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Russian envoy says politics behind Gazprom charges

Russian envoy to the European Union suspects politics at play in latest dispute over regional natural gas market. (UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov) BRUSSELS, April 27 (UPI) — Charges against Russian energy company Gazprom stem from Lithuania’s government, not energy companies, a Russian envoy told a European news outlet. The European Commission last week said it suspected Gazprom was violating antitrust rules by abusing its position in the Central and Eastern European markets. The European commissioner in charge of competition policy, Margrethe Vestager, said Gazprom was preventing gas from flowing from "certain Central Eastern European countries" and thereby prohibiting competition. Russian Ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov told European news service EurActiv the charges stem from the Lithuanian government . "What puzzled me from the beginning was that the whole case was initiated not by some economic entities, not by EU-based energy companies which could have theoretically complained about those contracts, […]

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Greece Just Clipped Varoufakis’s Wings

Greece’s Plan "B" Needs Politics Over Theory: Fricke Greece reshuffled its bailout-negotiating team, reining in Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, after three months of talks with creditors failed to unlock aid and a meeting with his euro-area counterparts ended in acrimony. The coordination of the day-to-day efforts to strike a deal with creditors was handed to Deputy Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, a Greek government official said in an e-mail to reporters Monday. Varoufakis will supervise the political negotiations with euro-area member states and the International Monetary Fund. No change was announced to Greece’s representation in euro-area finance ministers’ meetings, which Varoufakis attends. A Eurogroup meeting in Riga, Latvia on Friday descended into name-calling as the currency bloc’s finance ministers hurled abuse at their Greek colleague, accusing him of being a time-waster, a gambler and an amateur. Still, the 54-year-old academic-turned-politician in the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remains popular […]

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The bottom is in for oil prices

Traders think the decline in oil prices is over. A report from Bloomberg News on Sunday said traders had pulled their bets that oil prices would fall further at the “fastest pace on record,” citing data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC. And according to John Kilduff at Again Capital, who spoke to Bloomberg last week, “The falling rig count and the reduction we’re starting to see in output shows that the bottom has in fact been installed … A lot of people are throwing in the towel.” Last week, oil prices rose for the sixth straight week, and West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading near $57 a barrel Sunday night, up from its low of $43 hit back in March. Earlier this year, strategists at Citi called for oil prices to drop as low as $20 a barrel given that the glut of global supply, […]

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Brent crude holds near 4-1/2 month high on U.S. rig count, Yemen

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Brent crude prices held near a 4-1/2 month high above $65 a barrel on Monday, supported by concerns over fighting in Yemen disrupting Middle East supplies and signs that U.S. shale output may have started to decline. The number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil has fallen for a record 20 weeks in a row to the lowest since 2010, according to Baker Hughes data, fuelling expectations of a drop in U.S. production. Brent had edged down 5 cents to $65.23 a barrel by 0623 GMT, after posting its third weekly gain last week and touching a Dec. 10 high of $65.80. U.S. crude fell 14 cents to $57.01 a barrel, after rising for the sixth consecutive week in its longest stretch of gains since the first quarter of 2014. "Sustaining the recent oil price rally requires firmer demand and a tangible supply response," Barclays […]

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Oil-Fund Outflows Bode Ill for Prices

ENLARGE Money is pouring out of a popular investment tied to the oil market, a sign that a monthlong crude-price rally may be running out of gas. Exchange-traded funds that invest in U.S. oil futures, including the $3.1 billion United States Oil Fund LP, have registered about $2.7 billion of investor outflows this month, according to investment bank Macquarie Group Ltd. That reverses an inflow that started in January as oil prices tumbled. These ETFs took in roughly $6 billion this year through mid-March, when the U.S. oil benchmark hit a six-year low, according to Macquarie. Traders and analysts are closely watching weekly production and demand data for signs that the global glut of crude oil that sent prices swooning last year may be shrinking. They are also watching the ETF trends closely, because they say crude prices are vulnerable to a pullback following a 32% run-up since March […]

