Ankara continues to quietly permit defence sales to Kyiv despite attempting to serve as a neutral mediator in the conflict with Russia.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global Russia Services PMI Business Activity Index registered an extremely strong 55.4 in September, but was down slightly from 57.6 in August.
The European Union has voted through a new multi-year budget for 2021-2027 that locks in €50bn of funds for Ukraine, but new US spending bill excludes Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 fragmented major commodity markets. Countries have since restricted trade in commodities, with a more than twofold increase in new policy measures relative to 2021.
At least five Ghanaians linked to Russia-backed mercenary group Wagner have been arrested for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government.
The Kremlin called for calm as the ruble fell below the psychologically important RUB100 to the dollar mark for the second time this year on October 3.
France is emerging as a potential new defence ally and arms supplier for Armenia, as Yerevan’s relations with Russia continue to deteriorate.
Kremlin had said it would see the ratification as an “extremely hostile” move towards Russia.
The seas are the temperature of bath water and the land is baking. This year the rise the global temperature in June already passed the 1.5C limit compared to the 1850-1900 base set in the Paris Accords as the upper limit for global warming.
Russia’s banking sector put in another strong month in August, reporting profits of RUB353bn ($3.4bn), its best monthly result this year, with a return on equity of approximately 32% on an annual basis.
Sanctions on Russia have failed to cut the Kremlin off from the export revenues from oil and raw materials that are being used to fund the war in Ukraine, but they have bled the country of hundreds of billions of dollars – indirectly.
Ukraine hosted an international defence industry conference in Kyiv on September 30. The country hopes to attract international arms manufacturers and make Ukraine a “large military production hub" to break the stalemate on the battlefield.
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global Russia Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index PMI was up to 54.5 in September from 52.7 in August, the sharpest improvement in operating conditions since January 2017.
In a move to stabilise domestic fuel prices, Russia announced a snap ban on diesel and gasoline exports on September 21, amplifying the strain on an already tight global fuel market and remaking the global supply chains.
After a horrendous start to the year with excruciating new oil sanctions that led to the largest January deficit on record, the Kremlin is starting to sound increasingly optimistic about the health of the Russian economy by the end of the year.
US steel company Nucor and Helion Energy plan to develop a 500-MWe nuclear fusion plant at one of Nucor’s steel manufacturing plants.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed a peace deal was reached with Ukraine last April, saying all the points were initialled before the deal was abandoned under Western pressure in his “Empire of Lies” speech at the UN on September 23.
“By launching a military offensive in Nagorny Karabakh, President Aliyev forfeited the trust of Europeans. Azerbaijan’s status as a transport hub cannot be a reason for the EU to go soft on Baku,” says scholar Thomas de Waal.
PM Pashinyan accused of “unacceptable outbursts” in describing security arrangement with Russia as “not effective” for national interests in wake of defeat of Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic-Armenians by Azerbaijan.
Over the last quarter of a century, the Russian economy has experienced a roller coaster ride: it has seen both rapid growth in the 2000s and the failures of 1998 and 2008, not to mention the stagnation of the 2010s.