Wargames
One Of The Last Real Ones To Do It
Roy Jones money problem is probably what got him betraying America
Another Big Win For Putin!!!
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Roy Jones money problem is probably what got him betraying America
Usually is
Domingo Halliburton
Handmade in USA
MOSCOW, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Russia's rouble fell sharply on Monday, setting a new 2015 low against the euro and approaching another against the dollar as it reacted to a plunge in Chinese markets that spooked investors worldwide and sent oil prices to new multi-year lows.
There were losses too for Russian stocks and bonds, but there was little sign of panic dollar buying on Moscow's streets and analysts said the central bank was unlikely to intervene in the near future to prop up the currency.
The rouble is also suffering as Western sanctions imposed over the crisis in Ukraine make it hard for Russian companies to borrow abroad at a time when they need to refinance heavy overseas debts.
"Given all the negativity around the rouble, I can see only a one-way move down," said Konstantin Kostrub from ING Eurasia.
"If Brent falls to $40 per barrel, I can see the rouble hitting 75 per dollar".
At 1510 GMT, the rouble was 2.3 percent weaker against the dollar at 70.77 and had lost 4.1 percent to trade at 81.95 versus the euro. It fell less steeply against the dollar as the U.S. currency also fell on global markets.
Brent crude oil, a benchmark for Russia's main export, was trading down more than 4 percent on Monday at $43.60 per barrel after earlier falling below $43.
Russia's dollar-denominated RTS index fell 4.5 percent, while the yield on the country's 2042 sovereign Eurobond rose by 20 basis points, reflecting weaker prices.
/>
NEW LOWS
The Russian currency is nearing a 2015 low of 71.85 to the dollar reached on Jan. 30, though it is still some way from an all-time low of 80 that it hit last December. Slightly more than a year ago, it traded at 33.
Russia's central bank has so far refrained from actively dipping in to its foreign exchange reserves, which stand at around $360 billion, to support the rouble as it did during the 2008/09 crisis.
Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, who was first deputy central bank head during the 2008/09 crisis, said on Monday oil could briefly fall to below $40 per barrel, effectively preparing the market for new falls in the rouble.
Many analysts expect the central bank to refrain from major forex sales to save its hard currency for more critical situations, given that sanctions restricting access to Western capital are seen as staying in place for some time and oil prices are expected to remain low for the foreseeable future.
"Don't expect any active actions by the central bank to support the rouble. A weak rouble is becoming a new norm. For a long time," Maxim Buyev, the dean for economics at the European University of St Petersburg, wrote in an op-ed for the Vedomosti newspaper.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said authorities would encourage exporters to sell hard currency more actively. Exporters already have to cover part of their hard currency revenues every month to meet rouble-denominated tax payments.
/>
CALM ON STREETS
There were no long queues outside exchange kiosks in Moscow on Monday, unlike in 2008 when a collapse in oil prices prompted people to rush to switch their savings into hard currency or last December, when the rouble hit all-time lows.
Some Moscow residents said most of their savings had already been exchanged during the current crisis and that any wealth accumulation had been eroded by rising prices, caused partly by a ban on certain food imports imposed in retaliation for Western economic sanctions introduced over the Ukraine crisis.
"When you look at which measures our government is taking, it's all restrictions," a Moscow resident who introduced himself as Yevgeny told Reuters television.
"It feels like our authorities are fighting for their own survival, to remain in power, rather than for the interests of the economy."
While the rouble's slide has massively benefited exporters of Russian oil, gas, metals and other commodities, it has hurt importers and ordinary Russians.
Inflation has surged to levels not seen since the early years of the presidency of Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 and prides himself on ensuring stability and prosperity after the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The crisis has also hit the tourism sector, with around 40 percent fewer Russians travelling abroad this year as they are being forced to spend more on basic goods.
Buyev said the population was more patient than during the volatile 1990s and that neither the devaluation during the 2008/09 crisis nor that of December last year had led to a run on the banks.
Putin's approval ratings also remain very high, supported by a patriotic mood encouraged by Russia's annexation last year of Crimea from Ukraine.
(Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Katya Golubkova and Reuters Television; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Gareth Jones)
There were losses too for Russian stocks and bonds, but there was little sign of panic dollar buying on Moscow's streets and analysts said the central bank was unlikely to intervene in the near future to prop up the currency.
The rouble is also suffering as Western sanctions imposed over the crisis in Ukraine make it hard for Russian companies to borrow abroad at a time when they need to refinance heavy overseas debts.
"Given all the negativity around the rouble, I can see only a one-way move down," said Konstantin Kostrub from ING Eurasia.
"If Brent falls to $40 per barrel, I can see the rouble hitting 75 per dollar".
At 1510 GMT, the rouble was 2.3 percent weaker against the dollar at 70.77 and had lost 4.1 percent to trade at 81.95 versus the euro. It fell less steeply against the dollar as the U.S. currency also fell on global markets.
