US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN on Sunday that an embargo on Russian gold exports will strip Moscow of around $19 billion in annual revenue. Pressed over the West’s failure to hurt the Russian economy with sanctions thus far, Blinken predicted that the effects will be seen next year. The US, UK, Canada, and Japan will announce a ban on the import of Russian gold during the G7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany on Sunday, according to a statement from the British government.
Gold is “the second most lucrative export that Russia has, after energy,” Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “It’s about $19 billion per year, and most of that is within the G7 countries. Cutting that off, denying access to about $19 billion of revenue a year, that’s significant.” Blinken's statement was factually incorrect. In reality, Russia's second most valuable export is food. Foreign sales of agriculture products were worth over $37 billion in 2021, according to Moscow. It is unclear whether the rest of the G7 nations will sign on to the ban, with European Council President Charles Michel saying on Sunday that the EU would first need to determine whether it would be “possible to target gold in a manner that would target the Russian economy and not in a manner that would target ourselves.” US President Joe Biden has said that a gold ban would impose “unprecedented costs on Russian President Vladimir Putin,” and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed that it will “strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.” However, both leaders said the same about the multiple rounds of sanctions imposed on Russia by their countries and their EU allies. Yet, while Biden promised in March to “crater” the Russian economy, Moscow is reporting record profits from oil and gas sales, and the Russian ruble currently stands at a seven-year high against both the dollar and the euro. Meanwhile, inflation is at its highest level in 40 years in the EU and the US, and customers on both sides of the Atlantic are paying record high fuel prices. Despite agreeing on a Russian oil embargo last month, the EU is reportedly importing more Russian crude now than at any point over the last two months. Russia will also still have the option to sell its gold to refiners, or to look for new buyers in China, India, or the Middle East, as it has done with its fossil fuels. “The US said that Western sanctions against Russia would devastate its economy but that doesn’t seem to be happening. When are these sanctions going to start having the effect that the West and President Biden has promised?” Tapper asked Blinken.
0 Comments
President Putin: ‘unfriendly countries’ must switch to Ruble Russian President Vladimir Putin has authorized the government, the central bank, and Gazprombank to take the necessary steps to switch all payments for Russian natural gas from “unfriendly states” to rubles starting March 31. The measure targets “member states of the EU and other countries that have introduced restrictions against citizens of the Russian Federation and Russian legal entities,” the mandate published on the Kremlin website reads. Russia will stop shipping natural gas to countries refusing to settle payments in rubles, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. The decision, first announced last week, came as Russia’s oil trade has been left in disarray as importers put orders on hold due to the latest sanctions introduced against Moscow over its military operation in Ukraine.
The conflict in Ukraine and the anti-Russia sanctions that followed have raised concerns of a global economic crisis. Skyrocketing commodity prices are sending the costs of consumer goods, energy, and food ever higher, giving rise to fears of a possible recession in many countries and even hunger in some parts of the world. Russia’s decision to switch payments to its domestic currency has been made in response to the unprecedented penalties imposed by the US and its allies on the country’s financial system. The ruble plummeted to record lows after Western nations and Japan blocked Russia’s access to some of its international reserves. Since last week’s currency-switch announcement, the ruble has reached its strongest level against the US dollar and the euro in nearly a month. A crisis rarely comes alone and the current one certainly does not. How a war amplifies the energy crisis and will lead to higher food prices, declining food production and a greater need for warm clothing. Because oil and gas producers have invested little in new oil and gas extraction with a view to 'getting rid of fossils', they are unable to increase production in order to slow down oil and gas prices, writes the Financial Times. As a result, the green Western policy is pushing up prices even more, as a result of the battle between Russia and NATO for Ukraine. By Thursday morning, the international oil benchmark Brent had risen to $102 a barrel, the highest level since 2014. It later rose to $105; the price has now fallen below $100 again. Insiders stated yesterday morning that the gas price has already risen by more than 40% since the Russian attack, an unprecedented high percentage within a day.
