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Ukraine forces, separatists fight first serious battles in months

KIEV Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists on Wednesday fought their first serious battles in months and Ukraine’s defense minister said an attempt by rebels to take the eastern town of Maryinka had been thwarted. The Ukrainian military said the Russian-backed rebels had tried to advance using tanks and up to 1,000 fighters west of the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk, in the most significant escalation of the conflict in about three months and in defiance of a ceasefire deal. Estimates of casualties varied. The separatists, who denied their forces had launched an assault, said 15 people had been killed when government troops fired artillery into rebel-held territory near the city. A Ukrainian presidential spokesman, Yuri Biryukov, on his Facebook page put total casualties at 7 p.m. (1600 gmt) at two dead and 30 injured, while regional police chief Vyacheslav Abroskin said three civilians had been killed. In Moscow, the […]

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Russia in Full ‘Crisis’ to Kudrin Forecasting Longer Recession

Former Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin Russia will endure a longer recession than forecast by the government, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said, urging the central bank to refrain from further interest-rate cuts as economic risks persist. Gross domestic product may continue shrinking into the first quarter of next year, putting the economy on track for zero growth in 2016 after a slump of about 4 percent in 2015, Kudrin said in Moscow on Wednesday. Kudrin, 54, took issue with the contention by government officials that Russia has put the worst of the economic crisis behind it and warned that companies are only now beginning to feel the pain of collapsing demand. “We are now in a full-fledged crisis,” Kudrin said. “The situation in the real sector is still very bad.” The assessment by the long-time ally of President Vladimir Putin is at odds with government expectations for a […]

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Russia, Non-OPEC Producers Met with OPEC Last Month

VIENNA—Officials from Russia’s energy ministry last month met with other oil producing countries at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries headquarters in Vienna to discuss a global oil glut that has sent prices tumbling. The secret conversations ended on May 13 after two days of discussions and without the release of a public statement, people familiar with the matter said. The discussions underscore the distance between OPEC and Russia, the world’s largest oil producer, ahead of Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak’s unusual visit to Vienna for OPEC’s semiannual meeting. Though Mr. Novak is expected to meet with OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem el-Badri and some OPEC ministers from outside the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, he has signaled Russia won’t do what some OPEC hard-liners want: namely cut its own production. “At the meetings, it is not planned to agree on production volumes,” Mr. Novak told the Interfax news […]

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Russia keeps oil output at post-Soviet high before OPEC meet

MOSCOW Russian oil output remained unchanged in May at a post-Soviet high of 10.71 million barrels per day (bpd), Energy Ministry data showed on Tuesday, three days before OPEC meets to decide on output levels. In tonnes, oil output rose to 45.288 million from 43.830 million in April while gas production fell to 48.28 billion cubic meters (bcm) last month, or 1.56 bcm a day, from 52.64 bcm in April. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which controls more than 40 percent of the world’s crude oil production, meets this Friday in Vienna. Analysts expect the bloc to maintain current output levels. OPEC sources have said an output cut would only be possible if other oil-producing nations such as Russia join in. Oil revenues are the cornerstone for many countries’ budgets, including Russia. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak is due to meet OPEC officials this week ahead […]

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U.N. finds growing signs of Russian involvement in Ukraine war

GENEVA A separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine is revealing increasing evidence, but not yet conclusive legal proof, of Russian state involvement, senior United Nations human rights officials said on Monday. "We are speaking about increasing inflow of (unofficial) fighters and increasing evidence that there are also some (Russian) servicemen involved in fighting," Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic told a news conference in Geneva. Russia denies Western accusations that it is backing pro-Russian rebels with arms and troops. On May 21, U.N. officials interviewed two Russians captured in eastern Ukraine. The two men believe they should be treated as captured servicemen, but Russia says they are former soldiers who had left the military. The pair were charged with terrorism by Ukrainian authorities, putting them "between a rock and a hard place", Simonovic said. "It is very difficult to prove whether they are servicemen or not. That is why […]

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Russia calls on oil producers not to boost output – local media