Brent crude oil, a benchmark for Russia's main export, was trading down more than 4 percent on Monday at $43.60 per barrel after earlier falling below $43.
Russia's dollar-denominated RTS index fell 4.5 percent, while the yield on the country's 2042 sovereign Eurobond rose by 20 basis points, reflecting weaker prices.
/>
NEW LOWS
The Russian currency is nearing a 2015 low of 71.85 to the dollar reached on Jan. 30, though it is still some way from an all-time low of 80 that it hit last December. Slightly more than a year ago, it traded at 33.
Russia's central bank has so far refrained from actively dipping in to its foreign exchange reserves, which stand at around $360 billion, to support the rouble as it did during the 2008/09 crisis.
Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev, who was first deputy central bank head during the 2008/09 crisis, said on Monday oil could briefly fall to below $40 per barrel, effectively preparing the market for new falls in the rouble.
Many analysts expect the central bank to refrain from major forex sales to save its hard currency for more critical situations, given that sanctions restricting access to Western capital are seen as staying in place for some time and oil prices are expected to remain low for the foreseeable future.
"Don't expect any active actions by the central bank to support the rouble. A weak rouble is becoming a new norm. For a long time," Maxim Buyev, the dean for economics at the European University of St Petersburg, wrote in an op-ed for the Vedomosti newspaper.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said authorities would encourage exporters to sell hard currency more actively. Exporters already have to cover part of their hard currency revenues every month to meet rouble-denominated tax payments.
/>
CALM ON STREETS
There were no long queues outside exchange kiosks in Moscow on Monday, unlike in 2008 when a collapse in oil prices prompted people to rush to switch their savings into hard currency or last December, when the rouble hit all-time lows.
Some Moscow residents said most of their savings had already been exchanged during the current crisis and that any wealth accumulation had been eroded by rising prices, caused partly by a ban on certain food imports imposed in retaliation for Western economic sanctions introduced over the Ukraine crisis.
"When you look at which measures our government is taking, it's all restrictions," a Moscow resident who introduced himself as Yevgeny told Reuters television.
"It feels like our authorities are fighting for their own survival, to remain in power, rather than for the interests of the economy."
While the rouble's slide has massively benefited exporters of Russian oil, gas, metals and other commodities, it has hurt importers and ordinary Russians.
Inflation has surged to levels not seen since the early years of the presidency of Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 and prides himself on ensuring stability and prosperity after the chaotic years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The crisis has also hit the tourism sector, with around 40 percent fewer Russians travelling abroad this year as they are being forced to spend more on basic goods.
Buyev said the population was more patient than during the volatile 1990s and that neither the devaluation during the 2008/09 crisis nor that of December last year had led to a run on the banks.
Putin's approval ratings also remain very high, supported by a patriotic mood encouraged by Russia's annexation last year of Crimea from Ukraine.
(Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Katya Golubkova and Reuters Television; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Gareth Jones)
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
Russia: Children with Disabilities Face Violence, Neglect
End ‘Orphanage’ System; Support Family Care
LAUNCH GALLERY
EXPAND
A child in a Russian state orphanage for children with disabilities.
© 2011 Gordon Welters/laif /Redux
(Moscow) – Nearly 30 percent of all children with disabilities in Russia live in state orphanages where they may face violence and neglect. Russia should stop abuse of children with disabilities in state care, and make it a priority to provide support for children with disabilities to live with their families or in other family settings, rather than in institutions.
What Russia Should Do
Establish a zero-tolerance policy toward violence and neglect of children with disabilities.
Support family care for children with disabilities, including with accurate information on children’s developmental potential and accessible community-based services.
Make a clear, time-bound plan to end institutionalization of children and move children into birth, foster, and adoptive families.
The 93-page report, “Abandoned by the State: Violence, Neglect, and Isolation for Children with Disabilities in Russian Orphanages,” found that many children and young people with disabilities who have lived in state orphanages suffered serious abuse and neglect on the part of institution staff that impedes their development. Some children interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that orphanage staff beat them, injected them with sedatives, and sent them to psychiatric hospitals for days or weeks at a time to control or punish them.
“Violence and neglect of children with disabilities in orphanages is heartbreaking and completely deplorable,” said Andrea Mazzarino, a Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The Russian government should establish a zero-tolerance policy for violence against children in institutions and immediately strengthen programs to keep children in their families.”
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 Report
Abandoned by the State
Violence, Neglect, and Isolation for Children with Disabilities in Russian Orphanages
Children and children’s rights activists reported that in orphanages children often lack access to needed health care, adequate nutrition, attention, and opportunities for play, and that many children receive little to no formal education. Lack of adequate support and training for orphanage staff, as well as understaffing, is a central factor in staff treatment of children. Children had few if any meaningful opportunities to seek help or report abuse.
