Economy
Monday 28 January 2019
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"An unmanned Tesla Model S destroyed an autonomous Promobot model v.4 in Las Vegas, USA. The Promobot cannot be repaired.”
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“This not fraught with anything for Russia; rather, (it is) for NASA and the USA.”
Following the withdrawal of NASA's invitation to Dmitry Rogozon, Vinogradov’s assessment is inaccurate: while it can be argued that the U.S. companies and NASA will have to change their plans, Russia, facing the loss of billions in U.S. funding, will be the biggest loser. -
"I don’t know about any restrictions. On the contrary, we know that traffic through the Kerch Strait continues normally."
While Russian shipping seems unaffected, Ukraine reports that ships bound for its Sea of Azov ports are still being denied access through the Kerch Strait. -
"Sanctions conform to international law. In this case, we don’t recognize those unilateral restrictions as legitimate sanctions because we deem them to be illegal. So it will probably be more correct to say ‘limitations’ or ‘restrictions,' but not sanctions.”
Moscow has challenged the legitimacy of the term “sanctions” regarding Western measures to counteract Russian actions in Ukraine and beyond, calling them illegal. But when it comes to being an actor on the international stage, the law is something that Moscow appeals to selectively. -
“We love and are proud of President Vladimir Putin, because he is a friend of Palestine and not only Palestine, but all the people who are seeking freedom. President Putin succeeded in restoring Russia’s authority in the international arena and forced all to respect Russia.”
Independent polls show trust and respect for Russia and its president has significantly decreased globally. Under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, Russia has suppressed insurgencies in Chechnya and in Syria. Moscow has lost its membership or voting privileges in multiple international organizations. -
“The U.S. president’s National Security Adviser John Bolton stated on Wednesday at a press conference in Baku that the United States currently has no plans to impose additional sanctions against Russia.”
Despite what Russian media reported, John Bolton said the U.S. is still considering what it may be obliged to do in terms of additional sanctions under a statute related to chemical weapons attacks. -
“In terms of volume, the Chinese economy has already become larger than the U.S. economy.”
While it is true that China has seen its healthiest year-on-year GDP growth, the country still has the second largest economy in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund. -
“Miller emphasized that Gazprom is discussing with China an increase in [gas] deliveries via the Power of Siberia [pipeline] using only its own capacities. ‘We can ourselves can [do it]. This is Gazprom’s production capacity,” he said… ‘In the future, after [we succeed in supplying] the 30 billion [cubic meters a year], we can talk about an increase, but at this moment we are talking about 30 billion cubic meters’.”
The construction of the Power of Siberia pipeline is in its final phase, but Gazprom will not be ready to deliver the promised volume by the set deadline because two oil and gas condensate fields needed for this have not yet been developed. -
Would Visiting the U.S. Help Vladimir Putin ‘Humanize' His Adversary? Fact: Putin Visited Nine Times
“Indeed it is arguable that without his prolonged visit to the U.S. in 1959, Khrushchev may not have been so willing to accommodate JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis three years later in 1962 – the reason being that only in visiting the country or countries of his adversaries is a leader able to humanize it beyond the realm of geopolitical differences. In 2018, due to the unbounded anti-Russia fever that has Washington in its grip, it is highly unlikely that any such visit to the U.S. by Russian President Vladimir Putin will be taking place anytime soon, nor to Russia by his U.S. counterpart, President Trump. In this respect at least, the hard lessons of the twentieth century have been lost.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has much more experience “visiting the country of his adversaries,” with his nine publicly known visits to the U.S., than did Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who only visited America once. Thus, the author’s argument is baseless. -
“The step (reducing U.S. Treasury Securities) is being considered a prudent approach directed towards insulating the country from the US attempt to weaponize the dollar.”
India has joined a number of other countries in reducing their holdings of U.S. Treasury securities recently. This is largely due to market factors, not “weaponization of the dollar.” -
“In our country, the average salary of women is 74% of the average salary of men. However, you can console yourself with the fact that in 2005 this figure was only 60%. It seems that there have been changes for the better. But the gap still persists, and it is large.”
If we proceed from Rosstat’s estimates, the gap between the salaries of men and women in Russia is 28.3%. After shrinking to its lowest level in 2013 (25.8%), it has since increased. -
“The city has changed dramatically in recent years; bicycle paths have appeared, the historical center has been restored. Now there's greenery everywhere. Omsk is becoming an eco-friendly, modern city.”
Not all the footage Vesti used in its report about Vladimir Putin’s visit to Omsk was of Omsk. Russia’s biggest TV channel showed footage of Moscow but said it was Omsk -- rated number four in Russia's ten most depressive cities