Latest news with #non-Russian
RTÉ News
a day ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
What's in the EU's 18th sanctions package against Russia?
The European Union has imposed its 18th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine. The package aims at dealing further blows to Russia's oil and energy industry. Here is a rundown of what is included in the latest sanctions package. Oil price cap Central to the package is a lower price cap on Russian oil - a move designed to shrink Russia's energy revenues without disrupting global markets by severing Russian supply entirely. The EU will impose a moving price cap on Russian crude at 15% below its average market price, EU diplomats said. That means a cap of roughly $47.60 per barrel at present, well below the $60 maximum that the Group of Seven major economies have tried to impose since December 2022. The new price cap will come into force on 3 September and a 90-day transition period will apply to existing contracts, the EU said in a press release. The measure aims to ban trade in Russian crude bought at a higher price by prohibiting shipping, insurance and reinsurance companies from handling tankers carrying such crude. The European Union and the UK have been pushing the G7 to lower the cap since a fall in oil futures made the $60 cap largely irrelevant. However, the US has resisted, leaving the EU to move forward on its own, with limited power to enforce the measure because oil is largely traded in dollars, for which payment clearing is controlled by US banks. Shadow fleet and energy trade The EU will no longer import any petroleum products made from Russian crude after a transitional period of six months, although the ban will not apply to imports from Norway, Britain, the US, Canada and Switzerland, EU diplomats said. The EU sanctions also targeted India's Nayara oil refinery with Russia's largest oil producer Rosneft as its main shareholder. The EU also agreed to end the Czech Republic's exemption from the bloc's existing ban on seaborne Russian crude oil imports, after the country fully switched to non-Russian supplies this year. An additional 105 vessels are banned from accessing EU ports and locks, or undertaking ship-to-ship transfers of oil - an effort to shut down the so-called "shadow fleet" of older oil tankers used to transport Russian oil and circumvent sanctions. The EU also put sanctions on a private operator of an international flag registry, and an entity in the Russian LNG sector, the Council of the EU said in a press release, without naming them. In total, the EU has now imposed sanctions on more than 400 shadow fleet ships. Nord Stream Transactions related to Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea will be banned, including any provision of goods or services to these projects. Financial sector The EU will ban all transactions with Russian financial institutions - already excluded from the global financial messaging system SWIFT. The ban will include transactions with Russia's sovereign wealth fund - the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) - as well as its investments. This aims to further restrict Russia's access to international financial markets and foreign currency. EU countries also agreed to lower the threshold for imposing further sanctions on foreign financial and credit institutions that undermine the sanctions or support Russia's war effort. Export bans, new blacklist entries The EU will blacklist 26 new entities for circumventing sanctions, including seven in China, three in Hong Kong and four in Turkey, diplomats said. Certain chemicals, plastics and machinery have been added to the list of goods EU countries cannot export to Russia. Delayed approval The package of sanctions on Russia is the EU's 18th since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Approval was held up for weeks by Slovakia and Malta. Slovakia had demanded guarantees against potential losses from a separate EU plan to ban imports of Russian gas by 2028, and dropped its veto after the EU offered Slovakia some guarantees earlier this week.
Arabian Post
11-07-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
ADNOC Gas Signs $400 Million LNG Deal with SEFE
ADNOC Gas has finalised a supply agreement worth 1.5 billion dirhams with Germany's SEFE Securing Energy for Europe, signalling a significant push to reinforce the energy partnership between the UAE and European markets. The three-year contract will see ADNOC Gas deliver 0.7 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas, with shipments commencing this year from the Das Island liquefaction facility. The deal forms part of Europe's broader strategy to diversify energy imports amid an ongoing overhaul of its gas supply framework. SEFE, a Berlin-based energy firm formerly known as Gazprom Germania, was nationalised in 2022 to ensure stable energy flows following a sharp decline in Russian gas deliveries. This latest deal with ADNOC Gas is among SEFE's key moves to reinforce long-term energy security through non-Russian sources. ADNOC Gas, a publicly listed unit of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has steadily expanded its global footprint following its debut on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in March 2023. The firm plays a central role in ADNOC's strategy to monetise its natural gas reserves while also supporting the UAE's ambition to become a reliable energy exporter amid volatile global gas markets. ADVERTISEMENT The LNG will be exported from Das Island, a key hub for gas processing and liquefaction operations. Das Island serves as a strategic gateway for ADNOC Gas to access Asia-Pacific and European energy markets, with infrastructure capable of handling substantial volumes of LNG exports. The island's facilities are known for their operational reliability and are regarded as a cornerstone of ADNOC's upstream-to-market delivery model. This deal builds on a series of international LNG supply agreements signed by ADNOC Gas this year, including contracts with clients in Asia and Europe. It reflects the UAE's role in stabilising global energy markets by offering reliable alternatives to disrupted supply chains. