Just watching this awesome comedy show (think it's called 'EU Versailles summit press conference' or sth). Honorable Secretary 'Zensursula, Flinten Uschi' van der Leyen:

We will phase out the use of Russian oil, gas and coal ...
<rethoric silence>

Does anyone have experience with smuggling ppl out of Russia during wartime? I have a friend and an uncle (and his family) who are Russian, living in Russia now.
They want to gtfo asap and don't know of any possibilities. Because the world is currently unfairly biased against all Russians, I doubt they will get refugee status in nearby countries and they might get arrested if found trying to cross the border. I wouldn't put it past Putler to put them all in Siberian Gulags for life...

It's one of the few remaining routes from Russia to the EU: trains to Finland are packed with Russians fearful that now is their last chance to escape the impact of Western sanctions.

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The Allegro express train linking St Petersburg to the Finnish capital is currently the only open rail route between Russia and the EU.

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The Allegro train to Helsinki is, however, only open to a select few.

Russia stipulates that passengers must be Russian or Finnish citizens, a visa is required, and passengers must prove they have an EU-recognised Covid vaccination, not the Sputnik dose which is most commonly given in Russia.

A bipartisan group of senators is introducing a bill to prevent Russia from liquidating gold to withstand biting sanctions.

Why it matters: The sanctions against Russia have frozen the country's foreign exchange assets, but its stockpile of gold could be a lifeline. A measure to close the loophole is yet another indication Congress is looking to get ahead of the Biden administration on punitive measures against Russia.

Oleksandra and her four rescue dogs have been sheltering in the bathroom of her flat in Kharkiv since the shelling began.

"When I heard the first explosions, I ran out of the house to get my dogs from their enclosures outside. People were panicking, abandoning their cars. I was so scared," she says.

The 25-year-old has been speaking regularly to her mother, who lives in Moscow. But in these conversations, and even after sending videos from her heavily bombarded hometown, Oleksandra is unable to convince her mother about the danger she is in.

"I didn't want to scare my parents, but I started telling them directly that civilians and children are dying," she says.

"But even though they worry about me, they still say it probably happens only by accident, that the Russian army would never target civilians. That it's Ukrainians who're killing their own people."

In the run-up to Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine, Moscow notified Turkey of its intention to send one of its most imposing warships, laden with cruise missiles, through the heart of Istanbul to join the impending onslaught.

But the Admiral Flota Kasatonov — and three other vessels that had been expected to traverse the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits — did not make the journey over the weekend, as Russia had planned, two western officials told the Financial Times.

On Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan indicated that he would invoke a clause in the 1936 Montreux Convention that allows Ankara to curb the passage of naval vessels belonging to warring parties. “We have the authority and we have decided to use it in a way that will prevent the crisis from escalating,” he said.

Whatever scam artist put that together, tell him to get at least basics right, neutral countries Switzerland, Austira, Sweden to vote in favour of war aggression. Maybe they have covid?

The world’s three biggest container lines on Tuesday temporarily suspended cargo shipments to and from Russia in response to Western sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine, in a further blow to trade with the country.

I fear tonight might be it for Kyiv. I think they are going to get obliterated before more weapons arrive from Europe / USA.

 

Yeah geopolitics. Russia is 'uuuge and has gas, Germany is smaller and needs gas, could they continue to stay competitive in the market if they have to pay 2x the market price for USA's freedom LNG? Shenanigans to continue. Think the most underrated quote from Trump here is "I don't know what you can do about it"