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☆ Russia wields ‘silent weapon’ of grain exports to weaken Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

This will amount to 22.5% of global wheat exports, a market-leading share. In the same period, Ukraine’s share of global wheat exports has shrunk from 9% to an expected level of a little over 6% for this season. “Ukraine’s [grain] exports are vital to its economy and to feed the world,” Bridget A. S&P Global expects its wheat exports to fall by 3.7 million tons to 13.4 million in 2023-24, the lowest in nine years. And a significant reduction in the global wheat supply could yet lift prices, suggests Welsh.

Persons: Dmitry Medvedev, Vladimir Putin, ” Caitlin Welsh, Bridget A, Putin, Andrey Sizov, Stringer, ” Welsh, Sizov, Vladimir Nikolayev, Paul Hughes, ”, Olesya, Svitlana Vlasova Organizations: London CNN —, Russia’s Security, Global, CNN, Initiative, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Moscow, Twitter, Getty, Union, European Commission, EU, US Department of Agriculture, Reuters, Romania, P Global, “ Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Nedvigovka, AFP, Ukraine’s, Poland, mudslinging, Egypt, Siberian Novosibirsk, “ Ukraine

☆ Viktor Sokolov, Russian admiral claimed to have been killed in Ukrainian attack, appears in video interview
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-27 | by ( Katharina Krebs Anna Chernova Clare Sebastian | Katharina Krebs | Anna Chernova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was asked by a reporter in a video about the missile strike on the fleet’s headquarters in Sevastopol, which Ukraine said had killed him. In the video, Sokolov also referred to the “Order of Ushakov” award given to Russia’s 810th Marine Brigade. A video published Tuesday showed Sokolov appearing to attend a Russian defense ministry meeting. Russian Ministry of DefenseIn the Russian footage published Tuesday, a man resembling Sokolov appeared to join the meeting via video conference. But, by the next day, the messaging had changed, with Peskov confirming that Sokolov had attended the defense ministry meeting.

Persons: Viktor Sokolov, “, ” Sokolov, Sokolov, Ushakov, Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev, Sergei Shoigu, Dmitry Peskov, ” Peskov, Rustem Umerov, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, ” Umerov, Amanpour, Crimea – Organizations: CNN, Zvezda News, 810th Marine Brigade, Russian Ministry of Defense, Black, Fleet, Kremlin, Ministry of Defense, Kyiv Tuesday, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces, ЧФ Locations: Ukraine, Crimea, Russian, Sevastopol, Moscow, Russia

☆ Viktor Sokolov: Ukraine 'clarifying' whether Russian commander was killed in strike, after video purportedly shows him alive
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-26 | by ( Olga Voitovych Clare Sebastian Florence Davey-Attlee Rob Picheta | Olga Voitovych | Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Ukraine’s military has said it is “clarifying” information received about the alleged assassination of Russian commander Viktor Sokolov, after Moscow released a video that appears to show him alive and well. Kyiv claimed on Monday it killed Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, in an attack on the fleet’s headquarters in occupied Crimea last Friday. The nametape on his uniform reads Sokolov V. N. and his screen shows the Cyrillic letters “ЧФ,” the abbreviation for the Black Sea Fleet. “Available sources claim that the Black Sea Fleet Commander is among the dead. Russia appointed Sokolov as its new commander for its Crimea-based Black Sea fleet in August 2022, according to reports from state media outlet TASS at the time.

Persons: CNN —, Viktor Sokolov, Sokolov, Sergei Shoigu, Rustem Umerov, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, “, ” Umerov, Amanpour, Dmitry Peskov, Crimea –, Andrii Yusov Organizations: CNN, Russian Ministry of Defense, Black, Fleet, Ukraine Special Operations Forces, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces, Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, Naval Academy, Northern Fleet, ЧФ Locations: Moscow, Crimea, Kyiv, Ukraine, Russia, Ukrainian Crimea, ” Ukraine, Russian, Saky, Sevastopol

☆ Nagorno-Karabakh crisis lays bare deteriorating Armenian relationship with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Clare Sebastian Anna Chernova Katharina Krebs Tim Lister Christian Edwards | Clare Sebastian | Anna Chernova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh has come amid a sharp deterioration in the relationship between historic allies Armenia and Russia, and has been amplified by sometimes incendiary commentary from prominent individuals in Moscow. Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to protect Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijani aggression, according to state media Armenpress. The prominent Russian military blogger Rybar said Armenia was over reliant on Russia to provide security for Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia purports to provide security to Armenia through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance of post-Soviet states that includes Armenia but excludes Azerbaijan. The Armenian authorities handed over the Armenian shrine with their own hands… The fate of Judas is unenviable.”Simonyan also wrote on Telegram about protests in Yerevan.

