Category: Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine to withdraw forces from its easternmost regions as the International Monetary Fund warned that extra financing may be needed if control of the industrial heartland is lost. In a telephone call yesterday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin also demanded an end to violence gripping cities in southeastern Ukraine, according to a Kremlin statement. The Ukrainian conflict will top the agenda when Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama meet today in Washington, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney. “We expect to continue a path that sees an international coalition escalating the costs that Russia will have to endure” if it “continues to destabilize the situation in eastern Ukraine and southern Ukraine, or even goes further and uses its forces to cross the border,” Carney told reporters yesterday. Ukraine no longer controls the eastern city of Donetsk, Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov said on […]

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Ukraine ’s easternmost regions are slipping from the government’s grasp as separatists take over more official buildings, with the International Monetary Fund warning extra financing may be needed if control of the industrial heartland is lost. Armed men stormed the Donetsk regional prosecutors’ office today, throwing stones and stun grenades. Pro-Russian rebels in nearby Slovyansk said they’d begun talks to swap international monitors abducted last week, the Interfax news service said. Acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov signed a decree backed by lawmakers last month to reinstate a military draft, his office said on its website. “The government doesn’t control the situation in Donetsk as well as part of the Donetsk region,” Turchynov said yesterday in Kiev. “Because there is a real threat of Russia starting a continental war, our army is on full combat alert.” The IMF, which approved a $17 billion bailout for Ukraine early today, said “a […]

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Angela Merkel is carrying a clear message from Germany’s business lobby to the White House: No more sanctions. Several of the biggest names in German business—including chemical giant SE, engineering group Siemens AG , AG , Adidas AG and Deutsche Bank AG —have made their opposition to broader economic sanctions against Russia clear in recent weeks, both in public and in private. As a result, Germany’s position on additional, tougher sanctions is unlikely to shift, barring a dramatic escalation of the conflict in Ukraine—a message Ms. Merkel is expected to deliver to President Barack Obama when they meet in Washington on Friday, officials in Berlin say. Sanctions on Russia: Who is Who Europe and the U.S. announced new sanctions in late April in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine. EU sanctions focus on individuals but U.S. sanctions also target banks and other companies. Here is a full list. […]

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Exxon Mobil Corp. is pushing ahead with its plans to drill in Russia’s Arctic seas—its biggest opportunity to discover untapped deposits of oil and gas—even though deteriorating relations between Moscow and Washington have increased the risks. America’s biggest energy producer is set this summer to tap what it calls the University Prospect in the Arctic’s Kara Sea, a trove that could hold the equivalent of 9 billion barrels of oil—more than a third of Exxon’s proven reserves. That prize looks riskier as tensions increase between the West and Moscow over Russia’s . U.S. sanctions this week targeted Igor Sechin, a close associate of President Vladimir Putin and head of OAO , Exxon’s Kremlin-controlled partner in the Arctic. The sanctions didn’t extend to Rosneft itself. "All of the activities that we had originally planned for this year are under way," David Rosenthal, Exxon’s vice president of investor relations, said Thursday […]

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As it tries to punish Moscow for its intervention in Ukraine , the White House asserts that the sanctions it has imposed have had a “significant impact” on Russia ’s economy, but their real effect so far, according to economic specialists, appears to be more psychological than tangible. White House officials have pointed to the fall of the Russian ruble and Moscow stock markets as evidence of the success they have had in pressuring the Kremlin. Yet the ruble and Russian markets fell before President Obama began imposing sanctions. Today, in fact, both the ruble and the markets are slightly stronger than they were before the first sanctions were announced. Russia’s economic downturn predated any action by the United States or Europe and, to some extent, predated the Ukraine crisis. Specialists said the volatility surrounding Ukraine has clearly aggravated Russia’s economic problems by sapping international confidence, punishing […]

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The latest  sanctions against Russian officials, provoked by Russia’s ongoing violation of Ukraine’s territory, have sparked much criticism because of their perceived weakness. The U.S. is currently targeting wealthy and well-connected individuals, such as Igor Sechin, a crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but not companies such as the state-owned energy giant Rosneft, which is the source of Sechin’s wealth. This means that Sechin and other select members of Putin’s inner circle can’t personally travel to or invest in the U.S., but the companies they run can continue business as usual. The Wall Street Journal has accused President Barack Obama of watering down the sanctions, a claim echoed by The Washington Post and by hawkish members of congress such as Sen. John McCain . Russia has responded with mockery. As Sechin himself put it , “I consider Washington’s latest steps as high assessment of the effectiveness of our work.” […]

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The US and Europe have yet to fully deploy their  bluntest weapon against Vladimir Putin. But if stronger sanctions are deployed against him, the Russian president is vowing to make life very painful for the western oil companies doing business in his country. The US this week  quietly targeted  some Russian oil industry bosses in its latest round of sanctions, and Europe has altogether avoided oil in its list of new targets. But on April 29, Putin suggested that he’s prepared to mount an oil war if antagonized further. “We would very much wish not to resort to any measures in response,” Putin said. “I hope we won’t get to that point. But if something like that continues, we will of course have to think about who is working in the key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector, and how.” The remark appeared to be a swipe at lucrative long-term Russian projects […]

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It is by now a well-established pattern. Armed, masked men in their 20s to 40s storm a public building of high symbolic value in a city somewhere in eastern Ukraine, evict anyone still there, seize weapons and ammunition, throw up barricades and proclaim themselves the rulers of a “people’s republic.” It is not clear who is in charge or how the militias are organized. Through such tactics, a few thousand pro-Russian militants have seized buildings in about a dozen cities, effectively establishing control over much of an industrial region of about 6.5 million nestled against the Russian border. Day by day, in the areas surrounding the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, pro-Russian forces have defied all efforts by the central government to re-establish its authority, and on Wednesday, Ukraine’s acting president conceded what had long been obvious: The government’s police and security officials had lost control. […]

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Exxon Mobil (XOM) Corp.’s dream of drilling in the Russian Arctic may risk running aground on the politics of Ukraine. The company plans to start drilling in August in the Arctic’s remote Kara Sea — the centerpiece of Exxon’s global alliance with Russian state-controlled OAO Rosneft. (ROSN) The partnership, which includes shale exploration in Siberia and joint venture fields in Texas , will come under greater scrutiny after the U.S. placed sanctions on Rosneft’s Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin . “With Sechin being sanctioned it may complicate relations for Rosneft with western companies,” said Mattias Westman, who oversees about $3.3 billion in Russia assets as CEO of Prosperity Capital . “Maybe some transactions will be threatened as a result and perhaps Russia will counter and they will be less keen for American companies to work on Arctic projects.” Patrick McGinn, a spokesman for Exxon’s exploration arm, said on April […]

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Hundreds of pro-Moscow separatists stormed government buildings in one of Ukraine’s provincial capitals on Tuesday and fired on police holed up in a regional headquarters, a major escalation of their revolt despite new Western sanctions on Russia. New U.S. and EU sanctions packages, announced with fanfare, were seen as so mild that Russian share prices rose in relief. A small number of names were added to existing blacklists, while threats to take more serious measures were put on hold. Nevertheless, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded by threatening to reconsider Western participation in energy deals in Russia, the world’s biggest oil producer, where most major U.S. and European oil companies have extensive projects. Demonstrators smashed their way into the provincial government headquarters in Luhansk, Ukraine’s easternmost province, which abuts the Russian border, and raised separatist flags over the building, while police did nothing to interfere. As […]

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