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New Amendments Imperil Measure on Iran in Congress

Photo Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee faces a major test in the handling of an Iran bill that would give Congress a voice in nuclear negotiations. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times WASHINGTON — A bill to give Congress a voice in the nuclear deal with Iran is now endangered by Republican amendments that would peel away bipartisan support for a measure begrudgingly accepted by the White House this month. Amendments filed by lawmakers last week include one that would require Iran to recognize Israel and another that would give any final nuclear deal the status of a treaty, which would require ratification by two-thirds of the Senate. Another proposal would require the release of American citizens detained in Iran as part of an agreement. For Republican sponsors of the Iran measure, these amendments threaten to break the rare bipartisan spirit that pushed the bill unanimously out of the […]

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Nuclear deal could unleash Iran’s economy

After almost 15 years of intermittent negotiations, Iran and the P5+1 group of six major world powers have reached a comprehensive agreement over Iran’s nuclear program. The deal couldn’t have come soon enough for the Iranian economy, which has been crippled by sanctions imposed by the U.S. and United Nations. At the same time, state oil revenues are shrinking every day, and unemployment and inflation have both soared to levels not seen since the catastrophic Iraq-Iran War of the 1980s. Since 2010, sanctions have specifically targeted Iran’s central bank, leading to rapid currency devaluation and near-zero rates of economic growth. Living standards for the working class and low-income Iranians are abysmal, with many unable even to purchase basic medicine. The nuclear deal clears the path for the end of sanctions and the emergence of a dynamic Iranian economy. President Hassan Rouhani, whose cabinet includes more graduates of prestigious American […]

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Assad’s hold on power looks shakier than ever as rebels advance in Syria

BEIRUT — A surge of rebel gains in Syria is overturning long-held assumptions about the durability of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, which now appears in greater peril than at any time in the past three years. The capture Saturday of the town of Jisr al-Shughour in northern Idlib province was just the latest in a string of battlefield victories by rebel forces, which have made significant advances in both the north and the south of the country. As was the case in the capital of Idlib province last month, government defenses in Jisr al-Shughour crumbled after just a few days of fighting, pointing as much to the growing weakness of regime forces as the revival of the opposition. The battlefield shifts come at a time when the Obama administration has set aside the crisis in Syria to focus on its chief priorities: defeating the Islamic State militant group in […]

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Israeli Military Says It Killed Armed Men in Strike on Golan Heights Frontier

JERUSALEM — An Israeli airstrike killed members of an armed squad that was preparing to bomb Israeli forces on Sunday along the Israeli-Syrian frontier in the Golan Heights , the Israeli military said. The Israeli news media said that three or four men were killed in the missile strike. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said the armed squad had crossed from the Syrian side into the Israeli-controlled part of the contested territory, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war. Israel did not immediately identify the men, and it was not clear if they were Syrians or belonged to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. This latest flare-up along the increasingly tense cease-fire line came after reports in the Arabic news media of Israeli airstrikes in recent days. One was reported to be against Syrian Army bases in the Qalamoun region near Syria’s border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah […]

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In Syria, the Stakes Are High for a Rebel Offensive

Fighters from a coalition of rebel forces stand on a tank in the Syrian city of Idlib on March 29.(ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Syrian rebels launched one of the largest and most ambitious operations of the Syrian civil war April 22. Around 9,000-12,000 fighters from 40 rebel groups assembled for a wide-scale offensive stretching across the northwestern provinces of Idlib and Hama. The operation brings together rebel factions with extremely diverse ideologies and strengths, ranging from the powerful jihadist Jabhat al-Nusra faction to smaller units affiliated with the Free Syrian Army. While determined and daring, the offensive — labeled "The Battle of Victory" — is risky: The rebels are going up against significant loyalist forces, including a number of highly trained and motivated elite units. Analysis The roots of the offensive lie in the rebels’ successful capture of the city of Idlib on March 28. As Stratfor previously noted, the capture […]

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