▼

Saturday, 21 May 2022

POLITICO

POLITICO

Putin’s Russia vision shows need to equip Moldova, UK’s Truss says

Posted: 21 May 2022 06:56 AM PDT

Moldova’s defenses should be bolstered to help guard against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vision for an expanded Russia in Eastern Europe, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

In an interview with British newspaper the Telegraph, Truss said that despite the Russian retreat from Ukraine’s capital, Putin is bent on creating a “greater Russia” and one that has its eyes on other territories in Eastern Europe.

In line with greater support for Ukrainian defenses, one “vulnerable” state in the region that the NATO alliance should look to support is Moldova, Truss said.

“I would want to see Moldova equipped to NATO standard. This is a discussion we're having with our allies,” Truss said.

"Putin has been absolutely clear about his ambitions to create a greater Russia — and just because his attempts to take Kyiv weren't successful it doesn't mean he's abandoned those ambitions," she added.

Moldova is a former Soviet republic sandwiched between the Romanian and Ukrainian borders. It does not share a frontier with Russia, but Putin’s advance through areas of eastern and southern Ukraine has edged towards Moldova’s territories, which sit inland from the Western bank of the Black Sea.

The country, led by President Maia Sandu, is not a member of the NATO alliance, but following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sought closer ties with the West, applying to join the European Union just two weeks after Russian forces broke into Ukrainian territory in February.

Sandu this week traveled to Brussels to lobby for her country’s EU membership bid. “We are aware that political decisions at the EU level have to be made. We are also aware that these are not easy decisions. But granting Moldova candidate status is the right decision. We belong in the European Union," she told members of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The Moldovan president also highlighted that recent events in the region of Transnistria — a narrow strip of land between Moldova and Ukraine — have been a cause for concern. Three explosions were reported on April 25 and 26 in the region. “Recent tensions inside the Transnistrian region … have increased concerns over potential destabilization,” Sandu said.

Transnistria is a breakaway state that left Moldova following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. It has close ties to the Kremlin, and in late April, Russian military commander Rustam Minnekaev revealed that Moscow’s strategy was to establish a land corridor through Southern Ukraine all the way to Transnistria.

Portugal’s Costa in Kyiv for talks on aid, EU accession

Posted: 21 May 2022 03:35 AM PDT

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa arrived in Kyiv on Saturday morning, where he will sit down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to talk about the war-torn country’s bid for EU accession, as well as Portugal’s support package for Ukraine.

Speaking ahead of his visit, Costa said that he wanted to chart a “pragmatic” approach to Ukraine’s EU membership application, suggesting that the country first be economically integrated into the bloc.

"I intend to identify the specific needs required by the Ukrainian authorities and, from there, seek to build an immediate solution that unites the entire European Union,” Costa said in Warsaw on Friday. “I think Ukraine’s integration into the common market is very important, with the easing of customs rules.”

On April 18, Ukraine took the first official steps in its EU membership application, completing an initial questionnaire necessary to kick off the process at a record speed of 10 days.

Portuguese news outlet Público reported that as part of Costa’s one-day visit to the Ukrainian capital, the Portuguese prime minister — who is accompanied by Foreign Secretary Francisco André and Portuguese ambassador to Ukraine António Alves Machado — will also commit to continuing Lisbon’s supply of “military, humanitarian and financial equipment” to Ukraine. Costa will also hold talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

Costa becomes the latest European leader to touch down in Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Ukraine as it continues to face Russian aggression, particularly in the east of the country. On Friday evening, Russia’s Defense Ministry declared victory in the port city of Mariupol.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Kyiv in March, following visits by the Czech, Polish and Slovenian prime ministers.

In April, Brussels dispatched European Council President Charles Michel to Ukraine, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell made a visit. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola also traveled to Kyiv at the start of the month.

Russia halts gas supply to Finland amid payments, NATO rows

Posted: 21 May 2022 02:13 AM PDT

Russia’s Gazprom on Saturday shut off gas exports to Finland, marking an escalation in tensions between the two countries following Helsinki’s bid to join the NATO defense alliance.

Nordic gas provider Gasum confirmed that Russia had halted supplies to neighboring Finland and that the company would “supply natural gas to its customers from other sources” over the coming months, including through the Balticconnector, a pipeline running between Finland and Estonia.

The move to cut off Finland from Russia’s gas resources is also seen as a response to Helsinki’s refusal to pay for Russian gas in rubles, as had been demanded by the Kremlin.

On Thursday, Helsinki provoked the ire of the Russian government by applying to join the NATO military alliance, with Russian President Vladimir Putin warning that the move would be a “mistake.”

Russia had already halted electricity deliveries to Finland last weekend, as relations between the two countries soured amid Finland’s indications that it would seek NATO membership in reaction to Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Finland's electricity grid operator, Fingrid, said it won't be difficult to replace Russian power imports. "The lack of electricity import from Russia will be compensated by importing more electricity from Sweden and by generating more electricity in Finland," Fingrid said.

Finland has also been moving to end imports of Russian coal and oil.

Crypto assets are ‘worth nothing,’ says ECB’s Christine Lagarde

Posted: 21 May 2022 12:47 AM PDT

FRANKFURT — European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is making no bones about her feelings toward the value of crypto assets — namely, there isn’t any.

“I have said all along the crypto assets are highly speculative, very risky assets,” Lagarde told Dutch television show College Tour in an interview to be aired on Sunday. “My very humble assessment is that it is worth nothing. It is based on nothing, there is no underlying assets to act as an anchor of safety.”

The comments come as the crypto market, more broadly, is taking a beating. Earlier this month, Bitcoin lost 20 percent of its value in a single week.

Lagarde revealed she had never invested in crypto assets, but her son had — with little luck.

A digital euro, however, would be an entirely different ball game, Lagarde explained.

“The day when we have the central bank digital currency, any digital euro, I will guarantee it,” she said. “So the central bank will be behind it. I think that is vastly different from any of those things.”

Lagarde also addressed monetary policy, signaling again that the ECB is ready to hike interest rates in July to fight raging inflation in the eurozone. However, she appeared to downplay the chance of a 50 basis-point move — a more radical option that Dutch central bank chief Klaas Knot had recently floated. Current market expectations see a 25 basis-point increase.

“We are going to follow the path of stopping net [bond] purchases and then sometime after that — which could be a few weeks — hike interest rates,” Lagarde said. ECB bond buys are currently expected to be phased out early in the third quarter, opening the door for a rate hike in July.

A 50 basis-point hike “is not something that I can tell you at this point here today,” she added.

Instead, she signaled that she may favor a slower tightening path, cautioning that the ECB doesn’t want to put the brakes on a “car that is moving.” Its goal is to “lift the accelerator … to slow inflation.”
at

No comments:

Post a Comment