Scholz's "Petersburg connections" and the SPD.
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#SPD in #Hamburg has strong ties with #Russia and, in particular, with #StPetersburg. In 2012, Henning Voscherau became chairman of BoD of South Stream Transport AG, #Gazprom's project to build the South Stream gas pipeline bypassing #Ukraine, which was never implemented. #ONGT
Scholz was in contact with politicians and businessmen from Petersburg. He visited city more than once, including in 2016 to participate in German-Russian forum "Petersburg Dialogue". In summer of 2017, when Hamburg hosted #G20 summit, Scholz met with Russian President #Putin.
Some views on Scholz's position on Russia issues:
🇷🇺 #Russia: continue cooperation in fight against #pandemic and #climate change; proposes introduction of a visa-free regime for Russians under age of 25 and improve opportunities for Russians to study and work in Germany.
#NordStream2: supports project, criticized the #US sanctions against the participating companies, calling it "interference in the internal affairs of #Germany and #Europe."
🇺🇦 #Ukraine: opposes joining #NATO and the #EU, the supply of weaponsA to Ukraine.
• State is losing interest in a weak ruble. Weak ruble was beneficial to #Russia, since budget received revenues in foreign currency, but spent rubles.
• Foreigners need to hedge risk of ruble appreciation. They will be forced to keep ruble balances or sell EURRUB futures.
2/5
• Moscow Exchange will develop: both currency trading and bond market. The same #Gazprom will switch to loans in rubles, the Europeans will need to somehow place their rubles. $GAZP
• Next, we may move away from the accumulation of "unfriendly" currencies in gold reserves.
3/5
A storm in Black sea stopped all $CVX oil exports from #Kazakhstan.
It turns out that 30% of Chevron oil production was heavily reliant on Russian #oil transportation system, which makes $CVX expose to russian risks.
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CPC transports oil from northwestern part of #Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk for further transportation by sea.
During 2021, CPC transported an average of 1.3 mn barrels of crude #oil per day, composed of 1.1 mn barrels per day from Kazakhstan (~75% of Kazakhstan's exports).
2/10
Due to storm in Black Sea, oil loading at sea terminal of Caspian Pipeline Consortium near Novorossiysk was completely stopped. Pumping of #oil through CPC system is still going on, but tank farm will be full by the evening, after which it will stop. kommersant.ru/doc/5270959?fr…
3/10
• about 40% of #palladium imports, which are needed for emission control catalysts; #greeneconomy
• about 30% of #titanium imports, which are critical for #EU aerospace industry - #Airbus supplies about half of its titanium from #Russia. $AIR
For Russian investors, #cryptocurrencies have become important asset class – there are twice as many funds in crypto accounts as in brokerage accounts. Ban could have a negative impact on credibility of Central Bank and the authorities in general. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
🔝 If you can't win - lead!
Central Bank, together with Ministry of Finance, found best way out of situation instead of a complete ban - to allow trading in #cryptocurrencies through banks, which will make all transactions transparent to Central Bank.
• They don't do anything themselves, but they demand some kind of performance from us. Let's not play like that - on the situation around #NATO and #Ukraine. 1/6
• A number of #Macron's ideas, which are still too early to talk about, are quite possible to form the basis for further steps in #Ukraine.
• If you like it or not, be patient, my beauty, you must comply - on #Kiev's attitude to #Minsk agreements.
2/6
• #Russia's central concerns about security assurances have been ignored by #US and #NATO.
• We agreed with #Macron to continue mutually beneficial cooperation in economy, politics, cultural and humanitarian spheres.
3/6
❓ How will the confrontation between Russia and the West develop further?
Military operations, prolongation of the conflict, the split of Ukraine. Three opinions from RDV sources.
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🇷🇺🇨🇳 China and Russia will unite against #USA. #Putin travels to #Beijing on February 4. #Russia is fighting, #China is paying. China benefits because it weakens #UnatedStates and diverts its attention from itself. 1/3
🇺🇸🕔 #US will "eternally" delay resolution of conflict. Russia is trying to obtain guarantees to limit #NATO's eastward expansion, when there is a shortage of #oil and #gas. It will be difficult for #Europe to agree to Iranian scenario, other scenarios for Russia are not terrible