Italy has joined countries like Sweden, Germany, Belgium, to close its airspace to Russia as Western nations ramp up punishments against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.
The country’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio made this known via social media, where he called on all EU countries to follow suit.
“I will support a common action of all EU countries: that the whole EU closes its airspace to Russia”, he said.
No less than two of China’s largest state-owned banks have restricted financing meant for the purchase of Russian goods.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.’s offshore units stopped issuing U.S. dollar-denominated letters of credit for purchases of physical Russian commodities ready for export, Bloomberg report.
This act is said consequently weaken the economic power of Moscow.
A source told the publication that Bank of China Ltd has also curbed financing for Russian commodities based on its own risk assessment.
The boycott has highlighted China’s close relation with Russia as they are their main supply of energy. However Russia’s economic weight pales in comparison to Western nations that buy many of China’s exports and control its access to the dollar-dominated international financial system.
ICBC’s Moscow branch alone had close to $1 billion of assets by the end of 2020 and offered an extensive range of yuan-denominated services, including deposits, lending, cross-border settlement and trade finance.
