Discovery of oil and natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean highlights the growing importance the US has given to the region US vice-president Joe Biden arrived in Cyprus on Wednesday, the most senior US official to visit in more than 50 years, as the quest to find alternative energy routes into Europe focused international attention on the continent's only divided country. With the discovery of...
Heir to British throne compares Russian leader to Nazi dictator in 'private' remark that stirs up storms from Halifax to Moscow It was, said Marianne Ferguson, "just a little remark. I didn't think it was going to make such a big uproar." But after the Prince of Wales told the 78-year-old during a royal visit to Canada that he thought Vladimir Putin was behaving like Adolf Hitler Downing...
China trip interpreted as part of a pivot toward Asia, coming after multiple rounds of sanctions from the US, EU and Japan Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Tuesday set on increasing cooperation after Russia's relations with the west soured over the Ukraine crisis. But Beijing holds far more cards at the negotiating table, and the most significant deal, a gas export agreement, had yet to be signed...
Russians blacklisted for human rights abuses allegedly withheld medical care from lawyer who died in prison after exposing large-scale corruption in Russia The United States on Tuesday sanctioned 12 Russians for human rights abuses, including officials who allegedly withheld medical care from a lawyer who died in prison after exposing large-scale corruption in Russia. The US Treasury Department, which...
Activists and relatives say justice will not be done until those who ordered contract-style killing are identified and convicted Five men were convicted on Tuesday of murdering investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, including three defendants who had been acquitted in a previous trial. Politkovskaya's killing drew attention to the risks faced by Russians who challenge...
Taisia Igumentseva will direct the drama potentially funded by a Russian state subsidy as the tensions between Russia and Ukraine spill over into the film industry Taisia Igumentseva, a 25-year-old director who won a student film-making award at Cannes in 2012, has been announced as the director of a new film documenting the struggles in Crimea as the region was recently annexed by Russia. The film...
The timing of the prince's comments apparently likening Putin to Hitler couldn't be worse, ahead of Ukraine's presidential elections on Sunday There are times, and this is one of them, when the Prince of Wales seems to have made the transition from heir to the throne to flaky elder statesman without actually stopping to do the job to which he was born. His conversation in Canada with a former Polish...
Labour MP Mike Gapes calls for prince to 'abdicate and stand for election' if he wants to make controversial statements Prince Charles is facing a call for his abdication and a frosty response in Moscow after reportedly comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler over Russia's annexation of Crimea. Charles blundered into the international crisis over Russia's actions in Ukraine during a tour of Canada,...
With political change comes business risk, and the reality is that some companies previously unaware of their reliance on Ukraine are about to be affected As the Ukraine crisis escalates, concern is growing over the potential fallout for the UK economy. Further Russian trade sanctions could cause the price of vital supplies of grain and natural gas to rocket, or even cut off supplies at short notice....
Resolution would authorise international criminal court to look into allegations against Syrian government and opposition Russia has said it will veto a UN resolution to refer the Syrian conflict to the international criminal court (ICC) if it comes to a vote in the security council, after nearly 60 countries announced their support for the measure. Moscow's position, announced on Tuesday by Gennady...
The IMF's standard prescriptions constitute a supranational form of loan-sharking aimed at enriching western creditors In return for the latest $17bn bailout of Ukraine the IMF insists on dramatic measures in five main areas of the economy: a sharp currency devaluation, which will increase the cost of all imported goods, a government-funded bailout for domestic banks, government spending cuts, measures...
Tycoon Rinat Akhmetov calls on plant staff to protest over Donetsk separatists as threat rises of militias damaging trade Ukraine's richest oligarch has come down firmly on the side of Kiev authorities, calling on thousands of workers at his plants across the east to attend workplace protests against the armed separatist movement in the east of the country. In a video address released late on Monday,...
We are told that this is a geopolitical battle instead of an attempt by ordinary Ukrainians to take back control from the oligarchs Anyone who tells you Ukraine is a battle between Russia and the west is wrong. It is a lazy narrative told by ignorant people, but is helping create a genuine tragedy that we should all be concerned about. The history of Ukraine's crisis began not in February, with Viktor...
Settlement deprives billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev of half of his fortune in what may be the most expensive divorce in history A Swiss court has awarded £2.6bn in a record-breaking divorce settlement to the former wife of the Russian oligarch who owns AS Monaco football club. The ruling, dated 13 May but not made public until Monday, deprives billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev of 4bn Swiss francs half...
Russian president tells forces on 'training exercises' near border to return to their home bases Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian forces on the border with Ukraine back to their bases, the Kremlin has announced. It is the third announcement of a Russian troop withdrawal since the buildup on the border started in March, and experts said this time it might actually happen. Previous withdrawal announcements...
Group defy ban on mass gatherings with rally outside mosque on outskirts of Simferopol to remember 1944 deportations Defying a ban by their new Russian-backed rulers, thousands of Crimean Tatars gathered at a mosque on Sunday to commemorate the day 70 years ago that the mass deportation of their families began under the orders of the Soviet leader Josef Stalin. Crimea's Muslim Tatars are among the...
Don't fall for Putin publicly distancing himself from pro-Russia separatists in the east. It's nothing more than a diplomatic trick Last week Russia's President Putin said he believed referendums should not take place in the eastern regions of Ukraine on 11 May. Remarkably, the change of Putin's rhetoric has inspired some hope in many European capitals. Putin distanced himself publicly from pro-Russia...
The best outcome for Ukraine, and for the west, would be an agreement with Russia to get the great powers out A way out of the Ukraine crisis may now be faintly discernible. The round-table negotiations promoted by the Germans has the support of all the key governments. It is intended to produce a ceasefire, discussion of future Ukrainian constitutional arrangements, and the election of a new Ukrainian...
Gabe Polsky's puckish ice hockey documentary revisits the Russian team who smashed through the iron curtain to secure global victory and finds them as well-drilled in defence as ever Cultures clash on and off the ice in Gabe Polsky's documentary about the Soviet Union's dominance of ice hockey during the cold war, and its former stars' place in modern Russia. The Red Army ice hockey team were the Soviet...
UN warns Muslim minority has suffered harassment and persecution since peninsula was annexed from Ukraine Vladimir Putin has told Crimea's Tatars that they must accept that their future lies with Russia, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of their mass deportation from their ancestral homeland. Putin's comments came as the UN warned that the Tatars have been the subject of harassment and persecution...