Much less barrels Russia is the world's third largest producer of crude oil and the main supplier of natural gas to Europe. Christyan Malek, head of global energy strategy at JPMorgan, expects Brent to reach $125 in the second quarter of this year. Global spare capacity, usually around 5 million barrels per day, has now fallen to 2.8 million barrels per day. According to Bob McNally, head of Rapidan Energy Group, the disruption from the Russian attack in Ukraine will likely be limited to that portion of the oil and gas transported through Ukraine. But more importantly, he thinks it becomes clear that there will be no interruption in the oil and gas supply. Putin guarantees it, but conditionally. Until that clarity is there, he expects prices to rise. Europe is 40% dependent on gas from Russia. Russia's Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov also said at an energy conference in Qatar on Tuesday that Russia aims to keep its gas flows "uninterrupted." If that fails, there is no country that can take over this gas supply, the Qatari energy minister said at the same conference. After all, as with oil, there was already a shortage on the reserve market. Russia has long refused to supply more gas to Europe than was contractually required. As a result, Europe had to draw on its stocks, which meant that reserves had already dwindled sharply before the invasion of Ukraine. Germany announced last Tuesday that it was halting certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would bypass Ukraine to supply Russian gas directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea. It is not inconceivable that Russia will further restrict the supply of gas in response to this. Putin's power: Energy The rising gas price is a reason for Greenhouse Horticulture Netherlands to urge the government to act quickly. "The longer it takes, the more entrepreneurs get into trouble. Some of them are already eating their bank balance. But eventually all contracts will expire," says Alexander Formsma of Greenhouse Horticulture Netherlands. He also points out that this situation means that horticultural companies no longer have any money left over to become more sustainable. As I wrote before, everyone will notice if Russia turns off the gas tap. Within four weeks we will all be cold. For the time being, we can hope that the editor-in-chief's gamble will come true: it is to be hoped that Russia will indeed 'let us feel it for a while' and will leave it at that. According to the South China Morning Post, China still sees opportunities to get out of the process diplomatically, which started with bloodshed. After all, Europe - which depends on energy imports to keep daily life and industry running - has no way out at the moment. Putin has made it clear that he has the power to drastically disrupt life and has us by the throat. The Collaboration of Ukrainian Nationalists with Nazi GermanyBoth the Ukrainian state and its society have undergone dramatic changes since the beginning of the new millennium. With the “Orange Revolution” in 2004 and even more with the “Revolution of Dignity”(Euromaidan) in the winter of 2013/14, a slow and difficult process of inner liberalization, democratization and modernization took shape that might finally result in the integration of the country into the European Union.
Alongside these remarkable changes, extremely emotional and conflict-laden debates about the historical past and national legacy are also taking place. This often leads to painful retrospection, taking into ac-count that recent Ukrainian history was battered by two World Wars and also 70 years interlocked with the Soviet Communist regime a history full of repression, violence, ethnic conflicts and paternalism. It is the narrative of a repeated national awakening and keen fights for freedom, but also of aggression against vulnerable ethno-cultural minorities in similar circumstances. A Ukrainian feeling of national cohesion arose in the 19th century, firstly in the arts, language and intellectual ideas. Poets like Taras Shevchenko, musicians like Mykola Lyssenko and painters like Oleksandr Murashko planted the seeds of Ukrainian culture and character. As in many other ethno-cultural groups of the centenary, national patriotism also gained traction, along with the vision of an independent Ukrainian state. These efforts have been stunted twice, first of all by external forces in the course of both World Wars (and more than ever in their results.) Moreover, the Ukrainian fight for independence has regrettably twice turned into political and military radicalization, not least at the expense of minorities like the Jews. It is possible to retrace this ambivalence surrounding idolized heroes bravely and somewhat successful fighting for freedom in both World Wars, while at the same time unable to prevent mass crimes committed by their own followers. This is true, for example, in the case of Symon Petljura, the highly esteemed govern-mental head of the short-lived independent Ukraine at the end of World War I, and similarly true in the case of Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Ukrainian na-tionalist organization OUN-B in the 1940s. Petljura was assassinated in Parisin May 1926 by the Jewish activist Salomon Schwarzbart, who avenged his family killed by Petljura troops in the Russian Civil War years before. Bandera was murdered in Munichin 1959 by a Soviet KGB (Комитетгосударственнойбезопас-ности/Committee for State Security) agent. Consequences of challenging NAZI authority Auxiliary police 109, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 201-st Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftant-battalions participated in anti-partisan operations in Ukraine and Belarus. In February — March 1943 50-th Ukrainian Schutzmannschaftant-battalion participated in the large anti-guerrilla action «Winterzauber» (Winter magic) in Belarus, cooperating with several Latvian and 2nd Lithuanian