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December 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news
  + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Kathleen Magramo | Jack Guy | Adrienne Vogt | ) edition.cnn.com   time to read: +2 min
Nikita Chibrin says he still remembers his fellow Russian soldiers running away after allegedly raping two Ukrainian women during their deployment northwest of Kyiv in March. He deserted from the Russian military in September and fled to Europe via Belarus and Kazakhstan. Chibrin’s military documents, seen by CNN, show his commander was Azatbek Omurbekov, the officer in charge of the 64th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade. Omurbekov, known as the “Butcher of Bucha” is under sanctions by the European Union and the United Kingdom. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the mass killings while reiterating baseless claims that the images of civilian bodies were fake.
That’s it.”Chibrin is a former soldier from the Russian city of Yakutsk who says he served in the 64th Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade, the notorious Russian military unit accused of committing war crimes during their offensive in Bucha, Borodianka and other towns and villages north of Kyiv. He deserted from the Russian military in September and fled to Europe via Belarus and Kazakhstan. They saw the war, they saw defeat, saw their [fellow] combatants being murdered, saw corpses. On February 24 they just said everyone will go to war,” Chibrin said, adding that he initially refused to go. Once back in Russia, Chibrin said he spent nearly a month in hospital, most of that being bedridden with terrible back pain.
[1/6] Commercial vessels, including oil tankers, wait at an anchorage in the Black Sea off Kilyos near Istanbul, Turkey, December 9, 2022. A total of 28 oil tankers are in a queue seeking to leave the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, the Tribeca shipping agency said on Friday. Turkey's maritime authority said it would continue to keep out of its waters oil tankers that lacked appropriate insurance letters. A shipping source said four of the tankers waiting to cross the Dardanelles were scheduled to go on Saturday with tug escorts. Millions of barrels of oil per day move south from Russian ports through Turkey's Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits into the Mediterranean.
Dec 8 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday that a proposed gas union including Uzbekistan did not involve imposing "political terms" on the Central Asian nation. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that a Reuters report about Uzbekistan's energy minister pouring cold water on the "gas union" idea had drawn incorrect conclusions. Russia said last month it was discussing a "gas union" with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to support transit between the three countries and to other buyers including China. Uzbek Energy Minister Jorabek Mirzamahmudov told Reuters that Uzbekistan had yet to receive the proposal, and that "we will never agree to political conditions in exchange for gas". While Russia is a major natural gas exporter, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan produce roughly as much as they consume.
FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec 8 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on Thursday that the Biden administration had no reason to believe the Russian government was involved in a decision by Turkey to block ships from transiting to the Mediterranean Sea. Yellen also said the administration saw no reason that oil shipments from Kazakhstan should be subjected to new procedures. Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Tim AhmannOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
[1/4] Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa reacts as he speaks with his family after donning space suits shortly before the launch to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, December 8, 2021. REUTERS/Shamil ZhumatovTOKYO, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa on Friday revealed that K-pop star TOP and DJ Steve Aoki will be among the eight crew members he plans to take on a trip around the moon next year, hitching a ride on one of Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets. The picks were announced by Maezawa on Twitter and at a website for what he dubbed the #dearMoon Project. Maezawa used the micro-blogging site to recruit eight crew members from around the world to join him on the moon trip, saying 1 million people had applied. U.S. Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as backup crew members.
A further nine tankers were waiting to cross southbound from the Sea of Marmara through the Dardanelles strait into the Mediterranean. The snag is linked to a Western price cap on Russian oil that came into effect on Monday. Countries including Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan use the Turkish straits to get their oil to world oil markets. The traffic jam in the Turkish straits arose following the imposition this week of the price cap on Russian oil. Turkish officials say this position is “unacceptable” and on Thursday reiterated demands for letters from insurers.
The UK, US, and EU are working with Ankara to clear an oil tanker pile-up in Turkish waters. EU's $60 a barrel price cap on Russian crude kicked in Monday, which is impacting shipping and insurance. Most vessels in Turkish waters now are loaded with oil from Kazakhstan, not Russia, two Western officials told the Financial Times on Thursday. It is considering several options to counter the price cap, Russian business daily Vedomosti reported Wednesday, citing two sources close to the cabinet. Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko also weighed in on the matter, saying Russia's concerned about the congestion off Turkey.
