War lessons
MADRID | By Álex García.
Russia
Russia: the real effects of sanctions
MADRID | The Corner | The EU is considering harder sanctions on Russia after the downing of a Malaysian airliner in Ukraine. What are the effects of the current and potential further sanctions on the Russian economy and, in general, on Emerging Markets (EM) sovereign external debt? Co-CIO Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management’s Asoka Wöhrmann weighs in. (Illustration: Iain Green at The Scotsman)
European banks: How concerned should they be of Russia-Ukraine conflict?
MADRID | The Corner | The escalation of the crisis in Ukraine has led to sharp asset prices and currency volatility with capital outflows from the region, particularly from Russia and of course Ukraine itself. UBS points out that the European banks within their coverage present “a meaningful exposure: the loans in Russia and Ukraine amount to over €60bn before taking into considerations any investment banking activity.”
“Ukraine sees EU as governance model”
BRUSSELS | By Jacobo de Regoyos | After Mr Poroshenko’s victory in Ukraine elections, expectations have risen to end the profound civil unrest. And many citizens are “identifying the EU with governance quality,” former head of the Spanish diplomacy (2002-04) and MEP Ana Palacio pointed out. She just came back from Kieve, where she was part of an international poll observers’ mission together the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Allbright.
Russia, an Italy with 8,500 atomic bombs
WASHINGTON | By Pablo Pardo | According to the IMF, Russia and Italy have about the same nominal GDP, though, if you adjust it to its purchase parity power, the Russian economy may be 50% greater than Italian. Still, Russia has two and a half times the population of Italy, which explains why its nominal GDP per capita is half of Spain’s (even in real terms, Spaniards are 60 percent richer than Russians). So, Vladimir Putin has managed to achieve for its country a global importance that, taking its economy into account, it does not deserve.
Arctic Energy Security: A Tepid Frontier?
With the area opening to greater human activity, the Polar region has once again caught the eye of policy makers (the region was once the site of heightened Cold War activity), who are looking increasingly northward.Will the Arctic be the site of conflict or cooperation?
Ukraine, the Decisive Pawn- And Why the EU Moved Away From the US
MADRID | By Luis Arroyo | The West is losing ground in the international arena: the United States’ credibility is damaged and Europe is so self-centered, focused in its own business that it has underestimated Russia. Now Ukraine is in the middle of a boiling debate between pro-Russians and pro-westerns and Putin won’t let the EU snatch the former soviet country.
Is Russian energy monopoly behind Bulgaria’s government crisis?
By Ognyan Minchev, non-resident fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Balkan Trust for Democracy | The clash between the Russian oligarchic model of economic and political control and a Western-style democratic system produces structural instability in the Eastern part of Europe, which may prove a strategic challenge for the EU.
The Days of Engaging Russia Are Over
According to Alexander Golts, the Munich Security Conference marks the lowest point in US-Russia relations for the past 20 years.
Russians in Putin’s Russia
Evgeniya Khilji | Tensions between “Russians” and “others” can be observed more closely in Putin’s Russia’s large cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the concentration of legal and illegal immigrants is high. Ethnic Russians feel threatened by the large numbers of incoming ‘visitors’.