Section: San Francisco Chronicle (USA)
Ukraine’s new US-born finance chief enduring baptism by fire
[…] Natalie Jaresko, the country’s new finance minister who was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, says she feels just as much at home here as she takes on a daunting task: overhauling a Soviet-era economy at a time when public finances are being drained by war. Amid all this, the government is living a hand-to-mouth existence —...
Opposition leaders accuse Russia in assassination of Putin critic
MOSCOW — Russian opposition leaders on Saturday accused the Kremlin of being behind the death of a towering figure of post-Soviet politics, Boris Nemtsov, as they struggled to come to grips with the highest-profile assassination of President Vladimir Putin’s 15 years in power. The slaying of one of Putin’s most biting critics swept a...
Nemtsov killing follows slaying of other Kremlin critics
MOSCOW (AP) — Prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov’s killing follows the slaying over the past decade of several other high-profile critics of President Vladimir Putin and his policies. Litvinenko had fallen out with the Russian government and became a strong critic of the Kremlin, obtaining political asylum after coming to...
Western leaders condemn Nemtsov killing, press Kremlin
BERLIN (AP) — Western leaders are condemning the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov and pressing the Kremlin to ensure that the killing is investigated thoroughly. A leader unafraid to voice essential truths, even in the face of violent intimidation, he was also a prominent opponent of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine...
News of the Day From Across the Globe, Feb. 28
The situation in the conflict zone was “relatively calm” during the night, with less shelling and only sporadic violations of the cease-fire by “uncontrolled” groups, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. Guns falling silent would mark the biggest progress since the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France sealed the cease-fire in Minsk,...
Prominent Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov shot dead
MOSCOW (AP) — Boris Nemtsov, a charismatic former deputy prime minister turned Russian opposition leader, was shot and killed in Moscow Saturday, officials said. Nemtsov, who was 55, was a sharp critic of Putin, assailing the government’s inefficiency, rampant corruption and the Kremlin’s policy on Ukraine, which has strained...
Russian diplomat slams “destructive” US stance
MOSCOW (AP) — A senior Russian diplomat on Friday accused the U.S. administration of taking a “destructive” stance in bilateral relations and warned that Moscow could deal “painful” counterblows. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Secretary of State John Kerry breached “diplomatic ethics” when he...
Ukraine rebels seen withdrawing heavy weapons front line
NOVOAMVROSIIVSKE, Ukraine (AP) — Separatist fighters in east Ukraine have moved rocket launchers to a location 70 kilometers (43 miles) back from the front line with government troops in the first confirmed compliance with a cease-fire agreed earlier this month. …read more Source: San Francisco...
Reports: Ukraine says it paid $15 million for Russian gas
Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Naftogaz’s executive, Andrei Kobolev, as saying that the company had paid for gas supplies from Russia for the month of March. Following a bruising dispute over prices and debt that raised fears of supply disruptions in Europe, Russia and Ukraine signed a deal in October requiring Kiev to pay in advance...
Ukraine, rebels start pulling back heavy weapons in the east
KIEV, Ukraine — Warring parties in Ukraine took a major stride toward quelling unrest in the country’s east Thursday with the declared start of a supervised withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line. Rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions insist they have spent the last few days drawing back their heavy weapons — a claim not yet...