Politics

Bloomberg Russia announced the start of mass military drills, ratcheting up tensions with neighbouring Ukraine amid Western concerns about the risk of renewed fighting. More than 4,000 training exercises will be held in military districts across Russia in April, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, in comments posted on the ministry’s website. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated his country’s desire to ...

Bloomberg China urged Japan to steer clear of “internal issues” including Hong Kong and Xinjiang as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga prepares to meet US President Joe Biden later this month. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi that he hoped Japan could treat China’s development from an “objective and rational” perspective, rather than be led by ...

Bloomberg Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, on a hunger strike since last week, has been moved to the prison infirmary with a respiratory infection, the Federal Penitentiary Service said, according to the Izvestia newspaper. Navalny, 44, reported a severe cough and a fever of 38.1 degrees Celsius (100.6 degrees Fahrenheit), saying three other prisoners in his unit have been hospitalized ...

Bloomberg India and Russia’s top diplomats sidestepped questions on the pending delivery of Moscow’s controversial S-400 weapons system to New Delhi and vowed to deepen military-technical cooperation following a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. The South Asian nation’s planned purchase of the anti-aircraft missile system from Russia — due for delivery in December — has raised the risk of ...

Bloomberg An attack by suspected militants on a prison in southeastern Nigeria was an act of terrorism, President Muhammadu Buhari said. The attackers targeted a police headquarters and a jail in Imo state, the police said in a statement. The raid was carried out by members of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra and its armed wing, the Eastern Security ...

Bloomberg The Philippines warned Beijing it would face a barrage of diplomatic protests if Chinese vessels believed to be part of a “maritime militia” do not leave disputed South China Sea areas, escalating the spat between the two nations. “For every day of delay, the Republic of the Philippines will lodge a diplomatic protest,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said ...

Bloomberg Based on the official view from Beijing, the Philippines has no reason to worry about Chinese fishing boats sitting along a disputed reef in the South China Sea. The vessels — initially numbering in the hundreds — were simply “taking shelter from the wind” and the Philippines should view the situation in a “rational light,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump is spending his first months as an ex-president trying to ensure that he’s remembered the way he wants — but he’s holding off on plans to establish a library that would enshrine his version of his presidency. Refusing to cede the limelight, the former president has issued almost daily statements, set up a website and turned up ...

Bloomberg Kosovo lawmakers approved US educated jurist Vjosa Osmani as president, filling the post previously held by an ex-guerrilla who stepped down last year to face charges on war crimes. Osmani, 38, was elected with the backing of Premier Albin Kurti, whose anti-establishment Self-Determination Movement won February 14 elections. Both represent a new generation of leaders in the landlocked Balkan ...

Bloomberg Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s party won Sunday’s general elections, but thorny ties with his political rivals complicated his path to a fourth term as leader of the European Union’s poorest and most corrupt member. Already one of the EU’s longest-serving leaders, the former bodyguard of the Balkan state’s last communist dictator capitalised on support from conservative voters drawn ...