Word: putin
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...apparently has told Vladimir Putin. Last month the Russian government announced an increase in tariffs on imported cars, sparking angry protests from motorists. The move is meant to support a local car industry that temporarily shuttered factories because of withering demand. "Now that our producers are forced to slash production, I think it is absolutely unacceptable to spend money on acquiring [imported] foreign cars," Putin said. In Indonesia, the government is slapping import restrictions on about 500 items. Importers will require licenses and can only bring in the goods through specified ports. The decree announcing the measures said they were...
...farce played out in Brussels, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek - the Czech Republic currently holds the E.U. presidency - and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were phoning Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, warning him that Gazprom and Russia faced the loss of reputation and revenues as Western customers looked elsewhere. The E.U. efforts were almost all aimed at the Russians rather than the Ukrainians. They also spoke with Ukrainian officials. It helps that the E.U. is Ukraine's largest aid donor. Ukraine is facing a financial meltdown, and recently asked for a $16.4 billion International Monetary Fund bailout. Gazprom, owing around...
...sides are still unhappy. Putin has portrayed Ukraine as a flaky transit country, while Ukrainians say Russia is simply a bully. Over the next few weeks, Moscow and Kiev still have to agree on a price for Russian gas deliveries, subsidized since Soviet times. And even if that happens, there's no guarantee this same dispute will not flare up again in the coming months, as it regularly has over the past few years...
...annual gas consumption - but when gas deliveries to Germany abruptly stopped this week, Merkel went into action to try to keep the political conflict between Russia and Ukraine from escalating and to ensure the long-term security of gas supplies. She called Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukranian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko on Wednesday, persuading them to allow European experts to help resolve the conflict...
...Liberti says Putin's use of energy as a political tool - and his recent defiance of Europe and the rest of the world in Russia's military clash with Georgia - may signal that the Russian leader believes he risks little more than short-term trouble in making internationally unpopular moves that serve his interests. Liberti also suggests that the winter freeze and the assumption of the E.U. presidency by the Czech Republic, an ex-Soviet satellite, may have added to Putin's motivations. "Putin is reminding Europe [that] Russia's a force to be reckoned with, and that its position...