The State of Affairs in Russia

[Syt]

http://rt.com/news/216563-china-russia-economic-hardships/

China pledges to help Russia overcome economic hardships

China's foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting trade in yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing's commerce minister.

"Russia has the capability and the wisdom to overcome the existing hardship in the economic situation," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists, China Daily reported Monday. "If the Russian side needs it, we will provide necessary assistance within our capacity."

The offer of help comes as Russians are still recovering from the shock of the ruble's worst crash in years last Tuesday, when it lost over 20 percent against the US dollar and the euro. The Russian currency bounced back the next day, but it still has lost almost half of its value since March.

At his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Vladimir Putin acknowledged the ruble has been tumbling along with the price of oil, and estimated that Western sanctions account for 25-30 percent of the Russian economic crisis. However, the president's economic forecast is that the slump will not be a lasting one.

READ MORE: Putin: Russian economy will inevitably bounce back, 2 years in worst case scenario

Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng proposed on Saturday to expand the use of the yuan in trade with Russia.

He said the use of the Chinese currency has been increasing for several years but western sanctions on Russia had made the trend more prominent, Reuters cited Hong Kong's Phoenix TV as saying.

Gao said this year's trade between China and Russia could reach $100 billion, approximately 10 percent growth compared to last year.

READ MORE: Russia-China trading settlements in yuan increases 800%

The minister said he did not expect cooperation on energy and manufacturing projects with Russia to be greatly affected by the current crisis.

"Many Chinese people still view Russia as the big brother, and the two countries are strategically important to each other," Jin Canrong, Associate Dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, told Bloomberg. "For the sake of national interests, China should deepen cooperation with Russia when such cooperation is in need."

China has been increasingly seeking deals in its own currency to challenge the US dollar's dominance on the international market.

READ MORE: Argentina to get $1bn in currency swap with China before end of 2014

And Beijing is not alone in attempts to counter the influence of Western-based lending institutions and the US currency.

BRICS, the group of emerging economies that comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, accounting for one-fifth of global economic output, has been pursuing the same goal. The five nations agreed in July to increase mutual trade in local currencies, and also to create a BRICS Development Bank with investment equivalent to $100 billion as an alternative to the Western-controlled World Bank.

[Admiral Yi]

Translation: China is going to suck Russia dry and make it sound like solidarity.

[The Brain]

I knew that China would be the woman in the relationship.

[Tonitrus]

The recent "big deal" in Russian "mainstream" news, is that they have a witness (alleged member of Ukrainian air force ground crew) who says that one of their Su-25's came back having expended the air-to-air missiles it was carrying, and most likely shot the Malaysian airliner down.

[Admiral Yi]

I recently learned the US has started supplying arms to Ukraine.

[CountDeMoney]

I recently learned the US has started supplying arms to Ukraine.

It was in the CR.

[Syt]

The Ukrainian parliament has voted in favor of moving towards NATO membership. Russia has replied by calling this "an unfriendly act."

[Syt]

http://rt.com/politics/216967-medvedev-ukraine-russia-usa/

Russia-US relations 'poisoned' for decades to come – Medvedev

Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev thinks the recent unfriendly moves by Presidents Poroshenko and Obama effectively turn Ukraine into Russia's potential enemy. It will also "poison" relations with the US for decades to come.

On Facebook, Medvedev commented on the Ukraine Freedom Act 2014 signed by Barack Obama last week, and on the Ukrainian parliament's intention to cancel a national law forbidding them to join military blocs.

"As in the case with the Jackson-Vanik amendment, our relations with America will be poisoned for decades to come," he added.

Medvedev also underlined that if Ukraine changed its out-of-bloc status, it would in essence be an application to join NATO, rendering Ukraine Russia's potential enemy.

"Both these decisions would have extremely negative consequences," the Russian Prime Minister wrote, adding that Russia would have to react to such hostile steps.

Last week, Prime Minister Medvedev published an article, in which he warned Ukraine that EU economic policy is pushing them into a full scale crisis.

"The EU needs Ukraine primarily as a source of raw materials and definitely as a new market for European companies," he wrote. "No one is hurrying to invite Ukraine to the common European table as an equal partner. They aren't even offering a side chair; they are deliberately putting this country in a position of a girl who goes on dates that never end in marriage," the Russian PM said.

In the same article, Medvedev reviewed the history of Russian-Ukrainian relations and described his view on the future relations between nations that, in the PM's words, "don't have and never will have real borders between them."

http://rt.com/news/217047-ukraine-nato-membership-russia/

'Counterproductive': Ukraine seeking NATO membership 'a false solution', says Russia

Kiev's latest move to become a NATO ally is counterproductive and gives rise to false hope for resolving its political crisis, Moscow said. The Ukrainian parliament voted to repeal a law that upheld the country's non-participation in military blocks.

The move on Tuesday is a step towards becoming a member of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization, a goal the post-coup authorities in Kiev have made a key point of their foreign policies. Kiev says that Russia is the cause of the civil war that led to eastern parts of the country rebelling against the central government and hopes that NATO's military might will help resolve the situation.

"This is counterproductive. It only escalates the confrontation and creates the illusion that the internal national crisis in Ukraine can be solved through adoption of laws like that," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented on the new legislation.

