DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Western countries have scrambled to deliver billions of dollars of military gear to Ukraine. Getting it to the frontlines is a whole other problem.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

For a military at war, it's a challenge to get the right gear to the right troops at the right time. Western countries have scrambled to deliver that gear to Ukraine, overcoming political debates and logistical hurdles, but getting it to the frontlines presents a whole other problem. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesThe restricted operational environment makes Ukraine's logistics that much harder. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesFurther complicating the situation is the fact that the Ukrainian military is a dynamic force. Many Ukrainian troops are also rotating through the US and European countries for training.

☆ NATO's chief is talking openly about alliance membership for Ukraine as Putin's war continues to shoot Russia in the foot
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Ukraine has long sought NATO membership, something Vladimir Putin deeply opposes. Ukraine has long sought NATO membership. As early as April 2008, NATO said it "welcomed" aspirations from Ukraine and Georgia — the latter was attacked by Russia later that year — to join the military alliance. Finland officially became the 31st member of the military alliance earlier this month, a huge setback for Putin. in a Friday tweet that included a link to a media report about Stoltenberg telling Zelenskyy Ukraine belongs in NATO.

☆ Russian outlets are exaggerating that Ukrainian troops are stuck in the mud to cheer up Putin's soldiers, UK intel says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russian media is exaggerating the mud's impact on Ukrainian forces, UK intel reports. Their goal is "aimed at raising Russian morale" and "undermining Ukraine's supporters," intel says. One commander told RIA Novosti that Russian forces "drowned" a German Leopard tank in a swamp. Russian outlets, however, appear to be "exaggerating the overall impact of mud on Ukrainian forces," UK intel said. Intelligence suggests the outlets are trying to cheer up Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops and raise their flagging morale while "undermining Ukraine's supporters" ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.

☆ Russia is telling its guys to be 'a real man' and sign up as contract soldiers — as its death toll in Ukraine reaches up to 60,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Matthew Loh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Russian military recruitment ad is telling viewers to be "a real man" and sign up for the war. It features three burly civilian men donning Russian military gear. Around two million former conscripts and contract soldiers are in the Russian military, it said. UK intelligence in February said the death toll among Russian soldiers and private military contractors may have reached up to 60,000, out of a total 200,000 Russian casualties. On April 14, BBC News Russian reported that at least 20,451 Russian soldiers are confirmed dead.

☆ The F-35 is becoming the most popular fighter jet among NATO militaries — with one 'baffling' exception
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Romania is the latest NATO member to say it will buy the F-35 stealth fighter jet. To some in the West, Turkey's decision to choose the S-400 over the F-35 just does not compute. As one of the original partners in the US-led F-35 program, Turkey should have been among the first to get the cutting-edge stealth fighter. The F-35/S-400 controversy illustrates Turkey's position as the odd man in NATO since it joined in 1952. Putin and Erdogan inspect a Russian Su-57 fighter jet at the MAKS air show in Russia in August 2019.

☆ Power firm SSE says backing renewables can help get Britain closer to energy self-reliance
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The chief executive of British power firm SSE says a rapid build-out of renewable projects can help the U.K. to secure its energy security and bring costs down for consumers. "Consumers everywhere across Europe have seen prices rise significantly," SSE CEO Alistair Phillips-Davies told CNBC's Arabile Gumede from the firm's Viking Wind Farm in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2022 prompted a radical upheaval of Europe's energy supplies. U.K. Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps reaffirmed the government's plan to deliver greater energy independence last month, pledging to seek to power the country by switching to home-grown sources, including nuclear and renewables. Asked whether the U.K. possessed enough wind energy to power at least most of the U.K., SSE's Phillips-Davies replied, "I definitely think the U.K. has got a huge amount of natural resources.

☆ Yellen says US banks may tighten lending and negate need for more rate hikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said banks are likely to become more cautious and may tighten lending further in the wake of recent bank failures, possibly negating the need for further Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. "Banks are likely to become somewhat more cautious in this environment," Yellen said in the interview, which is scheduled to air on Sunday. But Yellen said she was not yet seeing anything "dramatic enough or significant enough" in this area to alter her economic outlook. Some Fed officials have said the U.S. central bank should adopt a more cautious footing as they expect banks to restrict lending in the months ahead. Asked whether sanctions could erode the dollar's role as the world's reserve currency, Yellen acknowledged potential risks.

☆ Russia's war economy isn't as resilient as reports would have you believe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That brings us to today's main story — economists say the official data coming out of Russia isn't painting an accurate picture of Putin's wartime economy. "These are the things that businesses deliver and consumers purchase in an economy, and they have been absorbing the impact. Our tracker shows a contraction of the Russian economy ahead of the official figures release precisely because we use high-frequency indicators from the private economy." Vehicle sales, imports, credit growth, home prices, and other measures all point to a much less robust regime since Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine began. These four charts tell the story of how war has reshaped Russia over the last year.

