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Ukraine typically exports about half of the world's sunflower oil supply.The war in Ukraine has entered its third month, and the global supply chain has increasingly been affected by Russia's invasion of its eastern European neighbor. One of the more measurable consequences is both the increasing costs and dwindling supplies of sunflower oil. Before the conflict began, Ukraine exported nearly half of the world's total supply of the cooking oil, and supermarkets in the United Kingdom and in parts of Europe are starting to put limits on the number of bottles that shoppers can buy. "Supply chains, already disrupted by...

Germany will support the European embargo of Russian oil, marking another significant turnaround in the nation’s position as the invasion of Ukraine continues. Ambassadors will reportedly table the proposal at an ambassadors summit in Brussels on Wednesday, with expectations to approve the embargo by the end of next week. Germany has resisted such an embargo, but government sources told German news agency dpa on Sunday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz will back the embargo. Scholz previously urged caution against any outright ban over concerns of the consequences, which he believed would prove devastating to Germany’s economy and the continent as a...

Putin’s machismo leads him to underestimate his adversaries and show off for domestic and international consumption. Unsurprisingly, his favorite tactic is unprovoked aggression—in other words, the bluff. He got away with it in Georgia in 2008, Syria from 2012 onward, in annexing Crimea in 2014 ...Yet last month, he was caught completely off guard when the West finally called his biggest raise ever. As boxer Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” The West’s reactive jab of sanctions and aggressive arming of the Ukrainians appear to have completely stalled—and now reversed—Russia’s advance on...

The EU faces difficult questions that need to be debated now rather than later. Europe needs a strong deterrent against Moscow, and that will only be possible if France and Germany team up to advance the debate. In the end, the meeting at the United States airbase in Ramstein, Germany, resembled a ribbon ceremony with praise awarded to the most diligent. Germany is a great friend that is doing everything it can to support Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. It was not only thanks for the Germans’ proposal to send tanks to Ukraine, but also the polite...

Ukraine accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt to break its allies, as fighting heads into a third month without Russia capturing a major city WARSAW/SOFIA/KYIV — Russia halted gas supplies to Poland under the Yamal contract on Wednesday, data from the European Union network of gas transmission operators showed, in a deepening of the rift between the West and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Bulgaria, like Poland a NATO and EU member, said earlier that Russia would also halt supplies of gas to it. Ukraine accused Russia of blackmailing Europe over energy in an attempt...

On Sunday, Russia entered the third month of its invasion of Ukraine, with no sign of an end in sight. Despite severe pushback in the shape of the toughest economic sanctions ever imposed on a country, the ruble, the Russian currency, appears to be strengthening.What’s become evident is that, despite an enormously broad package of sanctions on Russia’s government and oligarchs, as well as an exodus of foreign enterprises, the moves are mostly ineffectual if foreign nationals continue to consume Russian oil and natural gas, which supports the ruble.On Feb. 24, the first day of the invasion, the ruble traded...

Russian provocations in Transnistria are a direct threat to Ukraine. Moldova and European democracies must address this issue immediately. "Russia has staged a series of explosions in occupied Transnistria. Russia is apparently creating a pretext for invading Transnistria, according to a plan to seize Ukraine's Black Sea coast, announced on April 22 by Rustam Minnekayev, deputy chief of the Central Military District." Unfortunately, Transnistria has become a center of international terrorism. The Moldovan authorities are obliged to respond to Russian provocations and Russian arsenals in Transnistria, which is a direct threat to Ukraine and assistance to the aggressor during the...

In revealing testimony before the Duma parliament, the head of CBR told she had to throw everything but the kitchen sink just to prevent a full-blown run on the banking system. “The sanctions imposed against Russia affected the situation in the financial sector, spurred the demand for foreign currencies, and caused fire sales of financial assets, a cash outflow from banks, and surging demand for goods,” said Elvira Nabiullina ... Presenting the CBR’s annual report to parliament, Nabiullina painted a picture to lawmakers of just how grim the situation was that confronted her. Depositors withdrew 2.4 trillion rubles in the...

