Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin was recently interviewed by German newspaper BILD where he talked candidly about the deteriorating relations between Russia and the West.  In the interview, Putin criticises sanctions against Russia as being designed push Russia into a war, saying that the West has used Ukraine to further a geopolitical agenda with Russia. Sputniknews.com reports: “The sanctions of the West are designed not to help Ukraine, but push Russia back geopolitically.

Submitted by William Engdahl via New Eastern Outlook,

Russia has just taken significant steps that will break the present Wall Street oil price monopoly, at least for a huge part of the world oil market. The move is part of a longer-term strategy of decoupling Russia’s economy and especially its very significant export of oil, from the US dollar, today the Achilles Heel of the Russian economy.

Some thoughts on what lies ahead while President Obama jawbones... (grab a glass of wine or bottle)

Submitted by David Haggith via The Great Recession blog,

Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted that Russia may be able to offer Syrian President Bashar al-Assad asylum should he need to flee Syria.  The Russian leader said if President Assad were pushed from office early, Russia would grant him asylum. “We granted asylum to Mr. Snowden, which was far more difficult than to do the same for Mr. al-Assad,” Mr Putin said in an interview on Tuesday. Washingtonpost.com reports: Putin was referring to Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who fled to Moscow after releasing reams of classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs.

In yesterday's overnight market wrap, we commented that while Chinese stocks had succeeded in levitating following another massive government intervention, "the global market was far more focused with what was going on in China's currency, which as previously reported, plunged to new 5 year lows, while the spread between the onshore and offshore Yuan rose to a record wide, suggesting the depreciation in the currency is only going to accelerate from here, and a big payday for Kyle Bass is coming."