A curious thing happened today. To quiet protests over food, president Petro Poroshenko ordered the minister of the food reserve to fill the shelves of stores with flour, sugar, canned meat, and buckwheat from the reserve. Well guess what? There was no food in the reserve. It has either been looted (like the vanishing gold), or it was fed to the army. [...]

Ukrainian supermarkets have imposed rationing of basic products after the drastic fall in the value of the hryvnia. The currency has lost 70 percent of its value causing people to stockpile food and buy electronics as a hedge. Restrictions apply for goods such as cooking oil, flour and sugar, Ukraine’s news agency UNN reports Wednesday. [...]

Ukraine has agreed to increase the cost of gas to consumer by 280 percent, and 66 percent for heating, as part of the IMF terms for getting extra financial aid, says Valery Gontareva the head of the National Bank of Ukraine. "From now on, in accordance with our joint program with the IMF, the tariffs will see rather a sharp increase of 280 percent for gas and about 66 percent for heat," said Go [...]

Tuesday protests outside the president's offices in Kiev are just a part of a bigger picture of discontent grasping Ukraine, journalist Neil Clark told RT. With the economy worsening, former Maidan allies are now angered and splitting up. Is this a small pocket of discontent or are we seeing something wider here? [...]

The hryvnia lost 34 percent against the US dollar after the head of the central bank signaled it can no longer support the currency with regular interventions and will allow greater fluctuations. The hyrvnia hit a historic low of 24.5 per 1 USD. “Get used to market volatility," National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Governor Valery Gontareva told reporters in Kiev on Thursday. [...]

The Russian government has submitted a bill to lawmakers to ratify the BRICS bank. The New Development Bank will have assets of $100 billion from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and rival the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. [...]

Ukraine's GDP shrank by 7.5 percent from January till November 2014, as foreign exchange reserves fell to their lowest level since 2009, and inflation jumped to 21 percent by November, admits the head of the Ukraine's National Bank, Valeriya Gontareva. The country’s foreign exchange reserves shrank to $9.9 billion, as Kiev gave Naftogaz an estimated $8.6 billion to buy gas and settle state gu [...]

A blogger gave a homeless guy $100 – and filmed an unexpected twist, as the man decided to help others with the money. The video went viral, and a crowdfunding campaign to get the homeless man back on his feet has raised over $94k and counting. The experiment began with Los Angeles-based video blogger Josh Paler Lin giving a homeless man named Thomas $100 with no strings attached. [...]

Even facing what under any circumstances is a perfect storm; President Putin delivered an extremely measured performance at his annual press conference and Q&A marathon. The perfect storm evolves in two fronts; an overt economic war – as in siege by sanctions - and a concerted, covert, shadow attack to the heart of the Russian economy. [...]

Direct trade between India and Russia in rough diamonds is a diplomacy gem which was a Russian initiative buttressed by some quick decision-making by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The matter has been under discussion through the diplomatic channels between the two countries for quite some time and came up in a brief discussion between visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Modi during th [...]

An overwhelming majority of Russians named President Vladimir Putin "€˜Man of the Year"when pollsters asked them to choose from among serving Russian politicians. The latest research conducted by an independent Russian pollster Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) showed that 68 percent of Russian citizens consider Putin worthy of the title. [...]

The BRICS Bank marks a major step to de-dollarization, and a new monetary system. It should replace the western-dominated “predatory casino scheme” that has contributed to world wars and “economic terrorism,” says former World Bank economist Peter Koenig. “A ‘BRICS system’ would offer a healthy alternative to the highly indebted and defunct dollar system, where money is printed at [...]

As a country with few socio-economic and political problems Ukraine has turned into a failed state torn by civil war and sectarian violence, with a lack of constitutional order and a destroyed economy, foreign affairs expert Nebojsa Malic told RT. Malic added that there has been a lot of talk about financial assistance for Ukraine but none of that has actually materialized. [...]

Moscow and Riyadh both want to see oil prices react to market forces, and not to geopolitical muscle flexing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said Friday. “Saudi Arabia and Russia believe that pricing should be market-oriented and let supply and demand play the decisive role. [...]

The Russian ruble continued its fight back on Friday to move above 46 against the US dollar, as the price of Brent crude slid over the $80 per barrel threshold. The US dollar has fallen to 45.62 rubles Friday at 3PM Moscow time on the Moscow Exchange. The euro has fallen to 56.69 rubles. [...]

It's been a year since thousands of peaceful protesters took part in the initial Euromaidan rallies in Kiev, hoping for a brighter future. Since that optimistic start, the state has been torn to shreds and now its very future is in doubt. Ironically, Maidan was the cause, although it's probable that, eventually, Ukraine would have come to conflict by other means. [...]

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone says "third world" Europe is finished and some British industrialists agree. However, the reality is far more complicated. It's not the continent that's finished - it's Europe's neoliberal elites who are in peril. Andy Street, the managing director of Britain’s prestigious retailer John Lewis claimed recently that France was “finished.” [...]

Vladimir Putin says the G20 must address global imbalances together, and economic isolation, especially in the case of sanctions, which not only leads nowhere but is a crude violation of international economic law. Here are the Russian president’s top takeaways he gave in an interview to TASS ahead of the G20 summit being held in Brisbane, Australia from November 14-15. [...]

The eurozone has huge problems and is holding back the global economy from growing, however the world in general is doing ok, Jim O'Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, told RT. Europe's had a hard time economically in the last few years, with 2014 seeing an especially sharp slowdown in growth. What's behind this poor performance? [...]

Doing away with the US dollar and switching to ruble and yuan payments will significantly increase Russia and China's say in energy and financial markets, Vladimir Putin has said, adding that the first deals are already underway. In short the President said the US dollar has no future, and that the ruble and the yuan have better long-term prospects. [...]

The Bank of Russia took another step towards a free float ruble by abolishing the dual currency soft peg, as well as automatic interventions. Before, the bank propped up the ruble when the exchange rate against the euro and dollar exceeded its boundaries. "Instead, we will intervene in the currency market at whichever moment and amount needed to decrease the speculative demand,” the bank’s [...]

25 years ago, Hungary was being toasted in the West for opening its border with Austria to East Germans, in a move which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now the Western elites are not happy with Budapest which they consider far too independent. The refusal of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party to join the new US and EU Cold War against Russia, which has seen the Hungari [...]