Interesting choice. Hope does indeed die last.

Both, the State Duma deputies and senators, come up with proposal as "feelers" to gauge the reaction of the population and other political players. E.g. price cap proposals have been made quite a few times and so far have not been introduced.

Week of July 7: South Caucasus in Russia's geoconomic strategy camarra.substack.com/p/madi-kappa...

Week of June 30: Banking crisis potential in Russia camarra.substack.com/p/madi-kappa...

Week of June 23: Iran and the North-South Trade Corridor camarra.substack.com/p/madi-kappa...

Week of July 14: Russia's nationalization reserve and other means to stretch the war economy - they could last till 2029 camarra.substack.com/p/madi-kappa...

Perhaps, that's is precisely the reason why we see many American political figures courting Eurosceptic parties and politicians in the EU. Russia does the same for a different set of reasons. Perhaps, Brexit had more than one foreign influence.

Unlike China, EU countries possess the human capital, history of technological breakthroughs, free capital markets, and investor rights protections necessary to pose a potential long-term threat to the US economic and technological dominance.

maligninfluenceoperations.substack.com/p/a-foreign-...

If you have tips or suggestions you can submit them anonymously to mio_tips(@)proton(.)me

However, there is at least one major Russian bank that remains only partially sanctioned and still could takeover Gazprombank's role in trade - Rosselkhozbank, Russian Agricultural Bank. It is not subject to OFAC's Directive 2. So unless that is sanctioned soon, the ruble might *technically* recover

3. A minor impact came from the OMV vs. Gazprom arbitration in Austria. OMV will recover 230 million euros in damages by offsetting the claim against invoices for deliveries to Austria ("free" gas). www.reuters.com/business/ene...

2. A large portion of Russia's shadow fleet that allows Russia to bypass the oil price cap was sanctioned by the UK. The fleet supplied Russia with a healthy foreign currency revenue stream and the UK is home to major shipping insurance companies (Jardine, Aon, etc.).

1. Gazprombank became subject to OFAC's Directive 2 under Russian Harmful Foreign Activities Sanctions Directives, which bans transactions with sanctioned entities. Gazprombank serviced not only Russia's energy trade but also other trade with Western counterparts. www.ft.com/content/38a6...