Ukraine Forces Appear to Oust Rebels From Airport in East

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and ANDREW ROTHMAY 26, 2014

The New York Times

DONETSK, Ukraine — The new Ukrainian government struck the separatists in this eastern province with a major military offensive on Monday, battling them over an important provincial airport in ground fighting that lasted for hours. The rebels were left scattered and shaken, just one day after a successful national election they had tried to disrupt.

The airport battle was the first time the Ukrainian military had moved so aggressively against the separatists, who took over government buildings in two eastern provinces in March, after weeks of low-grade military maneuvers meant to stop their spread to other areas.

China Said to Push Banks to Remove IBM Servers

By Bloomberg News  May 27, 2014 9:58 AM GMT+0300

The Chinese government is pushing domestic banks to remove high-end servers made by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and replace them with a local brand, according to people familiar with the matter, in an escalation of the dispute with the U.S. over spying claims.

Government agencies, including the People’s Bank of China and the Ministry of Finance, are reviewing whether Chinese commercial banks’ reliance on IBM servers compromises the country’s financial security, said the four people, who asked not to be identified because the review hasn’t been made public.

The review fits a broader pattern of retaliation after American prosecutors indicted five Chinese military officers for allegedly hacking into the computers of U.S. companies and stealing secrets. Last week, China’s government said it will vet technology companies operating in the country, while the Financial Times reported May 25 that China ordered state-owned companies to cut ties with U.S. consulting firms.

China and Japan trade barbs after close encounter over South China Sea

Chinese defence ministry calls on Japan to stop all reconnaissance activity after jet incident over disputed territory

Associated Press in Beijing

theguardian.com, Sunday 25 May 2014 16.10 BST

Chinese and Japanese officials have traded accusations after Chinese fighter jets came within a few dozen metres from Japanese military aircraft that had entered Beijing's air defence zone over the East China Sea.

China's defense ministry claimed that a Japanese surveillance plane and one other entered the zone on Saturday during a joint military drill with the Chinese and Russian navies.

Greece's Golden Dawn to enter EU Parliament for first time

Exit polls give the party, which denies it subscribes to neo-Nazi ideology, around a 10 per cent of the Greek vote

The Guardian

By Fiona Govan, Athens8:29PM BST 25 May 2014

Golden Dawn, Greece’s extreme Right party, looked set to enter the European Parliament for the first time after winning between 9 and 10 per cent of the vote, exit polls showed on Sunday.

The party, which denies accusations that it is a criminal organisation following neo-Nazi ideology, was Greece’s third most popular party in the election and looked set to send three MEPs to Brussels.

“Golden Dawn is the third political power in Greece, it’s the only party that shows such a steep rise,” said Ilias Kasidiaris, the Golden Dawn spokesman who is known to have a swastika tattoo on his upper arm, at party headquarters following publication of exit polls.

Protest Parties Surge in Greece, France in Early EU Votes

By James G. Neuger  May 25, 2014 10:16 PM GMT+0300

 Bloomberg

Protest parties surged in Greece and France in European Parliament elections, in a sign of the anti-European mood across the economic divide opened up by the sovereign debt crisis.

Voters in Greece, the first crisis victim, handed first place to Syriza, the party which argues the bailouts weren’t generous enough, according to a NERIT TV exit poll that gave it as much as 30 percent support. In France, the anti-immigration National Front led with 25 percent, estimates by TNS Sofres, Ipsos and Ifop showed.

“The sovereign people have declared that they are taking their destiny back into their own hands,” Marine Le Pen, head of the National Front, told a rally in suburban Paris broadcast on France 2 television. It is time for “politics of the French, for the French, with the French.”

Greece’s Syriza Wins EU Elections in Warning to Samaras

By Marcus Bensasson and Nikos Chrysoloras  May 26, 2014 9:52 AM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

Greece’s main opposition Syriza party placed first in elections to the European Parliament without winning by a big enough margin to destabilize Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government, with almost all votes counted.

“In the short run there is no problem of government stability,” Dimitris Sotiropoulos, associate professor of political science at the University of Athens, said in a phone interview. “While both governing parties have lost several percentage points each, their combined popular support is above the popular support of the main opposition.”

