Section: Cyprus Mail (Cyprus)
Wanted: a grand bargain to rescue EU from “polycrisis”
By Paul Taylor The European Union needs an ambitious grand bargain at its next summit to rescue itself from an accumulation of crises that threaten to blow apart its model of integration. Like children at a birthday party, each leader has to get a going-home present. And as with many children’s parties, there may be a tantrum along the way....
US Treasury official calls Russia’s Putin corrupt – BBC
A US Treasury official said the United States considers Russian President Vladimir Putin to be corrupt and that it has known this for “many, many years,” the BBC reported on Monday. Adam Szubin, acting Treasury secretary for terrorism and financial crimes, said in an interview with BBC Panorama that the Russian president has been amassing secret...
Kerry says effort and good faith could lead to lifting of sanctions on Russia
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he believed that, with effort and good faith on both sides, it would be possible to implement the Minsk agreements on Ukraine in coming months to allow for a lifting of sanctions on Russia. In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kerry said he and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had meet...
Ukraine fines Gazprom $3.5 bln, cites abuse of gas transit monopoly
The head of Ukraine’s competition authority said on Friday that the watchdog had decided to fine Russian gas company Gazprom 85 billion hryvnias ($3.5 billion) for abusing its monopoly on the Ukrainian gas transit market. The decision by the Ukrainian regulator is the latest chapter in a long-standing gas conflict between the two countries,...
Putin named in Litvinenko murder – British inquiry (update 2)
By Michael Holden President Vladimir Putin probably approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KBG agent Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium-210, a British inquiry into the 2006 killing in London concluded. Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Putin who fled Russia, died after drinking green tea laced with the rare...
Avalanche in French Alps kills 5 military, two others injured
An avalanche killed at least five military personnel and seriously injured two other servicemen on Monday while they were skiing in the French Alps, local authorities said. The avalanche happened in early afternoon in Valfrejus in the department of Savoie and caught 51 military personnel by surprise as they were skiing off-piste, the police said...
Poland wants Britain’s help over NATO troops in Brexit talks
By Wiktor Szary and Justyna Pawlak Poland could be open to compromise over British demands to limit the rights of European Union migrants if London helps it bolster the NATO presence in central Europe, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told Reuters. With hundreds of thousands of Poles living in Britain, Warsaw is one of the EU’s...
Europe’s year from hell may presage worse to come
By Paul Taylor By any measure, it has been a year from hell for the European Union. And if Britons vote to leave the bloc, this year could be worse. Not since 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and communism crumbled across eastern Europe, has the continent’s geopolitical kaleidescope been shaken up so vigorously. But unlike that year of...
Putin names United States among threats in new Russian security strategy
By Vladimir Soldatkin A new appraisal names the United States as one of the threats to Russia’s national security for the first time, a sign of how relations with the west have deteriorated in recent years. The document, “About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation”, was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New...
Ukraine lists Russian imports it may ban from Jan 10 in trade row
Ukraine said on Wednesday it may impose a ban as soon as next month on imports of dozens of Russian goods — from dog food to locomotives — as a retaliatory measure against Moscow which this month said it was suspending a free trade zone with Kiev. The list, which was set out in a statement from the country’s economy ministry, included meat...
