UKRAINE - Selling UAH 2 million bonds

Business Ukraine places UAH2 billion hryvnia-pegged domestic bonds at 19% Journal Staff Report KIEV, Aug. 20 – Ukraine, with the participation of Deutsche Bank at a primary auction on August 15, placed 2.5-year hryvnia-pegged government domestic loan bonds worth over UAH 2 billion among nonresidents, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk told reporters. "We've placed securities worth $200 million via Deutsche Bank at 19% in hryvnias. This means that they [foreign investors] believe that stability will be seen in Ukraine and there will be no exchange rate fluctuations," the premier said at a meeting with farmers in Cherkasy region on Tuesday. http://www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=19026

Not up on this type of info.
Guess this is 2 billion worth of foreign investment that's being sold?
That would then make it a foreign debt - because investors must be paid.

SERBIA - Won't introduce anti-Russian sanctions

EU candidate Serbia says will not exploit Russian embargo August 23, 2014 Serbia said on Friday it would not subsidise exports to Russia, after the European Union urged the Balkan country - a candidate for accession to the bloc - not to exploit the Kremlin's ban on Western food imports. Serbian food producers hope to take advantage of the trade row but the West-Russia stand-off over Ukraine has put Serbian authorities in a tight spot, caught between their ambition to join the EU and economic and political ties with Russia. Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he had received an aide-memoire this week from an EU official in Belgrade calling on Serbia to refrain from boosting exports to Russia, as a matter of solidarity with the bloc. Vucic told a news conference Serbia had not planned to subsidise exporters to Russia but also would not join the Western sanctions on Moscow. [...] http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-economy/189/1216377/

Well done, Serbia.

But if they join EU, will they still have the ability to opt out of EU decisions?
Expect that's not the case, so why join EU?

UKRAINE - Shell postpones drilling Yuzivske field on grounds of 'Force Majeure'

Shell announces 'force majeure' postponement of Yuzivske drilling Journal Staff Report KIEV, Aug. 21 – Shell has postponed the start of work to drill a first wildcat on the Yuzivske field (Kharkiv and Donetsk regions) due to the force majeure situation on the field, the Ukrainian representative office of the company has told Interfax-Ukraine. "On July 15, 2014, Shell reported force majeure circumstances that hinder the fulfillment of some liabilities of Shell [restricted by time] under PSA due to events affecting the territory of the Yuzivske field," the company said. http://www.ukrainianjournal.com/index.php?w=article&id=19030

Force Majeure - wikipedia - here.

Common clause in contracts.  Frees both parties from obligations.  Refers to unavoidable/chance occurrences:  eg act of god, flood, earthquake ... strikes, riots, war etc.

Shell - US-based oil company - here. 

...............................................................

Admonished on Twitter for not checking my facts.  Ooops.  Didn't read beyond 'US based'.

Wikipedia:  

The U.S. head office is in Houston, Texas. Shell Oil Company, including its consolidated companies and its share in equity companies, is one of America’s largest oil and natural gas producers, natural gas marketers, gasoline marketers and petrochemical manufacturers.

Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational "oil major" of Anglo-Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. 

The article doesn't specify if it was the parent company agreement to drill or if it was US-based subsidiary, so I'm going to guess and go with US because US has been plotting this Ukraine job for two decades.

Anyway:

"Shell Oil Company is a 50/50 partner with the Saudi Arabian government-owned oil company".  

While this relates to projects in the US gulf coast (I think), it would be fair to say that Saudi Arabia would then have a keen interest in the affairs of Shell.

So this goes right back to my original point:  US and NATO etc, are huffing and puffing and strongly 'condemning' for $$$$.  It's all about the dollars.

