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US President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the first tranche of sanctions against Russia after Moscow recognized two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and sent troops to keep peace.
"We're implementing full blocking sanctions on two large Russian financial institutions; VEB and their military bank," Biden said in a White House address, adding that the sanctions will target Russian sovereign debt.
"That means we've cut off Russia's government from Western financing. It can no longer raise money from the West and cannot trade in its new debt on our markets or European markets either," said the US president.
He said starting Wednesday that Washington will impose sanctions on Russia’s elites and their family members,' and warned Russia will pay a "steeper price" for its aggression.
"They share in the corrupt gains of Russian policies and should share in the pain as well," he said.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized, as independent, the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, and announced that Moscow would send troops to those areas to “maintain peace.”
"He's setting up a rationale to go much further. This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine," said Biden. "Who in the Lord's name does Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries on territory that belongs to his neighbors?"
There are still more than 150,000 Russian troops surrounding Ukraine, said Biden, who added that Russian forces remain in position in Belarus to attack Ukraine from the north, with war planes and offensive missile systems.
"Russia has moved troops closer to Ukraine's border with Russia. Russia's naval vessels are maneuvering in the Black Sea to Ukraine's south," said the US president.
He also claimed Russia is sending blood supplies to the Ukrainian border and said, "you don't send blood unless you are starting a war."
Regarding Putin's authorization he sought from the Russian parliament to use military force outside of Russian tourism territory, Biden said the move sets the stage for further pretext, a further provocation by Russia to try to justify further military action.
"None of us should be fooled. None of us will be fooled. There is no justification. If Russia proceeds, it is Russia and Russia alone that bears the responsibility," he added.
After Russia's recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk, Biden signed an executive order barring new investment, trade and financing to, from, or in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Ahead of his address, Biden had a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba at the White House, during which he reaffirmed the US' commitment to Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity.
"Biden also reaffirmed that the United States would continue providing security assistance and macroeconomic support to Ukraine," the White House said in a statement./agencies
EU foreign ministers on Tuesday reached an agreement to impose sanctions on Russia over it violating the territorial integrity of neighboring Ukraine.
“Today, we have agreed that the 351 members of the Russia State Duma who voted for this violation of international law and territorial integrity and substantive Ukraine will be listed in our sanctions list,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a news conference following an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers.
The bloc will also impose sanctions on 27 people and entities that are responsible for undermining or threatening Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence, he said.
The measures will target decision-makers threatening Ukraine, the military officials involved in planning and carrying out the intervention, as well as those responsible for disinformation targeting Ukraine.
The bloc will also blacklist entities that finance or benefit from the crisis, and banks that finance Russian decision-makers and operations in Ukraine.
“We will also target the ability of the Russian state and government to access our capital and financial markets and services,” Borrell added.
The EU will restrict economic relations with the Russian separatist-held Luhansk and Donetsk regions as well, “exactly” like after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, Borrell added, “to ensure that those responsible clearly feel the economic consequences of the illegal and aggressive actions.”
In a statement, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the “solid” package of sanctions, also warning that the EU would take further action if Russia “continues to escalate this crisis that it has created.”
Von der Leyen also praised the German government’s decision to halt the Nord Stream 2 project.
“Nord Stream 2 has to be assessed in light of the security of energy supply for the whole of Europe,” she stressed, urging the EU to diversify its energy suppliers and switch to renewables.
Tuesday’s foreign ministers’ decision has to be officially approved by EU capitals to become official. The move is expected within hours after Borrell’s announcement.
Russia’s latest moves
Russia’s Federation Council earlier Tuesday authorized the use of Russia’s armed forces outside of the country.
After a speech late Monday saying Russia would recognize as independent the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, Putin announced that Russia would send troops to those areas in order to “maintain peace.”
The announcements drew widespread global condemnation as violations of the UN Charter and international law, with Western countries vowing to impose harsh new sanctions.
In 2014, after invading Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, Moscow began to support separatist forces in eastern Ukraine against the central government, a policy that it has maintained for the past seven years. The conflict has taken more than 13,000 lives, according to the UN.
