Western nations are continuing to pay Russia hundreds of millions of dollars every day for gas and oil imports, despite the tough sanctions imposed on the country’s banking and aviation sectors following its invasion of Ukraine.
With around 40% of Europe’s oil and gas imported from Russia, governments are scrambling to find alternatives. European Union ministers met Monday in Brussels to discuss how to break the dependency.
Russia dependency
“Every day we spend 350 million euros, which we give to the Russian system, to be able for them to invest in arms, which are dropping on the city of Kyiv and elsewhere today. So yes, for climate reasons and for the security of our people, we need to reassess that dependency on fossil fuels,” Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s minister for the environment, climate and communications, told Reuters.
Russia supplies about a third of Europe’s gas, and the latest figures show imports have increased since its invasion of Ukraine. The soaring price makes trade even more profitable, and analysts say there are no quick alternatives.
“I think that the West is going to try to continue to hold back on sanctioning on the oil and gas sector,” said Douglas Rediker, a nonresident fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Gas imports
Germany is among the EU states most dependent on Russian energy. Last week, it announced the cancellation of the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.
Gas industry executives say the fossil fuel will remain vital for Germany’s economy.
“We have to think about the future,” Timm Kehler, managing director of the Zukunft Gas Association told Reuters. “Germany will need more gas because domestic production is declining, because we also need more gas-fired power plants, because we will also use more gas in other industrial sectors in order to achieve the climate targets. And we have to answer the question, ‘Where will gas come from in the future?’ Nord Stream 2 has played a very central role in this up till now.”
Energy U-turn
In recent days, Germany’s government has signaled a dramatic U-turn on energy policy. Addressing lawmakers Sunday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced plans to build two liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to diversify supply. Europe’s LNG imports hit a record high in January, with nearly half coming from the United States.
Germany had pledged to switch off its nuclear power stations by the end of this year and all coal-fired plants by 2030. Scholz said those decisions could be reversed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The events of the past few days have shown us that responsible, forward-looking energy policy is decisive not only for our economy and the environment. It is also decisive for our security. … We must change course to overcome our dependence on imports from individual energy suppliers,” Scholz said at the emergency session of parliament on Sunday.
Renewables
German ministers are drafting laws to ensure renewable energy sources will account for 100% of Germany’s power supply by 2035. The continent must speed up the change, said former environment and energy secretary Rainer Baake, now managing director at the Berlin-based Climate Neutrality Foundation.
“Now we have to talk about even faster implementation of these plans. I think it is doable. It has to happen in all sectors. It has to happen in the power sector. It has to happen in the transport sector, in the heating sector, and of course also in the industrial sector,” Baake said.
“There should be a very clear message to Russia now: We don’t want your gas, and we don’t want your oil in the future. It’s going to be painful, because prices are probably going to be higher. But the only way to free ourselves from this dependency from fossil fuels is to put efficiency and renewables instead of the fossil energies,” Baake told VOA.
Cutting ties
Meanwhile, European energy giants have announced they are offloading their stakes in Russian oil firms worth billions of dollars. British Petroleum said it would sell its 20% share in Russian state-owned firm Rosneft, while Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it would end its joint ventures with Gazprom.
“We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security,” Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, told reporters.
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За даними агентства, посли ЄС вирішили не застосовувати обмеження проти найбільшого в країні кредитора «Сбербанку», а також банку, що частково належить «Газпрому»
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Despite strategic partnerships with the Kremlin, no Central Asian government has supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or recognized Luhansk and Donetsk as independent. Russian claims that regional leaders “understand” President Vladimir Putin’s decisions have been refuted or ignored.
U.S. media reports that Kazakhstan refused Moscow’s “request to send troops,” attributed to the U.S. National Security Council, also have not been confirmed by authorities in Nur-Sultan, the Kazakh capital. Kazakh and American pundits suspect the White House may have disclosed intelligence without providing details.
Central Asian governments have been evacuating their citizens from Ukraine.
