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The Regions This Week
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Eastern Europe
Ukraine's parliament sacked the well regarded Oleksandr Danylyuk from the post of the na- tion's finance minister following his bitter conflict with Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The vote followed Groysman's official request to the parliament to dismiss Danylyuk, after the premier was upset by a letter sent by Danylyuk to the G7 ambassadors in Kyiv, in which he disclosed details of his conflict with the PM.
A fresh dairy row broke out between Moscow and Minsk over milk exports to Russia, after Russia's agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor announced it would introduce a temporary ban on imports of Belarusian dairy products in bottles containing more than 2.5 litres of liquid. Russia’s new ban on imports of Belarusian dairy products is unfounded, Belarusian Agriculture Minister Leonid Zayats told reporters.
The Russian cabinet held a meeting to mull three options for the long overdue increase
in Russian retirement ages from current 55 for women and 60 for men. The alternatives being looked at now include setting the thresholds at 65 for men and 60 for women, at 62 and 60 respec- tively, and 65 and 63 respectively.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was given the most thorough grilling he has ever received from a journalist by veteran Austrian reporter Armin Wolf during his trip to Austria this week, with hardball questions ranging from the Crimea annexation, to "troll farms", to Russia's close re- lationship with EU-sceptic movements. Putin was visibly uncomfortable but the rest of the trip went well and resulted in a new gas deal with Austria.
The Levada Center quantified Russian attitudes towards the protests in Armenia and the May 5 protests against Putin’s reelection: just 17% of Russians support the May 5 protests led by Alek- sei Navalny, 29% express sympathy and respect for the protestors. Only 24% of Russians express sympathy and respect for the protests in Armenia.
Russians were far more aware of the Armenian protests than they were of protests in their own country (51% vs. 39%).
Ukrainian national gas company Naftogaz claimed that a Dutch court approved a petition to freeze shares of Russian gas giant Gazprom in its Dutch subsidiaries, against a payment of $2.6bn that the Russian company has to pay Naf- togaz following an award by the Stockholm Arbi- trage Court in February 2018.
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) will discourage insurance companies from becoming "too big to fail", the head of the regulator's insurance market department said. Russian insurance market will soon see an emergence of "the largest player in history" after VTB Bank sells its insurance assets to the country's largest insurer Sogaz.
The Belarusian government is going to secure $500mn per year from the EBRD, Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko told an EBRD delegation.
Car and light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales in Russia remained strong in May, with total sales up by 18% y/y to 0.147mn units, according to the Association of European Businesses (AEB), which monitors the sector. The January-May sales in- creased by 20% y/y to 0.693mn units.
Russian independent oil major Lukoil will build a petrochemical complex in Bulgaria, the compa- ny’s CEO Vagit Alekperov announced after a meet- ing with President Vladimir Putin and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
Sanctioned Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska is considering selling his stake in Russian carmak- er GAZ Group to relieve the company of the latest round of US Treasury sanctions. Currently 65.56% in GAZ is held by Deripaska’s Russian Machines, with a capitalisation of RUB8bn as of June 1 in Moscow.