At least 95 percent of children living in Russian orphanages and foster care have at least one living parent. The Russian government has made a public commitment to move away from the overuse of institutionalization of children, including children with disabilities. But government officials have not focused sufficient attention on the particular circumstances of institutionalized children with disabilities.
In cases Human Rights Watch documented, many children with disabilities ended up in orphanages because healthcare workers pressured their parents to give them up, claiming that children lacked developmental potential or that parents would be unable to care for them. The lack of adequate and appropriate education, access to rehabilitation and health care, and financial and other state support in many communities in Russia also affected parents’ decisions to place or keep their children in institutions.
Within orphanages, Human Rights Watch documented the segregation of children whom staff deemed to have the most “severe” disabilities into so-called “lying-down” rooms, where they are confined to cribs and often tied to furniture with rags. Many of these children received little attention except for feeding and diaper changing. Many children in these settings are rarely if ever given the chance to leave their cribs, interact with other children, or go outside. The practice of placing children with certain types of disabilities in “lying down” rooms is discriminatory and should be ended, Human Rights Watch said.
“Many children with disabilities confined to ‘lying down’ rooms suffer stunning delays in their physical, emotional, and intellectual development,” Mazzarino said. “This is an avoidable tragedy if only all children with disabilities are given the proper nutrition, health care, and education that they have a right to.”
Human Rights Watch spoke with many orphanage staff who expressed a desire to help children develop their potential. However, staff often treat children in unacceptable ways because they lack adequate support, including training in nonviolent disciplinary methods or in the nutritional and physical needs of children with various types of disabilities.
Under international law, Russia has a commitment to protect children from all forms of violence and neglect in order to ensure that children with disabilities are not separated from their parents against their will and to protect children with disabilities from all forms of discrimination.
Among the steps the Russian government has taken to address high rates of institutionalization of children is development of the National Action Strategy on the Rights of Children for 2012-2017. The document includes a commitment to prevent abandonment of children to institutions and decrease institutional care. However, this and other policies devote insufficient attention to the particular needs of children with disabilities and lack concrete plans for implementation and monitoring, Human Rights Watch found.
Now that the government has recognized the need to reduce institutionalization of children, it needs clear, achievable plans to achieve this goal, Human Rights Watch said. The government should provide support to children living with their birth families or, where this is not possible, expand foster care and adoption programs.
Russia lacks a federal system to place children with disabilities in foster or adoptive families. And parents in these families reported obstacles to raising children with disabilities in their communities, including lack of support and opportunities for education and other services. They also described negative attitudes by government officials.
The Russian government should create a time-bound plan to end institutionalization of children, Human Rights Watch said. Placing children in state care should be only for the short-term and in very limited circumstances that serve the best interest of the child and comply with international human rights law. The government should also provide social support and services to families to help them raise children with disabilities at home.
International and domestic donors should earmark funds for programs that help move children out of orphanages into family-based care as well as programs that support children’s inclusion in the community, such as accessible schools and healthcare services.
“Until the Russian government and donors act, tens of thousands of Russian children may spend their lives between four walls, isolated from their families, communities, and peers, and denied the range of opportunities available to other children,” Mazzarino said. “The Russian government can be doing much more to support parents raising a child with a disability, rather than pushing children into institutions.”
Russia: Children with Disabilities Face Violence, Neglect
End ‘Orphanage’ System; Support Family Care
LAUNCH GALLERYEXPAND
A child in a Russian state orphanage for children with disabilities.
© 2011 Gordon Welters/laif /Redux
(Moscow) – Nearly 30 percent of all children with disabilities in Russia live in state orphanages where they may face violence and neglect. Russia should stop abuse of children with disabilities in state care, and make it a priority to provide support for children with disabilities to live with their families or in other family settings, rather than in institutions.
What Russia Should Do
Establish a zero-tolerance policy toward violence and neglect of children with disabilities.
Support family care for children with disabilities, including with accurate information on children’s developmental potential and accessible community-based services.
Make a clear, time-bound plan to end institutionalization of children and move children into birth, foster, and adoptive families.
The 93-page report, “Abandoned by the State: Violence, Neglect, and Isolation for Children with Disabilities in Russian Orphanages,” found that many children and young people with disabilities who have lived in state orphanages suffered serious abuse and neglect on the part of institution staff that impedes their development. Some children interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that orphanage staff beat them, injected them with sedatives, and sent them to psychiatric hospitals for days or weeks at a time to control or punish them.
“Violence and neglect of children with disabilities in orphanages is heartbreaking and completely deplorable,” said Andrea Mazzarino, a Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The Russian government should establish a zero-tolerance policy for violence against children in institutions and immediately strengthen programs to keep children in their families.”
SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 Report
Abandoned by the State
Violence, Neglect, and Isolation for Children with Disabilities in Russian Orphanages
- Download the full report
- Download the summary and recommendations: photo feature
- Download the easy to read version
Children and children’s rights activists reported that in orphanages children often lack access to needed health care, adequate nutrition, attention, and opportunities for play, and that many children receive little to no formal education. Lack of adequate support and training for orphanage staff, as well as understaffing, is a central factor in staff treatment of children. Children had few if any meaningful opportunities to seek help or report abuse.
At least 95 percent of children living in Russian orphanages and foster care have at least one living parent. The Russian government has made a public commitment to move away from the overuse of institutionalization of children, including children with disabilities. But government officials have not focused sufficient attention on the particular circumstances of institutionalized children with disabilities.
In cases Human Rights Watch documented, many children with disabilities ended up in orphanages because healthcare workers pressured their parents to give them up, claiming that children lacked developmental potential or that parents would be unable to care for them. The lack of adequate and appropriate education, access to rehabilitation and health care, and financial and other state support in many communities in Russia also affected parents’ decisions to place or keep their children in institutions.
Within orphanages, Human Rights Watch documented the segregation of children whom staff deemed to have the most “severe” disabilities into so-called “lying-down” rooms, where they are confined to cribs and often tied to furniture with rags. Many of these children received little attention except for feeding and diaper changing. Many children in these settings are rarely if ever given the chance to leave their cribs, interact with other children, or go outside. The practice of placing children with certain types of disabilities in “lying down” rooms is discriminatory and should be ended, Human Rights Watch said.
“Many children with disabilities confined to ‘lying down’ rooms suffer stunning delays in their physical, emotional, and intellectual development,” Mazzarino said. “This is an avoidable tragedy if only all children with disabilities are given the proper nutrition, health care, and education that they have a right to.”
Human Rights Watch spoke with many orphanage staff who expressed a desire to help children develop their potential. However, staff often treat children in unacceptable ways because they lack adequate support, including training in nonviolent disciplinary methods or in the nutritional and physical needs of children with various types of disabilities.
Under international law, Russia has a commitment to protect children from all forms of violence and neglect in order to ensure that children with disabilities are not separated from their parents against their will and to protect children with disabilities from all forms of discrimination.
Among the steps the Russian government has taken to address high rates of institutionalization of children is development of the National Action Strategy on the Rights of Children for 2012-2017. The document includes a commitment to prevent abandonment of children to institutions and decrease institutional care. However, this and other policies devote insufficient attention to the particular needs of children with disabilities and lack concrete plans for implementation and monitoring, Human Rights Watch found.
Now that the government has recognized the need to reduce institutionalization of children, it needs clear, achievable plans to achieve this goal, Human Rights Watch said. The government should provide support to children living with their birth families or, where this is not possible, expand foster care and adoption programs.
Russia lacks a federal system to place children with disabilities in foster or adoptive families. And parents in these families reported obstacles to raising children with disabilities in their communities, including lack of support and opportunities for education and other services. They also described negative attitudes by government officials.
The Russian government should create a time-bound plan to end institutionalization of children, Human Rights Watch said. Placing children in state care should be only for the short-term and in very limited circumstances that serve the best interest of the child and comply with international human rights law. The government should also provide social support and services to families to help them raise children with disabilities at home.
International and domestic donors should earmark funds for programs that help move children out of orphanages into family-based care as well as programs that support children’s inclusion in the community, such as accessible schools and healthcare services.
“Until the Russian government and donors act, tens of thousands of Russian children may spend their lives between four walls, isolated from their families, communities, and peers, and denied the range of opportunities available to other children,” Mazzarino said. “The Russian government can be doing much more to support parents raising a child with a disability, rather than pushing children into institutions.”
Russia: Children with Disabilities Face Violence, Neglect
it's not that serious. and we shouldn't take former boxers seriously anyway because of the brain damage.Roy Jones money problem is probably what got him betraying America
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
CORRUPTION
Corruption eats Russia-annexed Crimea from within
Residents of Crimea have struggled with corruption and land-grabs since the Russian takeover of the region.
Mansur Mirovalev | 02 Sep 2015 10:05 GMT | Corruption, Business & Economy, Politics, Europe, Russia
Corruption eats Russia-annexed Crimea from within
Residents of Crimea have struggled with corruption and land-grabs since the Russian takeover of the region.
Mansur Mirovalev | 02 Sep 2015 10:05 GMT | Corruption, Business & Economy, Politics, Europe, Russia
- ranked 136 and 142, respectively, of a total 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index by Berlin-based Transparency International.
For many here, the March 2014 annexation, which was hailed by Russian media as Crimea's return to "motherland", was like trading a bad situation for a worse one.
RELATED: Russia buries tonnes of banned food imports in Crimea
The crown jewel
Crimea was a crown jewel of many emperors - Roman caesars, Mongol khans, Ottoman sultans and Romanov tsars.