MOSCOW Russia is calling on oil producers around the world to refrain from increasing output, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Friday, according to Russian news agencies, just days before he is due to meet officials from OPEC. The Russian economy has been hit hard by lower oil prices, which have almost halved from a peak in June last year of $115 per barrel. Oil and gas sales account for around half or Russia’s state budget revenues. "We call for all countries to keep their output unchanged," Novak was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Several other local media outlets also reported his call to global oil producers. The Russian minister is due to hold talks with some officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) next month in Vienna, just before the group’s meeting on Jun.5. Russia is not a member of OPEC, and Novak […]

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Venezuela, Russia’s Rosneft agree on $14 billion oil, gas investment

CARACAS Venezuela and Russia’s top oil producer, Rosneft, have agreed on around $14 billion in investment in the South American OPEC country’s oil and gas sector, President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday evening. Maduro said he met with the chief executive of state-owned Rosneft, Igor Sechin, earlier on Wednesday, in the company of PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] President Eulogio del Pino and National Assembly boss and Socialist Party No. 2 Diosdado Cabello. "We had a great meeting and agreed on investment of over $14 billion," said Maduro during a televised broadcast, adding the funds would go toward doubling Venezuela’s oil production. PDVSA has formal ambitious targets to double national production to 6 million barrels a day by 2019, with 4 million of that projected to come from the Orinoco Belt, but few industry experts or foreign investors expect those goals to be met. Speaking at a Socialist Party event broadcast on […]

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Ruble Trades Closest to Oil Since 2013 as Rate Cuts Damp Allure

The ruble’s movements are the closest to those of oil prices in 20 months as a series of Russian interest-rate cuts and central bank currency purchases damp its carry-trade appeal. The Russian currency fell for a third day, losing 1.6 percent to 52.8 versus the dollar as of 7:02 p.m. in Moscow, the weakest since April 22. The correlation between changes in the ruble-dollar exchange rate and moves in the price of Brent rose to 36 percent, the most since September 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “The ruble is now following the dollar’s move against other currencies and oil, which is also tracking the dollar,” Andrey Mishko, a foreign-currency trader at National Standard Bank in Moscow, said in e-mailed comments. “On top of that, the central bank is buying, making the overall market positioning long dollar.” The ruble has pared its world-leading performance this year to 15 […]

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Putin Declares Soldiers’ Deaths and Wounds Secret, in War and Peace

MOSCOW — The deaths or wounds of Russian soldiers in “special operations” can be classified as military secrets, even in peacetime, President Vladimir V. Putin decreed on Thursday. The decree comes as Russia faces accusations that it is sending its soldiers clandestinely to fight in Ukraine , an allegation the Kremlin denies. Mr. Putin’s decree amended a law that previously let the military keep soldiers’ deaths or injuries secret only in times of war. Mr. Putin has repeatedly insisted that Russian soldiers are not taking part in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels have continued despite a cease-fire deal in February. At home, Russia’s political opposition says that by refusing to acknowledge that its soldiers are in combat in Ukraine, the Russian military is unjustly denying them disability payments, and denying their relatives death benefits and other awards. All the while, there are […]

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Armed With Google and YouTube, Analysts Gauge Russia’s Presence in Ukraine

WASHINGTON — An unusual investigation using publicly available videos, smartphone photographs and satellite images shows that Russia is continuing to defy the West by conducting protracted military operations inside Ukraine , according to an independent report. Russia has long dismissed Western allegations that its military has intervened in Ukraine as little more than computer-generated propaganda. In an attempt to puncture the Russian denials, independent experts have operated like digital Sherlock Holmeses, using Google’s Street View, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, satellite photographs and Russia’s version of Facebook, including social media updates by Russian soldiers. That research was then supplemented by more traditional sources like court documents and local media reports. “Independent researchers, using open sources and rigorous methodology, have demonstrated that Russian troops and Russian weapons have been an important part of the fight in Ukraine’s east,” said John E. Herbst, a former American ambassador to Ukraine and one of the […]

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