Politics

  Bloomberg While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has downplayed the likelihood of a large-scale invasion as Russia masses troops near the border, he is targeting what he sees as another threat to his country’s sovereignty: oligarchs. The president in a national address slammed unidentified businesspeople for fleeing the country in the face of a US warning of a potential imminent ...

Bloomberg Russia announced the start of a pullback of some forces after drills that raised US and European alarm about a possible military assault on Ukraine. Markets rallied on news of the withdrawal as investors took the move as a sign of possible de-escalation by Russia amid a major diplomatic push following weeks of warnings from the US and Europe ...

Bloomberg The Taliban have sought talks with the US to reverse its decision to use the Afghan central bank’s reserves to compensate victims of the September 11 attacks and support aid efforts in the country, a spokesman for the group said. The group will use “every diplomatic approach” to push President Joe Biden to reverse his decision and release the ...

  Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron is hosting a dinner on Wednesday for the leaders of several West African countries in Paris, where he’ll discuss his pitch to shift the focus of European forces battling an insurgency from Mali to another nation. The French president will be joined by the leaders of Chad, Mauritania and Niger, according to an official in his ...

  Bloomberg Russia should continue talks with the US and its allies on its demands for security guarantees in Europe, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin, suggesting the Kremlin will extend efforts to reach a diplomatic solution to surging tensions with the West. Putin said “all right” in response to Lavrov’s proposal, made in comments shown on state ...

Bloomberg A Russian court sentenced the leader of a hacking gang to 14 years in prison, RIA Novosti reported, bringing an end to a trial in which the man claimed to have helped the country’s security service to hack Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Konstanin Kozlovsky was convicted of organising a criminal ring and large-scale fraud after the Lurk gang stole ...

  Bloomberg Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah dug in after parliament picked a rival premier, vowing to lay out later this week a plan for holding delayed presidential elections in the war-torn Opec member. “The election train has set off,” Dbeibah said in a televised address. Lawmakers last week selected Fathi Bashagha, a former interior minister, as premier, saying ...

Bloomberg The US refusal to recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan, coupled with sanctions and frozen assets, could push the country into chaos and threaten Pakistan’s stability, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said. Khan said in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” that the current humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, caused in part by the abrupt cancellation of foreign aid ...

Bloomberg Spain’s ultraconservative Vox party is poised to enter a regional government for the first time, after record results in local elections on Sunday. Vox came third in the central Castilla y Leon region, more than tripling its share of the vote after winning 13 seats in the 81-strong assembly. The main opposition center-right People’s Party (PP) came first with ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a rare cabinet meeting and was expected to speak with provincial leaders over protests in Canada’s capital city that have entered their 18th day. The protests against Covid-19 vaccine mandates, which include hundreds of semi-trucks parked in the streets of Ottawa, swelled into the thousands over the weekend. But truckers were met with counter-protests ...