USA - Russia - Steel - Trade Dispute

UPDATE 1-U.S. steel producers win anti-dumping case against cheap imports Fri Aug 22, 2014 3:40pm GMT By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON Aug 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission on Friday voted to impose anti-dumping duties against steel pipe imports from seven countries, exempting two, handing a victory to domestic producers who had complained that the cheap imports were undercutting their prices. Countries whose steel will be subject to duties will be India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. The Philippines and Thailand will be exempt. The decision gives the U.S. Department of Commerce the green light to impose tariffs as high as 118 percent on tubular goods, and is expected to boost the domestic business. U.S. steel companies lodged a complaint in 2013 after imports of the pipes used in the oil and gas industry surged, as foreign manufacturers sought to cash in on booming U.S. shale gas drilling. Imports of "oil country tubular goods" (OCTG) doubled last year and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the U.S. market, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute, an industry group. Companies filing the complaint included United States Steel Corp, pipe specialist Tenaris subsidiary Maverick Tube Corporation; Boomerang Tube; Energex Tube, a division of JMC Steel Group, Northwest Pipe Co , Tejas Tubular Products, Russia's TMK IPSCO and France's Vallourec Star. Shortly after the ruling, U.S. Steel Corp was trading up more than 3 percent at $37.96 per share. The companies said that OCTG imports sold cheaply using unfair government subsidies had harmed their business, dragged prices down and triggered job cuts. Foreign manufacturers countered that they do not supply enough pipe to threaten the U.S. industry, and instead blamed the lower prices on U.S. producers increasing supply. U.S. trade officials are working their way through as many as eight disputes involving various steel products. Friday's decision likely will boost confidence in the domestic industry in the outcome of a current case involving steel-rolled pipes from Russia. U.S. steel producers have accused Russia of flooding the market with cheap flat-rolled steel, and want the Commerce Department to end a trade deal that they said had failed to stop Russia from dumping. (Reporting by Elvina Nawaguna; Editing by Ros Krasny and Susan Heavey) http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL2N0QS10W20140822?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

Normally wouldn't read something like this but it came up in my feed because I'm interested in Ukraine and Russia.

Shale boom equals need for steel.

Domestic producers whining = tariffs.

Don't know what dumping is.  Too lazy to look it up right now.

Trust them to want to get out of a contract with Russia.  LOL.

'Flooding the market'.  WTF?  Thought America stood for 'free markets'.

Don't sound so free to me.

PROPAGANDA: 'Hysterical Fear Mongering by Media'