battalion. Schuma-battalions burned down villages suspected in supporting Soviet partisans. ("Gerlach, C. «Kalkulierte Morde» Hamburger Edition, Hamburg, 1999"). All inhabitants of the village Khatyn in Belarus were burnt alive by the Nazis with participation of the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion on 22 March 1943. Waffen-SS Division "Galizien" By April 28, 1943 the German Command had created the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien (1st Ukrainian) manned by 14,000 Ukrainians. The history, composition, and function of the Waffen-SS Galizien are the topic of contentious debate among scholars still today. Some have held that these men volunteered eagerly for war against the Soviets, claiming that as evidence of active support of Nazi Germany: [Williamson, G: "The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror"] while others claim that at least some of them were victims of compulsory conscription as Germany suffered defeats and lost manpower on the eastern front. [cite book | author=Melnyk, Michael | title=To Battle: The Formation and History of the 14. Gallician SS Volunteer Division | publisher=Helion and Company Ltd] Sol Litman of the Simon Wiesenthal Center claims that there are many proven and documented incidents of atrocities and massacres committed by the Waffen-SS Galizien against minorities, particularly Jews during the course of WWII: [cite book | author=Litman, Sol | title=Pure Soldiers or Bloodthirsty Murderers?: The Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division | edition=Hardcover | publisher=Black Rose Books | year=2003| id=ISBN 1551642190] however other authors, including Michael Melnyk, [cite book | author=Melnyk, Michael | title=To Battle: The Formation and History of the 14. Gallician SS Volunteer Division | publisher=Helion and Company Ltd] and Michael O. Logusz [cite book | author=Logusz, Michael | title=Galicia Division: The Waffen-SS 14th grenadier Division 1943-1945 | publisher=Schiffer Publishing] maintain that members of the division fought almost entirely at the front against the Soviet Red Army and defend the unit against the accusations made by Litman and others since the war. Neither the division nor any of its members were ever charged with any war crime. Russia has agreed a 30-year contract to supply gas to China via a new pipeline and will settle the new gas sales in euros, bolstering an energy alliance with Beijing amid Moscow's strained ties with the West over Ukraine and other issues. Gazprom , which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, agreed to supply Chinese state energy major CNPC with 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year, the Russian firm and a Beijing-based industry official said.
First flows through the pipeline, which will connect Russia's Far East region with northeast China, were due to start in two to three years, the source said in comments that were later followed by an announcement of the deal by Gazprom. Russia already sends gas to China via its Power of Siberia pipeline, which began pumping supplies in 2019, and by shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG). It exported 16.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to China in 2021. The Power of Siberia network is not connected to pipelines that send gas to Europe, which has faced surging gas prices due to tight supplies, one of several points of tension with Moscow. Under plans previously drawn up, Russia aimed to supply China with 38 bcm of gas by pipeline by 2025. The new deal, which coincided with a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Beijing Winter Olympics, would add a further 10 bcm, increasing Russian pipeline sales under long-term contracts to China. Gazprom gave few details about the deal in its announcement. Russian gas from its Far East island of Sakhalin will be transported via pipeline across the Japan Sea to northeast China's Heilongjiang province, reaching up to 10 bcm a year around 2026, said the Beijing source, who asked not to be identified. The deal would be settled in euros, the source added, in line with efforts by the two states to diversify away from U.S. dollars. Discussions between the two firms began several years ago after the start-up of Power of Siberia, a 4,000-km (2,500-mile)pipeline sending gas to China. Talks accelerated more recently after Beijing set its 2060 carbon neutral goal, the source said. Lora Smith CARACAS, August 27 -- Venezuela's National Assembly (parliament) controlled by the opposition has declared null and void a new agreement with Russia on military cooperation. The declaration was published on Monday. The document concerns "the agreement on military cooperation between the governments of Venezuela and Russia, signed by defense ministers Vladimir Padrino Lopez and Sergey Shoigu." "This agreement was not considered either by a commission on foreign policy, sovereignty and integration or by parliament, which makes it unconstitutional, and this means that it is null and void," the declaration said. The parliament said that opening a Venezuelan embassy in North Korea was "a violation of the constitution." On August 15, Shoigu and Lopez signed an agreement on reciprocal visits of military ships at the meeting in Moscow. The defense ministers also discussed the situation in Venezuela and issues of bilateral military cooperation. Lora Smith BIARRITZ, August 26 -- G-7 leaders discussed the return to the G-8 format with Russia's participation at a summitin the French city of Biarritz, Kyodo news agency reported, citing sources from Japanese government circles. No details were provided about the content of the interview, and an agency source said the information "will never be disclosed". Earlier, US President Donald Trump agreed to a proposal by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to invite Russia to the G7 summit in 2020 in the US. Vladimir Putin, for his part, said that Russia considered all contacts with