The Economist (July 29)
“This week’s exercises with Russia in the Baltic, meanwhile, suggest not only a shared enmity towards the West but also mutual admiration of each other’s thuggish political systems. President Xi Jinping has turned a blind eye to Russia’s land-grab in Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin to China’s in the South China Sea.” That impression is slightly off the mark. There is actually little to fear. “In fact, America’s navy should co-operate more with China’s, too.”
Tags: Admiration, Baltic, China, Enmity, Exercises, Land-grab, Navy, Putin, Russia, U.S., Ukraine, Xi
CNET (June 28)
“Another widespread ransomware attack is threatening to wreak havoc across the world.” The latest variation of the Petya ransomware is disrupting businesses and governments worldwide, including WPP, Merck, A.P. Moller-Maersk, Rosneft and government agencies in Ukraine. “This is the second global ransomware attack in the last two months. It follows the WannaCry outbreak that ensnared more than 200,000 computers.”
Tags: A.P. Moller-Maersk, Attack, Computers, Havoc, Merck, Petya, Ransomware, Rosneft, Ukraine, WannaCry, WPP
Reuters (October 18)
International sanctions are hitting Russia hard. “Though the Kremlin shows no sign of backing down, it remains unclear whether Russia’s struggling economy can support its global aspirations. Moscow’s 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine sparked a major recession. Economists have been looking in vain for signs of recovery ever since.”
Tags: Economists, Economy, Global aspirations, Kremlin, Moscow, Recession, Recovery, Russia, Sanctions, Struggling, Ukraine
New York Times (October 30)
The rising populism in Germany and around the globe “is not the anger of a classic loony fringe, but rather mainstream people striking out at elites who they believe have lost touch with reality and common sense. To many here, the refugee crisis, the euro crisis, the Ukraine crisis and the threats seen in an unleashed global capitalism have converged in a fundamental question: Do the mighty still know what they are doing?”
Tags: Anger, Capitalism, Common sense, Elites, Euro crisis, Fringe, Germany, Mainstream, Populism, Reality, Refugees, Ukraine
Wall Street Journal (June 9)
With the unfolding FIFA scandal, the legitimacy of Russia’s successful bid to host the World Cub may be called into question. To some, the bribery is irrelevant. “Why not at least threaten a boycott of the Cup for as long as Russian troops remain in Ukraine? The average Russian couldn’t care less that the deputy prime minister is under international sanctions for Moscow’s seizure of Crimea. But soccer-mad Russians would care, a lot, if the games were taken from them.”
Los Angeles Times (February 4)
“To say that the truce in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed breakaway ‘republics’ are battling the pro-Western Kiev government, isn’t holding is like saying the Titanic sprung a leak. The cease-fire signed in September is a dead letter. There’s a full-blown war afoot.” This does not, however, mean that the U.S. should arm the Ukrainians. “The presumption that Putin will back off once Kiev gets U.S. weaponry is not based on evidence but hope. And hope is not a strategy.”
Bloomberg (December 18)
Early this year, Kremlin aids advised Vladimir Putin that “Russia was rich enough to withstand the financial repercussions from a possible incursion into Ukraine.” Their advice and the subsequent invasion “now looks like a grave miscalculation. Russia has driven interest rates to punishing levels and spent at least $87 billion, or 17 percent, of its foreign-exchange reserves trying to prevent a collapse in the ruble from spiraling into a panic.
Tags: Advice, Collapse, Foreign-exchange reserves, Interest rates, Kremlin, Miscalculation, Panic, Putin, Ruble, Russia, Ukraine
Washington Post (December 16)
“The drama playing out in Russia on Tuesday was not pretty. The ruble’s exchange rate has collapsed by some 50 percent against the dollar since mid-June, with an accelerating fall in recent days….Russia now faces a full-blown currency crisis.” The crisis, however, did not spring out of nowhere. “For President Vladimir Putin, the crisis is his own doing, a direct outgrowth of a meddlesome adventure into Ukraine.”
Tags: Collapse, Currency crisis, Dollar, Exchange rate, Putin, Ruble, Russia, Ukraine
Euromoney (November Issue)
With returns on some Ukraine sovereign debt exceeding 16%, there are obviously concerns over a possible default. “Ukraine’s policymakers, however, are adamant that default or even restructuring is out of the question. The main reasons given are national pride and, more cogently, a desire to maintain access to international capital markets.”
Tags: Capital markets, Default, Policymakers, Pride, Restructuring, Returns, Sovereign debt, Ukraine
The Atlantic (November Issue)
China is “intensifying efforts to remake the maritime borders of” the South and East China Seas, “just as surely as Russia is remaking Europe’s political map in places like Crimea and Ukraine—only here the scale is vastly larger, the players more numerous, and the complexity greater.”
Tags: Borders, China, Complexity, Crimea, East China Sea, Europe, Map, Maritime, Russia, South China Sea, Ukraine
