Free Republic

Moscow must find other ways to pay for exports or its sanctions-hit economy faces "ruination" one of President Vladimir Putin's top bankers has said, following moves by Chinese lenders to suspend transactions with Russian banks. ICBC, China CITIC Bank and most other Chinese banks have made similar moves, worried about falling foul of Western sanctions, which have been stepped up to choke off the funding for Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, the U.S. and other countries unveiled a new wave of sanctions that targeted Russian financial institutions and entities and individuals who do business with them. "If...

Kremlin propagandists have claimed that countries in Latin America, including Mexico, could host missiles that can strike American targets. (snip)"Russians on Kremlin State TV yesterday declared that Mexico was their military ally and they are wanting to place their missiles on Mexican territory so Mexico can attack the United States," Jake Broe a former U.S. Air Force nuclear and missile operations officer, posted on X next to a screen grab. "This is insane." Mexico has condemned Putin's invasion of Ukraine but has adopted a policy of neutrality and refused to participate in sanctions against Moscow. Newsweek has contacted the Mexican...

Gazprom, once Russia's biggest earning company, last year made its largest ever cut in natural gas production as the war in Ukraine continues to affect the majority state-owned energy giant. Until 2023, Gazprom was the largest publicly listed natural gas company in the world, but the engine of Russia's economy has paid a high price due to Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, last month posting its first annual loss in a quarter of a century. Adding to the bad news, Gazprom's annual report released Monday said that it had cut natural gas production by 13 percent to an all-time...

Russia has rolled back on comments suggesting that a major agreement with Iran had been suspended due to problems it faced with Tehran. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Tehran has supplied Moscow's war machine with equipment such as the Shahed drone, which has been used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. In September of that year, work on a new treaty between Moscow and Tehran was announced during a meeting between Putin and the late President of the Islamic Republic, Ebrahim Raisi. Russia's Foreign Ministry had said in January that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty...

Ukrainian drones are threatening Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov, it has been reported, signaling an intention by Kyiv to target Moscow's infrastructure beyond the Black Sea. -snip- British outlet Sky News reported Ukrainian forces had carried out a "coordinated strike" against a Ropucha-class landing ship overnight Saturday, which had moved to the Sea of Azov, connected to the Black Sea by the Strait of Kerch. Ukrainian Telegram channel Crimean Wind and Ukrainian Mariupol mayoral adviser Petro Andryushchenko gave more details, saying a ship was hit near the port of Yeysk, located in Krasnodar. But there are conflicting reports...

Top officials in Russia have raised concerns about Kremlin moves to nationalize companies and an overheated economy in rare rebukes of Vladimir Putin's economic policy. On Tuesday, Herman Gref, the CEO of Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, warned about the negative effects of high state spending on the military to fund the war in Ukraine. "Our economy is definitely overheated," Gref told the Federation Council, Russia's upper house, on Tuesday, according to the Tass news agency. The next day, questions were raised about a Kremlin policy of forced nationalizations since the start of Putin's full-scale invasion, which has been followed by...

In mid-2022, Gazprom restricted gas flows to Europe in what was seen as a move by Putin to get both leverage against Kyiv's allies ahead of the winter season and retaliate against Western sanctions and support of Ukraine. But the EU managed to find alternative long-term sources of gas imports and free itself from most Russian piped-gas imports ... Gazprom's revenue fell by 41 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2023, while sales profits dropped 71 percent and gas production by 25 percent... The report said the company's upstream gas-production base is now isolated because infrastructure connecting its main...

Conservative TV host Tucker Carlson has launched his own show on a Russian state television channel. The former Fox News anchor is presenting the program Tucker on the rolling news channel Russia 24, with the first episode now available online, Russian state newspaper Rossiskya Gazyeta reported. The paper said that the show is part of a joint project with Carlson TV, in which he will interview figures and politicians who have "alternative views to the mainstream." -snip- This is a breaking story. More to follow.

The Russian government has instructed Gazprom, once Russia's biggest company by revenue, not to pay out dividends, following record losses and a plummeting share price. Earlier this month, Gazprom Group, which also includes oil and power businesses, announced a net loss of 629 billion rubles [$6.9 billion] for last year—the first since 1999. A decree on the government website, dated May 18, ordered Gazprom not "to provide for the payment of dividends on ordinary registered shares," for 2023.

Russian air base in Crimea that caught fire following a suspected Ukrainian missile attack hosted dozens of military aircraft central to Moscow's invasion. Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russian facilities on the peninsula Moscow has occupied since 2014 and which Kyiv has vowed to recapture. Regarding the latest incident, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, said there had been a massive Ukrainian missile attack over the port city overnight Tuesday. Footage on social-media channels showed flames billowing into the air at the Belbek airfield near Sevastopol. Here is the focal point of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, whose vessels...

