affected by “new sanctions. The share prices of UK banks Lloyds and NatWest are both down more than 10% since the start of the invasion, for example. Reuters has reported that US companies have about $15 billion of exposure to Russia. Many of these debts will potentially end up being written.

The National Bank of Poland also stepped in to prop up its currency by selling foreign currency for zlotys, while the National Bank of Hungary delivered its biggest rate increase since late-2008 to rein in the forint from successive all-time-lows. The Czech National Bank (CNB) intervened in the foreign exchange market and is conducting operations to mitigate excessive fluctuations and depreciation of the crown.

UK Brent Crude hits $130 per barrel, up 10% today in Asian markets. US WTI Crude is also up 9% @ $126 per barrel. The U.S. buys Russian oil for technical reasons that are related to grade, refining profitability, and geography. One of them is that although Houston can launch men to the moon, it can’t easily ship crude to Los Angeles or New York because of maritime restrictions in the Jones Act, passed in the petro predawn of 1920. There’s a thoughtful case for allowing Russian oil imports that has to do with avoiding economic self-harm. Three percent of the roughly 209,000 oil barrels the U.S. imported per day in 2021 came from Russia.

Palm/Soybean/Vegetable Oil supply shock ahead - Malaysia exports are expected to rise after top producer Indonesia introduced a requirement for exporters to sell a portion of their products domestically. Crude palm oil (CPO) is being offered at about $1,925 a tonne, including cost, insurance and freight (CIF), in India for March shipments, compared with $1,865 for crude soybean oil. Sunflower oil supply is disrupted from the key Black Sea region. The biggest importers China and India are buying, as palm has become the costliest among the four major edible oils. All edible oils track each other's prices as they compete in the market, and any potential supply disruptions for one buoy the prices of the other counters. Soybean production in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay is expected to fall because of dry weather.

Natural gas prices in Europe and the United Kingdom soared to record highs Monday on supply fears. Europe gas reference Dutch TTF rocketed more than 50% to settle at 345 euros ($374) per megawatt hour and U.K. gas hit 800 pence (1,054 cents) per therm. Russia's state-owned energy giant Gazprom has said that it continues to deliver gas to Europe via Ukraine at normal levels. Gas prices are multiple times higher in Europe than the US. The combined LNG exports of the United States, Qatar, and Australia, and also Norway’s gas exports, can barely replace the 200 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Russian piped gas supplies annually.

Sanctions on Russia has begun to backfire on European banks holding Russian debts on their balance sheets. Germany's DAX is falling for the past week. Euro STOXX banks are facing a continuous declining share price. European cargo and passenger flights are becoming less profitable due to re-routing flights to Asia away from Russian airspace. European banks lost 30% of their value in two weeks‌‌. A research group that advises Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded that sanctions leveled on Russia will ultimately cause more damage to the U.S. and its allies. Video - French Economist warns that Europe is committing economic suicide and celebrating sanctions to virtue signal to the rest of the world. https://www.bitchute.com/video/iseh6pVIZdJq/

SPAIN - The average price of electricity in the wholesale market rose by 17% Monday, making it the most expensive day in history, with an average of €442/MWh. This increase is reportedly to be the rise in the price of natural gas even though Spain produced 43.6% of its electricity with renewable energy technologies in 2020. The EU plans a meeting to discuss how to decouple the price of gas and electricity. Electricity is 10 times higher than it was 1 year ago in Spain. The government has extended a tax break to customers on VAT. UK is paying similar prices and Italy slightly higher.

The US is working to revive the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which was stopped during the Trump presidency. If the sanctions are lifted, Iranian banks will be added to the SWIFT messaging system and will be able to release millions of barrels of oil into the global market to ease the soaring oil prices due to sanctions on Russia. Israel had reached a strategic agreement with Russia to fight against Iran and its proxies. Israel is now dependent on Russia’s goodwill. https://en.irna.ir/news/84674678/Iran-s-oil-message-to-US

U.S. wheat futures have climbed past record highs set in 2007. The continuous wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 7% to $12.94 per bushel yesterday. The increase again hit the exchange’s high limit for how much the price could move in a day. Russia is the world’s leading exporter of wheat. The wheat market rose over 40 per cent last week, its biggest weekly rise on record. Hungary banned exports. Iraq and China announced plans to increase reserves. Reports of Corn and Wheat Futures Options Traders facing restrictions on buy orders to prevent further escalation.

Nickel futures contracts spiked more than 90% yesterday, sending prices above $55,000 a metric ton. The biggest-ever daily dollar gain ($26,000) in the 35-year history of the contract. The London Metal Exchange (LME) raises its margin requirements for nickel contracts by 12.5% a tonne effective at close of business on March 8. (A Margin Requirement is the percentage of marginable securities that an investor must pay for with his/her own cash). Russia accounts for 7% of global nickel and is the world's 3rd biggest exporter of refined nickel. Nickel is used in stainless steel, rechargeable batteries and superalloys.