the G7 countries useful and did not rule out the resumption of the G8 form. German Chancellor Angela Merkel linked the issue of the resumption of the G-8 with progress in resolving the conflict in Ukraine. The G-7 is an association of economically developed countries that includes the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, France and Japan. In the form of the seven, the club has existed from 1976 to 1997. After Russia's accession, it became known as the G8 Lora Smith WASHINGTON, August 23 -- President of Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer said that this is not the first time US President Donald Trump has brought up the idea of reinstating the G8 format with Russia's participation. There is no possibility of the G8 with Russia's participation being reinstated, president and founder of Eurasia Group Ian Bremmer said on Thursday. He was commenting on recent statements by US President Donald Trump on the need to reinstate the G8 format with Russia's participation. "It's not the first time that [US President Donald] Trump has brought this up actually. He mentioned it during the Canada-hosted G7 as well," Bremmer said. "But the reason for Russia's removal wasn't [former US President Barack] Obama being 'outsmarted' by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, but the response to the annexation of Crimea, which the G7 countries considered, and still consider, illegal. There is no possibility of the G8 being reinstated," he added. "As you may have heard, French President Emmanuel Macron has decided not to even attempt a communique at the end of the summit that will be held on August 24-26 in France's Biarritz - the first time that's happened since the meetings started in 1975. It's a G-zero world," Bremmer noted. The Group of Seven (G7) is an association of industrialized countries that brings together the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States, France and Japan. In 1997, it was renamed the Group of Eight (G8) after Russia joined the association. In 2014, Western countries decided to return to the G7 format after the developments in Ukraine and deterioration of relations with Russia. Lora Smith BERN, August 19 -- Two fighters from Switzerland’s Air Force escorted a plane belonging to the Rossiya Airlines special air carrier en route from Moscow to Marseille for several minutes. On board the Ilyushin-96 liner, were members of the Russian delegation going to France for talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron, including Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, along with a group of journalists. When the plane entered Switzerland’s airspace, two fighters approached it, one on each side at an altitude of 10.6 kilometers. The fighters took turns to flying close to the airliner, at certain moments hovering just several meters away from the liner’s wings and escorted it across Swiss airspace for some time to the border with France, where they turned away. Swiss Air Force jets have approached and escorted Rossiya Airlines aircraft many times in the past. Lora Smith MOSCOW, August 13 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to pay a visit to France on August 19 to discuss Ukraine with French President Emmanuel Macron. Not only the situation in Ukraine is on the agenda. Also the future work in the Normandy format (Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany) will be addressed, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "Indeed, a working visit of the Russian president to France on August 19 is being prepared, this will be a one-day visit," Peskov said. The leaders will focus on bilateral cooperation and economic ties, international issues, namely Ukraine, as well as the prospects of continuing work in the Normandy format, he noted. Peskov has not ruled out that the sides could discuss the repatriation of the remains of a French general, Charles-Etienne Gudin de La Sablonniere, who was killed on the battlefield near Smolensk in 1812. His remains were unearthed this July by a team of archaeologists. "Certainly, if our French vis-a-vis consider it necessary to bring up this issue, I’m sure this issue will be discussed," Peskov said, stressing that Putin and Macron usually have a frank discussion on various issues. The Normandy format negotiations for ironing out the Donbass crisis have been underway since June 2014. The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany gathered in Normandy for the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of D-Day (the landing of allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in 1944) to discuss the settlement of the conflict in Donbass for the first time. Since then, a number of phone conversations and high-level meetings have taken place as well as contacts between the foreign ministers. Lora Smith MOSCOW, August 11 -- Nearly 50,000 Russian opposition activists and their supporters have taken to Moscow’s streets for a fifth consecutive weekend in spite of a government crackdown as support from citizens and celebrities grows across the county. The protests, which demand that Moscow authorities allow independent candidates to appear on the ballot in the city’s upcoming elections, have been the largest wave of demonstrations in Russia since 2011-2012. Independent polling this week said that Moscow residents are more likely to support the protests than oppose them. At least 49,900 people have gathered at the authorized protest on Prospekt Sakharov so far, the White Counter crowd-monitoring NGO said. The rally included performances by the techno duo IC3PEAK and the popular rapper Face. Moscow City Hall had barred the musical performers but organizers said the acts would still take the stage. Ahead of Saturday's protest, masked police searched an office used by opposition activist Lyubov Sobol and took her in for questioning, she wrote on Twitter. "I won't make it to the protest. But you know what to do without me....Russia will be