What did 12 July 2024 show about pressure on Russia?
A look back at how border, sanctions and security decisions around 12 July 2024 reflected the widening international response to the war.
What did the diplomatic and legislative record around 12 July 2024 say about how far pressure on Russia had spread? Taken together, the day's developments and those just before it pointed in several directions at once.
On 12 July 2024, the Parliament of Finland passed a law allowing border guards to restrict trafficked asylum seekers from crossing the Finland–Russia border. The measure sat within the wider story of Finland–Russia relations and of Russian emigration during the invasion of Ukraine.
That emigration had been large. Estimates later summarised in background reporting put the number of Russian citizens and residents who left Russia at about 900,000 by early October 2022. The figure includes economic migrants, conscientious objectors and some political refugees. Many later returned, citing hostility and discrimination, difficulty with legalisation, and trouble finding stable work. More than 70% of emigrants said they feared repression by the Russian government.
Alliance and sanctions
Two days earlier, on 10 July 2024, all 32 NATO member states approved a statement at the Washington summit classifying China as a "decisive enabler" of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, citing its "no-limits" economic and political partnership with Russia.
The same day, Bloomberg reported that Saudi Arabia had warned the G7 earlier in the year that it would sell off Eurobonds and French bonds if the G7 went ahead with seizing US$280 billion in frozen Russian assets to give to Ukraine. The report showed how contested the question of those assets remained.
The war continued
The war itself did not pause for diplomacy. On 10 July 2024, Russian drone and missile attacks on a port in southern Odesa Oblast killed two Ukrainians. The strikes damaged port infrastructure, an energy facility and a civilian ship.
Seen from the vantage point of 12 July 2024, these items form an uneven picture: a neighbouring state tightening control at its border, an alliance naming a third country as an enabler of the invasion, a warning over the use of frozen assets, and continuing strikes on Ukrainian territory.
