Section: USA

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 18:41 (EEST) Section: KXAN (USA)

People wait to exchange their currency as signs advertise the exchange rates at a currency exchange office in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. The Russian ruble came under intense selling pressure Tuesday, falling at one point by a catastrophic 20 percent to a new historic low despite a massive pre-dawn interest rate hike from...

Russia: We Have The Right To Put Nuclear Weapons In Crimea

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 18:26 (EEST) Section: Business Insider (USA)

Russia announced on Monday that it believes it has the full right to deploy nuclear weapons in the recently annexed Crimean peninsula. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the Interfax news agency that since Crimea was now a part of Russia, Moscow had full rights to deploy nuclear weapons into the region. Lavrov argues that Crimea can be...

Putin Orders Snap Military Drills on NATO Border

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 18:26 (EEST) Section: Newsweek (USA)

Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered snap military drills for Russian armed forces in the Baltic region to test Russia’s “battle-readiness”, a ministry of defence spokesperson told Russian news agency Interfax today. “A self-sufficient, multi-purpose army of air, sea and land units was assembled in the period of less than a day in the...

Obama Can Thank Ted Cruz For Helping Him Fill Key Posts

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 17:56 (EEST) Section: Foreign Policy (USA)

Republicans are ripping Texas Senator Ted Cruz for inadvertently helping the Obama administration push through the controversial nominations of a number of key foreign policy nominees, including Tony Blinken for deputy secretary of state and Frank Rose for assistant secretary for verification and compliance, a key arms control post. Those...

Go West, Young Han

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 17:25 (EEST) Section: The Huffington Post (USA)

As Washington “Pivots” to Asia, China Does the Eurasian Pirouette Cross-posted with TomDispatch.comNovember 18, 2014: It’s a day that should live forever in history. On that day, in the city of Yiwu in China’s Zhejiang province, 300 kilometers south of Shanghai, the first train carrying 82 containers of export goods weighing more than...

Autopsy Ordered on German MP Who Criticized Russia

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 17:10 (EEST) Section: Voice of America (USA)

A German court has ordered an autopsy on a conservative member of parliament, who was a prominent critic of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, in order to rule out any link between his death and his hardline stance towards the Kremlin, state prosecutors said. Andreas Schockenhoff, a deputy parliamentary floor leader for Chancellor Angela...

BREMMER: Putin Now Needs Scapegoats

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 16:41 (EEST) Section: Business Insider (USA)

The ruble is in crisis hours after a shocking central bank rate hike. and Russian President Vladimir Putin has to find a way to explain the mess. “Putin now needs scapegoats: external and internal,” Geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer told Business Insider over email. “Everything from the US and Europe for sanctions, Ukraine for the...

Ukraine’s Poroshenko Hails First Full Overnight Truce in Rebel East

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 16:41 (EEST) Section: Voice of America (USA)

Ukraine’s separatist east passed the night into Tuesday without any shooting, President Petro Poroshenko said, hailing the first such stretch of calm as a positive signal for the next steps in a peace plan. Army chief of staff Viktor Muzhenko also stressed progress had been made on the implementation of the cease-fire, but said one...

Russian ruble slides again despite rate hike

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 16:26 (EEST) Section: Boston Herald (USA)

MOSCOW — The Russian ruble faced intense selling pressure Tuesday, falling at one stage by a whopping 20 percent to historic lows despite a massive pre-dawn interest rate hike from the country’s central bank.The surprise decision to raise the rate to 17 percent from 10.5 percent came in the middle of the night and represented a desperate...

Putin Wins Russia’s ‘Man Of The Year’ For The 15th Time In A Row

Tuesday, December 16 , 2014 - 16:11 (EEST) Section: Business Insider (USA)

Vladimir Putin has been named Russia’s “Man Of The Year” for the 15th time in a row, Interfax news agency reports. The Russian president won by a landslide, claiming 68% of votes. The runner up got only 4% of votes. The poll was conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation and included 1,500 respondents in 43 regions of Russia,...