Crowdfunding Hollywood: Why the UK will finance the blockbusters of the future August 31, 2014 Over the years, the nationality of baddies in Hollywood films has offered a pretty reliable barometer of American geopolitical preoccupations. During the Cold War, there was an abundance of Russian villains on the big screen, with snow on their boots, vodka on their breath and their fingers on the nuclear trigger. More recently, jihadi terrorists, [...]
Putin wants to negotiate “statehood” of southeast Ukraine August 31, 2014 As Europe gets ready to place more sanctions on Russia, Vladimir Putin has called for the “statehood” of southeast Ukraine to be negotiated. In a TV interview, the Russian President said: “We must immediately begin substantive, meaningful negotiations, not on technical questions but on questions of the political structure of society and of the [...]
EU vows to hit Russia with fresh sanctions ‘within a week’ August 31, 2014 The European Union has threatened Russia with a new round of sanctions if it fails to reverse its latest intervention in Ukraine. Tensions in the region have dramatically escalated in the last week, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko saying his country was "close to a point of no return – full scale-war" with Russia. Poroshenko [...]
Putin compares Kiev to the Nazis, Ukraine seeks Nato membership August 30, 2014 Ukraine has pleaded for full membership in Nato, signalling a desire for increased Western military protection from Russian aggression. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk told government yesterday that his cabinet would "bring before parliament a law to scrap the non-aligned status of the Ukrainian state and establish a course towards membership of Nato." Nato membership would [...]
Rouble falls again as Nato accuses Russia of a “blatant violation” of Ukraine’s sovereignty August 30, 2014 The rouble continued to drop today as tensions in Ukraine continued. The currency fell 0.98 per cent against the euro and as much as 0.4 per cent against the dollar, a record intraday low, as Moscow's equities index, the Micex, fell 1.62 per cent. The losses came as Nato accused Russia of a "blatant violation" [...]
Barack Obama: Russia to blame for violence in Ukraine August 29, 2014 Barack Obama has blamed Russia for the violence taking place in eastern Ukraine. As tensions escalate between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels, the US President said that “deep Russian involvement” was the cause of fighting. "There is no doubt that this is not a home-grown, indigenous uprising in eastern Ukraine," he said [...]
Markets wobble as Obama looks to push sanctions against Russia August 28, 2014 US PRESIDENT Barack Obama yesterday said the US would look for ways to expand economic sanctions on Russia, after Kiev accused Moscow of moving troops into south eastern Ukraine. But he stopped short of calling the recent Russian aggression an invasion. US stocks edged lower as growing tensions snapped focus back to the volatile region, [...]
Petropavlovsk warning on sanctions risks August 28, 2014 LONDON-listed gold mining company Petropavlovsk yesterday saw its shares fall sharply after it warned that sanctions on Russia could have a “significant impact” on the group. The company said it had achieved record gold production in the first half of 2014. However, with some of its main lenders such as Russian banks VTB and SberBank [...]
Aeroflot dives into the red August 28, 2014 RUSSIAN carrier Aeroflot yesterday announced first-half losses of 1.9bn roubles (£31m) blaming “significant one-off events and a weaker rouble”, down from a 45m rouble profit in the same period last year. It announced a nine per cent rise in revenues, due mainly to the Sochi Winter Olympics. Aeroflot was forced to suspend flights of its fledgling [...]
London Report: Ukraine tension and ore prices weigh on FTSE August 28, 2014 A RATCHETING up of tension in Ukraine yesterday took its toll on Britain’s top share index, knocking it back from its highest closing level in nearly two months. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russian forces had entered his country and the military conflict was worsening after Moscow-backed separatists swept into an eastern town. The blue-chip [...]