China-Russia Gas Deal Should Unleash A Euro-Fracking Revolution

Forbes

Christopher Helman

Forbes Staff

Russia and China today cut a $400 billion, 30-year deal whereby Gazprom will deliver at least 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas to China annually. Russia will build $55 billion worth of pipelines and processing plants to deliver the gas from Siberia.

This is a lot of gas, about one-fifth of China’s current annual demand. And it should be causing concern across Europe, which last year relied on Russia for about 30% of its gas supply, or about 6 trillion cubic feet.

German state aims to revive "tight" gas fracking

Thu May 8, 2014 2:21pm GMT

* Lower Saxony houses most gas reserves, wants to exploit them

* Aims to raise acceptance in context of shale gas debate

By Vera Eckert

FRANKFURT, May 8 (Reuters) - Germany's state of Lower Saxony plans to launch a legal move in parliament next month that will seek to end a ban on new exploration for deep-lying gas using the "fracking" technology deployed in the country for over 30 years.

$400 Billion Gas Deal Shows Russia Looking To China To Replace Western Money

Forbes

Chris Wright, Contributor

The news that China and Russia have signed a $400 billion deal through which Gazprom will supply China National Petroleum Corp with 30 years of natural gas is the clearest illustration yet that Russia will be looking east, not west, for international funding.

Last week, in Will China Save Russia With Investment?, I reported a series of new Russia-China deals were about to be launched by the two countries’ sovereign wealth funds, the Russian Direct Investment Fund and China Investment Corporation. Those deals have since been announced: they involve Vcanland, a developer of tourism infrastructure and senior living communities; the first ever railway bridge over the Amur River on the Russia-China border; and logistics services investment.In dollar terms, they may have involved as much as $1 billion of investment, but while the number itself is insignificant compared to the outflows Russia is experiencing, the trend is very important – and is underlined by the new gas deal.

Greek current account deficit shrinks in March

Thu May 22, 2014 4:21am EDT

ATHENS, May 22 (Reuters) - Greece's current account deficit

shrank in March from the same month last year, according to

balance of payments figures released by the central bank on

Thursday.

    The deficit stood at 44 million euros ($60.12 million) from

1.24 billion euros in March 2013.

    Tourism revenues rose to 195 million euros in March from 151

million in the same month in 2013.

***************************************************************

    KEY FIGURES (bln euros)        2014         2013

    January                                     -0.295       -0.314

    February                                   -0.709       -0.684

    March                                       -0.044       -1.241

    -------------------------------------------------

    source: Bank of Greece   

($1 = 0.7318 Euros)

 (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Karolina

Tagaris)

A Finland model for Ukraine?

By David Ignatius, Published: May 21

The Washington Post

After months of war fever over Ukraine, perhaps the biggest surprise is that citizens there will be voting to choose a new government in elections that observers predict will be free and fair in most areas.

This electoral pathway for Ukraine seemed unlikely a few weeks ago, given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and his covert campaign to destabilize the Russian-speaking areas of eastern Ukraine. There were dire warnings of a new Cold War, and even of a ground war in Ukraine. The country seemed at risk of being torn apart.

Putin appears, at this writing, to have decided that Russia’s interests are better served by waiting — for the nonaligned government he expects will emerge from Sunday’s elections — than from an invasion or some radical destabilization. The Russian leader may be ready to accept a neutral country, between East and West, where Russia’s historical interests are recognized. During the Cold War, such an outcome was known as “Finlandization.”

Αποπληρώθηκαν τα «ομόλογα Αλογοσκούφη»

Τα σημερινά ομόλογα που έληξαν ήταν ύψους 4,4 δισ., πρόκειται για τα λεγόμενα ομόλογα Αλογοσκούφη, τα οποία είχαν δοθεί στις τράπεζες το 2008.

ΣΚΑΙ

Ομόλογα συνολικού ύψους 8,5 δισ. ευρώ αποπλήρωσε χθες Τρίτη και σήμερα Τετάρτη το ελληνικό δημόσιο.

Τα σημερινά ομόλογα που έληξαν ήταν ύψους 4,4 δισ., πρόκειται για τα λεγόμενα ομόλογα Αλογοσκούφη, τα οποία είχαν δοθεί στις τράπεζες το 2008.

