Category: Russia

WWF in Russia says low crude oil prices means arctic energy ambitions aren’t sustainable, suggests 10-year moratorium. (Photo: WWF Russia) MOSCOW, Dec. 24 (UPI) — The Russian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature said Russia needs to suspend exploration and production efforts in the arctic because of low oil prices. At a press summit organized by the Russian Natural Resources Ministry, WWF Director Igor Chestin said it was time to halt ambitions in the Russian arctic . "We need to declare a 10-year moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the arctic," he said. "At current oil prices, these projects are absolutely unprofitable." U.S. energy company Exxon Mobil has a partnership with Russian oil company Rosneft for work in the arctic waters of Russia. With Western sanctions impeding developments, the Russian government has placed a greater emphasis on domestic exploitation of arctic reserves. Low crude oil prices […]

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Russia ’s international reserves plunged the most in six years, losing $15.7 billion last week as the government and central bank pledged measures to support banks and defend the currency. The value of the stockpile, which includes the central bank’s reserves and two sovereign wealth funds, fell to $398.9 billion (RUREFEG) in the week through Dec. 19, the Bank of Russia said today on its website. That is 22 percent drop from January. Policy makers, led by central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina, are fighting to stem the ruble’s worst slump since the 1998 default. With oil prices and sanctions over the Ukraine conflict pushing Russia toward recession, the authorities have raised rates and sought to ease dollar demand. The steps have helped stem the currency rout, after the ruble collapsed to a record low 80 against the dollar last week. “Such a sharp decline is clearly negative news for […]

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine’s pursuit of NATO membership posed a danger to European security and that the West was using Kiev’s bid to join the Atlantic alliance as a way to fuel confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. The Kiev parliament’s renunciation of Ukraine’s neutral status this week as a step toward joining NATO has outraged Moscow and deepened the worst confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. Lavrov is the latest Russian official to speak out against the Kiev’s bid in recent days, and who have made clear Russia would see the NATO membership of such a strategic former Soviet republic with a long common border as a direct military threat. "There are a few Western countries that want to maintain the crisis in Ukraine and to maintain and boost the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, including […]

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The Russian government sought to reassure the public that the country’s currency crisis was over, but warned of economic hardship ahead. Finance minister Anton Siluanov said extreme signs of a liquidity squeeze due to the collapse of the rouble had already receded and the currency had “found its equilibrium”. More On this topic IN Europe However, Moscow expects inflation to spike higher. Andrei Belousov, economic adviser to President Vladimir Putin, said consumer price inflation, which stood at 10.4 per cent as of Wednesday, was likely to hit 11 per cent for all of 2014, while the finance ministry predicted CPI to reach as high as 11.5 per cent for the full year. Mr Putin said the government was “definitely coping with the problems faced by the economy and the country as a whole in a worthy manner”, but ordered the cabinet to skip the upcoming New Year holidays to […]

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Gazprom trims expenses for 2015 as Russia moves closer to the brink of recession. (UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov) The board of directors said via state news agency Sputnik , formerly RIA Novosti, it was cutting expenses by $238.7 million and expecting around $1.65 billion in foreign loans. Gazprom’s disclosure comes at a time when Russia is struggling to keep its economy in check. Western sanctions imposed in response to Russian policies and low oil prices have pushed the economy to the brink of recession. The Russian Central Bank last week raised its key interest rate by 6.5 percent to 17 percent in an effort to arrest the decline of the nation’s currency. Russia relies heavily on oil and gas revenues for economic health. With oil prices falling, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual press conference last week that many of the problems in the Russian economy were caused by […]

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MOSCOW–The Russian government has ordered five state-run companies to cut the amount of foreign currency they hold in an attempt to stabilize the volatile currency market. The government said on its website Tuesday that gas monopoly Gazprom, oil producer Rosneft, diamond miner Alrosa, diamond producer Kristall and oil firm Zarubezhneft have to cut their foreign currency holdings by March 1, 2015 to the level they had on Oct 1, 2014. The move to prompt state-run companies to sell dollars and euros comes after a rapid depreciation in the ruble, which brought its value to all-time lows last week. Many have feared that the government may apply stricter administrative measures to limit the ruble’s weakness despite a pledge by the authorities to impose no capital controls. Write to Andrey Ostroukh at [email protected]

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank offered on Wednesday to help top exporters refinance heavy foreign debts next year, expected to be one of the toughest of President Vladimir Putin’s 15-year rule for the economy due to Western sanctions and a plunge in oil prices. The bank said it would help major Russian companies to refinance foreign debts by lending dollars and euros to those who were willing to put up their foreign borrowings as collateral. The move means that the state will in effect take on credit risk for the companies, whose foreign debt obligations have shot up in ruble terms because of the currency’s sharp slide this year. Even before the move, Standard and Poors put Russia’s sovereign credit outlook on "creditwatch negative", meaning it could downgrade it to junk as soon as January due to a "rapid deterioration of Russia’s monetary flexibility". While Russia has minimal […]

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Russian energy company Gazprom says Turkish Stream proposed as name of pipeline project proposed after larger South Stream pipeline for Europe cancelled. (UPI Photo/Sergey Starostenko) Russian President Vladimir Putin said during an early December meeting in Ankara the long-planned South Stream natural gas pipeline "will not be carried out." South Stream had an optimum capacity of 2.2 trillion cubic feet per year. It would’ve stretched across the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then north to European markets. "The South Stream pipeline will not be constructed and we will be implementing another project, which will get its name in the nearest future," Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Officer Alexander Medvedev said. "Our partners in Turkey proposed the name of the Turkish Stream." South Stream was Gazprom’s answer to political and economic issues in Ukraine, through which Gazprom sends the bulk of its natural gas to Europe. Gazprom in 2006 and 2009 […]

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