European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to prolong economic sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine until the end of January 2020, a spokesman for the bloc said. The EU first slapped sanctions on Russia after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and supported rebels fighting Kiev troops in the east of the country. That conflict, which killed 13,000 people, is still simmering.
Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has been elected president of Ukraine twice - first as a character in the popular TV show Servant of the People, now for real. The 41-year-old performer's bid started out as a long shot but, on the back of popular discontent with the political class, he sent establishment candidates tumbling.
The markets of China, Ukraine, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey are the most vulnerable among all developing countries in terms of financing needs, reserve adequacy, asset valuation, institutional quality and trade resilience, according to a review by the analysts of the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
The U.S. Department of Agriculture sees U.S. corn and soybean exports generally increasing over the coming decade but the U.S. share of global sales will shrink as competition from South American producers heats up, the government said in its annual report.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN has suggested that Britain should “clean its conscience” by “giving back” the Falklands/Malvinas and Gibraltar before it passes judgment on the Kremlin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
The World Anti-Doping Agency’s Foundation Board has unanimously voted to declare the national anti-doping agency for Russia, Andorra, Israel, Argentina, Bolivia and Ukraine non-compliant with its code.
Barely a few days after Europe’s most powerful leaders presented a common front on Russian sanctions; President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia landed in Italy and met privately with Pope Francis at the Vatican, his second audience with the pope in the past 18 months.
President Cristina Fernandez, CFK, on an official visit to Russia met at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin and praised Moscow’s support to Argentina in the dispute with the United Kingdom over the sovereignty of the Falklands/Malvinas Islands as well as in the legal battle against speculative funds suing the country over its defaulted bonds.
Argentine energy company YPF CEO Miguel Galuccio is scheduled to sign on Wednesday in Moscow a contract on joint exploitation of shale oil and gas in the rich Vaca Muerta fields of Patagonian province Neuquén. The contract is part of the bilateral agenda to be addressed by visiting Argentine president Cristina Fernandez on Thursday, when she meets with Vladimir Putin.
France suspended indefinitely on Tuesday delivery of the first of two Mistral helicopter carrier warships to Russia, citing conflict in eastern Ukraine where the West accuses Moscow of fomenting separatism.