Πιέσεις για νέο «κούρεμα» του χρέους

Μετά τις εκλογές θα ανοίξει η συζήτηση για τις πρόσθετες παρεμβάσεις που απαιτούνται προκειμένου να καταστεί βιώσιμο

Πέμπτη, 22 Μαΐου 2014 07:01

Ναυτεμπορική

Στη μελέτη για τη βιωσιμότητα του ελληνικού χρέους που θα ενσωματώνει η έκθεση του Διεθνούς Νομισματικού Ταμείου, η οποία θα εκδοθεί στις 30 Μαΐου, επικεντρώνεται το ενδιαφέρον στη μετεκλογική περίοδο, καθώς αναμένεται να σηματοδοτήσει την έναρξη των διαδικασιών για τον προσδιορισμό των πρόσθετων μέτρων μείωσης του χρέους.

Η αίσθηση που αφήνουν δηλώσεις στελεχών του Διεθνούς Νομισματικού Ταμείου, καθώς και πληροφορίες από το περιεχόμενο της έκθεσης, συνηγορούν πως το ΔΝΤ επιμένει στο νέο «κούρεμα», εκτιμώντας πως η επιμήκυνση της διάρκειας των δανείων της Ευρωζώνης και του EFSF, αλλά και η νέα μείωση των επιτοκίων δεν λύνουν το πρόβλημα της βιωσιμότητας του ελληνικού χρέους.

Στο μεταξύ, στη διάρκεια του περασμένου διημέρου, το ελληνικό Δημόσιο αποπλήρωσε ομόλογα που έληγαν και κατείχε η Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα και οι κεντρικές τράπεζες, όπως και τα ομόλογα των ελληνικών τραπεζών τα οποία είχαν εκδοθεί το 2008 για την ενίσχυση της ρευστότητας της ελληνικής οικονομίας.

From Greek Crisis, to Turnaround

Structural reforms and increased competitiveness, not currency devaluation, are getting the economy back on track.

The Wall Street Journal

By GEORGE A. PROVOPOULOS

May 19, 2014 1:27 p.m. ET

Several years ago a chorus of voices predicted that Greece would have to exit the euro zone. The doomsayers had it that Greece would not be able to make the fiscal and economic reforms needed to keep the country in the euro, nor would it be able to save its banking system in the face of an unprecedented sovereign-debt crisis. According to the doomsayers, attempts to bring down the budget deficit and restore competitiveness would lead to painful and politically unacceptable consequences, while a collapse of the banking system was inevitable. Recently, however, the sirens of doom have been silenced. How did that happen?

European Elections to Test Greek Coalition

There is one country where the European parliamentary elections really do matter—Greece.

By SIMON NIXON

The Wall Street Journal

May 18, 2014 5:45 p.m. ET

There seems to be a broad consensus—among voters and in the markets—that this week's European parliamentary elections don't matter very much.

Although the Parliament has gained new powers over the years, few voters identify with it. Polls suggest many will see the election as an opportunity to cast protest votes for populist parties. Most voters suspect the outcome will make little difference to the future direction of Europe, which will in any case continue to be set by national leaders and parliaments.

Serbia floods threaten country's biggest power plant

Sandbags stacked around Nikola Tesla plant 20 miles outside Belgrade as thousands of people are evacuated in Bosnia

Reuters in Obrenovac

The guardian.com,

Monday 19 May 2014 11.22 BST

Soldiers and energy workers have stacked thousands of sandbags to protect Serbia's biggest power plant from flood waters, which are expected to keep rising after the heaviest rains in the Balkans in more than a century killed dozens of people.

On Monday, Bosnian state radio reported that the swollen Sava river, which has wreaked havoc in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia, had again overwhelmed flood defences late on Sunday and flooded parts of the northern town of Orasje.

Libya evacuation decision 'minute by minute,' U.S. official says

By Jomana Karadsheh and Barbara Starr, CNN

May 20, 2014 -- Updated 0551 GMT (1351 HKT)

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The U.S. military has doubled the number of aircraft standing by in Italy if needed to evacuate Americans from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya, CNN has learned.

A decision to evacuate as violence in the Libyan capital grows is "minute by minute, hour by hour," a defense official told CNN on Monday.

Fierce fighting swept across the city Sunday after armed men stormed the country's interim Parliament. Sporadic bursts of gunfire and blasts could still be heard on the outskirts of the capital Monday evening.

