Author: Alexis Markiade

Russia would likely confiscate the assets of European Union countries, if the bloc takes frozen Russian funds to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction, according to Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she was crafting a proposal that would take the profits from Russian frozen state assets to finance Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction. “Such a decision,” Volodin said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, “would require a symmetrical response from the Russian Federation. In that case, far more assets belonging…

The wreckage of the British WWII submarine HMS Triumph which disappeared in early 1942 was discovered at the bottom of the Aegean Sea, in Greece, by a Greek diving team. The wreck was discovered off the Sounion Peninsula. She rests on the bottom of the open sea with an 8-degree right inclination, tens of kilometers away from the coasts. Her lowered periscopes and closed manholes testify that the Triumph was in a deep dive during the last dramatic moments before she sank. The depth and direction rudders are in line so it seems she was at a constant depth. On her turret, the wooden…

An explosion derailed a freight train for the second day in a row in a Russian region bordering Ukraine, sending both the locomotive and some cars off the tracks, authorities said. Tuesday’s incident occurred in the western Bryansk region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus. Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have made multiple attacks there since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. “An unidentified explosive device went off near the Snezhetskaya railway station. There were no casualties,” Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on the messaging app Telegram. “As a result of the incident, a locomotive and several wagons…

In late November last year, the European Union’s neighbourhood and enlargement commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, visited Bosnia and Herzegovina to discuss, the Commission said, “EU reform priorities” and cooperation, “in particular on migration.” Varheyli attended the signing ceremony of a 500,000-euro agreement between the Bosnian government and the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, and financed by the EU to step up the voluntary and non-voluntary return of migrants from Bosnia. But he also announced another 500,000-euro project for the Lipa Temporary Reception Centre in a remote part of Bosnia’s northwestern Krajina region. “We need to keep our detention facilities in Lipa…

When the police raided the home of the former socialist MEP and lawyer Pier Antonio Panzeri and found €500,000 in cash as part of the most serious corruption case in the European Parliament in decades, nobody noticed one of his clients was an oligarch who is the subject of the biggest civil fraud case in British legal history. In exile the oligarch has assiduously courted European politicians to promote his defence This tawdry scandal has focused on claims that Qatar funded an influence operation in the European parliament which resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of MEPs and a former vice-president. Over €1.5…

Washington, DC: At the request of the Ukrainian authorities, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team led by Mr. Gavin Gray held discussions in Warsaw with Ukrainian officials, during March 8-15, 2023, on a 4-year economic program that, subject to approval by the Executive Board, would be supported by the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Mr. Gavin Gray issued the following statement today: “I am pleased to announce that the IMF team has reached staff-level agreement with the Ukrainian authorities on a 4-year IMF-supported program, with access requested of SDR 11.6 billion (about US$15.6 billion), or 577 percent of Ukraine’s…

ABU DHABI, H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Presidential Court, received at the Presidential Palace, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan, and National Leader of the Turkmen People, who is on a working visit to the UAE. Sheikh Mansour spoke about the many important development opportunities provided by the cooperation between the UAE and Turkmenistan, given the abundant economic potential of the two countries. He noted the importance of Turkmenistan’s location, its multiple resources, and the promising investment environment it offers, especially in oil, gas, petrochemicals and manufacturing industries.He stressed the importance of the participation of the private sector in the UAE in developing…

Intelligence expert Kenneth Lasoen thinks it is a good idea that the European Commission bans the Chinese social media platform TikTok for its employees. “The fear that it can be used for espionage is very justified,” he says in “The world today” on Radio 1. He advises against using the app, even for those who do not have access to sensitive information. “It was made to make people stupid and keep them stupid.” This morning the Commission sent an email to all EU officials asking them to remove TikTok as soon as possible. Those who fail to do so will…

Rüya Bayegan using prime minister Barzani’s right hand – Rania Majeed – to elbow her way back to KRG? Ankara, Erbil (4/1 – 45). Rüya Bayegan, the CEO of BGN International and its Turkey-based subsidiary Bayegan Group, was once considered an instrumental member of the petrochemical industry in Turkey. However, as of at least October 2022, Bayegan and her husband, Ercüment Bayegan, have been under investigation by Turkish authorities on allegations of fraud, document forgeries and tax evasion as a result of their role in the disastrous Yurtgas scandal. The recent contract between BGN International with the Indonesian state owned…

Egypt and Greece agreed on Tuesday to build a subsea telecom cable in the Mediterranean connecting the two countries, Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in a statement. The cooperation deal was signed between Egypt’s telecom service and subsea cable operator Telecom Egypt and Greece’s network builder Grid Telecom, the ministry said, adding the move came in line with the Egyptian carrier’s strategy to increase its entry points to Europe by providing an eastern gateway via Greece. The new subsea system would connect Port Said in Egypt and Greece’s Crete Island, “making it the shortest Mediterranean (telecom) path…