Hysterical Fear Mongering by Media By EconMatters, August 22, 2014, 12:41:39 PM EDT Everything is Breaking News On Friday the financial markets reacted negatively to another round of sensationalized media reports. This time, coming out of Ukraine, which of course nobody vetted before going on air with, there were no triple sources, you know the old fashioned journalism standard. But the state of modern news media has gotten so desperate for ratings and eyeballs, that everything is ‘breaking news’ and a ‘crisis’ and ‘catastrophe of epic proportions’ that news outlets like ‘Guardian Tweets’ are now counted as legitimate journalistic sources. The quality of news, and more importantly journalistic standards, have dropped to such a degree that basically everything has slippery slopped to tabloid quality coverage of news events. Hyperbole, Exaggeration, and Incorrect News Reported on Daily Basis It has gotten so bad that government policy and even financial markets are being severally influenced by facts that are exaggerated to such a degree, that they might as well be complete fabrications, because the exaggeration factor is off the charts, more than a factor of 10! For example, 1,000 people have died as a result of Ebola over the past six months, the crisis has reached epidemic proportions….Really during that same time just in the US alone 1,820 people drowned in a first world country, and 1 Million people died around the world from Mosquito related illnesses caused by initial bites. This is a ‘fourth world’ area of the world; I bet there are a half a dozen other real catastrophes in that same area that have caused far more than 1,000 deaths in six months’ time. How about not being on an Electric Grid, or having water and sewer infrastructure? Propaganda Machines & Manipulation for Agendas The 40,000- 100,000 Christians trapped on a mountain in Iraq turned out to be 4,000, the misinformation used to hype any news event for sensationalistic purposes is just ridiculous. Now some of this is blatant propaganda by interested parties looking to sway support for a cause, but where is the news media these days with independent fact checking, and contextual framing of news stories? Not a Single Quality News Outlet These Days! I cannot find one single legitimate news source these days, and I have 700 cable channels and a fast internet connection, and no, it isn`t National Public Radio, the BBC, or Public Broadcasting Service. Some entrepreneur with bigger pockets than me should start a news organization which just gives the facts regarding the news. I know, what a concept, but it would stand out from the current crap, like a large gold oasis in the desert. I just want the facts, I will then decide for myself what meaning and importance to place on the news, I don`t need this done for me by exaggerating the facts so that I get the “gravity” and “severity” of the news! If one substantially exaggerates the facts, and this will lead to irrational decision making based upon inaccurate information. But the Walter Cronkite days of journalistic standards, or even the CNN standards where they just gave the latest news on a 30 minute ticker in the Ted Turner days is light years in quality from where we have devolved today with ‘Guardian Tweets’. If some news outlet just gave the facts as sourced by multiple checks it ought to be able to gain a solid foothold in the industry with the likes of Republican Fox, or Democrat CNN, or the Doom & Gloom Central at Zero Hedge. Russia-Ukraine Fact Checking Non-Existent But the level of Propaganda coming out of the Ukraine-Russian conflict by multiple parties with multiple agendas is at an exceedingly high level. It has been going on for six months; the news outlets should be wise to this by now that they are being used like cheap pawns in the conflict. This should incentivize them to be much more thorough in fact checking, and employ multiple sourcing of stories and news events, and no, a Guardian Tweet doesn`t count as a legitimate news source! It is patently obvious by now that the US should not be involved in the Russian-Ukraine school girl fight. Europe was right to be wary of this ‘pseudo conflict’, and if Malaysian Airlines did any kind of proper due diligence before flying over a ‘rocket launching zone’ Europe probably wouldn`t have gotten sucked into this political morass. The news organizations need to ask themselves this question on any story coming out of the Ukraine-Russian conflict -- Are we being used for some political agenda? Now do some independent fact checking, and if they cannot multiple-source stories, then it isn`t news that should be reported given the history of propaganda coming out of the region. No news is a far better outcome than inaccurate news, and most news coming out of the Ukraine-Russia conflict has been highly inaccurate as witnessed by “Friday`s Market Punked” Episode! The Bond Market just got ‘Punked’! Some poor sap just bought a 10-year bond with a yield of 2.3% on Friday with an inflation rate of 2.1% with Jackson Hole coming up next week because he thought World War III was coming and the world was coming to an end, when there is no chance in hell that over a 10 year period that is a soundinvestment place for any capital! Traders and market participants are pretty bad at decision making as it is, the last thing they need is inaccurate information via sensationalized and overhyped TMZ Style News reports by the ‘journalism community’ in which to base their decision making process on. http://www.nasdaq.com/article/hysterical-fear-mongering-by-media-cm383059 ................................................................................ I'm going to sound like a car salesman or something, singing the praises of yet another article; but, really, this one's one of the best things I've read. Find it extremely funny and kind of reassuring because I'm one of the dummies that was feeling like the world is coming to an end.  LOL Yes, I can pick things for propaganda ... but I had the impression that everything was on the brink and that NATO had a purpose for the propaganda:  ie vilify target + start conflict. Anyway, it's a hilarious article that was a good chance find.

UK - Will not join forces with Syria against Islamic State

Philip Hammond: We will not enter into a 'poisonous' alliance with Assad Foreign Secretary says that 'my enemy's enemy is not my friend' as he rules out sharing intelligence with Assad to take on Islamic State forces By Steven Swinford, Senior Political Correspondent 2:16PM BST 22 Aug 2014 Britain will not enter into a "poisonous" alliance with Syria in its fight against Islamic State forces, the Foreign Secretary has said. Ministers have faced calls from Tory MPs and military leaders to liaise with Bashaar al Assad's government on the basis that "my enemy's enemy is my friend". However Philip Hammond has ruled out an alliance with the Syrian regime because it would "poison" Britain's relationship with moderate Sunnis. "We may very well find that we are aligned against a common enemy but it would poison what we're trying to achieve in separating moderate Sunni opinion from the poisonous ideology of Isil if we were to align ourselves with Assad." He made the comments after Lord Dannatt, the former chief of general staff, highlighted how David Cameron has been open to a relationship with Iran in dealing with the conflict. He said: "The old saying 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' has begun to have some resonance with our relationship with Iran. "I think it's going to have some resonance with our relationship with Assad. I think whether it is above the counter or below the counter, a conversation has got to be held with him. "Because if there are going to be any question of air strikes over Syria airspace it's got to be with the Assad regime's approval." Mr Hammond said that the government will review whether it provides moderate rebels fighting against the Syrian regime with weapons. France has already announced that it has been supplying them and accused Britain and the West of bearing a "heavy burden of responsibility" for failing to intervene a year ago. Mr Hammond also said that Britain will not put "boots on the ground" in Iraq. He said: "Putting western boots on the ground to fight would not only be something we would be very unlikely to get consent for but something that would not be helpful and has not been asked for. [...] EXTRACT - FULL @ SOURCE http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11051137/Philip-Hammond-We-will-not-enter-into-a-poisonous-alliance-with-Assad.html