During a February 28 virtual meeting with Central Asian foreign ministers, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine and reiterated Washington’s support for that nation’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. His Central Asian colleagues, however, did not publicly echo this line.
Experts tell VOA that authorities in the region are “walking the thinnest line ever.” The public has been more critical of Russia’s war than their leaders.
“The government is calculating possible risks,” said Kazakh scholar Daniyar Kosnazarov. “All of us will be affected.”
The Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) sent a short-duration military deployment to Kazakhstan in January when the government faced mass protests and violence.
“No one wants foreign troops. We had this experience, even for a small amount of time, so we can relate to Ukraine,” said Kosnazarov, who is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.
He urged the Kazakh government to focus on its domestic agenda and implement political and economic reforms promised by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
“This conflict will definitely affect the course and quality of reforms, but society will continue to demand increased living standards.”
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan also are part of the CSTO. Uzbekistan, which has joined and withdrawn twice, has observer status.
The Kremlin has said the Kyrgyz and Uzbek leaders have told Russian President Vladimir Putin that they support his military action in Ukraine but press services in those nations have stressed only that they “exchanged views on the situation around Ukraine.”
Bishkek, Tashkent and Dushanbe have chosen to stay neutral, citing close ties to both Russia and Ukraine, calling for dialogue and upholding international norms. All five Central Asian countries, like Ukraine, were once part of the Soviet Union.
More than 3 million Uzbeks work in Russia. Tajikistan has more than 1.6 million, and Kyrgyzstan 620,000 citizens working in that country, according to official statistics. World Bank data shows that remittances from Russia constitute nearly one-third of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Tajikistan — more than 20% for Kyrgyzstan and more than 10% for Uzbekistan.
“As Russia’s economy sinks, ours will, too. Ruble devaluation will mean further devaluation of our currencies,” predicted Tajik intellectual Parviz Mullojanov.
Central Asian states want productive relations with the United States, European Union, and Russia, he said. “They don’t want to sever ties with the West at all but need to deal with Russia next door.”
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of Moscow’s Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which also includes Armenia and Belarus.
Emil Umetaliev, former Kyrgyz economy minister, said the costs of war always fall on ordinary people.
“As an EEU member, our country will suffer. We are dependent on Russia’s diminishing economy. This will especially hurt small- and medium-size businesses.”
Countries in the region must survive as independent nations, argued Umetaliev. “Central Asian leaders should coordinate foreign policies, establishing a common strategy in line with international agreements, to prevent separatism and invasion.”
Marlene Laruelle, Central Asia program director at George Washington University in Washington, believes the region’s players are “very unhappy and afraid of what Russia is doing.”
“They may see Russia as the aggressor, but also feel that the West has pushed it too much, especially on NATO enlargement.”
These states do not have much room to maneuver, she added. “The Russian economic recession, driven by Western sanctions, will have a huge impact on investment and remittances.”
Maqsuda, 45, an Uzbek migrant in Samara, Russia, told VOA that workers like her are extremely nervous about their earnings losing value. “I send at least $400 a month to my family in Jizzakh. I may lose my job and even if I keep it, how am I to exchange and send money? ATMs here already don’t work.”
Laruelle thinks the war on Ukraine will damage Russia’s credibility. “Clearly the regime will now be seen as more repressive and authoritarian than ever.”
She views Central Asian opinion on Ukraine-Russia as polarized.
“Putler,” a play on “Hitler,” is a common pejorative for Putin on Uzbek and regional social media. Posts in both native languages and Russian condemn the war and support Ukraine.
Uzbekistan’s Parliamentary Deputy Speaker Alisher Kadirov, known for anti-Russian stands, applauds Ukraine for fighting, calling the Kremlin’s war wrong.
But he advocates a calm, pragmatic approach, and peace, hailing the position taken by the administration of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
“As friends of both Ukraine and Russia, we hope these dark clouds will vanish soon,” Kadirov wrote on his Telegram channel.