Ukraine used U.S-supplied missiles in an attack that sparked blazes at a Russian military air base in Crimea, according to reports. The Astra Telegram channel posted images of flames at the Belbek airfield near the city of Sevastopol following the strikes overnight Tuesday. Belbek airfield has been operated by the Russian defense ministry since Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014. -snip- Open-source X user OSINT Technical posted NASA satellite images, which the account said showed large fires raging at the airfield located more than 160 miles from the frontline in Ukraine. "Ukrainian forces reportedly carried out a massive missile strike...

Gazprom, the energy giant at the heart of Russia's economy, has announced it is selling property in Moscow, one week after posting record losses linked to restricted supplies to Europe linked to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The company said on Wednesday that the properties include office and non-residential buildings, a car parking lot in the capital, and the Imperial Park Hotel and spa sanatorium and resort complex in Rogozino village, just outside of Moscow. "Gazprom is engaged in a fire sale. They had their worst year in decades, and their production has fallen precipitously, down to what it was...

"It's of course impossible to know the real reasons for his arrest but this could be related to the revelations made by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation that showed Ivanov and his wife in a pretty bad light," Kallioniemi said. FBK alleged leaked emails from Ivanov's wife, Svetlana Maniovich, showed the extent of her family's lavish lifestyle, beyond what his official salary could cover, with some transactions routed through third parties, including Defense Ministry contractors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted last August that a drop in the importance of the U.S. dollar was "irreversible"—but there appears to be no sign that the global economy is turning its back on the greenback. "The U.S. Dollar was used in 48% of international payment transactions last year, the highest level in more than a decade. But Brics...," it said next to the graph, which showed the euro making 23.2 percent of transactions and the Chinese yuan way behind at 3.47 percent. "BRICS countries would like their currencies to be used in world trade, but each has a major...

Reuters said Novatek had stopped operations at its Arctic LNG 2 project, which processes gas from the Utrenneye field on West Siberia' Gydan Peninsula, in the latest blow to Russian fuel exports. It comes as Russian exports funding Putin's war have been hampered by repeated drone strikes on oil facilities, blamed on Ukraine. One energy industry expert told Newsweek that state oil giant Rosneft had reduced daily oil processing in March by a fifth. Sanctions have caused a lack of specialist tankers to transport the LNG from Russia through thick sea ice. Six Arc7 tankers were due to be built...

Residents in a region hit by the deepest drone strikes within Russian territory since the start of the war in Ukraine have been warned that air defenses may not be able to protect them from future attacks. Since the start of its full-scale invasion, Russia has been hit with drone strikes reaching Moscow as well as ammunition depots and warehouses around the country linked to the war effort. Russian authorities blame Ukraine for the attacks, which Kyiv rarely claims responsibility for. In the latest incident, a drone attack on the Russian republic of Tatarstan on Tuesday reportedly hit industrial areas...

Two oil refineries in Russia's Samara region were hit in Ukrainian drone strikes, the local governor has said, in the latest strike against the country's infrastructure facilities -snip- Samara Governor Dmitry Azarov said Saturday that Ukrainian drones had struck facilities belonging to state-owned energy giant Rosneft, which left one site on fire. There were no immediate reports of injuries from either incident, but unverified footage shared by Telegram users showed a blaze at what appeared to be the Syzran refinery. The Baza Telegram channel said that the fire engulfed 5,380 square feet following the attack at 6 a.m. local time...

Ukrainian drones targeted sites in nine Russian regions, including two energy facilities, in an overnight barrage thought to be Kyiv's biggest since the start of the war, according to reports and social media posts from Russian authorities. While Moscow has accused Ukraine of repeated drone strikes on its territory, Monday night's strikes appear to have been on a larger scale. In August 2023, UAV attacks on six Russian regions including Moscow were reported as the biggest drone strikes since the start of the war. Russia's defense ministry said on Tuesday that air defenses had destroyed and intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones...

Kremlin-controlled media corrected a mistake that Vladimir Putin made about World War II in his interview with Tucker Carlson. Interjections by the former Fox News anchor during his interview released on Thursday were also cut, it was reported, and a version viewed online omitted a controversial segment in which the Russian president spoke about Adolf Hitler. The fallout from the interview continues as the American anchor faced criticism that he did little to challenge the Russian president, especially during monologues about Russian history that he used to justify his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In one part of the interview, Putin...

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin during his visit to Moscow, according to a report online. -snip- "As far as I understand, Tucker Carlson got what he wanted," posted Venediktov on Tuesday in Russian. The post was shared by The Financial Times' Moscow bureau chief, Max Seddon, who wrote: "Russian journalistic gadfly Alexei Venediktov says Tucker Carlson has indeed interviewed Vladimir Putin while in Moscow." -snip- Carlson was the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight from 2016 to 2023 before he was fired by the network in April 2023 with no official explanation given. He had...