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The global oil market could lose 3 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply from Russia starting in April, as sanctions on banks and buyers’ reluctance to purchase Russian oil could result in the biggest oil supply crisis in decades, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its Oil Market Report for this month..,

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) argued that Russia is not participating in the Iran nuclear deal negotiations “in a legitimate or honest way” and is trying to get around sanctions and ensure a market for their oil. She warned that “we have to be very careful in not negotiating against ourselves,” and that “any negotiations with regard to an Iran deal will be quite difficult to accomplish in the near term.”

Russia plans to resume some stock trading on Thursday after a near month-long hiatus, with 33 rouble securities to be traded on the Moscow Exchange. Non-residents will have to wait, though - they will be barred from selling stocks and OFZ rouble bonds until April 1. Trading in blue chips, including state lenders Sberbank and VTB, energy majors Rosneft and Gazprom, will take place between 0650 and 1100 GMT, with short-selling banned, the central bank said on Wednesday. Russian stocks last traded on the Moscow Exchange on Feb. 25.

Putin: unfriendly states will pay Russia in rubles for natural gas. Putin ordered the Russian Central Bank to develop a system for payments in rubles within a week. The list of “hostile” states includes the United States, all EU member states, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, South Korea, Japan, and many others...

Russian space agency Roscosmos will now seek payment in rubles when doing business with foreign entities and countries, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that all gas contracts will be in rubles and ordered the government to instruct Gazprom to make the relevant changes to existing deals. "We will now also conclude all of our foreign contracts with the ruble (as Currency)," Rogozin told the Russian broadcaster Channel One.

March 23 (Reuters) - Russia plans to switch its gas sales to "unfriendly" countries to roubles, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, responding to a freeze on Russia's assets by foreign nations over events in Ukraine that he said had destroyed Moscow's trust. European countries' dependence on Russian gas and other exports has been thrown into the spotlight since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. “Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices ... fixed in previously concluded contracts," Putin said at a televised meeting with top government ministers. "The...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country would start selling gas to certain nations in Russia's own currency, prompting a rise in the ruble's value on the Moscow Stock Exchange.Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that gas sales to countries deemed unfriendly to Moscow would have to be paid in rubles, saying a freeze on Russia's assets by foreign nations had destroyed Moscow's trust. As of January 27, some 58% of Russian gas giant Gazprom's sales of natural gas to Europe and other countries were settled in euros. "Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in...

Last week, Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov confirmed that about $300 billion of Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserve cushion had been frozen as a result of Western sanctions. On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the move "theft." The collective West's decision to freeze Russian reserves abroad constitutes the bankruptcy of their obligations before Russia, and undermines faith in their currencies, President Vladimir Putin has said. "In the past weeks, a number of Western countries have taken illegitimate measures on the so-called 'freezing' of Russian assets. The collective West has factually drawn a line under the reliability of its...

TOKYO -- Prices for architectural steel in Japan have risen to the highest levels in more than a decade as Russia's invasion of Ukraine disrupts supply chains for a wide range of building materials, including wood and cement. Tokyo Steel Manufacturing on Tuesday raised the price of H-beams used in building construction to the most in more than 13 years, 121,000 yen ($1,000) per ton. Kyoei Steel announced a 7% price hike for steel rebar. With steel proving too hot to handle, companies are starting to postpone increasingly costly capital investments, which could have knock-on effects on the broader economy...

The Crimea-born Grandmaster, who switched from representing Ukraine to Russia in 2009, now faces being stripped of his place in the upcoming Candidates Tournament in June. The 6-month ban is due to run until Wednesday, September 21.

First there was supply-chain disruption brought on by the coronavirus, then war in Ukraine further rocked commodity markets. The next bout of inflation via raw material prices will be brought on by resource nationalism. While the cost pressures brought on by the difficulty in moving goods in a world in lockdown are fading, other factors are more enduring. For instance, the post-Cold War spread of e-commerce allowed companies to treat the world as both factory floor and marketplace. Comparative advantage, strategic partnerships and the success of globalization led to growth and prosperity. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine jarred that dynamic and...

