Ukrainian Supreme Court allows seizing Russian banks assets to recover losses in Crimea

The Supreme Court of Ukraine allowed seizing shares of Russian financial institutions as compensation for the annexation of the Crimea, the press service of the Court reported. 

In July last year, eighteen legal entities and one individual applied to the Kyiv Court of Appeals with the request to recognize and to grant permission for the implementation of the decision made by the International Court of Arbitration at the Hague. 

According to the application, debtor banks hold some property in …


Tokyo: establishing US military bases in the Kuril Islands is only possible with Japan’s consent

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that if the South Kuril Islands are handed over to Japan, the creation of US military bases on those islands will be possible only after Tokyo gives its consent, RIA Novosti reported, citing Kyodo News Agency.

The United States has the right to establish military bases in Japan. However, in the case of the Kuril Islands, the deployment location must be coordinated with the Japanese government, Abe stated. 

Meanwhile, Abe gave no answer to journalists’ …


Russia prepares to kiss goodbye to multi-billion investments in Venezuela

The US sanctions on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, threaten to affect the Maduro government’s ability to repay its debts to Russia, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak said on Tuesday. 

According to Storchak, Venezuela has borrowed more than $3 billion from Russia in intergovernmental loans. 

The debt had to be restructured in November 2017, when the repayment schedule became impossible for Nicolás Maduro, whose 6 year rule has seen the Venezuelan economy shrink by …


China refuses to finance $14 billion Gazprom megaproject

Russian officials’ attempts to get through to Chinese investors in order to enlist their support in developing the economy in the East and overcoming western sanctions are continuing to fail for the fifth consecutive year. 

The new negotiations to secure a Chinese loan for the construction of Russia’s largest gas processing plant in the Amur province have ended with yet another disappointment for the Russians. 

Gazprom had hoped to pay for the Amur gas processing plant, which is scheduled to …


Russia: US sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company illegal

Moscow has said that the sanctions imposed by Washington on PDVSA, the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, in an attempt to undermine Nicolas Maduro’s power, are illegal. 

“The legitimate leadership of Venezuela has already described these sanctions as illegal. One can fully get behind this perspective,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

The US Treasury Department said that the measures against the Venezuelan state-owned oil company were adopted in order to “change the …