Kremlin statement that President Putin intends to recognise independence of the two separatist controlled areas of Ukraine, after that incredible televised security council meeting, and has informed President Macron and Chancellor Scholz
Follow here: bbc.co.uk/news/live/worl…
Putin currently at his Kremlin desk talking to Russian people about history, WW1, the Kaiser, Lenin’s principles.. “Ukraine was created by Lenin” and now taking down his statue in decommunisation…
Now onto Stalin’s ideas of building a state…
Quite a menacing sarcastic sideswipe about giving Ukraine “decommunisation for real”… now complaining that the Ukraine didnt pay its post Soviet debts and, this is an old one “stole gas” from the transit pipelines
Putin now saying that German unification was conditional on Nato not expanding one inch to the east… and also talks about a conversation he had with Clinton about Russia joining Nato…
“Who is the main adversary to the USA? We all know that. Russia.” says Putin. although it’s actually China, obviously.
NEW: Putin says he immediately recognises the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Luhansk Peoples Republics…
Speech had little to do with those territories, apart from accusation of a “blitzkrieg” on Donbas. long series of perceived historical grievances, aimed at Kiev, including accusing it of being a potential nuclear threat, and essentially claiming Ukraine not a real country…
Foreign Sec says Putin’s steps signal “end of Minsk process” and says russias “flagrant disregard” and “violation of the UN charter” and UK with Allies will not allow such violations “to go unpunished”
“Expressions when used in respect of other Members which are regarded with particular seriousness, generally leading to prompt intervention from the Chair and often a requirement on the Member to withdraw the words, include ..charges of uttering a deliberate falsehood.”…
Actually in the rules - the Speaker may have a bit more power to intervene… “generally” if he really wanted to…
In past MPs asked to rephrase allegation of regular misuse of statistics at the dispatch box, but an allegation of ‘spectacular insincerity’ was tolerated…
EU officials discussing LNG tankers as Russia alternative. Chancellor Scholz meets Biden.
Biden met with Qatari Emir to ask for Europe to be supplied with LNG
Qataris said no spare capacity, tied up in l-term contracts with eg Japan
US asked Japan to allow diversion to Europe
Japan, the biggest LNG importer in the world, says considering diversion to help Europe in cutoff
Meanwhile Xi and Putin met on Friday at Olympics, with Chinese promising to mop up extra Russian supplies, eg, if there is an embargo on Moscow
While UK not physically dependent on Russian pipelined gas, like EU (40%ish), price paid certainly depends on this Great Gas Game going on in background of tensions on Ukraine’s border…
Both EU & UK moved away from l-t contracts towards “efficiency” of market spot prices…
New energy cap just about to be announce - and the Treasury response, and the Bank of England rate decision - all in next hour - follow live page here… bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-6…
NEW ofgem announce energy price cap will rise by £693 for typical household annually in April to £1917 for dual fuel £2017 for prepayment. Huge rises - will send inflation closer to 7%
Chancellor explaining how he will try to help mitigate - says its for Bank of England to deal with inflation…
NEW: £350 support consisting of
£200 rebate in October to be repaid over 5 years at £40 per year …
£150 non repayable rebate council taxes for 4/5 households
This is from the White Paper - UK worst of G7 nations for regional inequality as measured by ratio of richest fifth of council areas to poorest fifth - and thats got worse over past decade in the UK, but in Germany, Belgium, Japan, Spain, Portugal, gap has closed…
This is a related chart from @NIESRorg
… UK inter regional inequality declining last century before going into reverse since 1990s… whereas Germany closes the east-west gap in same time spectacularly…
story I did last month about “Cost Deferral Mechanism” loans meant to smooth energy bills, that we appear to be getting, pointing to the delicate politics of spreading the oil price shock over a few years… bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
Video from last nights #BBCNewsSix explaining the price pressures imported into UK at “Energy Island” the Isle of Grain, where massive tankers of liquefied gas were arriving. A record number came to the UK in January, mainly from the USA:
Going through some of the factors going into the Ofgem energy price cap rise, and the Government’s options to mitigate with a bar chart, which the geniuses at BBC graphics matched to my bar scarf…
Lorry queues at Dover, due to ferry cancellations and post Brexit customs checks/ paperwork on outgoing lorries, truckers tell my colleague @BBCChrisMorris who has been looking at the almost regular use of Dover TAP queues this month:
should be said, on both sides of border, up until last week, officials had been pleasantly surprised re new incoming (ie EU to UK) checks seemed to settle ok. “Turnbacks” of lorries with incorrect paperwork 30%ish in 1st week, down to 5ish%
3 separate things
1. New UK checks incoming, some paperwork required at eg Calais - seems smooth, tho traffic low. Awaiting stats.
2. New UK checks eg off M20, described as “black box” -little info emerging re some long import delays