Russia
Nato agrees 'fundamental shift' to counter Russia
Security alliance’s leaders agree a big increase in troop deployments on its Eastern Flank, more help for Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression, and a new Strategic Concept.
bneGREEN: Arctic in meltdown
The Arctic is now heating up seven times faster than the rest of the world, with the region’s ice in danger of melting completely by 2050.
MOSCOW BLOG: Sanctions hit a brick wall
The world is being divided into two: the West vs Russia and the nonaligned countries. The race to shore up these new relations is on. But the West has run out of one-way sanctions that hurt Russia but do little damage to the West.
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EXPLAINER: how a price cap on Russian oil might work
Europe is scrambling to find alternatives to Russian crude oil, natural gas and coal. But the fact remains that despite recent cuts in the amount that the EU buys from Russia, Moscow’s revenues from hydrocarbon exports still surged 40% this year.
Kazakhstan: Sanctions likely behind fresh delay at new Baikonur launchpad
Russian space chief Dmitri Rogozin has indicated that developers of a craft being designed for the pad will have to work around sanctions.
Europe’s gas storage on track to meet 80% full by start of heating season
Europe’s gas storage tanks were 58.23% full as of June 26 and are still on course to hit the EU target of 80% full by October 1, the traditional start of the heating season, despite Russian cuts in gas flows to Europe this month.
Russia catches a nasty dose of the Dutch Disease
Russia has caught a bad case of the Dutch Disease, an economic ailment that sends the value of a currency soaring well beyond what it should be and smothers the rest of the economy.
Bulgaria expels 70 Russian diplomats
Mass expulsion is unprecedented for Bulgaria, which until recently was seen as one of Russia’s most loyal allies in the EU.
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Turkey drops opposition to Sweden, Finland joining Nato
Big boost for Western defence bloc as Madrid summit gets underway, with member states seeking to demonstrate unmistakable unity to Kremlin while the Ukraine-Russia war continues to rage.
ASH: Turkey playing a delicate balancing act between Ukraine, Russia and NATO
Turks are rightly proud of the success of Bayraktar drones in the conflict in Ukraine and Ukraine was grateful, but now they are not so sure as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plays both side of the fence.
EWDN: How Russian game developers are hit by the shockwave of war
Russia’s war on Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions seem to have put the once-thriving Russian and Belarusian gaming industries in serious trouble, East West Digital News reports.
Russia denies defaulting on $100mn bond coupon payment
Russia denied that it had defaulted on a $100mn bond payment, saying that the money had been sent to bond holders, in dollars, in May but it was not the Kremlin’s fault if the cash was not distributed to bondholders.
Ukraine's Zelenskiy calls on the US to recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism
Following a horrific Russian missile attack on a packed shopping mall in Ukraine's industrial city of Kremenchuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on the West to designate Russia a state sponsor of terror.
At least a dozen killed in shopping mall bombing as Zelenskiy urges G7 leaders to impose more sanctions
At least 10 people were killed and more than three dozen injured after Russian missiles slammed into a packed supermarket in the middle of the day in Ukraine’s industrial city of Kremenchuk on June 27.
Tug of war emerging over what role Iran (and its oil) should play in new world order
France calls for efforts to get Iranian oil back on the market as Tehran re-enters nuclear deal talks, Tehran says it has applied to join BRICS and Israel secretly discusses defence coordination against Iran with Saudi Arabia.
HESS: West wins the default battle but the economic war must go on
The Russian Federation has defaulted on its debts, failing to pay interest on a pair of Eurobonds within their 30-day grace period that ended on 26 June – another blow struck against Russia in an escalating economic war.
NEMETHY: Is the US Fed playing with the wrong levers?
Many economists are of the opinion that the US Fed has had a pretty abysmal track record in forecasting inflation during past years. It first deliberately changed policy to allow inflation to run hot at higher than 2%, but now it's too high.
Gold and an energy price cap on G7 summit agenda
Gold and a price cap on oil are among the items on the agenda as G7 leaders gathered in Bavaria in Germany to consider a seventh package of sanctions on Russia.
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Russia promises to give Belarus missile systems with nuclear capabilities within months
The meeting between self-proclaimed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 25 brought the expected results of escalated tensions with the West and Ukraine.
'Massive' Russian bombardment of Ukraine from Belarusian territory
On June 25, Ukrainian intelligence reported that Ukraine had come under “massive” bombardment by Russian forces firing from Belarusian territory.