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and its cascading effects on European energy procurement have intensified demand for long-term LNG contracts from stable producers such as the UAE, Qatar, and the United States. The agreement also underscores SEFE's strategic pivot to build long-term LNG relationships outside the Russian sphere. The German energy company has increasingly turned to suppliers in the Middle East and the United States as it rebuilds its gas portfolio under state ownership. With LNG infrastructure in northern Germany being upgraded to accommodate higher import volumes, deals like this one with ADNOC Gas are seen as critical to bridging medium-term energy supply gaps. LNG spot prices have moderated from the extreme highs of 2022, but volatility remains elevated due to tight supply-demand balances. European buyers are prioritising long-term contracts with fixed pricing to hedge against market instability and ensure consistent fuel flows for power generation and industrial usage. The UAE's relatively lower production costs and strong delivery infrastructure make ADNOC Gas an attractive supplier under such contract structures. The deal with SEFE also aligns with ADNOC Gas' broader goal to increase LNG export capacity. The company is developing the Ruwais LNG project, a facility designed to double its current export volumes. Once operational, Ruwais will enable ADNOC to deliver LNG more efficiently to Europe and Asia, leveraging the port's geographic location and enhanced logistical capabilities. Europe's LNG demand is forecast to remain elevated through the remainder of the decade, driven by structural shifts away from pipeline gas and coal. Germany, as the continent's largest economy, has rapidly constructed floating storage regasification units and aims to have several operational by the end of this year. These facilities will support delivery schedules under the ADNOC-SEFE deal, providing Germany with added flexibility to absorb LNG cargoes from global suppliers.
See - Sada Elbalad
07-07-2025
- Politics
- See - Sada Elbalad
Putin Signs Law Allowing Foreigners to Serve in Russian Military
By Ahmad El-Assasy Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a new law on Monday allowing foreign nationals to serve in the Russian military. According to Russia's state news agency TASS, the law enables non-Russian citizens to sign military contracts and serve in the armed forces until the end of mobilization orders, martial law, or wartime conditions. TASS reported that the legislation includes amendments to several key laws, such as those governing military duties, defense, and the status of military personnel. The law will officially come into effect upon its publication. A legislative note explained that the measure was expedited to allow for urgent additional recruitment into the Russian Armed Forces. This move is seen as part of Russia's efforts to bolster its military amid ongoing conflicts and geopolitical tensions. read more Gold prices rise, 21 Karat at EGP 3685 NATO's Role in Israeli-Palestinian Conflict US Expresses 'Strong Opposition' to New Turkish Military Operation in Syria Shoukry Meets Director-General of FAO Lavrov: confrontation bet. nuclear powers must be avoided News Iran Summons French Ambassador over Foreign Minister Remarks News Aboul Gheit Condemns Israeli Escalation in West Bank News Greek PM: Athens Plays Key Role in Improving Energy Security in Region News One Person Injured in Explosion at Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid News Israeli-Linked Hadassah Clinic in Moscow Treats Wounded Iranian IRGC Fighters News China Launches Largest Ever Aircraft Carrier Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Videos & Features Tragedy Overshadows MC Alger Championship Celebration: One Fan Dead, 11 Injured After Stadium Fall Lifestyle Get to Know 2025 Eid Al Adha Prayer Times in Egypt Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks News "Tensions Escalate: Iran Probes Allegations of Indian Tech Collaboration with Israeli Intelligence" Videos & Features Video: Trending Lifestyle TikToker Valeria Márquez Shot Dead during Live Stream Technology 50-Year Soviet Spacecraft 'Kosmos 482' Crashes into Indian Ocean
The Hill
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Putin's talk of soldiers' feet puts the lie to Russian nationalist myths
