Word: russian
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Harvard held an approximately $5 million stake in a fifth Sudan-linked company, Tatneft, earlier this year. Divestment activists have accused the Russian-run Tatneft of aiding the Sudanese government. Tatneft moved this summer to shift its stock to a London exchange—which means that Harvard is no longer required to disclose its holdings in the firm...
...Many officials apparently took that as a directive to tap into the Russian oil that is being pumped to Poland and Germany through Belarus. Transneft, Russia's state-owned transporting company, said today that Belarus started siphoning off Russia's oil on Jan. 6 - diverting 79,000 tons in two days. Early Monday, Polish officials said that Belarus blocked the Russian Druzhba ("Friendship") oil pipeline that carries oil to Poland and Germany. Russia then closed the pipeline to prevent more Belarussian theft. "Now there is a threat to the fulfillment of international contracts between Russian companies and companies in Western...
...happens when the little guy plots revenge? Over New Year's Day, tiny Belarus caved in to Russia, its gigantic gas supplier and next-door neighbor, agreeing to a steep rise in prices. On Jan. 3, however, Belarus' neo-Stalinist President Alexander Lukashenko - and formerly a professed ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin - said on television that his government officials should "feel free getting oil supplies at your discretion, wherever you can" at non-extortionist prices. "Oil refineries must be supplied. Otherwise, our chemical/petroleum industries, that account for half of our economy, will stop, which means millions of people left...
...delay has angered Putin, believes Lilia Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. Putin's second and final term as Russian President ends in 2008, and a successful reabsorption of Belarus would ensure his legacy as the first reunifier of the Slavic lands lost by his predecessors Mikhail Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Shevtsova also cites a more colorful theory: "Annexing Belarus could also create a legal way for Putin to stay on in the Kremlin." The constitution of the Russian Federation restricts any incumbent to two consecutive terms as President, but a new, expanded Federation could start with a clean...
...countries are far from united. In addition to the gas price hike, in late December Russia introduced a new export duty on its supplies of crude to Belarus. Belneftekhim, Belarus' state-run oil and chemical concern, immediately suspended all oil contracts with Russian companies. "We'll survive, but we're hard put now," Alexander Timoshenko, Belarus' government spokesman, told Time...