The sale of Morgan Stanley’s oil trading and storage businesses to state-owned Russian energy giant Rosneft appears to be in jeopardy following statements released by Morgan Stanley representatives. The transaction, which was brokered last year by the two sides and submitted for approval in July, has recently been hamstrung by the current state of economic…
Russia’s Central Bank has again been forced to intervene in the Russian economy. The latest intervention, which totals over $1.8 billion USD, brings the total amount of funds spent by the Russian CB up to nearly $55 billion this year alone. The fact that Russian intervention into its own economy began prior to the levying…
As inflation rises out of control in Russia thanks to the astonishing 17% decline in the value of the ruble against the dollar, coupled with the drop in the price of oil and infusions of capital by the Russian Central Bank, the Russian economy has certainly seen better days. Russia originally aimed at the beginning…
An already shaky Russian economy has been made worse by plummeting oil prices that could cause the Russian economy to recess by 1.2%. Sberbank CIB, Russia’s most important lender, estimates that if the price of crude remains around $90 per barrel that it will shrink, and additional estimates show that if the price of crude…
Newly elected Ukrainian President and former chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko addressed the UN General Assembly earlier this week. Poroshenko, in a cautionary address directed principally at the United States and the European Union, warned that removing sanctions currently levied against Moscow too quickly could lead to a ramping up of Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine,…
NATO has announced that a significant portion of Russian troops operating inside of Ukraine have been withdrawn by Moscow, though some troops have remained behind. The withdrawal has struck many as curious given the fact that EU negotiators have not made headway with their Russian counterparts in cease fire negotiations, and Ukrainian and Russian forces…
Opposition activists in Russia have organized peace marches in Moscow and other Russian cities this week, specifically to protest involvement in the Ukrainian civil war. Numbers of protesters were inexact, but BBC reports them to be at “tens of thousands,” and human rights organizations list approximately 50,000. Moscow police, however, report that only 5,000 protesters…
The government of Kazakhstan is looking to two of its neighbors on the Caspian Sea to solve a domestic gasoline crisis. Almaty has entered into talks with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, two states that are not only rich in oil as is Kazakhstan, but also boasts of stronger infrastructure to develop their natural resources. The Kazakh…
Yesterday, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov announced that a new multi-billion dollar emergency fund would be created to counteract the effects of Western sanctions with a state funded stimulus. The bailout fund will last at least through next year, despite allegations by Russian authorities that sanctions would have little to no effect on the Russian…
Ukrainian defense minister Valery Heletey announced on Sunday that NATO would begin delivering weapons to government forces to, as he put it, “stop” Vladimir Putin. Heletey said he had discussed the supply agreements with NATO defense ministers during the summit in Wales during the first week of September. NATO statements described the shipments as “non-lethal.”…
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