free!" Sobol said. Eight people have been detained so far at the Moscow protest, the OVD-Info police-monitoring website said. Several other Russian cities, including St. Petersburg, are also staging pickets in solidarity with Moscow’s opposition candidates. Eighty-six have been detained at the St. Petersburg rally and 11 were detained in Rostov-on-Don, OVD-Info said. Russia's main election board on Wednesday rejected the appeals of several opposition politicians, including hunger-striking Sobol, to get back on the ballot. In the days since, the opposition has vowed to continue staging protests — authorized or unauthorized — until the Sept. 8 City Duma election. Russian celebrities like popular YouTuber Yury Dud and rapper Oxxxymiron announced they would attend today’s event, calling on their millions of social media followers to join them. Moscow police have detained more than 2,300 people at rallies this summer protesting the candidates' exclusion. While most of those detained were quickly released, authorities accused protesters of using violence against the police. Investigators opened criminal proceedings against several people over what they have called mass civil unrest, an offense punishable with up to eight years in jail. On Friday, senators in Russia’s upper-house Federation Council said they will draft a bill to further restrict the locations where citizens will be allowed to protest. Lora Smith KIEV, August 7 -- Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has told reporters that he held a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Donbass. Russia's Kremlin confirmed that the conversation between the two leaders took place. "This morning I spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin," Zelensky told a briefing following an urgent meeting with security forces, convened after four Ukrainian military were killed in the Donbass operation zone. "I called him on short notice. I said that this is not bringing us closer to peace." Kiev claims the servicemen in Donbass came under fire launched by militias. The Ukrainian president noted that he had asked the Russian leader to exert influence on the other party to "stop the killings." After Wednesday’s telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian president plans to discuss the situation in Donbass with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I will make another phone call from Turkey to President Macron," Zelensky told a news briefing following an emergency meeting with key military and law enforcement officials after the death of four Ukrainian servicemen in the area of the military operation in Donbass. "Also, I plan to contact Chancellor Merkel in the near future to agree on an urgent meeting." Zelensky believes that the Normandy quartet leaders should meet urgently "to look each other in the eye and bring this war to an end." On Tuesday, Zelensky called on the Normandy Four leaders — Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron — to convene a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the death of four Ukrainian servicemen, which Kiev blames on militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. Donetsk has rejected the claims, stressing that the incident had occurred way beyond the contact line and not within the militias’ striking range. On August 7-8, Zelensky is to pay a visit to Turkey, where he will hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and representatives of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar communities. Lora Smith MOSCOW, July 21 -- More than 22,000 people packed a Moscow square Saturday to demand free and fair local polls, incensed by the authorities' refusal to put popular opposition candidates on the ballot. Staging their largest protest in years, opposition leaders such as President Vladimir Putin's top opponent Alexei Navalny and ordinary Muscovites rallied after authorities refused to register independent candidates seeking to contest the September vote for the capital's parliament. "This is my city!" the crowd chanted during the two-hour-long sanctioned rally."We will show them this is a dangerous game," Navalny bellowed from a stage. "We should fight for our candidates," he said as the huge crowd cheered and waved Russian flags. The 43-year-old threatened an even bigger rally next Saturday, near the mayor's office, unless Moscow's authorities register a new crop of popular politicians including Ilya Yashin and Lyubov Sobol within seven days. After the rally, 16 independent candidates issued a joint statement demanding access to the ballot and accusing Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin of sparking a "political crisis" in the city of some 15 million. Speaking at the rally, Navalny ally Sobol, who has been on a hunger strike for a week to protest the authorities' refusal to allow her to run, vowed to keep up the fight. "I am sure that we will win," said the visibly fatigued 31-year-old lawyer, propped up by an ally on stage. Many ordinary Russians have slammed what they called the blatant impunity of officials, saying people's patience was running thin. "We are angry at the lawlessness," Alexander Polovinkin, a 21-year-old student. Police detained a handful of protesters, said the OVD-Info monitor, adding one of them had his arm broken.Many protesters took direct aim at the 66-year-old Putin, who has brooked no dissent during his two decades in power. "Putin lies," said one placard. "Stop lying to us," read another one. Opposition candidate Ilya Yashin, who is a local councillor, said Putin must go. "I've lived half my life under Putin. I've had enough," the 36-year-old said. Fellow opposition contender Dmitry Gudkov, who was also disqualified, accused the authorities of stealing not only people's votes but their very future. "We've been living in an occupied country for the past 20 years," he said. White Counter, an NGO that tracks participation in protest rallies, said about 22,500 people took