Russia is on track to harvest a record grain crop of 150 million tonnes, including 100 million tonnes of wheat, in 2022. SANCTIONS CAUSE SOME LOSSESSovecon and another consultancy IKAR see December wheat exports at 4.0-4.2 million tonnes. That is close to the record of 4.3 million tonnes set in December, 2017, Sovecon said, adding that Russia exported 4.3 million tonnes of wheat in November. Sovecon expects Russia's July-December wheat exports at 22.9 million tonnes, up 2% year-on-year and equal to the average of the past five years. It estimates Russia's total 2022/23 grain exports at 56.1 million tonnes, including 43.7 million of wheat.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled to Kazakhstan and other neighbouring states after the war started. Many of them were civilians, crossing legally as they sought to avoid a Russian mobilisation order. She travelled to Kazakhstan legally with their two children. A Kazakh police document, which she showed to Reuters, stated he had been detained on suspicion of violating Russian law. The Russian authorities did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on the case.
[1/2] The Maltese-flagged crude oil tanker Minerva Baltica sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Black Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey December 5, 2022. REUTERS/Yoruk Isik/File PhotoMOSCOW, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Russia is concerned about a build-up of oil tankers in the Bosphorus Strait and is discussing the issue with insurance and transport companies, RIA cited Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying on Wednesday. After all, insurance companies insure, not the state," Grushko is quoted as saying. The European Union banned all seaborne Russian crude imports from Dec. 5, with a fuel import ban to follow in February. Kazakhstan, a large oil exporter, said on Wednesday that the build-up of the oil tankers at the Bosphorus is normal during the winter season.
BEIJING — Now that he has consolidated power at home, Chinese President Xi Jinping is stepping out onto the world stage to strengthen relations with the U.S. and other countries. Most recently, Xi hosted European Council President Charles Michel in Beijing on Thursday. In a speech at the party congress, Xi said the party has “safeguarded China’s dignity” in the face of international changes and warned of “dangerous storms” ahead. The following week, the countries’ military leaders met for the first time since Pelosi’s controversial Taiwan visit in August. Heads of Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia and Italy met with both Xi and Biden in the last several weeks, based on government announcements.
CNN —Moscow’s accusation that Ukrainian drones struck two airbases deep inside Russia has once again raised the febrile question of escalation nine months into the war. Footage on Russian media shows the aftermath of an alleged drone strike Tuesday at an airfield in Kursk, Russia. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the blasts, in keeping with Kyiv’s policy of official silence around attacks inside Russia or in Russian-occupied Crimea. But it is hard to know what else Russia could do to Ukraine that it has not already done. Let us first quickly discuss why a Russian nuclear strike seems off the table, at least for now.
2,500 dead seals found on Russia’s Caspian coast
  + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com   time to read: +1 min
About 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said Sunday. Regional officials initially reported Saturday that 700 dead seals were found on the coast, but the Dagestan division of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment later raised the figure to about 2,500. Journalists and environmental workers inspect the bodies of dead seals on shore of the Caspian Sea, near Dagestan, Russia on Sunday. APZaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said in a statement that the seals likely died a couple of weeks ago. The fisheries agency has said the overall number of Caspian seals is 270,000-300,000, while the Caspian Environmental Protection Center put the number at 70,000.
CNN —Around 2,500 endangered seals have been found dead on Russia’s Caspian coast, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported Sunday, citing authorities in the North Caucasus region. Caspian seals, the only mammals found in the Caspian Sea, have been classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list since 2008. According to RIA, inspectors were patrolling the coastline in search of additional dead seals. Meanwhile, specialists from the Caspian Environmental Center were analyzing samples from the dead seals to identify the cause of death. The mass deaths come after more than 140 Caspian seals were found dead on Kazakh beaches of the Caspian Sea earlier this year, according to KASPIKA, an agency for the conservation of Caspian seals.
KYIV, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Several Ukrainian embassies abroad have received "bloody packages" containing animal eyes, the foreign ministry said on Friday, after a series of letter bombs were sent to addresses in Spain including Ukraine's embassy in Madrid. An embassy source in Rome said human faeces were left in front of the door. Nikolenko also said that the embassy in Kazakhstan had received a bomb threat, which was subsequently not confirmed. The embassy in the United States received a letter containing an article that was critical about Ukraine, he said. Reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; additional reporting by Philip Pullela in Rome; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy HeirtageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
CNN —Ukraine’s foreign minister has accused Russia of being behind a series of more than a dozen letters containing explosives or animal parts that were sent to Ukrainian diplomats around the world. “This campaign is aimed at sowing fear,” Dmytro Kuleba told CNN’s Matthew Chance in an exclusive interview in Kyiv on Friday. CNN was shown an image of one of the letters containing what officials said was the eyeball of a pig inside a padded envelope. ‘Who benefits?’Kuleba earlier urged foreign governments to guarantee maximum protection of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Nikolenko also stated that the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States received a letter with a photocopy of a critical article about Ukraine.