Persons: Nikol Pashinyan, Pashinyan, Armenia’s, Armen Grigoryan, Dmitry Peskov, Pashinyan’s, Anna Hakobyan, ” Pashinyan, Dmitry Medvedev, “, ”, ” Medvedev, Rybar, –, ” Rybar, Margarita Simonyan, Judas, ” Simonyan, ’ They’ve, Vladimir Solovyov, Lavrov, Putin, Ivan, ” Solovyov, Meduza Organizations: CNN, Armenian, Armenia’s Security, Kremlin, CNN Prima News, Russia, NATO, Collective Security, Organization, Twitter Locations: Nagorno, Karabakh, Armenia, Russia, Moscow, Yerevan, United States, Ukraine, Kyiv, “, Azerbaijan, Russian, Soviet

London CNN —YouTube is temporarily preventing comedian Russell Brand from making money from his videos following multiple allegations of rape and sexual assault against him. YouTube, which is owned by Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), added that it had taken the action “following serious allegations” made against the comedian over the weekend. One of the women said she was 16 and Brand 31 at the time of the alleged assault in London. In recent years, Brand has focused his attention on his YouTube channel, which has been accused of promoting conspiracy theories, including some related to the coronavirus pandemic. A woman reported the assault, alleged to have taken place in 2003, to the Met Sunday, after the the joint media report was released, the police force noted.

Persons: Russell Brand, Russell, ”, Brand, emptively, ” Brand, Allyson Stewart, Allen Organizations: London CNN, YouTube, CNN, Google, Sunday Times, The Times, International Marketing Partners, London’s Metropolitan Police, BBC Locations: British, London

Away from the front, Ukraine’s war has become a numbers game: who can acquire, make and resupply more tanks, bullets, and, most of all, artillery shells. All in all, Kyiv needs some 1.5 million artillery shells annually, according to the CEO of one of Europe’s largest arms manufacturers, Rheinmetall. By July, the US had supplied more than two million artillery rounds to Ukraine since the 2022 invasion, the Pentagon said. But in February 2023, Europe-wide production of artillery ammunition had a maximum capacity of 300,000 shells annually, Estonian defense officials estimated. The best-case scenario of an increase to making 2.1 million shells annually is still years away from being realized.

Persons: Oleksandra Ustinova, ”, Volodymyr Zelensky, Armin Papperger, Papperger, William LaPlante, Diego Herrera Carcedo, Nammo, LaPlante, Tuuli Duneton, Morten Brandtzæg, “, ” Brandtzæg, you’re, Jérôme, Creuillot, it’s, Jonathan Caverley, hasn’t, Ignacio Marin, Caverley, Josep Borrell Organizations: CNN, Artillery, Rheinmetall, Pentagon, European, NATO, Defense, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Estonian, US Naval War College, EU Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Estonian, United Kingdom, Europe, Brussels, “, Kyiv, ”, Norway, France

That’s almost three times what Russia spent on defense in 2021, before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Those figures are likely to underestimate the total spent on Russia’s war effort. He said that before the war Russia would typically splash around 3-4% of its annual gross domestic product on defense but now it could be anywhere between 8% and 10%. Russia’s exports are still greater than the value of its imports, despite a boost to the latter from the hefty military spending. Rising military spending is, on the other hand, boosting Russia’s industrial output and, with it, GDP.

Persons: London CNN —, Vladimir Putin, Putin, That’s, Richard Connolly, Janis Kluge, Irina Okladnikova, Liam Peach, it’s, Peach, Kluge, “, ”, —, Maksim Konstantinov, Alexandra Suslina, Suslina, Alexandra Prokopenko, Prokopenko, — Anna Cooban, Tim Lister, Olesya Dmitracova Organizations: London CNN, Reuters, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Royal United Services Institute for Defence, Security Studies, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Capital Economics, CNN, “, ZUMA, International Monetary Fund, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, International Energy Agency, West Locations: “, Ukraine, Russia, Stockholm, Moscow, “ Russia, Russian, Saint Petersburg, Soviet, Berlin

This is how Komsomolskaya School Number 1 is marking the opening of a new school desk, a so-called “hero desk” emblazoned with the face and biography of one of Russia’s war dead, once a pupil at this very school. The desks are part of a pan-Russian initiative called the “New School Project” and are funded by “United Russia,” a staunchly pro-Putin party. As of early May, United Russia said there were more than 14,000 desks in 9,000 schools across the country. Local news reports suggest some schools use the desks to reward good behavior or good grades. The desks across the country are standardized: green, with military photographs, a biography, medals awarded (often posthumously) and the soldier’s date of death.