part in Saturday's rally. Navalny said it was the largest rally since 2012 when tens of thousands protested election fraud during parliamentary polls. Police, which downplay turnout at opposition rallies, said 12,000 turned up. Observers said that never before have Muscovites turned up in such great numbers to demand access for their candidates in local elections. Opposition politicians fought tooth and nail to get on the ballot paper as they seek to capitalise on Putin's falling approval ratings and anger over declining living standards and unchecked corruption. They were made to jump through countless hoops, and each had to collect roughly 5,000 signatures to be eligible. Electoral authorities this week still refused to register the opposition candidates, accusing them of faking some of the signatures. Critics said some of the officials' reasoning bordered on the absurd. The Kremlin dismissed the opposition's complaints, but many Russians are furious at what they perceive as electoral interference. The opposition candidates staged smaller daily rallies throughout the week. Many have also taken to social media in recent days to post messages or videos to prove they were not "dead souls." At Saturday's rally, some protesters waved their passports in the air, chanting "We have come!" Greg Yudin, a lecturer at the Higher School of Economics, said he and many other Muscovites discovered that their signatures were declared fake. "All of us are ghosts. We are the nobodies," he said on Facebook this week. Observer Kirill Rogov said the candidates' exclusion was "one of the largest frauds in Russia's electoral history". "We are witnessing a major large-scale crime," he wrote on his blog. Some 7.2 million Muscovites are eligible to elect 45 lawmakers to the local parliament, currently dominated by the United Russia ruling party. Lora Smith MOSCOW, July 19 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed concern over the confrontation between the United States and Iran. He said this to US director Oliver Stone in an interview published on the official Kremlin website on Friday. "This worries us because this is happening near our borders. This may destabilize the situation around Iran, affect some countries with which we have very close relations, causing additional refugee flows on a large scale plus substantially damage the world economy as well as the global energy sector," Putin said. "We would welcome any improvement when it comes to relations between the US and Iran. A simple escalation of tension will not be advantageous for anyone. It seems to me that this is also the case with the US," he added. The United States withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal on 8 May 2018 and imposed economic sanctions on Tehran's oil exports. One year later, on 8 May 2019, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced Iran's suspension of some commitments in the framework of the nuclear deal and gave other participants in the deal two months to return to its implementation. The situation around Iran further deteriorated after the June 13 incident in the Strait of Hormuz when two tankers caught fire after presumable attacks. The United States placed responsibility for the incident on Iran. The United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia supported these accusations. Teheran rejects these allegations. ANKARA, July 12 -- Turkey’s Defense Ministry has posted photos of the first batch of the Russian-made S-400 missile system’s equipment delivered to the country. Official photos of the Turkish Defense Ministry show several prime movers and a transporter-loader of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system. Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced on Friday that the first batch of components has been delivered to the Murted Air Base near Ankara under the S-400 deal. Activities to deliver Russia’s S-400 air defense systems to Turkey scheduled for Friday are over, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said. "According to the plan, the third [Russian] plane has landed, the activities scheduled for today are over. The process will continue in the coming days," Anadolu Agency quotes him as saying. The minister noted that "in parallel with S-400 supplies, work to train personnel to install and operate these systems will continue in Turkey and Russia." He added that Ankara "continued to look into the feasibility of purchasing US Patriot missile systems." According to the Turkish Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, the remaining components will be delivered in the near future. S-400 deal The first reports about the talks between Russia and Turkey on the deliveries of S-400 air defense missile systems came in November 2016. In September 2017, Russia confirmed that that the relevant contract had been signed. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar earlier said that the deployment of S-400 surface-to-air missile systems could begin in October 2019. In December 2017, CEO of Russia’s state hi-tech corporation Rostec Sergei Chemezov noted that the S-400 deal was worth $2.5 bln. The United States has been making attempts to prevent Turkey from purchasing Russia's S-400 missile systems. Washington earlier warned that it might deny Turkey the purchase of F-35 fighter-bombers, if Ankara pressed ahead with the S-400 deal. The S-400 ‘Triumf’ is the most advanced long-range air defense missile system that went into service in Russia in 2007. It is designed to destroy aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, including medium-range missiles, and can also be used against ground installations. The S-400 can engage targets at a distance of 400 km and at an altitude of up to 30 km. Author: Lora Smith |
Thank you for choosing to make a difference through your donation. We appreciate your support.
This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies. Opt Out of CookiesCategories
All
Archives
April 2024
|