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The Regions This Week
April 28, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 6
Eastern Europe
The US will cut its financial assistance to Ukraine in 2018 by 69%, Foreign Policy magazine reported on April 24. The administration of Presi- dent Donald Trump will seek to cut assistance to developing countries by over one-third, according to March budget proposals quoted by the publica- tion. The overhaul is a re-channelling of funding from development assistance into a programme more closely tied to national security objectives.
Nearly a half of Russians – 45% – believe that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev should re- sign amid economic problems and recent claims about huge kickbacks and gifts he has received from connected businessmen, according to re- sults of a new poll by Levada Center.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko assured his Ukrainian counterpart “no one will ever embroil Belarus in a war against Ukraine”, Petro Poroshenko said on April 26, citing the Be- larusian president.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) is investigating possible illegal enrich- ment of the leader of the Radical Party parlia- mentary faction, Oleh Liashko. The move fol- lowed the brief detention of another influential politician, Mykola Martynenko, a close associate of Ukraine’s former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Ukrainian national power company Ukrenergo cut power supplies to rebel-controlled territo- ries in the eastern Luhansk region due to debts for previously supplied electricity. Russia is ex- pected to make up the supply to affected areas.
A majority in Russia – 68% – believe the differ- ence between rich and poor has increased in
the past five years, according to a poll by Gallup. That put Russia behind all the other former Soviet countries, except for Armenia, where 79% said the gap between rich and poor has widened, Ukraine (77%), Moldova (77%) and Lithuania (75%).
The EU wants better ties with Russia but cannot pretend Moscow did not annex Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, meaning that EU sanctions on Russia must remain in place, foreign policy chief Fed- erica Mogherini said.
The US administration will not grant ExxonMo- bil a waiver from US sanctions on Russia. The oil company’s request would have allowed it to resume drilling projects in Russia with Kremlin- controlled oil major Rosneft. ExxonMobil renewed its efforts to have the projects approved shortly after its former CEO Rex Tillerson became US secretary of state in February.
Ukraine’s industrial output fell by 2.7% y/y
in March after a 4.6% y/y drop in February. The result reflects the impact of the transport block- ade of rebel-held eastern territories in 2017. The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revised in March its GDP growth forecast for 2017 down from 2.8% to 1.9% due to the trade blockade.
Russia’s finance ministry started the placement of “People bonds” that are only available to ordi- nary citizens through state-run banks Sberbank and VTB24. RUB0.7bn (€11.2mn) of the bonds were purchased.
Ukraine could issue Eurobonds as soon as this coming autumn, Finance Minister Oleksandr Da- nylyuk told the Wall Street Journal. The potential placement could be worth around $1bn, he said.
The Russian government approved a directive allowing state-controlled oil major Rosneft to pay 35% of net IFRS profit for 2016 rather than the 50% required for all other state companies. The 35% of IFRS net profit for 2016 would trans- late into RUB6 per share or a dividend yield about 2%, according to Gazprombank.