In a statement, the U.S.-based company said that its "licensee in Kazakhstan has temporarily closed all of its restaurants due to local supply issues. Food Solutions, the Kazakh licensee company, announced the closure on Nov. 17 and cited "local supply issues." After Russia invaded Ukraine in what Moscow calls a "special military operation", McDonald's exited Russia, selling all the restaurants it owned to a local licensee in May. It was unclear where the decision to ditch Russian suppliers originated. Marr Russia, one of the Kazakh company's Russian suppliers, said it never worked directly with McDonald's, dealing with its Kazakh logistics partner HAVI instead.
Exclusive: EU embargo diverts Lukoil's Caspian oil to CPC link
  + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
A European Union embargo from Dec. 5 is set to ban European buyers from purchasing and transporting Russian oil. As a major route for Kazakhstan's oil, CPC oil exports are excluded from the ban. "Russian oil is leaving BTC, the reason is sanctions, BTC doesn't let Russian oil in," - one of the sources said. CPC Blend exported via the CPC pipeline currently trades at a significant discount to Azeri BTC oil, which is supplied via BTC. The main exporters of the Azeri BTC oil are Azerbaijan's SOCAR and BP, as well as Hungarian company MOL, Exxon (XOM.N) and Turkey's TPAO.
Joe LaPaille, a spokesperson for McDonald's Corporation based in the United States, said in an email: "Our McDonald's licensee in Kazakhstan has temporarily closed all of its restaurants due to local supply issues. Food Solutions, the Kazakh licensee company, announced the closure on Nov. 17 and cited "local supply issues." It was unclear where the decision to ditch Russian suppliers originated. Marr Russia, one of the Kazakh company's Russian suppliers, said it never worked directly with McDonald's, dealing with its Kazakh logistics partner HAVI instead. Miratorg said it was a supplier for Vkusno & Tochka, the Russian successor to McDonald's, and did not directly address the question of Kazakh sales.
[1/3] Travellers walk after crossing the border with Russia at the frontier checkpoint Verkhny Lars - Zemo Larsi, Georgia September 28, 2022. REUTERS/Irakli GedenidzeTBILISI, Nov 28 (Reuters) - A month after Russia said it had ended a recruitment drive for its war in Ukraine, men who fled to neighbouring Georgia to avoid the draft say they are in no rush to return home. Of course I don't want to return to a country where police can arrest me for simply walking past them. Yet the arrival of so many relatively well-off Russians in a comparatively poor country of just 3.7 million has created tension. Samadashvili said she fears Putin could use the pretext of "protecting" Russians in Georgia as grounds for a further invasion, just as he did in Ukraine.
Kazakhstan seeks share of booming Russia-Iran cargo traffic
  + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com   time to read: +2 min
Zhumangarin said reducing red tape and improving infrastructure could streamline cargo flows. Zhumangarin also said Kazakhstan was considering building a third railway crossing on its border with China. The move could be regarded as either positive or negative for Russia, depending on where the added volumes go. The Central Asian nation is in talks with the European Union about boosting its transit capacity as part of a project to divert China-Europe cargo traffic from Russia to the Caspian and the Caucasus. Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov and Mariya Gordeyeva; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - India bought about 40% of all Urals seaborne export volumes loading in November, outperforming other states as buyers, Reuters calculations based on Refinitiv and traders' data showed on Monday. Russian Urals oil shipments to India accounted for about 40% of the total sea exports of Urals in November, not including the transit of oil from Kazakhstan, which is sold as KEBCO, Reuters calculations showed. On Dec. 5, the European Union imposes an embargo on the supply of seaborne shipments of Russian oil. EU discussions of a price cap for the Russian oil is also complicating trade for December volumes, traders said, raising uncertainty. Turkey remains the main buyer of Urals in the Mediterranean, in November, deliveries to this country accounted for about 15% of all Urals sea exports, according to Reuters calculations.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called into question the effectiveness of the six-nation Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) at a summit this week. Armenia requested assistance from the organisation in September, but received only a promise to send observers. Pashinyan contrasted that with the alliance's rapid decision in January to send troops to CSTO member Kazakhstan to help President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev survive a wave of unrest. "There have always been attempts to (bring about) the CSTO's disintegration," news agencies quoted Peskov as saying in an interview broadcast on state television. "And it fully demonstrated its relevance and effectiveness, meaning the resolution of the situation in Kazakhstan."
Russian ally Kazakhstan has been subtle but firm in its opposition to the Ukraine war. Kazakhstan's official position on the war is to call for a ceasefire and a diplomatic solution, Magzhan Ilyassov, Kazakhstan's new ambassador to the UK, said in a press briefing attended by Insider. Following the invasion of Ukraine, fears have also been stoked that Russia could turn its sights to Kazakhstan next. Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesAlthough it has not outright criticized Russia for invading Ukraine, Kazakhstan has made its position clear. Ilyassov said that Russian troops were there among others from all member states and left after nearly two weeks without being involved in any action.
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