Opinion
HOMANS: Two Ukraine conversations in Washington DC
Last night I attended an event in Washington where I had two conversations relating to Ukraine: one with the principal of a consulting firm, and the other with an employee of the CIA.
RIMMER: Victory Day?
Having no ‘Defeat Day’ in its calendar – an oversight the Kremlin would do well to rectify – the Kremlin is already rehearsing for its annual Victory Day parade on May 9.
NEMETHY: Prepare for monetary climate change
Monetary climate change (to borrow a phrase from author and columnist Ron Stoeferle) is happening far faster than environmental climate change. And there are some big changes in the works.
Perspectives | Facing food crisis, Tajikistan returns to Washington with begging bowl
Dushanbe is dependent on Russia and indebted to China. Will the IMF come to the rescue?
FPRI BMB Russia: Do we know what we are dealing with?
At the start of this week, it was reported that the Russian Ministry of Energy had stopped publishing monthly data on oil production. Getting hard information on what is going inside Russia is getting harder and that could be a problem.
WORLD BANK: The impact of the war on Ukraine’s poverty and society will be massive.
Ukraine’s economy expanded by 3.4% in 2021 as easing COVID restrictions supported domestic demand and a bumper harvest. This recovery was upended by the onset of war in February 2022, which will see the economy contract by a third.
WORLD BANK: Sanctions set to hobble Russia's economic growth
Russia’s economy expanded by 4.7% in 2021 as easing COVID restrictions supported domestic demand. This recovery was upended by the onset of war in February 2022, which will see the economy contract by roughly 11%.
FPRI BMB Ukraine: Orban denigrates Zelenskiy
If Volodymyr Zelenskiy hoped to see a change of government across the Carpathians in Hungary, he’ll have to wait another four years – all the while enduring Viktor Orbán’s small, but near constant, jabs.
EM markets see the first net outflow since March 2021 on war fears
The Institute of International Finance estimates that emerging market securities suffered a net outflow of $9.8bn in March 2022, the first outflow month since March 2021, as the global investment community goes “risk on” due to the war in Ukraine.
FPRI BMB Ukraine: Bucha atrocities look set to stymie Russo-Ukraine peace talks
The atrocities in Bucha, just outside Kyiv, will make the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine more difficult to conclude. The two sides had made headway but several difficult issues remain on the agenda, and progress seems to have stalled.
NEMETHY: From rubble to petroruble: towards the birth of a new monetary order?
The recent sanctions against Russia catalysed a sudden fall of the ruble from RUB81 to the dollar to RUB150. But between March 7 and April 3, 2022, the ruble miraculously recovered to RUB85 to the dollar. What happened?
