US and EU sanctions on Russia: It’s not another cold war says Obama, yet Putin won’t thaw July 29, 2014 The US and Europe have joined forces to tighten the screws on Russia’s President Putin, as the spectre of downed Malaysia airlines flight MH17 continues to tug at the consciences of western leaders. As ambassadors in Brussels yesterday finally agreed a package of new sanctions designed to bring the Russian economy to its knees, Prime [...]
Putin has exposed a chilling truth about the West: It no longer exists July 22, 2014 Somehow Europe’s leaders have managed to undershoot even my subterranean expectations. Ahead of an EU foreign ministers meeting yesterday to plan a common response to the Malaysia Airlines atrocity, leaks made it all too clear that this whole process would not amount to much. But the results – even for the EU – are almost comically [...]
Are tougher sanctions the best way to tackle Putin’s Russia? July 21, 2014 Timothy Ash, head of emerging market research (ex Africa) at Standard Bank, says Yes. Sanctions have already had an effect, by preventing a broader Russian incursion into Ukraine. Russia did not expect them, and the measures made it bide time to assess their impact. Crucially, this gave the new Ukrainian government time to regroup, and [...]
Fresh sanctions expected as West blames Putin’s Russia for MH17 crash July 21, 2014 Western governments yesterday warned that a more severe round of sanctions could be imposed against the Russian government, with heads of state increasingly blaming Moscow for supplying the missile which brought down a Malaysian airlines jet last week. Foreign secretary Philip Hammond, who has held the post for less than a week, said yesterday that [...]
There will be more Putins – and more Flight MH17s – if Europe fails to act now July 21, 2014 “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” – The Wizard in L Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz In her able, forthright way, Hillary Clinton has just painfully called Europe’s bluff. Speaking just after the horrific details of the Malaysian plane disaster became clear – where it looks increasingly likely that murderously clueless [...]
Putin fears an EU fracking bonanza – but environmentalists don’t have to May 29, 2014 RUSSIA and China agreed on a $400bn, 30-year deal last week, wherein Gazprom will deliver 38bn cubic metres of natural gas a year to China. This will exacerbate the EU energy crisis, but the bloc still seems intent on ignoring the only obvious solution – fracking – and fidgets at the margins with renewables. Large [...]
CNBC Comment: Putin’s bravado masks financial stress May 26, 2014 VLADIMIR Putin’s pivot to the East can no longer be in any doubt. Attending the St Petersburg Economic Forum (the annual meeting he set up to rival Davos) last week, high profile US attendees, like Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, were notably absent. The most high-profile foreign delegates were from China, like vice premier Li [...]
China is the real victor as Putin looks East May 22, 2014 WHEN President Vladimir Putin voyaged to Beijing this week, it was with one thing in mind: strengthening Sino-Russian relations. The signing of a $400bn (£237bn) gas pipeline deal with Beijing formed the centrepiece of this effort. Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is pushing the US and Europe away, and Putin is looking to reorient towards an [...]
Putin doesn’t need to invade Ukraine to get what he wants April 16, 2014 THE SIMMERING crisis in Ukraine has just been brought to a boil again. Pushed to the point of no return, the fledgling government in Kiev has at last responded to Russian provocations, for the first time deploying troops, aircraft, and armoured carriers in the east of the country. Kiev has explicitly labelled this an “anti-terrorist [...]
Globalisation isn’t keeping us safe – it’s blunting our punishment of Putin March 30, 2014 CALAMITIES often serve a useful purpose in foreign policy, overturning intellectual sacred cows that – until they so dramatically reveal themselves as unfit for purpose – pass for received wisdom. The long-held leftish shibboleth of interdependence presently seems ripe for the chopping block. This cherished nostrum declares that, since countries’ economic affairs are intertwined, mainstream [...]