What you need to know before the open March 3, 2014 European stock futures have been falling as the tensions in Ukraine continue to rise. The rouble is currently at an all-time low, and Russia’s central bank has announced it’s hiking its benchmark interest rate from 5.5 per cent to seven per cent. All European markets are expected to fall sharply at the open, after Ukraine [...]
Asian shares tumble amid Ukraine crisis March 3, 2014 Asian shares are taking a hit in the wake of the deteriorating situation in Ukraine, with Russian troops surrounded a number of Ukrainian military bases last night. The US Secretary of State John Kerry warned yesterday that Russia could be expelled from the G8 unless President Vladimir Putin puts an end to his “incredible act [...]
Ukraine: The brink of war March 3, 2014 ■ Cameron and Obama warn Russia to change course or face significant costs ■ Nato says Putin has broken the UN charter and threatens peace in Europe THE US Secretary of State John Kerry will fly to Kiev tomorrow, as Russia faces off against the West over its interests in Ukraine. David Cameron has vowed [...]
Will Britain be called on to defend the Ukraine? March 3, 2014 ACCORDING to a treaty signed in 1994 by the UK, America and Russia, Britain is legally bound to defend the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The Budapest Memorandum centred around unrest in Crimea, which was under Russian control until 1954, and formed part of a nuclear disarmament deal that saw Ukraine destroy all of its Soviet-era [...]
Russia’s Ukraine attack is end of Pax Americana March 3, 2014 THIS is the week Western foreign policy was finally exposed as a sham. Russia has started to invade Ukraine, an independent nation supposedly backed by the West, in what could be the most significant geopolitical crisis since 9/11, and what is anybody going to do about it? Nothing. Pax Americana had been on its death [...]
Crimea: Home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet March 3, 2014 PRESIDENT Putin has ordered Russian troops into the Crimea area of Ukraine, citing the need to protect his citizens living there. But Crimea is strategically important to Putin as a military base for the Black Sea Fleet, and concerns have been raised that the President could use troops on the ground to move into Ukraine [...]
UK energy fears rise after Russia warns it may end gas discounts March 3, 2014 CONCERNS about the security of the UK’s energy supply heightened over the weekend, as escalating political troubles in Ukraine cast uncertainty over gas shipments. Ukraine provides a key pipeline for transporting Russian gas into Europe, but a bitter dispute over the country’s ties has led Russia to issue several warnings that Ukraine may lose a [...]
Bottom Line: Kiev is the key to Putin’s power March 3, 2014 IT’S NOT just about the Crimea. Attention has naturally turned to Russia’s immediate strategic interest in Sevastopol. But the assumption that this marks the limit of Vladimir Putin’s ambition is a dangerous miscalculation. Putin’s trademark brand of Russian nationalism makes control of Kiev non-negotiable. Without it he is just another thug. But for deep cultural [...]
Britain is the fourth-best in the world for billionaire residents March 2, 2014 BRITAIN is home to 77 dollar billionaires, having gained 22 since last year, though the USA has strengthened its position in the upper ranks of the world’s wealthiest, a new rich list claims. Ukrainian-born Leonard Blavatnik was named the richest UK resident by Chinese publisher Hurun, with an estimated worth of £18bn, up 16 per [...]
Crimea checkmate: Putin now has his Ukraine veto March 2, 2014 US SECRETARY of state John Kerry tends to reveal more than he ought to. In response to the Russian takeover of Crimea, he blustered, “you just don’t in the twenty-first century behave in a nineteenth-century fashion by invading another country,” as though the laws of human nature and geopolitics have been recently improved upon. In [...]