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Pipes at the landfall facilities of the 'Nord Stream 1' gas pipeline are in Lubmin, Germany [File: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters]
By Joseph Stepansky, Usaid Siddiqui and Sasha Petrova
Published On 25 Jul 2022
  • Hungary has rejected European Union’s proposal to reduce gas consumption as “unjustified” after the bloc’s energy ministers approved the plan on Tuesday amid fears of Russian moves to cut supply.
  • Russian energy giant Gazprom has said gas flows to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will be slashed to 20 percent from Wednesday due to maintenance issues, a move the European Union’s energy chief has called “politically motivated”.
26 Jul 2022 - 20:35
 (20:35 GMT)

Uganda’s Museveni extols Africa-Russia ties during Lavrov visit

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said he saw no reason to criticise Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, extolling Russian-African friendship during the visit of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

Speaking alongside Lavrov, who is on a four-nation African tour seeking support for Moscow at a time of confrontation with Western powers, Museveni praised Russia as a partner in the struggle against colonialism going back a century.

“If Russia makes mistakes, then we tell them,” Museveni said, citing his participation in student demonstrations against the crushing of the Prague Spring by the Soviet Union in 1968.

Read more here.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, left, and Ugandan President Yowerei Museveni greet each other during their meeting in Entebbe, Uganda [Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP Photo]
26 Jul 2022 - 19:33
 (19:33 GMT)

Russia doing better than expected under sanctions: IMF

Russia’s economy appears to be weathering the storm of Western-imposed sanctions better than expected, as it benefits from high energy prices, the IMF has said.

The sanctions were meant to sever Russia from the global financial system and choke off funds available to Moscow to finance the war.

But the International Monetary Fund’s latest World Economic Outlook upgraded Russia’s GDP estimate for this year by a remarkable 2.5 percentage points, although its economy is still expected to contract by six percent.

“That’s still a fairly sizeable recession in Russia in 2022,” IMF chief economist Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas told the AFP news agency in an interview.

26 Jul 2022 - 19:16
 (19:16 GMT)

US says Russian plans to exit International Space Station ‘unfortunate’

The United States has voiced regret about Russia’s announcement that it would exit the International Space Station after 2024 and said it was taken by surprise.

“It’s an unfortunate development given the critical scientific work performed at the ISS, the valuable professional collaboration our space agencies have had over the years, and especially in light of our renewed agreement on space-flight cooperation,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

26 Jul 2022 - 18:18
 (18:18 GMT)

‘The Russians have nothing equivalent’: How HIMARS help Ukraine

By John T Psaropoulos

The M142 HIMARS, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems supplied to Ukraine by the United States, have become a symbol of Russian vulnerability.

In the occupied southern Kherson oblast, posters appeared in July featuring a picture of a HIMARS system and words threatening retribution on the Russians for “looting, killing, rape, destruction”.

Now, the Eastern European countries most worried about a future Russian attack are arming themselves.

Read more here.

26 Jul 2022 - 17:38
 (17:38 GMT)

Russia unlikely to pull out ISS programme: Ex-astronaut

Former NASA astronaut and International Space Station commander Leroy Chiao believes that Russia may not follow through on its announcement that it will pull out of the ISS programme in 2024.

“It’s nice to think they [Russia] are going to build their own space station but frankly they don’t have the money for it. They don’t have the budget. And even back when we began the ISS programme with Russia – fully financed by the US – it still took them seven years to develop and build their core module and put it into orbit,” Chiao told Al Jazeera from Houston.

“I don’t think they’re gonna get a space station up there in a couple of years. And even if they had the money, it would take a lot longer. So if they’re willing to walk away from their human spaceflight programme, then they’ll quit the ISS. But frankly, I don’t think they’re ready to do that,” he added.

Chiao said it was “unfortunate” the ISS programme had now been politicised and was the “one common ground that we had where it was in everyone’s interest that it worked”.

The International Space Station [NASA/Roscosmos/Handout via Reuters]
26 Jul 2022 - 17:15
 (17:15 GMT)

EXPLAINER: What is Nord Stream 1 and why is it crucial to Europe?

The Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline has been the focus of a spat between Russia and EU members in recent weeks, as Brussels seeks to secure sufficient reserves to get member states through the coming European winter.

Gazprom, Russia’s state-controlled gas giant, has kept European leaders on their toes as it repeatedly announced disruption in gas flows due to what it claimed were technical issues due to maintenance work.