Vladimir Putin recently admitted that Russia is an artificial construct created by violence. This is a bombshell, putting to the lie Russian propaganda's longstanding claim that some spiritual entity called Russia has existed since time immemorial. In fact, Putin reduced Russia to its soldiers' feet — hardly an elevated comparison. In his address to the plenary session of the Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 20, Putin made the following astounding, and deeply subversive, claim: 'wherever the foot of a Russian soldier steps is ours.' Whereas we apply the word 'Russian' to both the ethnic designation (russkii) and the political designation (rossiiskii), Russians distinguish between the two. Significantly, Putin specifically referred to the ethnically Russian russkii soldier. In effect if not in intent, Putin reduced Russia (the political entity) to the lands conquered by ethnically russkii soldiers, thereby giving the lie to the claim that Russia is a 'federation' of happily coexisting nations, the largest of which happens to be russkii. This is an admission both of Russia's being (and always having been) an empire, and of the subordinate status of its non-Russian nations, brought into the imperial fold by soldiers — that is, by violence. Ukrainians, Poles, Finns and scores of other nations know this quite well, and it shouldn't surprise us that they are allergic to the presence of the feet of Mother Russia's children on their lands. Who can blame them for wanting to put as many yards as possible between them and those imperialist Russian feet? None of this is new or surprising to such leading Sovietologists as Paul Goble, who have spent decades reminding policymakers that the non-Russians of the former Soviet Union are strategically important to the West, because they are the only thing standing between Russia as an expanding empire and the rest of the world. These states possess the wherewithal to maintain Russia as a more or less stable object of containment. But such ruminations presuppose that Russia exists, whereas Putin, its putative head, unwittingly subverted and reduced it to an artifice of history. The logic is simple. If Russia is a function of soldiers' feet and where they happen to land, then it's neither imagined by lofty-minded intellectuals determined to reach out to the oppressed masses nor primordially present as a self-identifying agent of history since the dawn of time. And Russia is certainly not the Third Rome or God's gift to humanity. Rather, it's just a bunch of real estate cobbled together by its soldiers' feet. But if so, then the Russia that exists today or that existed in the past is an arbitrary collection of dirt. Because Muscovite rulers sent the feet in one direction and not another, the resultant 'our' territory is merely the product of the serendipitous whims of autocrats. Had its rulers not embarked on expansion and let the feet stay at home, Russia might have been as tiny as the Kremlin. This matters because Russian political culture insists, and has insisted, that Russia is a quasi-mystical entity enjoined by the divine to save the world. That culture also insists that Russia was already present in the guise of the state known as Kyivan Rus some 1,000 years ago. Regardless of whether that state was or was not Ukrainian or proto-Ukrainian, it obviously follows from Putin's own claims that it definitely wasn't Russian. How could it be, since russkii soldiers and their land-grabbing feet did not exist in the city called Kyiv a millennium ago? They may have existed in the town called Moskva in the marshy wooded areas north of Kyiv, but that's hardly a grand and glorious way to initiate a divinely ordained state. So where does Putin's demolition of Russia leave Russians and their feet? Pretty much nowhere. Russia is just a bunch of stuff randomly acquired over the years, Russians are reduced to an accidental agglomeration of folks — akin to the commuters at Grand Central Station during rush hour. Their soldiers' feet are transformed into mere physical appendages without any rooting in a nation or state. This bodes ill for Putin. If Russia doesn't really exist as a nation, then he becomes little more than a puppet at the mercy of historical forces — and his imperial ambitions are doomed to fail. After all, if he can only ultimately rely on feet, he won't get very far. Alexander J. Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, as well as 'Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires' and 'Why Empires Reemerge: Imperial Collapse and Imperial Revival in Comparative Perspective.'
Iraqi News
06-07-2025
- Business
- Iraqi News
Iraq's oil exports to India decline by 4%
Baghdad ( – Official figures indicated on Saturday that Iraqi crude oil supplies to India fell by four percent in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period in 2024. From January to June 2025, Iraq's crude oil shipments to India averaged 860,000 barrels per day, compared to 900,000 barrels per day in 2024, Shafaq News reported. Russia remained the top supplier of crude oil to India, with 1.67 million barrels per day, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia. India's imports of Iraqi oil fell by 28,000 barrels per day, decreasing from 959,000 barrels per day in May 2024 to 931,000 barrels per day. In early 2025, Indian refineries switched to non-Russian oil after the government informed them about US sanctions weeks before they were publicized. China and India continue to be major importers of Iraqi oil during May, according to customs data analysis from the two countries. Last month, China's imports of Iraqi oil grew by more than 22,000 barrels per day on an annual basis, to 1.11 million barrels per day, compared to 1.08 million barrels per day in the same month in 2024. During the first five months of 2025, Iraq's crude oil exports averaged approximately 3.33 million barrels per day, compared to 3.45 million barrels per day during the same period in 2024. Iraq's total seaborne exports of oil decreased to 3.66 million barrels per day during May 2025, compared to 3.87 million barrels per day in May 2024.
