(Bloomberg) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is being fed bad information from advisers afraid to tell him the truth about the troubles with his war in Ukraine, according to the White House and a British spy chief.
The White House is looking to combat inflation and fuel shortages resulting from the war by releasing roughly a million barrels of oil a day from U.S. reserves, people familiar with the matter said. Oil dropped sharply on signs the U.S. was considering the release.
Russia said it’s regrouping forces in Ukraine in a push to complete the takeover of the eastern Donbas region, after announcing it would scale back operations around Kyiv. President Joe Biden promised another $500 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine during a call with his counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
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Key Developments
- Biden Team Weighs a Massive Release of Oil to Combat Inflation
- Ukraine’s Crypto Banker Describes How War Is Changing His Life
- War, Inflation Force Wall Street to Ditch Age-Old Strategies
- Why Half of Russia’s 20 Richest Billionaires Are Not Sanctioned
- White House Blasts Trump Just as He Tries to Temper Putin Praise
- Germany Says Putin Is Backing Off Demand for Ruble Gas Payments
All times CET:
Futures Rise as Oil Drops (6:10 a.m.)
U.S. futures rose and oil dropped sharply on signs the Biden administration is considering a massive release of crude from its reserves to combat inflation.
Global stocks are on track for their worst quarter in two years amid concerns about a growth slowdown, with the war in Ukraine driving volatility in commodity markets.
Australia to Impose Tariff Increases (5:37 a.m.)
Australia will apply an extra tariff of 35% for all imports from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine, according to a government statement. Australia will also issue a formal notification withdrawing entitlement to the most-favored-nation tariff treatment for Russia and Belarus from Friday, it said.
Putin’s Advisers Afraid to Speak Truth, U.K. Spy Chief Says (3:30 a.m.)
Putin “massively misjudged” the resistance of the Ukrainian people, the strength of Russia’s military and the economic fallout from his invasion, Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ — the branch of British intelligence dealing with intercepts and cybersecurity — said in a speech in Australia.
“We’ve seen Russian soldiers — short of weapons and morale — refusing to carry out orders, sabotaging their own equipment and even accidentally shooting down their own aircraft,” he said, adding even though Putin’s advisers are afraid to tell him the truth, “the extent of these misjudgments must be crystal clear to the regime.”
Biden Team Weighs a Massive Release of Oil (2:56 a.m.)
The Biden administration is weighing a plan to release roughly a million barrels of oil a day from U.S. reserves, for several months, to combat rising gasoline prices and supply shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.
The plan is accompanied by a diplomatic push for the International Energy Agency to coordinate a global release by other countries. A final decision hasn’t been reached on the global release, but the White House may make an announcement on the U.S. release as soon as Thursday, one of the people said.
U.S., EU Officials Discuss ‘Additional Steps’ (1:48 a.m.)
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and Enrique Mora, a top European Union official met in Washington and discussed “additional steps” to further cut off Russia from the American and European economies.
They underscored the number of nations who have imposed sanctions and other restrictions on Russia since its assault on Ukraine began in February and “reiterated their commitment to further expanding the coalition and strengthening enforcement of these measures,” according to a joint statement by the U.S. State Department and the European External Action Service.
U.S. Warns India on Russian Oil, Reuters Says (11:10 p.m.)
The U.S. warned India not to ramp up its buying of Russian oil, saying it had no objection to purchases, provided they are made at a discount and are not in significantly higher volumes than previous years, Reuters reported citing an unidentified senior administration official.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said she was disappointed at news that India is considering a Russian proposal to facilitate bilateral payments outside of the SWIFT system.
White House Weighs More Russian Sanctions (9:48 p.m.)
The Biden administration is weighing new sanctions on Russia, the White House said hours after a phone call between Biden and Zelenskiy.
“We are continuing to look at options to expand and deepen our sanctions and I anticipate that we would probably have more for you on that in the coming days,” White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield told reporters.
U.S. Says Putin Feels Misled by Russian Military (9:01 p.m.)
White House officials said U.S. intelligence suggests Putin has felt misled by his advisers about the war in Ukraine, including in the lead-up to the conflict last month, raising tensions between the Russian president and military.
“We believe that Putin is being misinformed by his advisers about how badly the Russian military is performing, and how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions, because his senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth,” Bedingfield told reporters, without providing details on the evidence behind the assessment.
New U.S. Aid to Ukraine to Pay for Government Operations (7:38 p.m.)
The $500 million Biden pledged Zelenskiy in Wednesday’s phone call can be used to bolster Ukraine’s economy and meet budgetary expenses, such as paying government salaries and maintaining public services, a White House official said after the two leaders spoke by phone earlier.
Germany Says Putin Agrees to Keep Taking Euros for Gas (7:20 p.m.)
Germany said Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated that European nations can continue paying for Russian gas in euros, despite a previous demand for ruble payments.
