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Germany concerned that Austria may leak secrets to Russia
Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s counterintelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), said this week at the Parliamentary Oversight Panel that cooperation with Austria creates significant risks to German intelligence, Welt am Sonntag reported.
The newspaper did not specify how it had obtained the information, but it noted that Haldenwang’s statement was based on the assumption that Austria could misuse and possible even pass on to Russia the …
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Russia’s largest independent oil refinery suspends operations
A tax maneuver which the Russian government made in the oil sector in 2018 is achieving its first significant results.
The Antipinsky Refinery, the largest refinery in the country that does not belong to one of the vertically integrated resource corporations, has suspended its operations.
The Russian transport monopoly Transneft stopped supplying the refinery with oil and removed it from its shipment plan in May, the company’s spokesperson Igor Demin told TASS on Thursday.
That same evening, …
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Ukraine urges international community to recognize deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry released a statement on the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea which calls for the international community to recognize the incident as a genocide, Radio Liberty reports.
“The global community’s recognition of the genocide against the Crimean Tatar people as defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide would be evidence not only of the restoration of historical justice, but would also serve …
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Austrian government coalition collapses due to scandalous video of Vice-Chancellor with Russian oligarch’s niece
On Friday evening, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced the collapse of the government coalition.
The collapse resulted from the publication of a scandalous video showing Heinz-Christian Strache, Austrian Vice-Chancellor and Chairman of the ultra-right Freedom Party, meeting with an unknown Russian lady and offering her government contracts in exchange for political support.
Strache resigned from his position shortly after the video was published. In the clip, he appears to be …
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Russia faces steel surplus due to supply from Donbas
The Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) is concerned that there may be a surplus of steel offered on the Russian market due to the growing imports from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) in eastern Ukraine. The company mentioned this concern in its report for the first quarter of 2019, RBC reports.
MMK also drew attention to steel imports from the Donbas in its fourth quarterly report for 2018: “The price of thick plates was under pressure due to the excess …