The violence appeared to be some of the worst since the 2011 revolution that ousted longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Ukraine Crisis Pushing Putin Toward China

The New York Times
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORNMAY 19, 2014

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin said Monday that he was withdrawing Russian troops from the border with Ukraine, the second time he has said that in less than two weeks. He also praised the government in Kiev, which he had previously called an illegal, fascist junta, for its willingness to negotiate structural changes.

But the intended audience for these conciliatory remarks may not have been the United States and Europe, who would distrust them in any event. No, Mr. Putin’s gaze was more likely fixed on China, where he arrives on Tuesday by all accounts determined to show that he, too, wants to pivot to Asia.

While Mr. Putin has been casting an eye eastward practically since he returned to the presidency in 2012, the crisis in relations with the West over Ukraine has made ties to Asia, and particularly relations with its economic engine, China, a key strategic priority. With Europe trying to wean itself off Russian gas, and the possibility of far more serious Western sanctions looming should the crisis deepen, Moscow needs an alternative.

U.S. accuses China of cyber spying on American companies

BY JIM FINKLE, JOSEPH MENN AND ARUNA VISWANATHA

Mon May 19, 2014 6:04pm EDT

(Reuters) - The United States on Monday charged five Chinese military officers and accused them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets, ratcheting up tensions between the two world powers over cyber espionage.

China immediately denied the charges, saying in a strongly worded Foreign Ministry statement the U.S. grand jury indictment was "made up" and would damage trust between the two nations.

Officials in Washington have argued for years that cyber espionage is a top national security concern. The indictment was the first criminal hacking charge that the United States has filed against specific foreign officials, and follows a steady increase in public criticism and private confrontation, including at a summit last year between U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

No Clear Winner in First Round of Greek Local Elections

By Nikos Chrysoloras and Paul Tugwell  May 19, 2014 9:23 AM GMT+0300

Bloomberg

The first round of local and regional elections in Greece ended yesterday with no single party securing enough support to declare a decisive victory.

“Personalities won over political parties, as independent candidates are ahead in the country’s three largest cities,” said Loukas Tsoukalis, president of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, an Athens-based think-tank. “The results show the fragmentation of Greece’s political landscape,” he said in a phone interview yesterday.

A troubled union

There’s something wrong with Europe. No one can agree what

May 17th 2014

The Economist

IS THE euro crisis over? To judge from how often the words appear in global media (down by three-quarters between early 2012 and early 2014), the answer is yes. Markets have calmed since July 2012, when the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. Ireland and now Portugal are climbing out of their bail-out programmes. Even Greece, where the crisis began, has just sold debt.

Yet, as these books all argue, the crisis was always about more than whether financial markets would buy government debt. It raised broad worries over how countries with widely differing levels of prosperity, competitiveness, public spending and taxes, and regulation of labour and product markets, could share a currency without economic shocks blowing them apart. And it was about whether euro-zone voters would accept low growth, high unemployment and a permanent loss of sovereignty to the centre. None of these concerns has been fully dealt with.

Peripheral bonds deepen losses amid Greek tax and political fears

BY JOHN GEDDIE

LONDON Fri May 16, 2014 4:56am EDT

May 16 (Reuters) - Lower-rated euro zone bond prices slipped on Friday, deepening sharp falls on Thursday triggered by nervousness about the stability of the Greek government, a tax on foreign holders of Greek bonds, and weak growth.

Greek bailout is no success story, EU candidate Tsipras says

Thu May 15, 2014 8:04pm EDT

* Greek EU Commission candidate wants end to austerity

* Tsipras appears for first time in televised debates

* Opposes sanctions against Russia over Ukraine

By Harry Papachristou

Greece: Tax on Foreign Holders of Bonds Won't Be Imposed Retroactively

Greek 10-Year Yields Spiked By More Than Half a Percentage Point to 6.72%, Highest in Seven Weeks

The Wall Street Journal

By MATINA STEVIS

May 15, 2014 11:45 a.m. ET

LONDON—The Greek finance ministry said Thursday a tax on foreign holders of Greek bonds that had caught investors' attention wasn't being imposed retroactively.

Out of Office, Geithner’s View on U.S. Exposure to the Euro Crisis Shifts

 The Wall Street Journal

By  IAN TALLEY

Don’t panic. There’s nothing to worry about.