Persons: It’s, ”, Gennady Alexandrovich Pavlov, Chuvashia, Gennady Pavlov, Russia’s, Daniil Ken, ” Ken, Sergei Shoigu, Ken, Alena Arshinova, Olga, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, there’s, “, ‘, Tatyana Chervenko, Chervenko, Mikhail Stepanov, ’, Stepanov, Wagner, “ Artyomovsk Organizations: CNN, New, “ United, Putin, Teachers ’ Alliance, Russian Ministry of Defense, State Duma, United, Kyiv, Russian, Russia’s Security, Novosti, Ministry Locations: Russian, Chuvashia, Russia, “ United Russia, United Russia, Ukraine, Hostomel, Kyiv, United States, State, St . Petersburg, Simferopol, Crimea, “, Leningrad, ”, Moscow, Virginia, Khabarovsk, Russia’s, Ukrainian, Bakhmut

☆ What to know about nuclear power in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Those developments, which might give anyone pause about the future of nuclear power, are counteracted by other headlines. The question of nuclear energy splits governmentsGermany made the decision to decommission all of its nuclear plants after disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima. Nuclear power in the USAs of 2022, about 18% of US electricity is generated by nuclear power, according to the US Energy Information Administration. First, be very carefulI talked to one nuclear expert who said the US should be slow and methodical about nuclear power and another who argued there are multiple, public misperceptions about nuclear power that should be corrected. The more circumspect voice is Rodney Ewing, a Stanford University professor and expert on nuclear waste who was chairman of a federal review of nuclear waste procedures.

Persons: CNN’s Clare Sebastian, Larry, Joe Biden, Rodney Ewing, ”, I’ve, ” Ewing, “, David Ruzic –, Ruzic, we’ve, ” Ruzic, “ It’s, it’s, Ewing Organizations: CNN, International Atomic Energy Agency, US Energy Information Administration, FirstEnergy Corp, Department of Energy, Stanford University, Bulletin, Atomic Scientists, University of Illinois, Lawmakers Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Europe’s, Japan, Georgia, Germany, Fukushima, France, CNN’s, China, Tennessee, California, Illinois

CNN —Russia is blaming Ukraine for launching a drone attack on Moscow early Tuesday which reportedly left two people injured and several buildings damaged, a rare incident in the Russian capital after months of war. At least three residential buildings in Moscow were damaged by drones on Tuesday, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing emergency services and residents. Sobyanin added in a subsequent update that investigators had concluded work at the Moscow apartment buildings hit by drones and that evacuated residents would be able to return to their homes. Ukraine has denied direct involvement with Tuesday’s drone attack on Moscow. A view shows a damaged multi-storey apartment block following a reported drone attack in Moscow on Tuesday.

“This is the second train, there was one like it just before.”The video, seemingly filmed in late March, shows old Soviet tanks being transported, somewhere in Russia. Moscow has been known to bring out older military equipment from storage to help it prosecute the war in Ukraine, but these are different. The tanks are T-55s, a model first commissioned by the Soviet Union’s Red Army in 1948, shortly after the end of World War II. Soviet T-54/T-55 tanks form a threatening ring round the Parliament buildings in Hungary on November 12, 1956. T-55 tanks drive through the streets of Prague, capital of what was then Czechoslovakia, in 1968.

CNN —Jailed Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny said he faces a new “terrorist case,” in what could mean decades more in prison for the outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His comments come as his daughter, Daria Navalnaya, told CNN that the Russian authorities were depriving her father of food. Navalny is currently serving a nine-year jail term at a maximum-security prison east of Moscow after being convicted of large-scale fraud by a Russian court last year. Alexey Navalny, pictured in Moscow on August 27, 2018, said on Wednesday that he faces a new "terrorist case," despite being imprisoned. Zhdanov also said that the investigator in the terrorism case was considering the killing of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky as part of the charges.

