Geopolitics

17/05/2022

Italy's largest oil and gas company ENI is ready to comply with Russia's requirements to open a Gazprombank account for transactions in rubles

16/05/2022

Sending arms to Ukraine doesn’t make Berlin ‘a party to the war’ - German Federal Minister of Justice

16/05/2022

'Turkish people' opposed to Finland, Sweden NATO membership - Turkish FM Mevlut Cavusoglu

16/05/2022

Key takeaways from UN Security Council meeting on US biolabs in Ukraine (15.5.):

1. The US refuses to explain its engagement in military bio activities in Ukraine. Keeps shrugging off several hundred pages of evidence. “These are all lies and Russia’s propaganda, and we are good guys because it can’t be otherwise”. Not a word on the point of discussion.

2. Western delegations are praising the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and calling on us to make use of its mechanisms. They fail to mention however that it is the US who is blocking the elaboration of BWC verification mechanism. Such a hypocricy!

3. The US refuses to explain why it doesn’t want an effective international verification mechanism for bio weapons. Why act like this unless you are trying to conceal something? Why does Washington position itself above the international law? American exceptionalism at its best.

Main conclusion: we have definitely hit their soft spot. It’s clear for any unbiased observer that they are obscuring the issue.

16/05/2022

It will be hard for Ukraine’s economy to sustain a long war

The World Bank has predicted (https://www.economist.com/europe/it-will-be-hard-for-ukraines-economy-to-sustain-a-long-war/21809222) that Ukraine’s GDP will shrink by perhaps 45% in 2022. Customs revenues, a significant part of the government’s tax take, have crashed to around a quarter of their pre-war level thanks to lower imports and the suspension of many duties. Military salaries are another big burden. It all adds up to a financing gap of around $5bn every month, estimates Serhiy Marchenko, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine in an interview with “The Economist.” That is roughly 5% of Ukraine’s depleted GDP for every month that the war goes on

💁‍♂️Marchenko says, he spends most of his day, lobbying foreign governments for help. America is where he has the highest hopes. Most of the expected money will be for arms, but at least $8.5bn is for economic support. “It’s good news, but what will the American package look like, and when will it arrive? We don’t know.”

The IMF has helped as well. It has encouraged America and other countries to...

16/05/2022

The head of the largest faction of the European Parliament threatened Turkey with isolation if it blocks Finland's accession to NATO

Passions about the Finns have started: the application to NATO has not been officially seen yet, but various players are already hammering out preferences, taking advantage of the need of Washington and Brussels to quickly sign off on the expansion of the Alliance

Officially, Istanbul is outraged that the Swedes and Finns are cooperating with the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party

(https://t.me/theriotimes/2587)Meanwhile, the British are paving the way for a merger of NATO and AUCUS - to share responsibility for maintaining Anglo-Saxon hegemony in the Pacific with the Europeans. The conditions are being created for a split in the Alliance

16/05/2022

The golden era of cheap food in Britain is coming to an end

The former head of the second largest retail chain in Britain Sainsbury's Justin King said that citizens of the country should prepare for high food prices in the long term, and the government should think about providing benefits, writes The Guardian

(https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/13/golden-era-cheap-food-sainsburys-boss-justin-king-benefits-households)King noted that many families simply would not have extra money to buy groceries. He suggested that it would take "extraordinary amounts" of money for the government to target people. King cited the £20-a-week universal credit increase imposed by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic

"Perhaps the golden era is behind us. We have never before spent less on groceries than we do now, and the decline has been long and smooth. So I suspect that food spending will rise in the long run. Historically, it won't be much, but it will still require adjustments to the family budget," King reported

Prime Minister Johnson has ordered the British government to lay off more than 90,000 civil servants.

