Section: Business Insider (USA)
Trolling for Putin: Russia’s information war explained
Saint Petersburg (AFP) – Lyudmila Savchuk says it was money that wooed her into the ranks of the Kremlin’s online army, where she bombarded website comment pages with eulogies of President Vladimir Putin, while mocking his adversaries.”Putin is great,” “Ukrainians are Fascists,” “Europe is...
A year on, Putin’s Ukraine gamble brings mixed results
Moscow (AFP) – A year since the start of the fighting in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin may not have emerged the winner in his showdown with the West but he has not lost either, analysts say.By supporting Ukrainian separatists, they say, he took a huge risk but it largely paid off as it allowed him to punish Kiev’s pro-Western...
After a year at war, Ukraine at financial breaking point
Paris (AFP) – Bruised and battered after a year of armed conflict, Ukraine has been crippled by a combination of monetary, budgetary, industrial, banking and energy crises that could make it dependent on outside help for decades.The country has suffered a series of shocks that has obliterated its fragile economy.Its vital heavy industry, in...
From rebellion to stalemate: a year of war in east Ukraine
Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) – On April 6, 2014, pro-Russian activists stormed the offices of the Donetsk regional administration and the Lugansk office of the secret service in eastern Ukraine, sparking a year-long insurgency against the Kiev government in which 6,000 people have died.Their ire was directed at the pro-westerners who took the...
3 huge questions about what’s actually in the latest Iran nuclear agreement
A US-led group of countries and Iran just signed a major political framework agreement on limiting Iran’s nuclear program. Under the basic parameters of the deal, Iran won’t be forced to close any of its nuclear facilities and will be allowed to operate over 5,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges. In return, Tehran must submit to an...
Venezuela plans to buy more Russian and Chinese arms
Venezuela has announced plans to increase its total amount of arms imports from Russia and China in the coming years, Russian network Sputnik reports. Venezuela is already the largest weapons importer in South America. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Venezuela imported $349 million worth of arms from China and...
A Russian internet troll had to write 135 comments making fun of Obama for spitting out gum
An internet troll paid by the Kremlin to spread Russian propaganda was required to write online comments ridiculing President Obama for chewing gum during one of his state visits to India, Radio Free Europe has reported. Employees at Russia’s Internet Research center work for 12 hours a day in 3-person “teams” spreading Kremlin...
Europe’s ‘last dictator’ just said Putin is more evil than he is
Belarus’ president, often referred to as Europe’s last dictator, has just taken a swipe at ally Vladimir Putin in an interview with Bloomberg. Here’s the snippet: The pro-Russian insurgency in Ukraine shook him and, in an interview, he called on the U.S. to play a central role in the Ukrainian recovery, warned that Belarus...
10 things you need to know before the opening bell (DIA, SPY, SPX, QQQ, GOOG)
Here’s what you need to know. Yemen’s Houthi fighters and their allies seized part of Aden, a strategic port city. Aden lies near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is one of the world’s oil chokepoints. Most exports from the Persian Gulf that transit the Suez Canal and SUMED Pipeline pass through Bab el-Mandeb. West Texas...
10 things you need to know before European markets open
Good morning! Here are the 10 most important things you should read about in markets today. The EU is about to throw the book at Google. The European Union is going to file antitrust charges against Google in the next few weeks, according to a new report in the Wall Street Journal. The EU has been investigating Google for several years, but now...