Collisions are more likely in such cases, raising the odds of a devastating oil spill. It’s also harder to tell whether the vessels with murky ownership comply with the strict rules governing oil transfers at sea, according to Kenney. Group of Seven nations have imposed a cap on the price of Russian oil and oil products, and a smaller pool of buyers can also negotiate greater discounts. China’s imports of Russian oil in the first quarter of the year rose 38% compared with a year prior, according to Kpler data. As trade of Russian oil has become more complex, many Western shippers have pulled back.

☆ Why the West hasn’t gone after Russian nuclear energy
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy monopoly Rosatom, which exports and enriches uranium as well as builds nuclear power stations around the world, has been in control of Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region since Russian forces seized it a year ago. Experts say Rosatom remains protected by the vital role it plays in global nuclear power, and the fact it can’t easily be replaced. In 2021, the United States relied on the Russian nuclear monopoly for 14% of the uranium that powered its nuclear reactors. The Akkuyu nuclear power plant as its construction continues in November 2022 Serkan Avci/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesSuch dependency can trump other considerations. It is also one of only several EU countries that rely on nuclear energy for more than 40% of their electricity and it has a long-term financing deal with Rosatom to build a nuclear power plant.

☆ Russia’s economy is hurting despite Putin’s bluster
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Russia’s economy did weaken as a result. “The Russian economy and system of government have turned out to be much stronger than the West believed,” Putin said in a speech to Russia’s parliament Tuesday. The bloc, which dramatically reduced its dependence on Russian natural gas last year, officially banned most imports of Russian crude oil by sea in December. Russia’s oil problemIn fact, Russia’s export revenue from oil rose last year. On the declineThe International Monetary Fund still expects Russia’s economy to expand by 0.3% this year and 2.1% the next.

☆ Ruble hits 8-month low against dollar, as falling oil prices and sanctions bite
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ The West is struggling to set an oil price cap that hurts Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Putin said Thursday that Western plans to introduce oil price caps would have “grave consequences” for energy markets. The oil price cap aims to amend that policy. Shipping services and insurance could be provided to tankers transporting Russian oil — so long as it’s purchased at or below the price cap established by Western nations. “But reality will be different.”Some analysts think the price cap will ultimately be less important than Europe’s oil embargo. “Due to the EU oil embargo and the planned price cap on oil from Russia, oil production there is likely to be significantly curtailed,” Commerzbank said in a note to clients.

☆ Watch: Mystery leaks in Nord Stream pipelines spark sabotage concerns
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

Unexplained leaks in multiple Nord Stream pipelines may cause problems for Europe as gas prices begin to increase. Experts and also Russia, which built the network of gas pipelines, said the possibility of sabotage could not be ruled out. CNN's Clare Sebastian reports.

☆ Graphic shows rate of people fleeing Russia after news of Putin's partial mobilization
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

Protests erupted on the streets of Russia after Putin announced a partial mobilization of citizens. Some protesters are clashing with police and reportedly being immediately conscripted, while other Russians are seeking to flee the country. CNN's Clare Sebastian reports.

☆ Cheaper oil and Ukraine war are blowing a hole in Russia's finances
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

London (CNN Business) There are new signs of strain in the Russian economy as energy prices fall and nearly seven months of war in Ukraine prove increasingly costly. Russia's budget surplus all but disappeared over the summer, according to data published by the Russian finance ministry this week. Oil is traditionally a bigger component of the Russian budget than natural gas, and Brent crude prices — the European benchmark — have fallen about 25% since their peak in early June. That's a big hit, even before an EU embargo on Russian seaborne oil imports, and a planned G7 price cap come into force in December. And while natural gas prices in Europe remain extraordinarily high, Russia's gas deliveries to the European Union and United Kingdom have dropped by 49% since the beginning of the year, Gazprom said last week.

☆ Russia finances hit by cheaper oil and costs of Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Clare Sebastian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN Business —There are new signs of strain in the Russian economy as energy prices fall and nearly seven months of war in Ukraine prove increasingly costly. Russia’s budget surplus all but disappeared over the summer, according to data published by the Russian finance ministry this week. Oil is traditionally a bigger component of the Russian budget than natural gas, and Brent crude prices — the European benchmark — have fallen about 25% since their peak in early June. That’s a big hit, even before an EU embargo on Russian seaborne oil imports, and a planned G7 price cap come into force in December. And while natural gas prices in Europe remain extraordinarily high, Russia’s gas deliveries to the European Union and United Kingdom have dropped by 49% since the beginning of the year, Gazprom said last week.

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