It was the northernmost end of the Great Silk Road, a military and commercial gateway into the Mediterranean, an inexpensive Soviet riviera with beaches, resorts and vineyards - something most Russians don't have around them.
After the peninsula came under Moscow's control, properties of the Ukrainian government, oligarchs, and banks were nationalised, ownership rights to the smallest land lots were scrutinised and disputed, and affluent Russians rushed to buy their own little piece of the subtropical paradise.
Moscow also channelled billions of roubles to restore the crumbling infrastructure and rebuild the Soviet-era military and naval bases.
People and Power - The Baltic and the Bear
As decades-old supply routes from Ukraine were severed, prices on the peninsula skyrocketed, according to local residents.
Local businessmen complain about the difficulties they face when registering their companies under the Russian jurisdiction.
The transition has created fertile ground for corruption.
Patrushev told a government meeting that more than 60 officials were fired for corruption and some 700 corruption-related crimes have been identified in Crimea since the annexation.
But was he - as in a Russian proverb - telling bees they shouldn't like honey?
Most of the officials he addressed were former Ukrainian public servants who saved their seats by pledging allegiance to the Kremlin. Many of these officials were part of shady schemes that emerged under ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, analysts and officials say.
Yanukovich's cronies started "corruption schemes, a system of kickbacks, nepotism and family connections", Grigory Ioffe, head of Crimea's Public Chamber, told Al Jazeera.
"It metastasised throughout Crimea's economy - and not just economy, businesses, ties outside Crimea - so much that within the year-and-a-half [of Russian rule] it is really difficult to get rid of that by just dismissing these people," Ioffe said.
RELATED: For Eastern Europe, Moscow is an existential threat
Illegal takeovers
But other officials and community leaders claim the practises never died out - only stopped for several months of uncertainty under the new government.
"There was a resumption of the corrupt practises that existed here under the Ukrainian government, when the entire system was infected with corruption from top to bottom," Vladimir Garnachuk, a former Crimean lawmaker and head of the Clean Coast Crimea public organisation, told Al Jazeera.
He said local elites centred around Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov resist the Kremlin's attempts to influence decision-making on the peninsula. They adopt laws that contradict Russia's federal legislation and scare off Russian investors, he purported.
"What's going on here is some sort of a separatist movement," Garnachuk said.
His group deals with the most visible signs of this corruption - the illegal takeover of public beaches and land in national parks by officials and well-connected businessmen.
The takeovers in Crimea started after Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union - and the people orchestrating them quickly adapted to Russian ways.
Ukrainian officials-turned-Russian public servants "all very quickly became part of the Russian system, found their ways in and out", Elena Yatsishina, an anti-corruption activist from the southwestern Crimean community of Fiolent, told Al Jazeera.
Her community of modest dachas is nested on top of an ancient cliff overlooking a breathtakingly beautiful Black Sea shoreline.
The cliff is famous in historical myths. It was one of the settings in the ancient Greek tragedy of Iphigenia, which inspired poet Goethe and composer Gluck to produce works on the theme; Orthodox Christian legends claim that Apostle Andrew, Christ's first disciple, landed on the cliff to spread the Gospel in what is now Ukraine.
But the most recent news from it are far from mythical.
Yatsishina and dozens of Fiolent residents formed a group to fight land developers who seized a Soviet-era campground and installed metal fences blocking their access to the sea.
Despite a court ruling that deemed the land grab illegal, the developers are still there building luxurious houses, reinstalling the fences, posting guards, and cutting off water and electricity supply to the community, residents say.
After some 150 of them signed a petition to Putin and Crimea's general prosecutor's office, each received phone calls from city officials urging them to recall the petition.
"We don't doubt that these people have the power and means to cause trouble," Yatsishina said.
RELATED: European volunteers fighting in Eastern Ukraine
The good tsar
Three dozen white tents were pitched throughout Sevastopol in mid-August when Putin visited the peninsula. The tents were decorated with a round logo depicting Crimea surrounded by black, twisted arms. A sign below read: "Stop the pillaging of Sevastopol!"
Young activists dispatched by the city's parliament told passers-by they were collecting signatures under a petition to Putin to sack the city mayor and appoint a "literate, effective manager".
Some 22,000 Sevastopol residents, or some seven percent of the city's population, had signed the petition by late August.
Putin is widely seen as the good tsar and the supreme arbiter of disputes with the Russian state.
"I feel like I am trying to import two containers with cocaine, opium and marijuana, not the goods necessary for the development of a zoo," Crimean businessman Oleg Zubkov wrote in an open letter to Putin in late August.
In the letter he complained of the obstacles he faces when trying to import generators and other equipment for two private zoos he owns that are registered as small businesses and attract thousands of visitors.
He said out of some 120,000 registered business owners in Crimea, only one-fourth managed to get registered under the Russian government.