16/05/2022

36.8% - Eurozone industrial inflation

In March 2022, industrial producer prices rose 36.8% year-on-year in the Eurozone, Eurostat reported

104.1% was a sharp jump in industrial producer prices in the energy sector due to anti-Russian sanctions. This was a major contributor to record industrial inflation. Producer prices for intermediate goods were up 22.6%, 8.7% for consumer durables

Record industrial inflation for Eurozone countries was:
🇮🇪Ireland - 106.1%
🇷🇴Romania - 67.6%
🇩🇰Denmark - 62%
🇧🇪Belgium - 50.4%
🇪🇸Spain - 46,6%
🇮🇹Italy - 46.5%
🇳🇱Netherlands - 37.2%
🇩🇪Germany - 30.7%
🇦🇹Austria - 27.9%
🇫🇷France - 26.5%

16/05/2022

Head of the U.S. Oil and Gas Association: The country is in the worst energy crisis in 50 years

U.S. Oil and Gas Association head Tim Stewart said the energy crisis America (https://www.foxnews.com/media/u-s-oil-gas-association-president-country-facing-most-challenging-energy-crisis-50-years) is currently facing may be the worst in 50 years, and the Biden administration has "no strategy" to solve it
"We are in the greatest, probably the most difficult energy crisis in 50 years," Stewart stressed, "diesel and gasoline prices are at an all-time high and stocks are at an all-time low. And frankly, all of the actions that the Biden administration is taking are counterproductive"

16/05/2022

Sanctions: Opportunity in Disguise - RT Documentaries

Since the beginning of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the country has been subjected to thousands of sanctions from Europe and the US. With international banking transactions suspended and supply chains disrupted, Russian businesses had to regroup and look for new ways to keep functioning. Many succeeded in finding new ways to organise their operations; some even saw sanctions as a blessing in disguise since they helped become less dependent on foreign resources and technology.

Some companies had the experience of surviving a crisis. A footwear production company in Dagestan survived 2008 and 2014 and even expanded its operations. So did another company, a dairy in the city of Vladimir owned by a British farmer John Kapiski. In 2014, when many foreign dairy exports were banned, they managed to open a cheese-making facility and produce 40 types of cheese, butter and yoghurt.

16/05/2022

Putin on Finland & Sweden joining NATO: Russia has no issue with these countries, their entry does not create a threat - but it will cause a response

16/05/2022

Dollar falls below 63 rubles on Moscow Exchange

16/05/2022

Canadian authorities want to export grain from Ukraine in exchange for further "aid"

Canada is ready to become the guardian of global food security in Europe. For this purpose, the official Ottawa offered to export grain from Ukraine at any time through the nearest accessible ports in the Black Sea. This became known during the discussion of the results of a meeting of foreign ministers of G7 countries in Germany

It was necessary to think about the global famine in Europe after 25 million tons of grain "stuck" in Ukraine because of problems with infrastructure and "blocked" ports of the Black Sea. At the same time, the UN called on Putin to make the ports open if "he [the Russian president] has a heart for the rest of the world

Biden did not appreciate Europe's desire to "get" grain from Ukraine by any means. The American president offered the EU resources from the United States. But this had no effect on the situation. It is worth mentioning that Ukraine, in exchange for food, is counting on

16/05/2022

Sweden has formally decided to apply for NATO membership. The request to join the alliance marks a historic shift for the Scandinavian state.

16/05/2022

Israel To Test A.I. Floating Sun-Tracking System

According to the statement, the solar pilot project will be carried out in collaboration with the Israeli company Xfloat, which developed the system, and the Mekorot national water company.

While floating on reservoir water, this photovoltaic system is designed to move and track the sun. According to Xfloat, it is based on machine learning capabilities and continuous refining of rich data acquisition to optimize performance.

According to the Ministry and the IIA, the system has a high power generation capacity and can withstand environmental changes and extreme weather.

The project is part of a national program in which the IIA selected four Israeli startup companies to test innovative technologies at government sites with up to 50% state support.