On Tuesday, as the bloc’s energy ministers met in Brussels to approve an emergency plan, EU energy policy chief Kadri Simson slammed Gazprom’s announcement that it would reduce flows to 20 percent of the pipeline’s capacity as “politically motivated”.

Read more here.

Russian natural gas shipments to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany are due to be reduced to 20 percent from Wednesday [File: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg]
26 Jul 2022 - 16:07
 (16:07 GMT)

Peskov says Russia would respond to visa curbs

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says he hopes that Finland and European Union countries would not halt tourist visas for Russians, adding Russia was ready to respond in kind should that happen.

Peskov’s comments came after Finnish political parties spoke in favour of halting tourist visas to all Russians.

“It would very bad, I repeat once again, naturally, it would provoke an imminent backlash from Moscow,”  Peskov told reporters during his daily briefing via a phone call.

26 Jul 2022 - 15:27
 (15:27 GMT)

Russian military plans sweeping war games in country’s east

Russia will hold wide-ranging military drills in the country’s east as it continues regular troop training despite the action in Ukraine, Russia’s Defence Ministry said.

The ministry said the Vostok 2022 (East 2022) exercise scheduled for August 30 to September 5 will involve troops on manoeuvres at 13 firing ranges of the Eastern Military District.

It added that units of airborne troops, long-range bombers and military cargo planes will also be involved in the war games.

26 Jul 2022 - 14:28
 (14:28 GMT)

Hungary rejects ‘unenforceable’ EU gas plan: Minister

Hungary has criticised a European Union proposal to reduce gas consumption as “unenforceable” after the bloc’s energy ministers approved the plan.

“This is an unjustifiable, useless, unenforceable and harmful proposal,” Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. Hungary was the only member state to oppose the plan, which passed with a majority vote.

26 Jul 2022 - 13:42
 (13:42 GMT)

Putin to meet Turkey’s Erdogan in Sochi: Local media

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold a meeting with his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on August 5, Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

The two leaders will discuss regional problems and bilateral relations, Interfax news agency said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) [File: Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik/ Kremlin Pool Photo via AP Photo]
26 Jul 2022 - 12:55
 (12:55 GMT)

EU says gas deal should yield enough savings to survive ‘average’ winter

A deal brokered by European Union countries to curb their gas use should yield enough gas savings to last through an average winter, if Russia were to fully cut supplies in July, the bloc’s energy chief Kadri Simson has said.

“Our initial calculations indicate that even if all the exemptions were used in full, we would achieve a demand reduction that would help us safely through an average winter,” Simson told a news conference.

26 Jul 2022 - 12:20
 (12:20 GMT)

UK targets Russian officials in new wave of sanctions

The United Kingdom has sanctioned Kremlin-imposed officials in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in eastern Ukraine as well as 29 regional governors across Russia in response to Moscow’s invasion.

Vitaly Khotsenko and Vladislav Kuznetsov, the Russia-imposed prime minister and first deputy chairman of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, were among the 42 new designations, which also included Russia’s minister and deputy minister of justice, and two nephews of Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who was himself sanctioned by the UK in March.

“Khotsenko and Kuznetsov have been sent to implement Russia’s policies across the invaded region, supporting Putin’s plans to illegally annex more of Ukraine and use sham referendums to falsely legitimise their occupation,” the UK foreign office said in a statement.

26 Jul 2022 - 11:48
 (11:48 GMT)

Russia to quit International Space Station ‘after 2024’: Roscosmos

Russia has decided to quit the International Space Station (ISS) “after 2024”, the newly-appointed chief of Moscow’s space agency has told President Putin.

“Of course, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave this station after 2024 has been made,” Roscosmos chief Yury Borisov said in comments released by the Kremlin.

Russian cosmonauts on the ISS have received particular attention in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with early speculation that the crew’s choice to wear yellow and blue flight suits while boarding the station in March was a subtle show of Ukrainian solidarity.

That speculation was doused in July when Roscosmos released photos of the cosmonauts holding the flags of the Russian-backed breakaway regions of the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, which are located in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov are seen wearing yellow and blue flight suits after docking on the ISS [Reuters]
26 Jul 2022 - 11:32
 (11:32 GMT)

Monitoring centre for Ukrainian grain exports to open in Istanbul: Turkey

A joint coordination centre (JCC) for Ukrainian grain exports under a UN-brokered deal will be opened in a ceremony in Istanbul on Wednesday, Turkey’s defence ministry has said.

Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN signed the accord last week to resume Ukraine’s grain exports, which had stalled after Russia’s February 24 invasion of its neighbour. All parties will appoint representatives at the JCC to monitor the implementation of the plan.

Wheat is harvested in the Russian-held part of Zaporizhia region in Ukraine [Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters]
26 Jul 2022 - 11:25
 (11:25 GMT)

Brittney Griner: What you should know about Russia’s drug laws

The arrest of the US basketball player has shone a spotlight on the harsh drug laws in Russia.

But how the government has approached drugs has changed over the decades.

While Russia had drug control laws since tsarist times, enforcement was practically non-existent until 1924, when the communist Bolshevik government considered narcotic addiction a symptom of a decadent capitalist society and began cracking down.

Read more here.

People visit a mural of Brittney Griner in Washington, DC [File: Sarah Silbiger/Reuters]
26 Jul 2022 - 10:38
 (10:38 GMT)

Kremlin says hopes Nord Stream 1 turbine will be installed ‘sooner rather than later’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia hopes a gas turbine for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will be installed “sooner rather than later”, but has not yet arrived after maintenance in Canada.

The statement comes after Russian energy giant Gazprom announced it was lowering gas supplies to Europe to just 20 percent of its capacity, citing maintenance. The European Union has repeatedly accused Russia of resorting to energy blackmail, while the Kremlin says the shortfalls have been caused by maintenance issues and the effect of Western sanctions.

“Yes, indeed, there are some defects with the turbines. The turbine has not arrived after a major maintenance, it’s on its way. We hope that it will happen… sooner rather than later,” Peskov said, adding that another turbine has also some defects.

 

EU energy ministers approved a plan to reduce reliance on Russian gas after meeting in Brussels [Virginia Mayo/The Associated Press]
26 Jul 2022 - 10:07
 (10:07 GMT)

EU countries reach deal on emergency gas cuts for this winter

EU countries have agreed on an emergency regulation to curb their gas use this winter, as Europe prepares for a winter of uncertain supplies from Russia.

“This was not a Mission Impossible! Ministers have reached a political agreement on gas demand reduction ahead of the upcoming winter,” the Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, wrote in a tweet.

Under the agreement, countries will voluntarily cut gas use by 15 percent from August to March. The cuts could be made binding in a supply emergency, but countries agreed to exempt numerous countries and industries after some governments resisted the EU’s original proposal to impose a binding 15 percent cut on every country.

Read more here.

26 Jul 2022 - 09:59
 (09:59 GMT)

Russia says eight missile and artillery depots destroyed in Mykolaiv region

Russia’s defence ministry has said its military has destroyed eight missile and artillery arms depots in the Mykolaiv region, according to the Interfax news agency.

The statement comes after Ukraine reported multiple missile strikes in Mykolaiv and in the southern port city of Odesa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier published a video of the wreckage of houses in Zatoka, a popular resort village to the west of Odesa, saying “no military bases, no troops. Russian terrorists just wanted to shoot. They will be held accountable for all this”.

Meanwhile, the military said that “port infrastructure” was targeted in Mykolaiv region, which was also hit by S-300 missile systems deployed in the Russia-controlled Kherson region.

26 Jul 2022 - 09:43
 (09:43 GMT)

Kyiv says Russian attacks pummel Ukraine’s Black sea coast

Ukraine has said that Russian forces have launched multiple missile attacks at targets on the Black Sea coast near the southern port city of Odesa and in Mykolaiv.

The attacks come days after Russian raids hit the port of Odesa, threatening to chill a breakthrough deal to resume exports of grain from Ukraine disrupted by Moscow’s invasion.

“A massive missile attack, with the use of aircraft, was launched from the Black Sea on the south of Ukraine,” the country’s southern military command said on Facebook.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy also published a video on Instagram showing debris scattered around heavily damaged houses in Zatoka, a popular resort village to the west of Odesa.

A firefighter works at site of a residential area damaged by a Russia missile strike in Zatoka, Odesa region [Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Reuters]
26 Jul 2022 - 09:11
 (09:11 GMT)

Ireland warns 15 percent gas use cut won’t overcome supply squeeze

A European Union proposal for countries to curb their gas demand by 15 percent will not be sufficient to get through the third-quarter of the year in the face of continued cuts to Russian gas supply, Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan has said.

“Fifteen percent will probably not be enough given what the Russians have just announced, a further reduction in their gas supplies through Nord Stream 1. But it’s better than not having it, and I think the signal it sends is also important,” he said after arriving at the meeting of EU country ministers.