Kira Yarmysh, his spokeswoman, said in a video clip on Twitter accompanied by disturbing background music. Navalny's supporters cast him as a Russian version of South Africa's Nelson Mandela who will one day be freed from jail to lead the country. Navalny accused the Russian state of trying to kill him, something it denied. Yarmysh said medicine sent to Navalny's prison by his mother was not collected by prison officials from the post office and was returned. Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn Editing by Peter Graff and Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

RISE TO PROMINENCEA former lawyer, Navalny rose to prominence with blogs which exposed what he said was vast corruption across the Russian elite. Navalny has been detained countless times for organising public rallies, and prosecuted repeatedly on charges including corruption, embezzlement and fraud. Putin dismissed the investigation as a smear, saying: "If someone had wanted to poison him, they would have finished him off." KEY NAVALNY QUOTES:ON THE UKRAINE WAR:"This is a stupid war which your Putin started," Navalny told an appeal court in Moscow via video link from a corrective penal colony in 2022. ON PUTIN:"Corruption is the foundation of contemporary Russia, it is the foundation of Mr. Putin’s political power," Navalny told Reuters in an interview in 2011.

The sanctions, imposed by the Treasury and State departments in concert with Britain, hit entities and individuals across over 20 countries and jurisdictions, including facilitators of sanctions evasion, the State Department said in a statement. Separately, the Treasury said it imposed sanctions on Russian financial facilitators and sanctions evaders around the world, including Turkey, United Arab Emirates and China-based people and companies. The Treasury also targeted King-Pai Technology HK Co, Ltd, which it said is a China-based supplier for multiple entities in Russia's military-industrial complex. Washington has not yet imposed sanctions on Rosatom itself. "It will always be a race between sanctions enforcement and sanctions evaders.

☆ Russia is set to pass a measure that bans people who have been drafted to the military from leaving the country
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Azmi Haroun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The measure would ban people who have been drafted from leaving the country, and track summons. According to The New York Times, Russia's state Duma has passed a measure which bans those who have been drafted to the military from leaving the country, imposing electronic draft summons and other measures. In Ukraine, the army is also trying to recruit more manpower amid heavy casualties sustained in the ongoing battle with Russia in eastern Bakhmut. At the outset of the war, Ukrainian imposed martial law, banning men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country in case they're needed for a draft. The country also instituted mobilization rules which make that same pool of men eligible to be drafted on a whim.

☆ U.S. imposes fresh sanctions on financial network linked to Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Amanda Macias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration imposed fresh sanctions aimed at the financial network linked to Russian billionaire and business tycoon Alisher Usmanov. Last year, German authorities seized the world's largest superyacht following official confirmation that the vessel had links to Usmanov. Read more: World’s largest yacht, linked to Russian billionaire Usmanov, is seized by GermanyUsmanov and his superyacht entered the crosshairs of the U.S. and its allies following coordinated global sanctions on Russian elites with Kremlin ties. Last March, French authorities seized a massive yacht they say is linked to Igor Sechin, a Russian billionaire who is CEO of state oil company Rosneft. The Lady M, known to be the property of Russian billionaire Alexei Mordashov, was previously seized in Italy.

☆ One of Russia's few remaining allies asked Moscow for guarantees that it would defend his country if it was attacked
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Belarus' leader Alexander Lukashenko asked Russia to defend it if attacked, state media reported. The embattled leader asked Russia to protect his country "as its own territory." Lukashenko met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Minsk on Monday, according to Belarusian state-owned news agency Belta. In the meeting, Lukashenko requested that "in case of aggression against Belarus the Russian Federation protects Belarus as its own territory," the outlet reporting him as saying. Belarus has avoided committing troops to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but has aided it by training Russian troops and allowing Russian use of its military bases.

☆ The resilient job market is finally showing signs of cooling off
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The job market is clearly starting to slow down. Mohamed El-Erian said March's jobs report was a win-win for both the stock market and the Fed. "We are making this transition where the stock market was obsessed with interest-rate risk to one that is concerned about credit risk." What's your take on the latest job data? In other news:Traders works on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 5, 2020.

☆ Russia's economy is becoming more 'primitive' and war could push it to the same fate as the Soviet Union, says economist targeted by Moscow
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Economist Konstantin Sonin said the Russian economy has become more primitive since the war began, Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta reported. The economist, who Moscow placed on its wanted list, said Russia could follow the Soviet Union's path toward "complete economic implosion." "Everything that is happening makes the Russian economy more primitive, more backwards." "Everything that is happening makes the Russian economy more primitive, more backwards," Konstantin said. And I think we are seriously going to follow the Soviet Union's path from the 1970s to the complete economic implosion of the late 1980s."

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter is now recommending Kremlin-linked accounts to users after restricting them last year, tests suggest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-09 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter appears to be amplifying tweets of Russian state accounts after suppressing them last year. The Telegraph created a new account and was recommended the Kremlin-linked accounts, it reported. Elon Musk has been lifting most restrictions on accounts labelled harmful under previous management. Twitter had more broadly limited the reach of state-affiliated media since 2020, by not recommending them to users and labelling them as state-affiliated. The world's second-richest man reinstated Donald Trump's Twitter account in November to this end, although the former president has still not posted any new tweets.