Don’t be fooled by this social media outpour, said Uzbek blogger and editor Eldar Assanov, underlining that Central Asia still largely lives in a Russian-dominated information space.
Several Uzbek news outlets informed VOA that they’ve been unofficially ordered not to publish and air pro-Ukraine content.
“We’ve been warned to be balanced and neutral, which we always try to be, but in this case, the authorities don’t want us to put out any view deploring Russia and/or defending Ukraine,” said a manager of a well-established media outlet in Tashkent, speaking on condition of anonymity and not revealing the name of the organization.
Assanov is not surprised at such restrictions. “Many follow Russian websites and channels, don’t know Ukrainian arguments, and just support Russia.”
But the Russian media presence has decreased with improved content in native languages. And social media expose Central Asians to global debates and diverse opinion.
Still, Assanov said, Russian influence is very strong. “Uzbek media just copy Russian content.”
“No country wants what Ukraine is experiencing,” he said. “So, leaders may get softer with Russia, but not rush to join its projects and cultivate other powers to counter the Russian pressure, such as Turkey.”
Journalists and bloggers across Uzbekistan take credit for advancing Uzbek media but don’t see particularly higher levels of critical thinking. “I can’t say we’ve been that effective yet, perhaps with the next generation,” said Assanov. “For now, for many, Russia is great because it can invade.”
This story originated in VOA’s Uzbek Service. Davron Hotam in Kyrgyzstan and Ozod Mas’ul in Tajikistan contributed to this report.
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Ще у жовтні 2021 року Bloomberg називав Росію найпривабливішим для інвесторів ринком, що розвивається
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На вихідних принц Вільям, син Чарльза, і його дружина Кейт заявили, що вони підтримують народ України, який «хоробро бореться» проти вторгнення Росії
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As Russia’s war in Ukraine plays out for the world on social media, big tech platforms are moving to restrict Russian state media from using their platforms to spread propaganda and misinformation.
Google announced Tuesday that it’s blocking the YouTube channels of those outlets in Europe “effective immediately” but acknowledged “it’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up.”
Other U.S.-owned tech companies have offered more modest changes so far: limiting the Kremlin’s reach, labeling more of this content so that people know it originated with the Russian government, and cutting Russian state organs off from whatever ad revenue they were previously making.
The changes are a careful balancing act intended to slow the Kremlin from pumping propaganda into social media feeds without angering Russian officials to the point that they yank their citizens’ access to platforms during a crucial time of war, said Katie Harbath, a former public policy director for Facebook.
“They’re trying to walk this very fine line; they’re doing this dance,” said Harbath, who now serves as director of technology and democracy at the International Republican Institute. “We want to stand up to Russia, but we also don’t want to get shut down in the country. How far can we push this?”
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced Monday that it would restrict access to Russia’s RT and Sputnik services in Europe, following a statement by European Union President Ursula von der Leyen over the weekend that officials are working to bar the sites throughout the EU.
Google followed Tuesday with a European ban of those two outlets on YouTube.
The U.S. has not taken similar action or applied sanctions to Russian state media, leaving the American-owned tech companies to wrestle with how to blunt the Kremlin’s reach on their own.
The results have been mixed.
RT and other Russian-state media accounts are still active on Facebook in the U.S. Twitter announced Monday that after seeing more than 45,000 tweets daily from users sharing Russian state-affiliated media links in recent days, it will add labels to content from the Kremlin’s websites. The company also said it would not recommend or direct users to Russian-affiliated websites in its search function.
Over the weekend, the Menlo Park, California-based company announced it was banning ads from Russian state media and had removed a network of 40 fake accounts, pages and groups that published pro-Russian talking points. The network used fictitious persons posing as journalists and experts, but didn’t have much of an audience.
Facebook began labeling state-controlled media outlets in 2020.
Meanwhile, Microsoft announced it wouldn’t display content or ads from RT and Sputnik, or include RT’s apps in its app store. And Google’s YouTube restricted Russian-state media from monetizing the site through ads, although the outlets are still uploading videos every few minutes on the site.