Other technologies chosen include an automated bus terminal management platform, online sign language translation on trains, and AI drone navigation without GPS. (https://insiderpaper.com/us-accuses-russia-of-meddling-with-gps-satellite-signals-in-ukraine/)

14/05/2022

Europe faces unprecedented gas crisis and next winter looks set to be brutal

Private households and industry would suffer enormously, and many companies might even have to shut down production. Entire industrial sites in Europe would collapse within a few months because European politicians prefer to sacrifice them for ideological reasons.

https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/modern-day-censorship/europe-faces-unprecedented-gas-crisis-and-next-winter-looks-set-to-be-brutal/

14/05/2022

After Sri Lanka, there are also fierce protests in Iran about the rise in food prices. People worldwide are hungry and very angry with the political elite.

14/05/2022

Russia Set to Reap Largest-Ever Wheat Harvest

Russia is expecting a bumper crop year, including a record wheat harvest.

“A good harvest is expected this year. According to experts grain harvest can reach 130 million tons, including 87 million tons of wheat, this can become a record in the entire history of Russia,” said Putin.

Russian President blamed the western elites for the imminent threat of famine for a number of countries and stressed that the large grain harvest will allow Russia to increase supplies to the global food market.

14/05/2022

Turkey is closely watching plans for the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, and cannot yet give a positive assessment of the situation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says.

NATO countries can potentially veto the accession of new members, as Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has recently vowed to do in relation to Finland and Sweden.

14/05/2022

India has successfully test-fired the extended range version of the BrahMos missile from the Su-30 MKI aircraft for the first time, thus providing the country's armed forces with the opportunity to carry out long-range high-precision strikes, the Indian Defense Ministry says.

14/05/2022

Russia’s ruble tops Bloomberg's 2022 best-performing currency list, soaring more than 11% against the US dollar since the beginning of the year, and surpassing the Brazilian real’s 9% rise, the news agency reports, citing its currency tracking data.

14/05/2022

The International Energy Agency (IEA) says in a monthly report:

🔻🌎 World’s oil and petroleum product reserves decreased by 45 million barrels in March, while stocks of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) rose by 3 million barrels in March month-on-month.

🔻🌎 The global oil production dropped by 710,000 barrels per day in April when compared to the previous month and reached 98.1 million barrels per day.

🔻🇷🇺Oil and condensate production in Russia last month fell by 960,000 barrels per day to the lowest level since November 2020, but the decline was weaker than expected.

🔻🇷🇺Oil and condensate output in Russia in 2022 may fall to 9.6 mb/d, a yearly level last registered in 2004.

08/05/2022

Zelensky is between a rock and a hard place

Italian political analyst Angelo Giuliano explains the way Zelensky is not in a position to act on his own initiative. One the one side - there are the extreme far right nationalists (Azov, Aidar etc) who could assassinate him for any concessions to Russia.

On the other is the CIA - who can also assassinate him should he go off track, and blame Russia.

This job isn't worth his fortune, in my view.

Then read about his financial machinations in the Pandora Papers (https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle) (OCCRP = CIA).

08/05/2022

Na**sm is flourishing in Ukraine while collective West looks the other way – Lavrov

08/05/2022

Europe can’t replace Russian gas – Shell CEO

European countries will not be able to replace Russian natural gas without an energy transition, according to Shell CEO Ben van Beurden.

Increasing gas supplies from Africa and Scandinavia as well as boosting purchases of LNG is not enough, the Shell chief said Thursday - Russia supplies about 40$ of the natural gas consumed in the region.

"There is no way to simply buy more pipeline gas and LNG to completely replace all the Russian gas that we currently consume. This is not feasible,” van Beurden said.

25/04/2022

BRICS countries move to their own financial system

25/04/2022

Global supply of vital edible commodity under threat

Indonesia’s ban on exports of palm oil, the world’s most consumed edible oil, is set to severely exacerbate the already-squeezed supply of cooking oil across the globe.

Developing nations are expected to take the biggest blow.
The world’s biggest producer of palm oil will effectively ban exports of the good starting April 28, according to Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The halting of shipments of the cooking oil and its raw material is expected to help tame soaring domestic prices.

