The UN resolution condemning the annexation of Crimea by Russia which was voted on Thursday at the general assembly showed Latin America (and Mercosur) divided on the issue. The non binding resolution sponsored by Costa Rica and the western powers received 100 votes, with 11 against and 58 abstentions.
US President Barack Obama has told the European Union it cannot rely on the United States alone to reduce its dependency on Russian energy, as relations with Moscow chill over its seizure of Crimea from Ukraine.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin called President Cristina Fernández and praised Argentina’s position against the “double standard” of world powers in the resolution of international conflicts. The Argentine leader appealed to the examples of Crimea and the Falkland Islands' referendum in her statements last week in France.
With a display of fireworks in Moscow and Crimea, President Vladimir Putin has signed a law formalizing Russia's takeover of Crimea from Ukraine, despite fresh sanctions from the EU and the US. The European Union's latest measures target twelve people involved in Russia's annexation of the peninsula.
According to Reuters, Crimea may nationalize oil and gas assets within its borders belonging to Ukraine, and sell them off to Russia. Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister hinted at the possibility that it would take control of Chornomorneftegaz, a Ukrainian state-owned enterprise, and then “privatize” it by selling it to Gazprom.
On February 27, 1954 Pravda published a short announcement on its front page that the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR had decreed on February 19 the transfer of the Crimean oblast' from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Crimea means more to Russia than the Falklands mean to Britain, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday after holding last-ditch talks on the region with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry.
Russia is planning to expand its permanent military presence outside its borders by placing military bases or seeking permission for navy ships to use ports in a number of foreign countries, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Wednesday. The list includes Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, the Seychelles, Singapore and several other countries
Pravda, Russia’s political newspaper associated with the Communist Party, welcomed Gibraltar into UEFA’s family in an article publish online on Thursday.
Gazprom has started producing oil from the Prirazlomnoye field, which is the first Russian project for developing the Arctic shelf and the commencement of their large-scale activities aimed at creating a large hydrocarbon production center in the region, according to the company.