By comparison, the hands-off approach taken by TikTok, a Chinese platform popular in the U.S. for short, funny videos, has allowed pro-Russian propaganda to flourish on its site. The company did not respond to messages seeking comment.
One recent video posted to RT’s TikTok channel features a clip of Steve Bannon, a former top adviser to ex-President Donald Trump who now hosts a podcast with a penchant for misinformation and conspiracy theories.
“Ukraine isn’t even a country. It’s kind of a concept,” Bannon said in the clip, echoing a claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “So when we talk about sovereignty and self-determination it’s just a corrupt area where the Clintons have turned into a colony where they can steal money.”
Already, Facebook’s efforts to limit Russian state media’s reach have drawn ire from Russian officials. Last week, Meta officials said they had rebuffed Russia’s request to stop fact-checking or labeling posts made by Russian state media. Kremlin officials responded by restricting access to Facebook.
The company has also denied requests from Ukrainian officials who have asked Meta to remove access to its platforms in Russia. The move would prevent everyday Russians from using the platforms to learn about the war, voice their views or organize protests, according to Nick Clegg, recently named the company’s vice president of global affairs.
“We believe turning off our services would silence important expression at a crucial time,” Clegg wrote on Twitter Sunday.
More aggressive labeling of state media and moves to de-emphasize their content online might help reduce the spread of harmful material without cutting off a key information source, said Alexandra Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based non-profit.
“These platforms are a way for dissidents to organize and push back,” Givens said. “The clearest indication of that is the regime has been trying to shut down access to Facebook and Twitter.”
Russia has spent years creating its sprawling propaganda apparatus, which boasts dozens of sites that target millions of people in different languages. That preparation is making it hard for any tech company to mount a rapid response, said Graham Shellenberger at Miburo Solutions, a firm that tracks misinformation and influence campaigns.
“This is a system that has been built over 10 years, especially when it comes to Ukraine,” Shellenberger said. “They’ve created the channels, they’ve created the messengers. And all the sudden now, we’re starting to take action against it.”
Redfish, a Facebook page that is labeled as Russian-state controlled media, has built up a mostly U.S. and liberal-leaning audience of more than 800,000 followers over the years.
The page has in recent days posted anti-U.S. sentiment and sought to down play Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “military operation” and dedicating multiple posts to highlighting anti-war protests across Russia.
One Facebook post also used a picture of a map to highlight airstrikes in other parts of the world.
“Don’t let the mainstream media’s Eurocentrism dictate your moral support for victims of war,” the post read.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia sent letters to Google, Meta, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok and Twitter urging them to curb such Russian influence campaigns on their websites.
“In addition to Russia’s established use of influence operations as a tool of strategic influence, information warfare constitutes an integral part of Russian military doctrine,” Warner wrote.
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«Ми зараз аналізуємо те, що відбулося вчора, заявлені позиції»
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У той час, коли авіалінії РФ масово скасовують регулярні рейси в Європу й інші західні країни, рішення про закриття неба не вплинуло на цих бізнесменів: їхні літаки мають реєстрацію інших країн
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In the first three days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, over 100,000 people crossed Ukraine’s border in the West. On February 27th alone – according to the Ukrainian border police – over 120,000 people poured out of the embattled country. For VOA, Oksana Lihostova has more from western Ukraine in this report narrated by Anna Rice.
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Australia says it plans to spend $50 million to buy missiles and ammunition to support Ukraine.
As the conflict in Ukraine intensifies, the Australian government has shifted its stance on sending military hardware to Ukrainian forces. Last week, Canberra said it would provide only technical assistance. That has changed. Now, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, his country will buy military equipment and weapons for Ukraine as part of a coordinated effort with other western nations to help its armed forces resist Russia’s invasion. It is unclear how quickly the armaments would be delivered.
Morrison made the announcement at a media briefing on Tuesday.