Bit of an interest in Middle East again.
Don't know what I'm on about, but I give it a shot understanding what's going on.  LOL.

Thought it a rather odd statement from Hammond - ie the 'poisonous' bit.

Take it he simply doesn't want to get moderate Sunni Muslims off-side by getting on-board with Assad?

Given the mention of Iran, checked to see where they stand.  Iran is Shia, so it's not Iran that's the issue?

Anyway, the statement didn't sound too friendly to me and I wonder why.  What's the problem with Syria?

Looking at the article again, he's referring to the ISIL ideology as 'poisonous', so the headline is a bit misleading even though he said 'poison' to what UK is trying to achieve.

The word poison reminded me of the chemical warefare accusations against Syria.  From what I understand, Syria has been cleared.  It has in fact been suggested in a rather impressive article that I read just yesterday, I think it was, that the chemical projectile was a CIA job (if I understood correctly).

That headline's really shitting me now.  Unless they haven't quoted Hammond entirely, he's not saying he's not entering into a 'poisonous alliance' - he is merely saying that an alliance would poison to the end result they're aiming for.  Even so, bit of an odd choice of words - not very diplomatic.  Or am I wrong?

I don't know if I'm over-analysing this.  It's getting like some brain twister.  LOL.

Anyway, no boots on the ground and no holding hands with Assad.

But the bit about providing moderate rebels with weapons has me confused.  Which ones?  If they're the rebels in Syria, isn't that in violation of the Assad regime's sovereignty?

Bear with me, I'm new and don't know what's going on.  LOL.

Anyway, I found it interesting.

UKRAINE - Russian Humanitarian Aid - Ukraine Squealing. NATO Rhetoric Issued.

22 Aug. 2014 NATO Secretary General condemns entry of Russian convoy into Ukraine I condemn the entry of a Russian so-called humanitarian convoy into Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian authorities and without any involvement of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This is a blatant breach of Russia’s international commitments, including those made recently in Berlin and Geneva, and a further violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty by Russia. It can only deepen the crisis in the region, which Russia itself has created and has continued to fuel. The disregard of international humanitarian principles raises further questions about whether the true purpose of the aid convoy is to support civilians or to resupply armed separatists. These developments are even more worrying as they coincide with a major escalation in Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine since mid-August, including the use of Russian forces. In addition, Russian artillery support – both cross-border and from within Ukraine – is being employed against the Ukrainian armed forces. We have also seen transfers of large quantities of advanced weapons, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and artillery to separatist groups in Eastern Ukraine. Moreover, NATO is observing an alarming build-up of Russian ground and air forces in the vicinity of Ukraine. Instead of de-escalating the situation, Russia continues to escalate it, despite the efforts of the international community to find a political solution to the crisis. This can only lead to Russia’s further isolation. I strongly urge Russia not to take further provocative actions, to stop destabilising Ukraine and to take genuine steps to resolve this dangerous situation with full respect of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and international law. http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_112089.htm?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=smc&utm_campaign=140822%2Bsg%2Brussia

Shelled civilians Eastern Ukraine.
No food.
No water.
Desperately in need of aid.
Been blocked for 12 days by Ukraine's bull.
Red Cross checked everything is FINE.
Ready to go.
Escort provided by independence supporters to Russian aid vehicles.

Poroshenko squealing like a stuck pig that it's an 'invasion'.
Hello, he was on-board with the aid?  So what's his problem?

NATO issuing the same RHETORIC which is BULL.
Sounds like NATO want war, the way they keep issuing the same bulldust.