A credible deterrent is designed to alter a potential aggressor’s calculations of risk and reward. Vladimir Putin determined that the potential cost of invading Ukraine was relatively low, and on Feb. 24 he attacked. It will be the job of historians to try to understand why deterrence failed. Deterrence involves two factors: capability and will. Capability means having the military strength to deliver intolerable damage to an adversary. Will is the determination to use that strength and deliver that damage. .....snip..... By signaling that the U.S. had no intention of using its capabilities, the Biden administration seriously weakened their deterrent...

ideo showing the true size of Russia compared to Africa has gone viral on TikTok as social media users learn about the misrepresentation of scale on many world maps. First posted in late February, the video had gained around 8.5 million views as of March 14 with just under 400,000 likes. In the video, footage of an interactive map shows an outline of Russia, which at first appears to dominate a huge section of the map. However, as the outline is dragged down towards the continent of Africa and the equator, Russia begins to shrink. By the time the outline...

In referring to “world giants” that have chosen to not fully repudiate the Russian leader, Zakharova was principally referring to China, which the Biden administration is trying to dissuade from giving wartime aid to Moscow. But some of the world’s most populous states — India, Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Mexico among them — are also signaling a desire to maintain trade ties and other links with Russia while declaring impartiality on the war. Less than two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly — 141 to 5, with 35 abstentions — to condemn the...

As part of its deadly assault on Ukraine, Russia has taken the rare step to use intellectual property rights as a war tactic. In early March, the Russian government issued a decree saying that Russian companies are no longer obliged to compensate owners of patents, utility models and industrial designs from “unfriendly” countries. These are the western states who have issued sanctions against Russia, including the UK and US. This means that Russian businesses can use intellectual property, such as patented inventions or fashion designs, without having to pay or seek the consent of the rights holders. Affected companies cannot...

Russia has been accused of interfering with the global GPS navigation system during a major Nordic war game in Finland. European aviation authorities have said signals, heavily used by commercial aircraft, have been affected from Finland, through the Mediterranean and even as far as Iraq. Disruptions to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), which include GPS, are caused by the 'jamming' or 'spoofing' of satellite signals. Since the war erupted on February 24, 'jamming and/or possible spoofing has intensified in geographical areas surrounding the conflict zone and other areas,' the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said in an online bulletin Thursday.

The Space Foundation, an American non-profit organization founded in 1983, has renamed its Yuri's Night fundraiser, named in honor of the first man to travel into space, celebrated Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, "in light of current world events".

Russia’s Push for Self-Sufficient Economy Fails Before Western Sanctions Building Fortress Russia was supposed to protect the country from sanctions. It is still highly dependent on imports. A Uniqlo store in Moscow this month. Sanctions have hit consumers who are used to getting imported products. Russia spent years trying to wean itself off imported goods to fortify its economy against Western sanctions. Now, the impact of sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made it clear that Moscow’s efforts didn’t work. Russia’s continued dependence on imports means it is facing a painful economic readjustment. Parts of Russia’s auto industry...

The cable channels have granted Zelensky billions of dollars worth of free air time to sell the public on having Americans finance his war with Russia. So far, he's received commitments to $13.6 billion in U.S. aid, money he will gladly share with the children of congressmen. Anyone who questions this is labeled a Putin puppet.Well, I have been called worse.There is another side of the story, weak as it may be. In a speech Power Line called, "The Madness of Vlad the Inhaler," Putin made a Zelensky-style plea to his colleagues. Most of it was BS. There is no...

A senior Chinese government official said on Saturday that sanctions imposed by Western nations on Russia over Ukraine are increasingly "outrageous". Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng also acknowledged Moscow's point of view on NATO, saying the alliance should not further expand eastwards, forcing a nuclear power like Russia "into a corner". China has yet to condemn Russia's action in Ukraine or call it an invasion, though it has expressed deep concern about the war. Beijing has also opposed economic sanctions on Russia over Ukraine, which it says are unilateral and are not authorised by the U.N. Security Council. "The sanctions...