Bloomberg named possible price caps for oil products from Russia, and Russian cryptocurrency exchange clients started buying data to bypass blocking – these and other important news for Friday morning, January 27, in our daily review.

The European Union is studying the possibility of setting a ceiling on the price of Russian oil products, which are usually traded at a premium to crude oil, such as diesel fuel, at $100 per barrel, Bloomberg writes, citing informed sources. The price ceiling for petroleum products that are sold at a discount (such as fuel oil) may be set at $45, the agency writes.

The number of offers of nominal accounts to work on crypto exchanges has increased in the darknet, experts interviewed by Kommersant said. Nikolay Chursin, an employee of the Positive Technologies information security threat analysis group, specifies that the number of offers has doubled compared to the beginning of 2022. Igor Sergienko, director of special services development at RTK-Solar, notes that the demand for nominal accounts is largely due to the fact that in recent months many cryptocurrency exchanges have blocked Russian accounts or prevented withdrawing money to Russian bank cards.

The European Union has proposed a new round of sanctions against Belarus for its support of Russia, Bloomberg writes, citing documents. The proposed measures include restrictions, previously imposed against Russia, including an embargo on imports of key technologies and sanctions against the energy sector, notes the agency.

The Government Commission on Foreign Investments has not agreed on the sale of Vimpelcom (Beeline brand) by Dutch holding Veon to Russian top management, Kommersant writes, citing a source in the Cabinet of Ministers. According to the newspaper’s interlocutors, the government began discussing the resale back in December, with Gazprom (MCX:GAZP), Gazprom-Media Holding, MTS (MCX:MTSS), and Sber (MCX:SBER) seen in these discussions.”

Anglo-Dutch energy company Shell will evaluate the possibility of exiting three electricity retail businesses in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. This is reported by Reuters, citing a company statement. The company has now launched a strategic review of its retail business in these countries to finalize the fate of these businesses in a few months. Shell does not name the exact terms of the “strategic review”.
*** Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***