Russia Financial News

barriers to commerce, ensure stability through global accords and enforce the rules came under renewed criticism following a chaotic and contentious meeting of its top officials. The 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi last week laid bare an uncomfortable truth: For an organization that needs all 166 member countries to agree, the WTO again struggled to muster even a small win. Those are only getting messier and harder to pull off in an era of two armed conflicts, widening geopolitical gulfs and a realignment of the trading ties that bind the postwar economic order. Meetings in the capital of the United Arab Emirates — positioned both geographically and geo-economically between US-European Union and China-Russia alliances — were dominated by disorder and confusion, according to several participants, who asked not to be named speaking about the private talks. They’re rarely jovial affairs, but hopes were quickly dashed that this year would be a turning point toward unity.

Rebel Moon: Part 2 — The Scargiver" will be releasing in April this year on Netflix. Fans will get more from the makers as there will be extended cut editions on the anvil, as per a report. «Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver» directed by Zack Snyder will be releasing across the world on the streaming giant on April 19. The first part was released on December 21 last year, as per a report in WhatsOnNetflix.

By Laura Sanicola

NEW DELHI : India is in talks with several countries including Guyana, Suriname and Namibia to source crude oil at a time when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have decided to extend their production cuts. India will also source oil from Venezuela in lieu of stuck dividends worth $600 million, Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, said on Monday. The country will comfortably navigate through any market volatility and supply crunch arising as a result of the OPEC cuts, he added.

NEW DELHI : India is in talks with several countries including Guyana, Suriname and Namibia to source crude oil after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies decided to extend production cuts. India will also source oil from Venezuela in lieu of stuck dividends worth $600 million, Union minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, said on Monday. The country will comfortably navigate through any market volatility and supply crunch arising as a result of the OPEC cuts, he added.

Crude oil is set to have an intriguing week, especially following Friday's breakout. Prices surged even before OPEC+'s weekend decision to prolong supply cuts, suggesting investors may have anticipated such an extension.

flat at $88 billion during April-January compared with the year-ago period. The total export value of petroleum products declined to $67.11 billion during the first 10 months of the fiscal year, down from $75.65 billion in the year-ago period.

SINGAPORE—Two years after the invasion of Ukraine, drones and U.S.-made computer chips are increasingly flowing to Russia from China through Central Asian trade routes, showing the difficulty of strangling supplies to Moscow’s war effort. Trade routes snaking through former Soviet republics Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are among the many paths into Russia for so-called dual-use goods—singled out by the U.S. and its allies because they can be used on the battlefield.

Alfa-bank, one of Russia’s biggest financial institutions, has created a “digital financial asset” (DFA) backed by gold, stocks, and cash.

Alexander Stubb has been sworn in as Finland’s new president

Some members of oil cartel OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and allied producers like Russia are again deepening their voluntary crude supply cuts

Brazil’s economy grew 2.9% in 2023, beating expectations in the first year of the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

diamond houses in India were alerted over the weekend that missing paper trails and sloppy records would land them in trouble under the new sanctions regime that began on March 1 to block Russian gems from the affluent western markets. The discreet, quaint world of diamonds, where close-knit jewellers and diamantaires cut deals in old-fashioned ways, is scanning a new, unfamiliar compliance mechanism that could change the way they have been doing business for ages. If local firms, which cut and polish eight out of 10 diamonds mined in the world, fail to generate and safekeep documentary evidence that the rough stones and jewellery did not originate in Russia, they could come under serious scrutiny. Cautioning them about the pitfalls, the apex trade body has circulated the various guidelines and formats of self-declarations that diamond firms shipping to the US and EU must share with their buyers to avoid trouble.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday called on the West to rapidly deliver more air-defence systems as a wave of Russian missile, drone and artillery strikes killed at least 11 people. Eight were confirmed dead, including a child and a baby, after an overnight drone strike on the southern port city of Odesa, a regional official said. Separate shelling attacks on the frontline regions of Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south killed another three people, Ukrainian officials said. «Russia continues to hit civilians,» Zelenskyy said in a post on social media.

By Maha El Dahan and Alex Lawler

OPEC and allies led by Russia (OPEC+) have agreed to extend voluntary first-quarter oil output cuts into the second, sources said on Sunday. OPEC+ in November agreed to voluntary cuts totalling about 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) for the first quarter, led by Saudi Arabia rolling over its own voluntary cut. OPEC+ has implemented a series of output cuts since late 2022 to support the market amid rising output from the United States and other non-member producers and worries over demand as major economies grapple with high interest rates.

Cuba’s economy is in its worst state since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Even the official figures—which one Western businessman in Havana, the capital, describes as “an exercise in a cover-up"—make grim reading. Annual inflation, according to the government, is at 30%.

It’s been two years since the Bank of Canada started the most aggressive interest rate hike campaign in its history in a bid to tame rampant inflation, and the Canadian economy looks vastly different.

By Iryna Nazarchuk

By Divya Rajagopal

Also Read: US sanctions threaten Russian oil sales to India; complicate process for OMCs to secure annual deals: Report Back home, on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), crude oil futures due for a March 19 expiry, last settled 0.02 per cent lower at ₹6,637 per bbl, having swung between ₹6,475 and ₹6,694 per bbl during the session, against a previous close of ₹6,638 per barrel. -A decision on extending OPEC+ cuts is expected in the first week of March, with individual countries expected to announce their decisions. Analysts said that the expectation that OPEC+ is going to continue with their voluntary production cuts well into the second quarter of 2024.