Several other business owners told Al Jazeera the delays seem to be caused by the difference between Ukrainian and Russian legislation and tax policies.
"That's not the way to develop Crimea, we have to change something or someone," Zubkov wrote.
Corruption eats Russia-annexed Crimea from within
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
88m3
Fast Money & Foreign Objects
No More Norwegian Salmon For Russians
BY ELISABETH BRAW / AUGUST 18, 2015 4:35 AM EDT
The once-healthy Russian market for Norwegian salmon, pictured, had all but disappeared when Western sanctions on Russia, due to their actions in Ukraine, led to Russian bans on food imported from Europe. But after months of sales by Norway to Russian trade partners like Belarus, the Kremlin has finally closed the lucrative loophole and blocked all imported European foods. SUDRES/PHOTOCUISINE/CORBIS
FILED UNDER: World, Russia, Norway, Moscow, Exports and Imports
single largest export market. But the Norwegians were craftier than the Kremlin and found a way to wriggle off this hook. Within days, they were exporting their fish—most importantly salmon—to landlocked Belarus, which has a customs union with Russia. From there, it made its way to Russian fish counters. Between August and September of last year, sales of Norwegian fish to Belarus nearly tripled, from $3 million to $9 million.
But this August, the Russian government plugged the hole that allowed Norwegian salmon and other European delicacies to get to Russian shops.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
Between January and July of this year, Norwegian salmon sales to Belarus amounted to $24 million, compared with $17 million during the same period last year. Although the Belarus loophole was entirely legal, the Kremlin decreed in August that from now on all food originating in banned nations will be destroyed. That includes deliveries confiscated at the border and products arriving from Belarus that have made it to shops and warehouses.
In sometimes surreal scenes, thousands of tons of cheese and other food have been bulldozed and burned. The move has caused widespread outrage—and proved an irresistible source of jokes. A tweet suggesting that the Russian Federal Customs Service’s coat of arms should be Saint George slaying a sausage has been retweeted several hundred times.
The sanctions have led to hardship for Russia’s poor because of higher prices of foods such as fruit, vegetables and dairy products. The Russian economy shrank by 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2015, hit by the sanctions and lower oil prices. Tens of thousands of Russians have signed a petition demanding that instead of destroying foreign foods at the border, authorities should redistribute them to people in need. "Why should we destroy food that could feed war veterans, pensioners, the disabled, families with many children, victims of natural disasters and other groups in need?” the petition reads.
At an upscale Moscow shop in August, the government’s efforts appeared tohave borne fruit. All the salmon available was Russian, and the staff reported not having seen “Belorussian” salmon for months. Several importers of Norwegian fish have gone bankrupt.
For now, Russian salmon lovers not keen on the domestic variety can enjoy large shipments from Chile. Chilean salmon is, however, considered to be of lesser quality than its Norwegian kin and arrives frozen. Even if the Kremlin lifts the sanctions, Norwegian salmon will be hard to come by. “If the Russians want fish again, I feel sorry for them,” says Davidsen. “We don’t have any left.”
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/08/28/no-more-norwegian-salmon-russians-363659.html
BY ELISABETH BRAW / AUGUST 18, 2015 4:35 AM EDT
The once-healthy Russian market for Norwegian salmon, pictured, had all but disappeared when Western sanctions on Russia, due to their actions in Ukraine, led to Russian bans on food imported from Europe. But after months of sales by Norway to Russian trade partners like Belarus, the Kremlin has finally closed the lucrative loophole and blocked all imported European foods. SUDRES/PHOTOCUISINE/CORBIS
FILED UNDER: World, Russia, Norway, Moscow, Exports and Imports
single largest export market. But the Norwegians were craftier than the Kremlin and found a way to wriggle off this hook. Within days, they were exporting their fish—most importantly salmon—to landlocked Belarus, which has a customs union with Russia. From there, it made its way to Russian fish counters. Between August and September of last year, sales of Norwegian fish to Belarus nearly tripled, from $3 million to $9 million.
But this August, the Russian government plugged the hole that allowed Norwegian salmon and other European delicacies to get to Russian shops.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
Between January and July of this year, Norwegian salmon sales to Belarus amounted to $24 million, compared with $17 million during the same period last year. Although the Belarus loophole was entirely legal, the Kremlin decreed in August that from now on all food originating in banned nations will be destroyed. That includes deliveries confiscated at the border and products arriving from Belarus that have made it to shops and warehouses.
In sometimes surreal scenes, thousands of tons of cheese and other food have been bulldozed and burned. The move has caused widespread outrage—and proved an irresistible source of jokes. A tweet suggesting that the Russian Federal Customs Service’s coat of arms should be Saint George slaying a sausage has been retweeted several hundred times.
