Russia

Authored by Eric Zuesse,

Despite Russia and the U.S. coming together on Friday to back a U.N.-approved peace plan for Syria, major obstacles remain, including the on-the-ground reality that U.S. "allies," such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, have armed and financed powerful jihadist forces that won't compromise, as Gareth Porter explains.

Exactly a month ago, Russia took it up a notch in Syria by deploying Tupolev Tu-95 Bears, Tu-22 Blinders, and Tu-160 Blackjacks in the fight against anti-Assad elements including ISIS and al-Nusra.

The first footage of the strategic long-range bombers in action surfaced on November 17 and served notice that Moscow is willing to double down on its commitment to the fight even if securing key cities like Aleppo proves more challenging that The Kremlin originally anticipated.

Back in August, Ukraine struck a restructuring agreement on some $18 billion in Eurobonds with a group of creditors headed by Franklin Templeton. 

Under the terms of the deal, Kiev should save around $4 billion once everything is said and done. That was the good news. The bad news was that Ukraine still owed $3 billion to Vladimir Putin. Here’s what we said at the time:

Submitted by Koos Jansen via BullionStar.com,

The very reason I became interested in gold after the financial crisis in 2008 was because of Dutch gold guru, author, journalist, entrepreneur, and fund manager Willem Middelkoop. When I started reading his books I was immediately obsessed with economics and the gold market – along with thousands of others across the world.  Who would have thought that I would become a precious metals analyst a few years later?