Putin's latest moves follow Russia amassing some 100,000 troops and heavy equipment in and around its neighbor, with the US and Western countries accusing it of setting the stage for an invasion.
Russia has denied it is preparing an invasion and instead claims Western countries undermined its security through NATO’s expansion towards its borders./aa
Three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery in the US state of Georgia were found guilty Tuesday of federal hate crimes.
“Justice for Ahmaud Arbery! Justice for Ahmaud Arbery!” exclaimed Arbery family attorney, Ben Crump, at a news conference after the verdict was handed down.
Gregory McMichael, 66, Travis McMichael, 36, and William Bryan, 52, followed and killed Arbery as he was jogging through a suburban Atlanta neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020.
Federal prosecutors claim the attack was racially-motivated because Arbery was Black and that all three men had a history of racist behavior.
“We got a guilty verdict on all charges, on all murderers,” said Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mother.
She explained at the news conference how difficult it has been to relive her son’s brutal killing during court proceedings, “to see Ahmaud being characterized as a monkey ... being trapped like a rat,” referring to the N-word, a racial slur the defendants used to refer to Black people.
All three men had already been convicted of state murder charges and sentenced to life in prison.
The judge in the case will next determine their federal sentences.
Crump said the family will be pursuing civil charges against his killers.
“We truly expect for Ahmaud Arbery’s family to get full justice,” he said, which means the verdict Tuesday is not the end of the case.
“I’ve got to keep going for the memory of him,” said Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, Sr./aa
Kuwait has seen a spate of government resignations in recent years amid disputes with lawmakers over the questioning of ministers.
The latest resignations came last week when Defense Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmed Al-Mansour resigned in protest of the manner of parliamentary questioning of ministers.
The phenomenon, however, was not new. The oil-rich Gulf country has seen the resignation of 11 governments and the dismissal of 16 cabinets over the past 37 years.
Anadolu Agency monitored the website of the National Assembly (Parliament) and local media to trace the history of questioning of ministers by lawmakers and government resignations in Kuwait.
History of questioning
Questioning is a constitutional and parliamentary right granted to lawmakers in Kuwait to grill a prime minister or ministers and overthrow them, a rare case among Gulf countries.
Between 1963 when the first parliament was formed until the latest resignations last week, the total number of questioning by parliamentarians reached 128.
Questioning happened once in each of the years 1963, 1964, 1968, 1973, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, and 2012.
The years 1974, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 2008, 2016, and 2022 (to date) witnessed two questionings of ministers each.
Meanwhile, three questionings of ministers by lawmakers took place in each of the years 2002, 2010, and 2014, and four in 1986 and 2004.
Five questionings of ministers took place in each of 2007, 2015, and 2017, eight in 2009 and 2018, nine in 2011 and 2020, ten in 2013 and 2019, and 11 in 2021.
In total, the parliamentary questioning resulted in the change of 16 ministers and 11 governments in Kuwait./aa
Natural gas prices in Europe started to increase on Tuesday after Russia decided to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states.
Natural gas prices for March futures contracts, traded on the TTF - the Netherlands-based virtual natural gas trading point, started the day at €87, posting a 21% increase compared to the previous trading session.
Natural gas was trading at €80.5 at 1147 GMT on Tuesday after closing the previous session at €72.
Europe imports approximately 40% of its natural gas needs from Russia, equivalent to 175 billion cubic meters.
International benchmark Brent similarly increased amid the deepening Russia-Ukraine crisis after Moscow recognized Ukraine's breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Brent crude reached as high as $96.44 a barrel on Monday’s trade. Trade on Tuesday at 1147 GMT hit $94.78 per barrel for a 1.92% gain after closing at $92.99 a barrel during the previous session.
Late Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Hours after his controversial decision, Putin ordered Russian troops to move to eastern Ukraine for the alleged purpose of peacekeeping.
The EU, meanwhile, agreed to update the already-existing sanctions lists, including applying asset freezes and travel bans on 193 people.
The bloc also prohibited financial services to a further 48 entities over the illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
The EU has been applying restrictive measures in response to the Ukrainian crisis since 2014.