The sanctions have led to hardship for Russia’s poor because of higher prices of foods such as fruit, vegetables and dairy products. The Russian economy shrank by 4.6 percent in the second quarter of 2015, hit by the sanctions and lower oil prices. Tens of thousands of Russians have signed a petition demanding that instead of destroying foreign foods at the border, authorities should redistribute them to people in need. "Why should we destroy food that could feed war veterans, pensioners, the disabled, families with many children, victims of natural disasters and other groups in need?” the petition reads.
At an upscale Moscow shop in August, the government’s efforts appeared tohave borne fruit. All the salmon available was Russian, and the staff reported not having seen “Belorussian” salmon for months. Several importers of Norwegian fish have gone bankrupt.
For now, Russian salmon lovers not keen on the domestic variety can enjoy large shipments from Chile. Chilean salmon is, however, considered to be of lesser quality than its Norwegian kin and arrives frozen. Even if the Kremlin lifts the sanctions, Norwegian salmon will be hard to come by. “If the Russians want fish again, I feel sorry for them,” says Davidsen. “We don’t have any left.”
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/08/28/no-more-norwegian-salmon-russians-363659.html
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Why Vladimir Putin Won't Be Helping OPEC to Cut Oil Production
Elena Mazneva Dina Khrennikova
Few things have more potential to spook the oil market than the prospect of Russia joining forces with OPEC. Speculation that such a move was afoot last month drove crude to its biggest three-day gain in 25 years.
Despite the market buzz, there are sound economic and technical reasons why this is unlikely to happen.
“Russia and OPEC have talked about cooperation in cutting production many times in the past, but the results of that were always dismal and disappointing,” said Nordine Ait-Laoussine, president of Geneva-based consultant Nalcosa and former energy minister of Algeria. “Russia has assumed that when oil prices go down, OPEC countries are in a weaker position and are more likely to be the first to cut its production, and they always did.”
Russia vies with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. for the title of world’s largest oil producer. When Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said last week he had agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on “initiatives” to bring stability to the oil market, he was attempting to resuscitate a plan to boost prices that went nowhere in November.
Kremlin officials were quick to dismiss the prospect of joint action. Making artificial cuts to output would be senseless in a long term, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday. Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft OJSC, also delivered a reality check, saying the nation won’t be joining the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and couldn’t cut production even if it wanted to.
To be sure, Russia has good reason to want crude to rise again. Energy accounts for more than 60 percent of exports and the nation’s economy is entering a recession due in large part to the price slump. Oil and gas are contributing the lowest share of budget revenue since 2009, according to data from Russia’s treasury.
However, the nation can tolerate low prices better than many OPEC members. Russia’s budget deficit is projected to be about 3 percent of economic output this year, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, will have a budget gap of almost 20 percent, the International Monetary Fund forecasts.
Russia is comfortable with an oil price above $60 per barrel, Deputy Prime MinisterArkady Dvorkovich said last week. Several OPEC members need more than $100 to balance their government budgets, according to the IMF. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at $47.75 per barrel at 1:30 p.m. in London.
Even if Russia wanted to join a future OPEC move to curb production, it doesn’t have the ability of some Persian Gulf producers to quickly raise or lower output because of the harsh winters and complex geology at its Siberian oil fields, according to the Russian Energy Ministry.
“You cannot regulate productivity of Russian wells simply by turning a faucet,” Sergei Klubkov, exploration and production analyst at Moscow-based Vygon Consulting, said by e-mail.
Private Companies
Russia also doesn’t have a single state-owned company that controls the nation’s oil production, such as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. or National Iranian Oil Co. The number of publicly traded producers means the nation couldn’t curb output like an OPEC member, said Sechin of state-owned Rosneft, which accounts for about half of Russian oil exports.
Russian oil companies aren’t clamoring for an alliance with OPEC. They are actuallyoutperforming their international peers on metrics such as cash flow and profit margins. Russian oil extraction and export tax rates shrink at lower prices, giving companies a buffer against the slump in crude.
Russia is also in direct competition for market share with OPEC members. The rivalry is particularly acute in Asia, the main source of growth in oil demand and a region where Saudi Arabia is also taking steps to maintain its presence.
Strained Relationship
"Russia inherited a strained relationship with OPEC from the USSR," said Joseph Mann, faculty member for Middle Eastern Studies in Bar-Ilan University, Israel. "The competition over control of the European and Asian markets and the clash of values between OPEC’s Islamic states and the Communist state left their mark."
Iran, which produces a similar grade of crude to Russia, is preparing to ramp up production by as much as 1 million barrels a day next year after reaching an agreement to lift international sanctions.
The notion of a Russia-OPEC alliance was first mooted in the 1970s as a way of opposing “American imperialism,” according to Stanislav Zhiznin, head of the Center of Energy Diplomacy and Geopolitics in Moscow, who worked in the Soviet and then the Russian Foreign Ministry from 1977 until 2011.
