Russia
MOSCOW BLOG: Biden and Putin meet in Geneva to low expectations but soaring Russian stock market
The big day is here and the wires are awash with big takes on Russia. From my perch it's fun to watch, as there is little to report on, so everyone is working their relative narratives and busy “reading” Putin, telling you what he really thinks.
Russians consider the US to be the number one “unfriendly country”
Russians consider the United States to be the number one “unfriendly country” and that feeling is on the rise again, according to the latest poll by the independent pollster the Levada Center.
The Russian equity market rallies on fading geopolitical tensions and recovering economies
US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet today in a palace on the shores of Lake Geneva to try to find some common ground and stabilise fraught relations between US and Russia.
Russia hits herd hostility to vaccines as COVID rages
Russia has hit herd hostility to vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19), with a majority of people dead set against taking any of its available jabs – even as the country grapples with a third wave of the pandemic.
RIMMER: Unhappy anniversary: Operation Barbarossa
It's the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa on June 22, when Hitler launched his surprise invasion of the Soviet Union, completely catching Stalin unawares. The ultimate victory over the Nazis has become a centre-piece of Putin's Russia.
Turkey, China in firing line as Biden holds summit with Nato allies
Nato leaders designated China as presenting “systemic challenges” in a communiqué issued after a one-day summit in Brussels on June 14, as US President Joe Biden continued his tour through Europe.
US sanctions on Russia’s OFZ local debt come into force
The US sanctions imposed on April 15 that bar US investors from buying Russian Ministry of Finance ruble-denominated OFZ treasury bills in primary auctions come into force on June 14.
Moscow back on lockdown as coronavirus infection rate surges again
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin put the Russian capital back into lockdown after an alarming surge in the coronavirus infection rate, which has seen some hospitals back at full capacity.
LONG READ: Russia’s sanctions soft underbelly: precision machine tools
Russia imports almost 100% of its high precisions machine tools as the collapse of the Soviet Union destroyed it’s once legendary machine building sector. Since then there have been several technological leaps forward but Russia is still behind
Russia's CBR ups rate by 50bp to 5.5%, will keep hiking
The board of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) at the policy meeting of June 11 resolved to increase the key interest rate by 50 basis points (bp) to 5.5%, in line with expectations.
Belarus is the “North Korea” of Europe, says US diplomat
The barred US ambassador to Belarus, Julie Fisher, called Belarus the “North Korea of Europe” in testimony before a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
ING: So what is a greenium and how do we get to it?
The existence of a "greenium" is mostly justified by higher demand for green bonds. We estimate the greenium for each curve separately, ensuring it is not polluted by other factors such as sector or maturity.
Russian internet major Yandex outlines ESG goals
Among Yandex's ESG priorities are reducing its carbon footprint, mainly from data centres and fuel use.
COMMENT: Time to end Putin's impunity
The price faced by Russia for aggression must be too high for the Kremlin to countenance, and this is the message that Biden should deliver to Putin – and act upon.
Russian court official rules Navalny organisation extremist, as protest support dies away
A Moscow court officially outlawed opposition activist Alexey Navalny’s organisation and branded it “extremist”, effectively putting it on a par with a terrorist organisation, on June 9.
bneGREEN: IEA calls for $1 trillion of annual investment into clean energy in developing economies
Private finance is crucial if emerging economies are not to be left behind in the race to net zero, the IEA warns.
International Crisis Group releases new field-researched report on Karabakh
ICG says the "fragility" of the ceasefire has already been highlighted by tensions that "flared in mid-May as Armenia and Azerbaijan disputed new positions established by Azerbaijani forces" close to their shared border.
ING: The corporate premium in green finance
There is a cost saving to issuing Green. It varies according to circumstances, but the baseline assumption now is for green yields to be below vanilla ones; not by much, but it's persistent enough.
No football frenzy in Emerging Europe's Euro 2020 host cities
Host cites to raise their profiles just as international travel starts to revive, but little hope of the usual tourism and consumer spending bonanza.
BneGREEN: Energy Storage develops a low-cost, long-duration energy storage unit based on mineral salts, not lithium batteries
Australian energy storage specialist, Energy Storage, has unveiled its next generation low-cost, long-duration, energy storage unit that the company says offers the same sort of performance as hydro, but is completely mobile.