“We are talking missiles, ammunition, we are talking supporting them in their defense of their own homeland in Ukraine and will be doing that in partnership with NATO,” said Morrison. “I’m not going to go into the specifics of that because I don’t plan to give the Russian government a heads up about what is coming their way, but I can assure them, it is coming your way.”
Australia is also contributing $25 million toward humanitarian support for international organizations that are helping Ukrainians in an evacuation effort as they leave their country escaping the conflict. Hundreds of thousands of people have left to seek asylum and refuge in neighboring regions.
Morrison has ruled out sending Australian troops to fight in the war.
He has also urged Australian citizens to not travel and join Ukraine’s militia in the ongoing fighting against the Russian military. Morrison said the legal position of foreign combatants in the conflict was unclear.
Legal experts say Australian laws prohibit citizens from joining in other countries’ conflicts unless they are members of an official foreign army.
Morrison said Russia has “self-selected themselves as a pariah state” following its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
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Речниця Білого дому повторила, що США не планують оголошувати повітряний простір України безпілотною зоною
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«Вперше в своїй історії озброєння надає Фінляндія. Швеція вперше з 1939 року надала військову допомогу. Норвегія також ухвалила виняткове рішення на підтримку України…»
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Запорізька область потерпає від обстрілів російських військ
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Постійний представник Росії при ООН Василь Небензя назвав це «грубим порушенням» угоди ООН зі США як приймаючої сторони ООН
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«Буде більше і першого, і другого» – міністр закордонних справ України
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«Заявка вже доставлена у Брюссель, офіційно зареєстрована. Час настав»
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1 березня Народним зборам буде запропоновано кандидатуру нового очільника військового відомства
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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Monday that his country will import about 2 million tons of wheat from Russia and buy natural gas as well under bilateral agreements the two sides signed last week during his official trip to Moscow.
Khan pressed on with his two-day visit and met with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday, hours after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, with Western countries pushing to isolate the Russian leader for his actions.
On Monday, the Pakistani prime minister defended his trip and responded to critics in a televised speech to the nation, saying Pakistan’s economic interests required him to do so.
“We went there because we have to import 2 million tons of wheat from Russia. Secondly, we have signed agreements with them to import natural gas because Pakistan’s own gas reserves are depleting,” Khan said.
“Inshallah (God willing), the time will tell that we have had great discussions,” the Pakistani leader said, referring to his three-hour meeting with Putin. He shared no further details.
Critics, however, are skeptical about Moscow-Islamabad economic collaboration, citing tougher international sanctions slapped on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
On Thursday, Putin warmly received Khan at the Kremlin in front of cameras, shook hands and sat just next to the visitor for what Pakistani officials said were wide-ranging consultations on bilateral, regional and international issues.
“The Prime Minister regretted the latest situation between Russia and Ukraine and said that Pakistan had hoped diplomacy could avert a military conflict,” a post-meeting statement quoted Khan as telling Putin.
Pakistani officials and Khan himself maintained that the Moscow visit was planned long before the Ukraine crisis erupted and was aimed solely at reviewing bilateral trade relations, including energy cooperation.
Pakistan’s frosty relations with the United States, analysts say, have pushed the South Asian nation closer to its giant neighbors China and Russia in recent years.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who accompanied Khan on the visit, said after the delegation returned to Pakistan that Washington had contacted Islamabad ahead of the Moscow trip.
“[U.S. officials] presented their position and we explained to them the purpose of the trip and went ahead with it,” Qureshi told reporters when asked whether the U.S. was opposed to the visit. “I’m convinced after the visit that we did the right thing.”
Speaking on the eve of Khan’s trip to Russia, a U.S. State Department spokesman, when asked about it, said Washington believed that Pakistan, like “every responsible” country, would voice objection to Putin’s actions.
But Pakistani leaders have avoided criticizing Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and stressed the need for seeking a negotiated settlement to the crisis.
Islamabad also has developed close economic and military ties with Ukraine in recent years, with Pakistan being a major importer of Ukrainian wheat.
