Cephalotrocity

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/28496413

Western leaders should not be intimidated by Kremlin threats of nuclear escalation, the head of the CIA said on Saturday, and be willing to consider allowing Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles to be used inside Russia.

Bill Burns, on a visit to London alongside the head of MI6, said the US had brushed off a previous Russian nuclear scare in autumn 2022, demonstrating that threats from Moscow should not always be taken literally.

“Putin’s a bully. He’s going to continue to sabre rattle from time to time,” Burns said. “We cannot afford to be intimidated by that sabre rattling … we got to be mindful of it. The US has provided enormous support for Ukraine, and I’m sure the president will consider other ways in which we can support them.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19499744

The populist BSW and far-right AfD parties, both of which did well in recent state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, are opposed to arms deliveries to Ukraine. This stance is having an impact on federal politics.

Sept 6 (Reuters) - Kremlin has been seizing assets of some Western companies in Russia through decrees signed by President Vladimir Putin and court orders related to lawsuits over halted projects or blocked funds amid Western sanctions. Below is a list of the companies affected so far...

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2595239

Major Russian banks have called on the central bank to take action to counter a yuan liquidity deficit, which has led to the rouble tumbling to its lowest level since April against the Chinese currency and driven yuan swap rates into triple digits.

The rouble fell by almost 5% against the yuan on Sept. 4 on the Moscow Stock Exchange (MOEX) after the finance ministry's plans for forex interventions implied that the central bank's daily yuan sales would plunge in the coming month to the equivalent of $200 million.

The central bank had been selling $7.3 billion worth of yuan per day during the past month. The plunge coincided with oil giant Rosneft's 15 billion yuan bond placement, which also sapped liquidity from the market.

"We cannot lend in yuan because we have nothing to cover our foreign currency positions with," said Sberbank CEO German Gref, stressing that the central bank needed to participate more actively in the market. The yuan has become the most traded foreign currency on MOEX after Western sanctions halted exchange trade in dollars and euros, with many banks developing yuan-denominated products for their clients. Yuan liquidity is mainly provided by the central bank through daily sales and one-day yuan swaps, as well as through currency sales by exporting companies.

Chinese banks in Russia, meanwhile, are avoiding currency trading for fear of secondary Western sanctions.

Mongolia's energy dependence complicates the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant, a Mongolian government spokesperson told Politico in a statement on Sept. 3.

... Facing an economy crippled by the cost and destruction of the war, by August 2022 Ukraine agreed with creditors to pause payments on its bonds. With no end to the conflict in sight, last week the nation sealed one of the fastest - and largest - debt restructurings in history. Eclipsed in scale only by Argentina and Greece, the restructuring of more than $20 billion of debt will save Kyiv $11.4 billion over the next three years - crucial for both its ongoing war effort and its International Monetary Fund programme...

cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/2497007

Russia's trade with India is booming and bilateral payments are proceeding smoothly without the glitches that have been hampering trade with other countries, Anatoly Popov, deputy CEO of Russia's largest lender, Sberbank, says.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/28177156

The situation in the Pokrovsk sector in Donetsk Oblast is "difficult," but Russian troops have not advanced over the past two days, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sept. 2, citing Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

The eastern front near Pokrovsk has been the scene of fierce fighting for several months and a focal point of Russia's offensive in Donetsk Oblast. The city is an important logistical hub for Ukrainian forces.

Asked whether it was appropriate to launch the Kursk incursion, Zelensky said that Russia had redeployed a "sufficiently large number" of troops from Zaporizhzhia and Kherson sectors to Kursk Oblast.

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