After German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Putin on Wednesday, a German government spokesman said that Putin told Scholz that “the payments would continue to be made exclusively in euros” to Russia’s Gazprom bank and would then be converted into rubles. Scholz asked for “written information in order to understand the procedure more precisely.” The Kremlin said only that Scholz and Putin agreed that their experts would discuss the issue.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi also spoke with Putin Wednesday on the issue, as French President Emmanuel Macron did a day earlier. The countries are among the European Union’s largest consumers of Russian gas, and the calls may signal a sense of alarm in Europe about a potential cut-off. Energy ministers from the Group of Seven nations this week rejected the demand to pay in rubles, which officials say violates contract terms.
South Ossetia Say It’s Seeking to Join Russia (6:45 p.m.)
The breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia will take legal steps to join the Russian Federation, its President Anatoly Bibilov said in an address posted on the Russian ruling party’s website.
Only a handful of countries, including Russia, Syria and Nauru, have recognized South Ossetia since it declared independence after Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia. Russia last annexed a territory in 2014, when it seized Crimea from Ukraine.
Biden Pledged More Aid in Call With Zelenskiy (6:32 p.m.)
President Joe Biden spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for about an hour Wednesday and pledged “$500 million in direct budgetary aid” from the U.S., according to a White House statement.
They discussed how the United States is “working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine” and “continued efforts by the United States with allies and partners to identify additional capabilities to help the Ukrainian military defend its country, according to the statement.
Zelenskiy said on twitter that they shared an “assessment of the situation and at the negotiating table” as well as “specific defensive support, a new package of enhanced sanctions, macro-financial and humanitarian aid.”
EU May Tighten Sanctions Next Week (4:32 p.m.)
The European Union may agree as early as next week on a new set of measures to tighten existing sanctions against Russia and strengthen their enforcement.
The measures could include sanctioning banks that the EU has cut off from the international payments system SWIFT, including state-controlled VTB, but hadn’t yet applied other restrictions to, according to people familiar with the preparations who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Russia’s Internet Giant Risks Running Out of Key Tech (4:09 p.m.)
Russia’s omnipresent tech company, which created products ranging from the country’s dominant search engine to its biggest ride-hail service, is facing a shortage of hardware due to U.S. sanctions.
Yandex NV may run short of semiconductors needed for its servers within a year to 18 months because of import restrictions, two people with direct knowledge of the issue said. Sanctions on dual-use technology, which have both military and commercial uses, have hit its self-driving vehicle unit particularly hard, they said.
Russian Negotiator Says Ukraine Agreeing to Key Demands (3:57 p.m. CET)
Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, struck an upbeat tone on the results of Tuesday’s talks, saying that the written offer Ukraine presented “for the first time showed readiness to fulfill a whole range of the most important conditions” set by Moscow, state-run Tass news service reported.
Medinsky cited Kyiv’s willingness to agree to give up its ambition to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as well as declare its neutrality and commit not to obtain nuclear weapons. But he reiterated that Moscow refuses to discuss the status of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Kyiv had sought talks on the issue as part of the peace deal.
Zelenskiy Says Russia Is Sending Reinforcements to Ukraine (3:24 p.m.)
Russia is deploying new forces for fighting in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a speech to Norway’s parliament, without specifying the time frame.
“We have to do more to stop this war and first and utmost is weapons,” Zelenskiy said via video link from Ukraine. He added that Russian military has mined the Black Sea to blockade Ukrainian ports, endangering marine traffic.
Ukraine Calls on Marine Insurers to Withdraw Russia Coverage (2:40 p.m.)
Oleg Ustenko, chief economic adviser to Zelenskiy, urged a group of shipping insurance specialists in a letter to withdraw coverage in a bid to reduce cash flowing into Russia from international buyers of its energy.
The letter was sent to the International Group of P&I Clubs, a collection of insurance associations which say they provide marine liability coverage for around 90% of sea-bound cargo. The club’s members have insured 363 vessels carrying oil, gas and coal from Russian ports since the invasion of Ukraine began, the letter said.
Kremlin Downplays Talks, Delays Ruble Gas Payments (12:21 p.m.)
Talks with Ukraine in Istanbul yielded “no breakthrough,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov tells journalists a day after peace talks in Istanbul, adding that much work remains to be done. He said Ukrainian negotiators’ willingness to provide specific proposals on paper was “positive.”
Peskov also told reporters that the process of switching to rubles payments for Russian gas export deliveries will take time and won’t begin immediately this week despite a March 31 deadline in a presidential order on the issue. “This process is more drawn out in time technologically,” he said.
Russia’s exports of refined fuels are sliding fast as buyers stay away following the invasion of Ukraine, denting supplies in a market that’s already fretting over stockpiles.
Ukraine Refugees Top 4 Million (10:48 a.m.)
More than 4 million refugees from Ukraine have fled after five weeks of fighting, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency. Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said he’s in Ukraine now to meet with officials in the western city of Lviv.
Overall, some 10 million people in Ukraine have been forced from their homes.
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