Qureshi spoke to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday and reiterated Islamabad’s “serious concern at the situation, underscoring the importance of de-escalation, and stressing the indispensability of diplomacy.”
Pakistan sided with the U.S. during the Cold War and played an instrumental role in arming as well as training Washington-funded resistance to the decadelong Soviet occupation of neighboring Afghanistan in the 1980s.
While Islamabad’s often uneasy relations with Washington have lately strained over the country’s backing of the Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan, ties between India and the U.S. have solidified in recent years due to shared concerns stemming from China’s growing influence in the region.
India, Islamabad’s bitter foe, had close ties with Russia during the Cold War, as Moscow was a major arms exporter to New Delhi.
Moscow has restored ties with Islamabad in recent years, however. The two countries routinely hold joint military exercises and are working to deepen energy cooperation to help Pakistan overcome shortages.
Khan in his address Monday reiterated that Pakistan’s decision to join the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan was an outcome of “the wrong foreign policy” of his predecessors.
“I maintained from day one that we should not have taken part [in the U.S.-led war],” he said, adding that Pakistan suffered 80,000 casualties because of an Islamist retaliation and incurred billions of dollars in economic losses.
“The most embarrassing part was that a country was fighting in support of a country that was bombing it,” Khan said, referring to U.S. drone strikes against suspected militant hideouts in Pakistani areas near the Afghan border.
Khan also announced a cut in fuel and electricity prices to help offset a steep rise in the global oil market because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
He promised to freeze the new prices until the next budget in June. Critics said the move could result from opposition protests over rising inflation that officials blame on the coronavirus outbreak and tough economic reforms the government is undertaking in line with a $6 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.
your ad hereThe United States said Monday that it was expelling 12 Russian diplomats based at Moscow’s U.N. mission in New York for engaging in espionage activities.
“The United States has informed the United Nations and the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations that we are beginning the process of expelling twelve intelligence operatives from the Russian Mission who have abused their privileges of residency in the United States by engaging in espionage activities that are adverse to our national security,” U.S. Mission to the United Nations spokesperson Olivia Dalton said in a statement. “We are taking this action in accordance with the U.N. Headquarters Agreement. This action has been in development for several months.”
Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters that the U.S. gave them until March 7 to leave the country. He said that it is a “hostile action” by the U.S. government and violates Washington’s obligations as the host country of the United Nations.
Nebenzia also called the order “sad news” and said the U.S., the host country, was showing “gross disrespect” to its commitments “both under U.N. Charter and the Host Country Agreement, and Vienna conventions.” The Vienna Convention also applies to the treatment of diplomats.
Nebenzia received the news in a phone call during a press conference about the Ukraine conflict. He said the U.S. had delivered a letter to Moscow’s New York mission with the decision.
It is not the first time the U.S. has declared Russian diplomats at the U.N. persona non grata. Most recently, in 2018, the Trump administration expelled a dozen Russian diplomats from the U.N. mission on similar charges as tensions rose over a poisoning attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.
Nebenzia also informed members of the U.N. Security Council of the development at the start of a meeting on the growing humanitarian crisis.
“We keep being told about the need for diplomacy, diplomatic solutions. And at the same time, our opportunities to conduct this kind of activity are being restricted,” he said. “We deeply regret this decision and will see how events develop within the context of this decision.”
U.S. envoy Richard Mills replied that the decision was taken in full accordance with the U.N. Headquarters Agreement.
your ad hereВ УЄФА додали, що сьогодні вирішили припинити партнерство з «Газпромом»
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Раніше 28 лютого президент України Володимир Зеленський підписав заявку на членство України в ЄС
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27 лютого Ілон Маск, американський мільярдер і засновник компанії SpaceX, яка будує космічний транспорт і надає комунікаційні послуги, погодився надати Україні термінали Starlink
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У список потрапили 26 «медійних осіб» і бізнесменів, близьких до Кремля
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