25/04/2022

Austria explains why it can't ban Russian gas

Austria cannot afford to ban imports of Russian gas as part of sanctions on Moscow, its Finance Minister Magnus Brunner has said. Many Western states, including members of the EU, have imposed sweeping economic restrictions on Russia in response to its military campaign in Ukraine.

Brunner told CNN on Friday that his country supports “all sanctions” on Moscow, but “not the gas embargo.

25/04/2022

30% to 40% of Britons could go into fuel poverty

As many as four in 10 people in Britain could fall into fuel poverty when the price cap rises again in October, the heads of the nation’s energy companies have told the UK Parliament, The Guardian reported this week. According to the publication, they have called for more government support for vulnerable households which are facing a “truly horrific” winter.

The chief executive of E.ON UK, Michael Lewis, said that between 30% and 40% of Britons could go into fuel poverty from October when the industry regulator is expected to put up the annual limit on tariffs.

23/04/2022

European Commission allows payment for Russian gas in rubles under certain conditions - Reuters.

An EU scheme will provides for gas companies to open foreign currency accounts in a Russian bank and credit them with dollars or euros.

22/04/2022

Germany's producer price inflation jumps to 30.9% in March, the highest level since 1949.

22/04/2022

Russia test-fired the new RS-28 Sarmat (dubbed SATAN II) intercontinental ballistic missile.

Putin: "The missile will provide food for thought for those who try to threaten Russia."

https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/14427471

22/04/2022

Russians find an information war centre in the east of Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/mbindwane/status/1516366293217259527

“•Russians find an information war centre in the east of Ukraine. •The sw****ka is chilling. https://t.co/fKIRlr8VbO”

22/04/2022

‘This Will Tear the EU Apart’: German Energy CEO Speaks Out Against Russian Gas Ban

"It's not just that this step would hit Germany hard, it would pose a huge problem for Europe," the CEO of EON, Leonhard Birnbaum, told the Handelsblatt business newspaper.

"If we think we can just secure the supply in Germany without caring for the other countries, this will tear the EU apart," he added, referring to many other European nations like the Czech Republic and Austria which rely heavily on Russian energy.

The executive speculated that Berlin would need at least three years to become energy independent from Moscow.

22/04/2022

India Set to Boost Russian Energy Imports

Indian importers plan to increase purchases of Russian crude oil and coal at discounted prices, media reports have stated.

State-owned oil refiners plan to boost Russian imports, shifting their purchasing strategy from tenders to negotiated deals in order to get larger discounts, according to The Economic Times.

Separately, S&P reported that India is looking to raise imports of Russian coal amid stockpile shortages, as Moscow’s discounted prices are much lower than Australian and South African coal.

19/04/2022

Seven Russian banks will join digital ruble testing in the coming months

According to the head of the Bank of Russia Elvira Nabiullina, in the coming months, in addition to 5 banks testing digital ruble payments from January 2022, seven more banks will join.

The Central Bank of Russia, together with other banks, is testing the issuance of digital rubles, the opening of digital wallets for citizens, as well as transfers between them.

Earlier, the Central Bank reported that the testing group included 12 banks, namely Sberbank, VTB Bank, Gazprombank, Alfa-Bank, DOM.RF Bank, Rosbank, Promsvyazbank, Tinkoff Bank, SKB-Bank, Ak Bars Bank, Transcapitalbank and Bank Soyuz.

13/04/2022

Slovakia in Talks With NATO Allies to Send MiG-29 Fighter Jets to Ukraine

Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said Monday (April 11) that Slovakia is in talks with its allies about an arrangement to send Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine as NATO is working to send heavier equipment to be used in the war against Russia.

Last week, Slovakia announced that it sent a Soviet-designed S-300 missile defense system to Ukraine. In exchange, the US is deploying a Patriot missile system to Slovakia. The Slovak government is looking for a similar deal when it comes to the MiGs, and Heger said Slovakia wants to phase out the Soviet weapons.