Emmanuel Macron has hacked away at civil liberties, with heightened police repression and ministers promising to root out “Islamo-leftism.” Marine Le Pen would be much worse — she’ll wage all-out war on France’s democratic institutions. Spirits were low last Tuesday at the Dorothy, a café and community space in Paris named after Catholic American labor activist Dorothy Day. Two days earlier, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing France Insoumise, had finished third in the first round of France’s presidential election, a little over 400,000 votes shy of qualifying for the runoff. The reality was sinking in that on April 24,...

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has issued a statement to India Today clarifying the rubles for gas mandate that has created confusion among Russia’s gas buyers, RT has reported on Tuesday. Buyers purchasing Russia’s gas will have to pay Gazprombank, an independent institution. -snip- Buyers can still, therefore, pay in the currency of their choice. But Gazprombank will convert the payment into rubles. Gazprom would then be able to access the funds in rubles, assured that those funds would not be subject to sanctions. “They won’t be able to keep this money in their banks. They will still pay in...

Russia's attempt to pay for two of its dollar bonds using rubles was deemed a potential default scenario by a derivatives industry watchdog on Wednesday, bringing the country to the brink of its first default in a century. The Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee — a panel within the The International Swap and Derivatives Association — ruled that a "potential failure to pay" event had occurred, Reuters first reported. It is still possible for Russia to avoid a default if it manages to pay bondholders using dollars before a one-month grace period ends on May 4. Russia has become increasingly cut...

The US and its allies have slapped a grand total of over 9,600 sanctions against Russian officials, the state, companies, tycoons and other entities in connection with the crisis in Ukraine. Moscow now has more restrictions against it than Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Myanmar combined. Russia has successfully withstood unprecedented sanctions pressure from the West, President Vladimir Putin has said. "The calculation was to quickly undermine the financial and economic situation in our country, to provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system, and a large-scale shortage of goods in stores," Putin said, speaking at...

he Russian central bank sharply cut its key rate to 17% on Friday and said future cuts were possible, as emergency steps had contained the risk to financial stability, brought deposits back to banks and helped limit the threat of inflation, it said. -snip- Annual inflation in Russia accelerated to 16.70% as of April 1, its highest since March 2015 and up from 15.66% a week earlier, as the volatile rouble sent prices soaring amid unprecedented Western sanctions which cut Russia off the global financial markets and limited its trade with the outside world. External conditions for the Russian economy...

The ruble appreciated to 83 to the dollar intraday on Tuesday against a record low of 139 on March 7.The ruble has recouped most of its losses and become the top-performing currency globally. It continues to gain and is up 60 per cent against the US dollar from its lows in the first week of March. The ruble appreciated to 83 to the dollar intraday on Tuesday against a record low of 139 on March 7. Thanks to the recent rally, the ruble is only about 10 per cent lower than what it was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Russia's demand that some buyers pay for its gas in roubles has raised concerns in Germany, which relies on Russian fuel, that the payment dispute could escalate and disrupt supplies. Russia accounted for 55% of Germany's gas imports in 2021. Although that figure fell to 40% in the first quarter of 2022, Economy Minister Robert Habeck has said Germany will not achieve full independence from Russian supplies before mid-2024. If Germany does not secure enough gas, industry will be hit first. It accounts for a quarter of German gas demand. "This means that industrial production gets lost,...

The U.S. dollar was plunging against the Russian ruble as Russia and Ukraine negotiators completed a round of talks in Turkey. The dollar USDRUB, -11.05% fetched 85.13 rubles, down from 95 rubles, as reports from Russian news wires suggested some progress in the negotiations. U.S. stock futures

I have been involved in financial markets for roughly 40 years, the news out this past Thursday was in my opinion more important than ANY announcement during those years. In fact, when I heard it, I thought of it as “the shot heard ’round the world”! But here we are Sunday and almost no discussion nor coverage of “Russia will demand trade payment from the unfriendly countries (the West) in gold…or rubles if they wish”. Are people so dumbed down they do not understand what was said? First a little background. Russia has been sanctioned by the West and even...

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.