GENEVA: As boycotts and bans continued to be announced over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, numerous diplomats walked out on Tuesday when Russian foreign minister addressed the UN Human Rights Council.

From closed airspace to frozen assets, meanwhile, Western countries announced increasingly severe economic sanctions against President Vladimir Putin, his relatives and inner circle — and on the Russian economy. During the meeting of the UN human rights panel, diplomats filed out of the room when Sergei Lavrov’s pre-recorded video message began to be played.

“Thank you very much for this wonderful show of support to Ukrainians who are fighting for their independence,” Ukrainian Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko, who led the walkout, told the crowd gathered around a large Ukrainian flag outside the chamber.

“Any invasion constitutes a violation of human rights... massive violations and civilian losses,” French Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said.

“It is important that the Human Rights Council shows with this walkout that it is united with Ukraine and with the people of Ukraine.”

The fresh walkout came less than an hour after diplomats all but emptied a nearby room at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva when Lavrov’s video speech was aired to the Conference on Disarmament, a body created in 1979 to try to stem the Cold War arms race.

Russia’s financial sector

More than any other area, the West has targeted Russia’s financial sector to limit the country’s capacity to fund the war. In the latest example, London decided to freeze the assets of all Russian banks in Britain. In another major blow to the Russian financial system, the country’s main banks have been excluded from the SWIFT messaging system, which allows banks to communicate rapidly and securely about transactions. The United States and European Union have gone even further by directly targeting Russia’s central bank, with a ban on all transactions with the bank. The sanction effectively freezes the assets held by the central bank in the United States, limiting its ability to use its large foreign exchange reserves to buy rubles and support the value of its currency.

Canada and Japan have announced a similar ban. The sanctions on the Russian financial sector are already being felt. Notably, there has been a dramatic decline in the value of the ruble, which has forced the Russian central bank to almost double its key interest rate, and threatens to bankrupt the European subsidiary of Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender.

Top conductor fired

One of Germany’s top orchestras fired Russian maestro and Kremlin loyalist, Valery Gergiev, as its chief conductor on Tuesday after he failed to denounce the invasion. “With immediate effect, there will be no further concerts by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under his direction,” Munich mayor Dieter Reiter said in a statement. The dismissal is the latest blow for the 68-year-old, who is considered one of the world’s greatest conductors. But famously hard-working Gergiev, who clocks up an average of 275 concerts per year, has come under pressure from arts institutions around Europe since Russia attacked Ukraine last week, and has already been dropped from a slew of prestigious concerts.

Putin’s ‘friend’

French actor Gerard Depardieu, a friend of President Putin, came out against the war in Ukraine and called for negotiations.

“Russia and Ukraine have always been brother countries,” the 73-year-old film star said in a phone call. “I am against this fratricidal war. I say ‘stop the weapons and negotiate’,” Depardieu said.

In 2013, he sparked a huge outcry by leaving France and taking Russian nationality in protest at a proposed tax hike on the rich in his homeland. Putin treated him to a dinner to present him with his new citizenship and Depardieu was subsequently full of praise for the strongman.

Luxury yachts

A luxury yacht belonging to a US-sanctioned Russian billionaire reached the Maldives, officials said, with more Russian-owned boats reportedly headed to the Indian Ocean archipelago seeking safe haven from possible asset seizures. Multiple international sanctions have been imposed on Russia, raising the prospect of confiscation of yachts belonging to its billionaires, several of whom are close to President Putin.

The state-run Maldives Ports Limited confirmed that the pleasure craft Clio, holding the Inter­national Maritime Orga­nisation registration 9312535, dropped anchor near the capital Male. A CNBC report said at least two other vessels owned by Russian oligarchs were heading to the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the United States.

Published in Dawn, March 2nd, 2022