Heger said Slovakia “cannot sustain” Soviet equipment without a “relationship” with Moscow. “This is equipment that we want to finish anyway because we’re waiting for the F-16s,” he said. In 2018, Slovakia signed a deal to purchase US-made F-16 fighter jets, but they aren’t expected to be delivered until 2024.

The Slovak prime minister said he wants guarantees from allies about the protection of Slovak airspace if the country gives up its MiG-29s. “After that, we can consider speaking about this equipment in regard with Ukraine as well,” Heger said. He said Ukraine is also seeking Zuzana self-propelled howitzers, which are made by Slovakia.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/11/slovakia-in-talks-with-nato-allies-to-send-mig-29-fighter-jets-to-ukraine/

13/04/2022

Ceasefire Holds: Yemen Has First Week Without Airstrikes Since 2015

Despite persistent claims of violations, the two-month ceasefire in Yemen is off to a very good start. This past week, not a single airstrike was reported, making it the first airstrike-free week Yemen has seen since early 2015. The ceasefire began on April 2.

Airstrikes have been a defining part of the Yemen War, with some 25,000 strikes—overwhelmingly by Saudi Arabia—carried out. The airstrikes have been a driving source of casualties, particularly civilian deaths, since the war began.

Saudi Arabia used airstrikes against populated areas virtually from when the war began, and has become increasingly reliant on them. This has been costly, not just in civilian deaths, but financially.

Saudi Arabia’s armed forces went from an unusually expensive military for a nation its size to one of the world’s costliest, as they have been importing huge numbers of missiles and munitions from the West to keep the war going.

Despite the huge number of attacks, there is no sign the air war is bringing the Saudis anywhere near a military victory. Indeed, the ceasefire is being done to try to orchestrate a peace process, hoping for a political settlement as a way out of the endless conflict.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/11/ceasefire-holds-yemen-has-first-week-without-airstrikes-since-2015/

13/04/2022

Ukraine Rejects Visit from German President

Ukraine has rejected a visit to Kyiv by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a message to Berlin, which Ukrainian officials have criticized for its response to the Russian invasion.

In Warsaw, Steinmeier said he planned to visit Kyiv this week with the presidents of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to send a message of European “solidarity” to Ukraine but was told he his not welcome. “I was prepared to do this, but apparently, and I must take note of this, this was not wanted in Kyiv,” he said.

The German newspaper Bild quoted an unnamed Ukrainian diplomat who accused Steinmeier of being close to Moscow. “We all know of Steinmeier’s close relations with Russia here … He is not welcome in Kyiv at the moment. We will see whether that changes,” the diplomat said.

Steinmeier has been Germany’s president since 2017 and was a supporter of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline that would have significantly increased trade between Germany and Russia. In the wake of Russia’s invasion, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended the project. Steinmeier recently said his view on the pipeline was a “mistake.”

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/12/ukraine-rejects-visit-from-german-president-steinmeier/

Ukraine accused Steinmeier if having close ties to Russia

13/04/2022

Russia Accuses NATO Members of Running Psychological Operations in Ukraine

Russia’s Ministry of Defense claims that members of NATO have deployed specialists to Ukraine in a psychological influence operation meant to disparage Russia.

Lt. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, Head of Interagency Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response, accused the United States and France of engaging in the PSYOP activities, according to reporting from Russia state-owned media. Mizintsev said that the foreign operatives are attempting to spread disinformation about Russia and lay the groundwork to accuse its forces of war crimes.

But Rebekah Koffler, author of "Putin's Playbook" and former DIA intelligence officer focused on Russia, believes the declaration by Mizintsev is an attempt by Russia to launch its own disinformation campaign as a way to cover for potential crimes committed in Ukraine.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/russia-accuses-nato-members-of-running-psychological-operations-in-ukraine

Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed that members of NATO have deployed specialists to Ukraine in a psychological influence operation meant to disparage Russia