That’s essentially what former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in 2011, when asked if Europe’s crisis threatened the U.S. financial system. “No, absolutely no,” Mr. Geithner told House lawmakers in an October 7 hearing. “The overall picture is very limited direct exposure,” he said.

That’s contrary to the narrative presented Wednesday by Mark Sobel, who had a front row seat to the crisis as a top Treasury diplomat and is now the administration’s nominee to represent the U.S. on the International Monetary Fund’s executive board.

“Had Greece defaulted or left the euro at the time, I feel there would have been potentially massive contagion also within the euro zone,” Mr. Sobel told a Senate nomination hearing Wednesday. “This would have had a tremendously detrimental impact not only on the — not only on the world but particularly in the U.S.,” he said.

When Did IMF Change Its Mind?

The Wall Street Journal

By  STEPHEN FIDLER

Cast your mind back to the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington in April 2011. Nervousness about Greece’s debt travails was reaching fever pitch, and on April 16, we ran this story.

By Costas Paris and Ian Talley

WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund believes Greece’s debt is unsustainable and has told European government and central bank officials that Athens should consider restructuring by next year, three people familiar with the situation said Saturday.

“The IMF believes the debt situation in Greece is unsustainable,” one of those people, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told Dow Jones Newswires. “Senior (IMF) officials have told the parties involved that restructuring should be considered soon,” including the European Commission and euro-zone governments.

IMF spokesman William Murray denied the IMF was recommending a restructuring of all Greek debt including that held by private holders, but the IMF has said the fund has considered extending the loan repayment schedule for Athens, a form of restructuring.

As we reported, the IMF denied this highly sensitive article in a very comprehensive manner. Mr. Murray, whom we cited above, told Bloomberg News “there is absolutely no truth” to the story. Other senior officials made similar comments.

Is China No. 1?

The Washington Post

By Robert J. Samuelson, Published: May 14

It’s probable that the U.S. economy is no longer the world’s largest. New World Bank figures, notes economist Arvind Subramanian of the Peterson Institute, suggest that sometime in 2014 China will overtake the United States in gross domestic product — the production of goods and services.

We knew this day was coming, but if the World Bank figures are correct, it has arrived sooner than many experts predicted. Using those figures — which stop at 2011 — I estimate that China’s GDP in 2014 will hit $16.8 trillion compared with $16.1 trillion for the United States. (All these figures are in “constant” 2011 dollars.)

In Ukraine talks, finger-pointing and little sign of progress

The Washington Post

By Anthony Faiola and Fredrick Kunkle, Published: May 14 E-mail the writers

KIEV, Ukraine — The first round of talks on Ukrainian national unity descended into grandstanding and accusations Wednesday, offering no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough in the region’s tensest standoff since the Cold War.

Although strongly backed by the West and ostensibly by Russia, the negotiations as they are currently cast are unlikely to have an immediate effect on the escalating violence in eastern Ukraine. During the talks, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk pressed an offer to give more powers to Ukraine’s regions. But he and other members of the interim government in Kiev have ruled out a seat at the negotiating table for the pro-Russian separatists who have captured administrative buildings and are confronting Ukrainian military forces in deadly skirmishes in the east.

“We will conduct a dialogue only with all those who do not shoot and do not kill citizens,” he said.

The World's Resources Aren't Running Out

Ecologists worry that the world's resources come in fixed amounts that will run out, but we have broken through such limits again and again

The Wall Street Journal

How many times have you heard that we humans are "using up" the world's resources, "running out" of oil, "reaching the limits" of the atmosphere's capacity to cope with pollution or "approaching the carrying capacity" of the land's ability to support a greater population? The assumption behind all such statements is that there is a fixed amount of stuff—metals, oil, clean air, land—and that we risk exhausting it through our consumption.

"We are using 50% more resources than the Earth can sustainably produce, and unless we change course, that number will grow fast—by 2030, even two planets will not be enough," says Jim Leape, director general of the World Wide Fund for Nature International (formerly the World Wildlife Fund).

But here's a peculiar feature of human history: We burst through such limits again and again.

