内容摘要：“I think it was. I think [it] was an important thing,” he added. “I think it was a necessary thing, and I think it will have a good effect in the future.”

“I think it was. I think [it] was an important thing,” he added. “I think it was a necessary thing, and I think it will have a good effect in the future.”

At least initially, imports took a considerable hit.According to estimates by Brugel, the value of all imported goods fell by half in the first four months after the invasion compared with the four months prior.

But since then, imports have made up much of that lost ground. For all of 2022, imports fell by only 8 percent, according to Russia’s central bank, although independent researchers have estimated a sharper decline of 15-16 percent.In 2023, imports reached 99.7 percent of pre-war levels, according to the Russian central bank.The Russian economy’s unexpected resilience has been due, in part, to alternative supply chains.

In late March 2022, as the scale of the corporate exodus from Russia became clear, Moscow legalised parallel imports - the import of products without the permission of the trademark owner.Parallel imports are not banned under international law and are allowed by some countries for certain goods, including Japan and the United Kingdom.

“More commonly, it is used to ensure supply of essential medicines but here, Russia has expanded its lists to more commonplace consumer goods”, Justine Nolan, the director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney, told Al Jazeera.

The case of Apple, whose products in many cases fall under Western sanctions, provides a typical example of how Russia’s parallel imports regime works in practice.has pushed what remains of its pre-war population of more than two million to the point of famine, international agencies, including the United Nations, have warned.

At the same time as Israel’s war on Gaza has intensified, so too have its actions in the West Bank. Under the guise of another military operation, the Israeli army has occupied and levelled large parts of the occupied territorydisplacing a reported 40,000

of its inhabitants as it establishes its own military network there.On Thursday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, alongside Smotrich, who as finance minister enjoys significant control over the West Bank, announced the establishment of a further 22 Israeli settlements, all in defiance of international law.