☆ Senior US lawmaker says doing everything possible to speed up Taiwan arms deliveries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/5] Michael McCaul, Chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, who is leading a delegation of US lawmakers visiting Taiwan, and Taiwan's Parliament Speaker You Si-kun, shake hands during a news conference at the parliament in Taipei, Taiwan April 7, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia RawlinsTAIPEI, April 7 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker said on Friday he was doing everything possible to speed up the delivery of weapons to Taiwan, suggesting other countries that have the arms could sell them onto the island with U.S. government permission. Taiwan has since last year complained of delays to U.S. weapons deliveries, such as Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, as manufacturers turn supplies to Ukraine to support its defence against Russia. "On the weapons issue, I sign off on those deliveries and we are doing everything in our power to expedite this," he said, speaking at Taiwan's parliament where he met its speaker, You Si-kun. While China staged war games around Taiwan in August after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei its reaction this time has been more muted.

☆ Russians are offering up equipment and heavy armored vehicles to Ukraine's surrender hotline, official says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An official claimed that Ukraine's surrender hotline had a record number of calls in March. The "I Want to Live" hotline allows Russian soldiers to call up and pre-arrange a surrender. The telephone line is part of a project called "I Want to Live," allowing Russian soldiers to arrange to give themselves up rather than fight. He added that "interesting" Russian heavy armored vehicles are already being used by Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield, according to the outlet. UK intelligence reported on Friday that after months of battle, Russian soldiers have "highly likely" advanced to the center of the city.

☆ Even Putin's media stooges are mocking Trump's arrest, joking that he may have to seek asylum in Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Russian state media personalities took jabs at Trump following his Tuesday arrest and arraignment. In one broadcast, AI images of Trump wearing orange jumpsuits appeared to dance to "Jailhouse Rock." Top editors give you the stories you want — delivered right to your inbox each weekday. The Russian state media response to Trump's indictment was first reported on by The Daily Beast and columnist Julia Davis, who created the Russian Media Monitor to combat Russian propaganda. Co-host Olga Skabeeva gleefully acknowledged in Russian that "Trump may change into an orange prison suit," adding: "We're getting lots of popcorn and waiting."

☆ Russia's Belarus nuclear threat shows "empty promises" of China statement: Stoltenberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, April 5 (Reuters) - Russia's announcement that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus shows that a Russia-China joint statement days earlier amounted to "empty promises", NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement came just days after Russia and China jointly declared countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders, Stoltenberg told a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He said this showed such statements are "empty promises and what we need to watch closely is what Russia is doing." Stoltenberg said NATO had not seen any signs so far that Russia was following through on Putin's announcement. Also at his news conference, Stoltenberg reiterated his call for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested last Thursday in Russia.

☆ US journalist detained in Russia reportedly reading famous anti-Soviet novel by a Ukrainian Jew as he sits in notorious ex-KGB prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The WSJ reporter detained in Moscow is reportedly reading a famous anti-Soviet novel. The book, which equated crimes of the Nazis and the Soviets, was written by a Ukrainian Jew. "Life and Fate" was not published in the Soviet Union into 1988, when Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost allowed for greater freedom of expression. "This is a novel written by a Jew that concludes that the Soviet Union had come to resemble Nazi Germany," historian Walter Laqueur told the Washington Post in 1987, shortly before the novel was finally published in the Soviet Union. His parents were part of a large wave of Jews who fled the Soviet Union due to ongoing persecution.

☆ Finland officially becomes a member of NATO, doubling the military alliance's border with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Silvia Amaro | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Finland's Foreign Affairs Minister Pekka Haavisto is concerned that his country's application to join NATO will be delayed. Finland on Tuesday became an official member of the military alliance NATO, prompted by Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine last year. Nor does it change the foundations or objectives of Finland's foreign and security policy," Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in a written statement Tuesday. Finland shares an 832-mile border with Russia, the longest of any European Union member. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Russia would closely follow any NATO deployments in Finland and that his country would take "counter-measures" to this accession, according to Reuters.

☆ Former Russian commander in Ukraine says Moscow was unprepared for a protracted war and is now 'heading for military defeat'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

He has criticized Russia' war strategy, saying on Sunday that Russia is sleepwalking toward defeat. Girkin, who is also known by his alias "Strelkov," is now a prominent war blogger who has criticized the Russian military strategy in Ukraine. "I'm not afraid to say that we are heading towards military defeat," Girkin said, adding that the Russian economy, military, and political system were unprepared for such a "long, protracted war." In February, Girkin criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin's national address about the war with Ukraine for blatantly ignoring Moscow's "failures" and "defeats." In October 2022, Ukrayinska Pravda reported that Girkin was believed to be fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

☆ Russia praises military blogger who was killed in a cafe explosion for 'boldly' dying and 'doing his duty'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia praised a military blogger who died in a cafe explosion on Sunday for "doing his duty." Vladlen Tatarsky had gained popularity for blogging about Russia's war efforts in Ukraine. "It is thanks to the Russian war correspondents that the world sees truthful and timely footage and learns about what is happening in Ukraine. Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was a popular pro-war Russian military blogger. He covered Russia's war in Ukraine largely on his Telegram channel, according to CNN.

Search resuls for: "Vladimir Putin's"

25 mentions found