Similarly, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order barring new investment, trade and financing to, from, or in Ukraine's breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
€1 equals 15.67 Turkish liras at 11.56 GMT./aa
A Russian invasion of Ukraine would have the biggest impact on the world grain market, according to Eren Gunhan Ulusoy, head of the International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) Eurasia.
"Because the total wheat export of the two countries constitutes 30% of the world grain exports, if the tension escalates, it will have negative effects on both supply and prices on grain markets," he told Anadolu Agency.
He underlined that currently, there is no grain shortage.
While in the recent period, Russia was accused of a possible invasion of Ukraine by the western countries, Moscow has denied any plan related to the invading instead of thousands of troops at the Ukrainian border.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing the so-called rule of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
While the US strongly condemned this decision of Russia, the UN Security Council stated that the point reached between Ukraine and Russia is extremely dangerous.
After the recent developments, commodity prices, especially wheat, oil and gold, increased. The wheat price increased to over $271 per ton in the US future index, from around $264 on Friday.
Previously, Semsi Bayraktar, the head of Turkiye's Union of Agriculture Chambers (TZOB), also warned against price increases in the grain sector related to the Russia-Ukraine tension.
He stressed that there should be no uncultivated land left in Turkiye, and there is "no choice but to increase production to avoid food inflation."
2022 grain expectations
While last year there was a decline in grain production due to pandemic measures and drought, an increase of 3.2% is expected for the 2021-2022 season, Ulusoy said.
The global grain consumption is also forecasted to increase by 2.6% in this season, he added.
Meanwhile, the grain production is expected to narrow by 2.1% in major grain exporter countries such as Argentina, Australia, Canada, Europe, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the US, Ulusoy stressed.
Touching on the Green Deal measures, he said that the deal is expected to reduce productivity in agriculture due to the limits of some inputs in industrial agriculture.
"Therefore, together with the Green Deal, policies that will replace the loss of production should be planned," he added.
While the price of wheat per ton was around $200 in May 2021, it exceeded the $300 level in November 2021 due to the production loss, Russia's taxation and increasing demand, especially due to the stockpiling.
In 2021, Russia began to implement a 70% tax for the difference between a base price of wheat -- $200 per ton -- and the market benchmark price.
Turkiye's position
While Turkiye is a self-sufficient country in the grain sector, during the last two years, the production failed to meet the consumption, Ulusoy said.
In 2021, the wheat import's share was 36% of the total wheat production, he noted.
The wheat production was 4.7 million tons in the first half of the 2020-2021 season, while it increased by 7% in quantity and 40% on a value basis in the same period this season, he underlined.
Despite the increase in rain in autumn and December, harvest expectations for the 2021-2022 season still remain unpredictable, he said.
"However, according to the preliminary data, it can be stated that a better yield than last year, but slightly lower than the general averages, is expected," he added.
He noted that prices would maintain their high course due to the low production and input costs.
Mentioning the country's leading position in the flour export market globally, he said the country's protected its position in the market last year./aa
A Houthi drone attack that injured 16 civilians in Saudi Arabia has invited a storm of condemnations in the Arab world.
The Saudi-led coalition said a drone attack targeted King Abdullah Airport in Jizan province, but was intercepted by Saudi air defenses. Sixteen civilians were injured from the drone shrapnel.
In a statement, the Yemeni Foreign Ministry condemned the Houthi attack as a “war crime” and a “flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and international norms."
Egypt said rebel attacks targeting Saudi airports represented a “blatant threat to the security and stability of the kingdom and to the safety of civilian aviation and freedom of air navigation."
The United Arab Emirates called on the international community to support measures aimed at “stopping the Houthi militia from targeting civilian objects.”
The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the Houthi attack, saying it "undermines the security of the kingdom and the region."
Bahrain also reiterated support to Saudi Arabia “in taking all measures to maintain its security and stability."
For his part, Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Nayef Al-Hajraf, condemned the Houthi attack as a “war crime”. He reiterated the GCC's "solidarity with Saudi Arabia against everything that targets its security, stability and territorial integrity."
There was no comment from the Houthi group.
The Houthis, backed by Iran, regularly announce rocket and drone attacks on Saudi territories, saying they are a reaction to the Saudi-led coalition’s assault on Yemen.
Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.
A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation, causing one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises, with nearly 80% or around 30 million people needing humanitarian assistance and protection and more than 13 million in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates. /aa
A car bomb attack killed at least one person in northern Syria on Tuesday, local sources said.
The bomb, which was planted in a vehicle, exploded in the Syrian opposition-held city of Azaz.
Security forces launched an investigation into the attack, focusing on the possibility that it was planned by the terrorist group YPG/PKK.
The terror group, operating from Syria’s adjacent Tal Rifaat and Manbij regions, often carries out attacks in Jarabulus, Azaz, Afrin, and al-Bab.
In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkiye, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the US, and EU – has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is PKK’s Syrian branch.
Since 2016, Turkiye has launched a trio of successful anti-terror operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and to enable the peaceful settlement of residents: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), and Peace Spring (2019)./aa
Oil prices jumped on Tuesday on supply worries after Russia’s decision to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states.
International benchmark Brent crude was trading at $94.88 per barrel at 0649 GMT with a 2.03% gain after closing the previous session at $92.99 a barrel.
American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at $93.44 per barrel at the same time for a 3.58% increase after ending the previous session at $90.21 a barrel.
Prices increased more than $2 a barrel after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states in a speech on Monday.
The EU agreed to update the already-existing sanctions lists, including applying asset freezes and travel bans on 193 people.
The block also prohibited financial services to a further 48 entities over the illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The EU has been applying restrictive measures in response to the Ukrainian crisis since 2014.
US President Joe Biden also signed an executive order barring new investment, trade and financing to, from, or in Ukraine's breakaway Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Many analysts view these developments as a catalyst for increasing oil and gas prices.
“We were going to $100 without these tensions, seeing how the world is consuming oil faster than it is producing it, so $100 I think is on the cards possibly even today, once the US get in and react to evolving news headlines,” said Matt Stanley, director of the commodity brokerage firm, Star Fuels.
Stanley said “the world needs more oil and gas, and it needs Russian oil and gas.”
“In a market that is already facing supply deficits, if there is a threat that some more production could be taken out? $100 oil may be something we could refer to as cheap,” he added./aa
Kuwait City: Kuwait Airways announced Monday an expanded $6 billion deal with Airbus for 31 planes, restructuring an agreement reached in 2014.
The deal comes after what the airline labelled occasionally “heated” negotiations following probes over allegations of kickbacks surrounding the initial order.
“We have managed to agree on a monumental restructuring that will position Kuwait Airways in a much stronger place to succeed for the next 15 years,” company chairman Ali Al-Dukhan told a news conference.
The new agreement, which adds three new aircraft to the existing order of 28, includes nine Airbus A320neo, six A321neo, three A321neoLR, four A330-800neo, seven A330-900neo and two A350-900.
Al-Dukhan said the reshaped deal, aimed at giving the airline greater flexibility after the travel industry was rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, now carried a “total value of about $6 billion.”
“Although corrections were made in 2018, the deal needed further corrections to suit Kuwait Airways’ future, especially with the need to transition and become more flexible in a post-Covid aviation industry,” he said.
Negotiations took place against the backdrop of bribery allegations that cost Airbus billions of dollars in settlement fees in other countries in 2020.
“As we initiated the negotiations, we knew we were already the underdogs going in as 40 percent of the deal’s value had already been paid and the delivery had started,” Al-Dukhan said.
He added: “We entered four months of serious, professional negotiations, which did get heated at times, but always maintained respect and understanding of each other’s wants and needs.”
Kuwait Airways had initially ordered 15 Airbus A320neo and 10 A350 in 2014, with delivery beginning in 2019.
In February 2020, Kuwait’s parliament opened a fact-finding panel to probe allegations of kickbacks, after Airbus paid huge fines to settle bribery cases in French, British and American courts.
Under the settlement, Airbus agreed to pay 3.6 billion euros ($4.1 billion) in fines to settle corruption probes into some of its aircraft sales.
Last week, the European giant announced record profits of 4.2 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in 2021, after two straight years of losses during the pandemic.
Deliveries of aircraft rose eight percent to 611 planes, Airbus said in an earnings statement./agencies