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#1 | Posted by Corky at 2024-03-15 11:32 AM |
Odd that this news would publish while the voting is going on...

Maybe because this has not been "news" for weeks and has been anticipated for months.

After four tries of announcing reduction in oil production that resulted in initial spikes in oil futures price which rapidly came down due to supply glut and slower demand by world economies, as well as exit of Angola from OPEC, Saudi Arabia flipped the script and started negotiating volume supply agreements at a discount with Indian and Chinese oil / energy companies, now directly competing with Russian crude and refined oil products.

3 top Chinese banks, including Bank of China, stopped payments in rubles to local recipients, citing caution of secondary sanctions for aiding Russian wartime economy - Chinese government reluctantly followed the sanctions regime rules and ordered many of its largest financial institutes to do the same. Only 10% of Russian importers were able to pay suppliers this month for goods from China. Traders said that making ruble transactions was like "playing roulette" with their money, with funds delayed, held up indefinitely or simply vanishing into the "financial system" with no recourse.

BRICS is a nice geopolitical "concept" but anyone, who is not economically illiterate, understands it has no economical power because of very different objectives of members, and disparity in currencies which cannot be reconciled equitably.
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Asymmetrical war is a bitch:

Russia's Gas Prices Surge as Drone Strikes Paralyze Industry

|------- Crude oil prices jumped this week after Ukrainian UAVs again struck multiple Russian oil refining facilities, as Kyiv continues its long-range effort to limit Russian mobility in the Black Sea...

-- On Tuesday, a fire broke out at a Lukoil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod 280 miles from Moscow... and an energy facility in the city of Oryol... The next day, drones hit refineries in Ryazan and Rostov-on-Don... Other oil facilities in Volgograd and Tyapse as well as St Petersburg have also been targeted in recent weeks.

-- Russia's top oil execs keep #dying #suddenly. Vitaly Robertus, VP of Lukoil, was found "hanged" in his Moscow office in an apparent suicide... This is at least the fourth death of Lukoil's top executive since Russia's war in Ukraine began.

-- Russian government reintroduced on March 1 a six-month ban on gasoline exports...

-- Russian traders reel from China payment problems. Russian businesses face challenges in their dealings with cautious Chinese institutions.

-- China, Russia, Iran join forces for war games amid US-Houthi clashes.

-- UAF missiles destroy Russia's floating 'command center' used to carry EW equipment and launch drones.

-- Ukraine's new group of Russian fighters serving with UAF, "Siberian battalion" joins "Freedom of Russia Legion" and "Russian Volunteer Corps / RDK," launching incursions into Russian oblasts (counties) of Belgorod and Kursk.

-- Russian arms exports cut in half over the past five years, compared to the previous five. US arms companies' weapons exports soar while Europe rearms itself in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

-- Russia's program to produce missiles experienced technical problems and has fallen months behind schedule, according to documents obtained as a result of Ukraine's more than a year-long cyber operation. The documentation identifies Moscow's intermediaries for purchasing weapons components. "Every company whose products the enemy uses to produce weapons will be known to the public. Relevant authorities have the data to block proxy firms and extend sanctions," NRC said.
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