Malta, along with all EU member states, declared ‘hostile nation’ by Russia

Malta joins a list of countries declared “hostile nations” in a decree published by the Russian Government, in the wake of its invasion and war against Ukraine.

Following the invasion, the EU, inclusive of Malta, introduced sweeping sanctions intended to cripple the Russian economy.

As part of its response, Russia has declared that all EU member states, the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Japan, Ukraine and Taiwan as hostile nations.

The decree was published on Monday (today), and provides guidance for fulfilling obligations to “certain foreign creditors”.

“..Russian citizens and companies, the state itself, its regions and municipalities that have foreign exchange obligations to foreign creditors from the list of unfriendly countries will be able to pay them in rubles. 

“To do this, the debtor can ask a Russian bank to create a special ruble account “C” in the name of a foreign creditor and transfer payments to it in ruble equivalent at the exchange rate of the Central Bank on the date of payment.

“The new temporary procedure applies to payments exceeding 10 million rubles per month (or a similar amount in foreign currency).”

Since sweeping sanctions were introduced against Russia, not just by the EU but by the USA, UK and others, the ruble has tanked. Over the weekend, it deteriorated further after the US said it was speaking to allies about the possibility of banning Russian oil importation.

Currently, €1 is equivalent to 164.66 rubles. For context, at the start of February, €1 was equivalent to around 85 rubles, practically halving in value against the euro in the space of a month.