Russia’s war on Ukraine has redrawn the global oil map, rerouting a fleet of skyscraper-size tankers on longer voyages as they shuttle crude shipments that are essential to the global economy.
So far Russia has been able to redirect many of its crude exports, but they are selling at a steep discount to a handful of buyers including India, China and Turkey.
Charles McGonigal, a former FBI agent who was arrested on Monday for alleged ties to a Russian oligarch, was one of the agents who played a role in investigating now-discredited allegations of collusion between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government.
The Russian Navy commissioned three new vessels on Dec. 29, including a project 955A Borey-A class submarine Generalissimus Suvorov, a project 12700 Alexandrit-class MCM ship Anatoliy Shlemov, and a project 21631 Buyan-M class Grad vessel, the Naval News reported Monday.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered Russia’s long-awaited response to a Western price cap, signing a decree that bans the supply of crude oil and oil products from Feb. 1 for five months to nations that abide by the cap.
In 2023, Russia, India and the European Space Agency will be launching missions to the Moon, and further into deep space.
This follows Nasa’s Artemis I mission, which recently made a lunar orbit, using a spacecraft designed to put people back on the Moon’s surface.
Countries including Belgium, Poland and Italy say a cap is needed to shield their economies from high energy prices, while Germany, the Netherlands and Austria fear it could divert much-needed gas cargoes away from Europe.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is currently imprisoned in Russia, said he was “greatly disappointed” after the United States reached a deal with Russia to exchange WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap after Griner.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has concentrated the mind yet again on this vast, incomprehensible country. So many questions arise: Why is Russia so enormous? Why has it never managed to break free of autocracy? Why do we so often view it as the enemy? Orlando Figes, a Russian scholar, provides some clear answers to these questions.
The lack of solid intelligence on Russian nuclear escalation doctrine under Russian President Vladimir Putin, combined with the diplomatic blunderings of the Biden administration, has created a dangerous nuclear standoff in Europe, according to former national security officials and experts.
Europe needs to pay up to import liquefied natural gas, pray for a mild winter and cut energy demand as any sabotage of infrastructure or even deeper cuts to Russian supply would make power rationing or blackouts all but inevitable.
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