Malaysian Airlines flight MH17: Ukraine crash reignites crisis July 17, 2014 A passenger jet was shot down over Ukraine near the Russian border yesterday, killing around 300 people and straining the already tense geopolitical situation. Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur lost contact with the ground at around 2:15pm GMT. Six of the passengers killed are believed to have been British, and 80 [...]
How the West should best the crumbling Kremlin March 4, 2014 AN UNLIKELY source holds the key to how the West should respond to Russia’s takeover of the Crimea. While researching for my book Ethical Realism (which I co-wrote with the rightly celebrated Anatol Lieven), I came across a startling fact. Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the US’s best-known twentieth-century political thinkers, was also the author of [...]
The sanction spiral: Russia and Europe may fall into recession July 21, 2014 A trade “tit-for-tat” would hit both sides extremely hard EVEN before the tragic Malaysia Airlines plane crash in Ukraine last Thursday (allegedly the work of Moscow-backed separatists), Russia was already reeling from the US’s tightening of the screws. The country’s Micex stock index tumbled 2.3 per cent to 1,440.63 last week after news that financial [...]
BP share price expected to rise as company beats earnings expectations July 29, 2014 BP has seen its underlying earnings up 34 per cent on last year, thanks in part to a payout from an oil deal with Rosneft. Underlying earnings for the second quarter came in at $3.6bn, 34 per cent higher than last year and up from the $3.4bn that an analyst poll by Bloomberg had suggested. UPDATE: BP [...]
Russia forced to pay $50bn to Yukos shareholders for expropriating oil assets July 28, 2014 As Putin's international image slips to a new nadir over Ukraine, Russia has been ordered by the Hague's arbitration court to repay $50bn to shareholders in defunct oil company Yukos. The Russian state had expropriated the assets of Yukos, forcing the company into bankruptcy. A $50bn hit will come as a large blow to the former-soviet [...]
Deadline for Ukraine gas debt arrives as talks fail to bear fruit June 16, 2014 THE DEADLINE for Ukraine’s $1.95bn (£1.15bn) gas bill falls today, after talks that were due to continue yesterday were unexpectedly stalled. The Ukrainian government’s debts to Gazprom, the energy giant in which the Russian government holds a majority stake, were due to be paid this morning. Talks mediated by European Union energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger [...]
Putin has exposed a chilling truth about the West: It no longer exists July 22, 2014 Somehow Europe’s leaders have managed to undershoot even my subterranean expectations. Ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting yesterday to plan a common response to the Malaysia Airlines atrocity, leaks made it all too clear that this whole process would not amount to much. But the results – even for the EU – are almost comically [...]
China and BP sign £11.8bn gas trade deal June 17, 2014 BP yesterday confirmed a £11.78bn deal to supply the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) with 20 years’ worth of liquified natural gas (LNG). BP chief executive Bob Dudley said it was “a fair price for them and a fair price for us” in a deal that coincides with the state visit to the UK [...]
Rouble firms on Ukraine hopes June 24, 2014 THE RUSSIAN rouble shot up against the dollar yesterday, reaching its highest level since January, as Moscow gave stronger indications that the conflict in Ukraine would be de-escalated. Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the country’s legislators yesterday to rescind permission he had been previously granted to intervene militarily in Ukraine. The dollar dropped below the [...]
Why Ukraine’s free trade agreement with EU puts all eyes on Moscow June 27, 2014 Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia have signed landmark free-trade pacts with European leaders this morning, binding the former Soviet states closer to the west. The agreement slashes import tariffs between the countries and the European Union and is considered a watershed moment for the region: a marked shift away from Russian influence and Moscow's proposals to [...]