"A much more productive and sensible way would be to finally start a dialogue with the part of the Ukrainian people that were ignored when the coup was staged," he added. Lavrov called on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to initiate a constitutional reform, which Kiev had pledged to do in April.

READ MORE: Pentagon confirms military buildup along Russian borders for 'peace and stability'

The law revoking Ukraine's military non-alignment stance was adopted by 303 votes against nine, with 2 MPs abstaining and 56 not voting. Now the law states that establishing closer ties with NATO and eventual membership in the military bloc is a priority for the Ukrainian government.

The alliance noted Ukraine's move and said it "respected" the parliament's decision. Earlier some major members of NATO like Germany voiced doubt that Ukraine could join the organization anytime soon.

There are numerous obstacles, including Ukraine's political and economic problems, a territorial dispute with Russia, and Moscow's critical attitude towards Ukraine becoming part of NATO. Arguably the most strongly-worded comment was voiced by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the voting was about to start in Kiev.

With his move President Poroshenko "has made a de facto application to join NATO and turned Ukraine into a potential enemy of Russia," Medvedev said.

[Razgovory]

The recent "big deal" in Russian "mainstream" news, is that they have a witness (alleged member of Ukrainian air force ground crew) who says that one of their Su-25's came back having expended the air-to-air missiles it was carrying, and most likely shot the Malaysian airliner down.

Someone ought to tell them that ship already sailed.

[Martinus]

Sochi olympics: $50 billion
Invading Crimea: $200 billion
Sanctions and dropping oil prices: $150 billion
Pushing the people of a neighboring country into toppling a crony friendly to you and choosing the other side: priceless

[The Brain]

Considering that the North Korean regime is still around I don't think Putin has to worry about the economy. A lot of oppression goes a long way.

[Martinus]

Considering that the North Korean regime is still around I don't think Putin has to worry about the economy. A lot of oppression goes a long way.

Everything about Russia and North Korea is so incomparable I am not sure if you are trolling or being serious. 

[KRonn]

Considering that the North Korean regime is still around I don't think Putin has to worry about the economy. A lot of oppression goes a long way.

That would require Putin to shut down the internet, shut down all news except state run (he may be close to that), restrict access to food, put millions of people back into Gulags and work camps if he wants to model mutha Russia on the success of the Stalinist worker's paradise of North Korea.

Of course, that would be a bonus to Putin, so don't give him any ideas!   

[Syt]

Well, Putin has the support of the exiled nobles ... 

http://rt.com/politics/217551-russia-emigrants-letter-history/

'Stop blaming everything on Russia': Heirs to 1917 revolutionary-era emigrants appeal to EU

Over 100 descendants of the Russian nobility residing outside the country have addressed European nations with a call to stop irrationally alienating Russia and give an unbiased appraisal to the current Ukrainian crisis.

The open letter written by Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy and his wife, Princess Tamara, and signed by over 100 people representing the diaspora of the so-called first-wave emigration, was published by Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Thursday.

"The aggressive hostility that Russia is facing right now is lacking any rationality and the double standard policy is simply exceeding any limits," claim the authors of the message. "Russia is being accused of all crimes, it is pronounced guilty a priori and without any evidence, while other countries are shown surprising leniency, in particular when Human Rights are concerned," they letter reads.

"We cannot put up with daily slander targeting modern Russia, its leaders and its president, who are slapped with sanctions and smeared with dirt, in contradiction to basic reason."

The descendants of the Russian nobility also said that they were outraged by fact that European officials and mass media had been consistently silencing the facts of the cruel shelling of civilians in eastern Ukraine conducted by the Ukrainian military with support of paramilitary groups brandishing Nazi symbols. Another disturbing fact was a full blockade of the Donbass region by the Kiev regime, which seeks to completely destroy the region that it still declares a part of Ukrainian territory.

The pro-Kiev forces also allow numerous attacks on Russian Orthodox Churches, acts of violence and even murders of priests, destroy temples and launch repressions against believers, the message reads.

"We cannot remain indifferent and silent in the face of planned elimination of the Donbass population, open Russophobia and hypocritical approaches that contradict the interests of European nations themselves. We hope that the countries that in their time had shown hospitality to our families will again set on the path of reason and impartiality," claim the descendants of the Tsarist White Guard officers and soldiers.

Earlier, the Russian parliament suggested that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe launch an international panel to investigate crimes against humanity in Europe, such as the tragedy in Odessa or mass executions of civilians near Ukraine's Donetsk. The proposal mirrors an address to international organizations, and national parliaments and governments, calling to investigate crimes against civilians in southeastern Ukraine, passed by the State Duma in October this year.

[Tonitrus]

I somewhat agree, in that the way Ukraine is going about the separatist fight seemed kinda stupid and done in a very blunt, Soviet-style way.  In that kind of fight, wide-spread and non-precision shelling is both stupid and likely ineffective...not to mention going to make the locals hate you even more.

But on the other hand, if the Russian didn't throw in tanks/volunteers/armored vehicles, etc...the Ukrainian military and police should have just been able to roll in and restore some order without even considering the need for heavy-handed tactics.