“But OPEC did not speak with a single voice and some countries, notably Saudi Arabia, were pro-American and anti-Soviet at the time,” he said. “And the Soviet government assumed the USSR -- as a super power -- could not just join OPEC, but lead it.”
An alliance between Russia and OPEC to support prices was considered again after theSept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Each time the idea came to nothing, according to Nalcosa’s Ait-Laoussine.
Oil Producers Seen by Qatar as Studying Request for OPEC Summit
Elena Mazneva Dina Khrennikova
- Past attempts at cooperation proved `dismal and disappointing'
- Siberian winter makes it difficult to be swing oil producer
Few things have more potential to spook the oil market than the prospect of Russia joining forces with OPEC. Speculation that such a move was afoot last month drove crude to its biggest three-day gain in 25 years.
Despite the market buzz, there are sound economic and technical reasons why this is unlikely to happen.
“Russia and OPEC have talked about cooperation in cutting production many times in the past, but the results of that were always dismal and disappointing,” said Nordine Ait-Laoussine, president of Geneva-based consultant Nalcosa and former energy minister of Algeria. “Russia has assumed that when oil prices go down, OPEC countries are in a weaker position and are more likely to be the first to cut its production, and they always did.”
Russia vies with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. for the title of world’s largest oil producer. When Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said last week he had agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on “initiatives” to bring stability to the oil market, he was attempting to resuscitate a plan to boost prices that went nowhere in November.
Kremlin officials were quick to dismiss the prospect of joint action. Making artificial cuts to output would be senseless in a long term, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday. Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of Russia’s largest oil company Rosneft OJSC, also delivered a reality check, saying the nation won’t be joining the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and couldn’t cut production even if it wanted to.
To be sure, Russia has good reason to want crude to rise again. Energy accounts for more than 60 percent of exports and the nation’s economy is entering a recession due in large part to the price slump. Oil and gas are contributing the lowest share of budget revenue since 2009, according to data from Russia’s treasury.
However, the nation can tolerate low prices better than many OPEC members. Russia’s budget deficit is projected to be about 3 percent of economic output this year, according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, will have a budget gap of almost 20 percent, the International Monetary Fund forecasts.
Russia is comfortable with an oil price above $60 per barrel, Deputy Prime MinisterArkady Dvorkovich said last week. Several OPEC members need more than $100 to balance their government budgets, according to the IMF. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at $47.75 per barrel at 1:30 p.m. in London.
Even if Russia wanted to join a future OPEC move to curb production, it doesn’t have the ability of some Persian Gulf producers to quickly raise or lower output because of the harsh winters and complex geology at its Siberian oil fields, according to the Russian Energy Ministry.
“You cannot regulate productivity of Russian wells simply by turning a faucet,” Sergei Klubkov, exploration and production analyst at Moscow-based Vygon Consulting, said by e-mail.
Private Companies
Russia also doesn’t have a single state-owned company that controls the nation’s oil production, such as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co. or National Iranian Oil Co. The number of publicly traded producers means the nation couldn’t curb output like an OPEC member, said Sechin of state-owned Rosneft, which accounts for about half of Russian oil exports.
Russian oil companies aren’t clamoring for an alliance with OPEC. They are actuallyoutperforming their international peers on metrics such as cash flow and profit margins. Russian oil extraction and export tax rates shrink at lower prices, giving companies a buffer against the slump in crude.
Russia is also in direct competition for market share with OPEC members. The rivalry is particularly acute in Asia, the main source of growth in oil demand and a region where Saudi Arabia is also taking steps to maintain its presence.
Strained Relationship
"Russia inherited a strained relationship with OPEC from the USSR," said Joseph Mann, faculty member for Middle Eastern Studies in Bar-Ilan University, Israel. "The competition over control of the European and Asian markets and the clash of values between OPEC’s Islamic states and the Communist state left their mark."
Iran, which produces a similar grade of crude to Russia, is preparing to ramp up production by as much as 1 million barrels a day next year after reaching an agreement to lift international sanctions.
The notion of a Russia-OPEC alliance was first mooted in the 1970s as a way of opposing “American imperialism,” according to Stanislav Zhiznin, head of the Center of Energy Diplomacy and Geopolitics in Moscow, who worked in the Soviet and then the Russian Foreign Ministry from 1977 until 2011.
“But OPEC did not speak with a single voice and some countries, notably Saudi Arabia, were pro-American and anti-Soviet at the time,” he said. “And the Soviet government assumed the USSR -- as a super power -- could not just join OPEC, but lead it.”
An alliance between Russia and OPEC to support prices was considered again after theSept. 11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Each time the idea came to nothing, according to Nalcosa’s Ait-Laoussine.
Oil Producers Seen by Qatar as Studying Request for OPEC Summit
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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
This dude can't even keep food in the fridge