The Questionable Link Between Saturated Fat and Heart Disease

Are butter, cheese and steak really bad for you? The dubious science behind the anti-fat crusade

The Wall Street Journal

By NINA TEICHOLZ

Updated May 6, 2014 10:25 a.m. ET

"Saturated fat does not cause heart disease"—or so concluded a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. How could this be? The very cornerstone of dietary advice for generations has been that the saturated fats in butter, cheese and red meat should be avoided because they clog our arteries. For many diet-conscious Americans, it is simply second nature to opt for chicken over sirloin, canola oil over butter.

Timothy Geithner Book 'Stress Test' Defends Financial-Crisis Decisions

Former Treasury Secretary Recounts Difficult Period; A Few Regrets

By DEBORAH SOLOMON

May 10, 2014 4:34 p.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, whose time in Washington was often colored by accusations he was too close to Wall Street and did little to help Main Street, uses his 538-page book "Stress Test" to largely defend and explain the decisions he made during the financial crisis.

"The inconvenient truth of financial-crisis response is that the actions that feel right are often wrong," he writes.

Mr. Geithner, who was tapped by President Barack Obama to lead the Treasury and before that was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, says he was right to avoid the populist push for blood, including refusing to upend bonus payments to employees of American International Group Inc. AIG +1.09%  And he says there was little reason to take a tougher approach to the big banks by nationalizing them and handing the reins to the government.

At the same time, Mr. Geithner says the U.S. should have done more to save Lehman Brothers and criticizes members of Congress for polluting the 2010 Dodd-Frank law with unwise provisions.

Greece sells 1.3 bln euros of 3-month T-bills, yield falls

ATHENS Tue May 13, 2014 5:25am EDT

May 13 (Reuters) - Greece sold 1.3 billion euros ($1.78 billion) of three-month treasury bills on Tuesday to roll over a maturing issue, the country's debt agency PDMA said.

The T-bills were priced to yield 2.13 percent, down 32 basis points from 2.45 percent in a previous sale in April - the lowest funding cost since January 2010 when the debt agency sold three-month treasury paper at 1.67 percent.

The sale's bid-cover ratio was 2.80, up from 2.73 in the previous sale.

The amount raised included 300 million euros in non-competitive bids. The settlement date for Tuesday's auction will be May 16. Athens has a stock of about 15 billion euros of T-bills, which it regularly refinances. ($1 = 0.7270 Euros) (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Karolina Tagaris)

As Ukrainian separatists claim victory in self-rule vote, fears of all-out civil war mount

The Washington Post

By Simon Denyer, Michael Birnbaum and Fredrick Kunkle, Published: May 12 E-mail the writers

DONETSK, Ukraine — Separatists in eastern Ukraine proclaimed the birth of two new “sovereign” republics Monday after asserting victory in controversial self-rule referendums, and one of the regions promptly asked to join Russia.

Leaders of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic also demanded that Ukrainian security forces leave the separatists’ territory.

The statements represented a hardening of positions that could drag Ukraine closer to all-out civil war and is likely to intensify tensions between Russia and the West.

Why May 9 will be a date to watch in Ukraine

BY ADAM TAYLOR

May 7 at 1:20 pm

The Washington Post

It'd be tough to overstate how much World War II still resonates in Russia. Take its naming: It's no "Second World War" in Russia, it's The Great Patriotic War. Then consider the death toll: 27 million Soviet citizens dead, according to one estimate. Horrifying events that took place on Russian soil, such as the Siege of Leningrad and the Battle of Stalingrad, are not forgotten.

This week, that's especially important. Remember that in Russia, May 9 is Victory Day: the anniversary of the day that the Soviet Union announced that Nazi Germany had surrendered. And Victory Day isn't just a big day for Russia. It's a big day for all former members of the Soviet Union who fought together in the war. This year, it may be an exceptionally complicated day for one country in particular: Ukraine.

In the past, Ukraine and Russia have celebrated Victory Day together on May 9 – for example, on May 9, 2010, Russian and Ukrainian sailors in Sevastopol marched in a joint parade to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the day on the orders of then-President Viktor Yanukovych.

Πρωτογενές πλεόνασμα

Της Μιράντας Ξαφά

Από τον ιστότοπο protagon.gr

Σε πρόσφατο άρθρο του στο Protagon, («Πρωτογενές Έλλειμμα», 24/4) ο κ. Βαρουφάκης αμφισβητεί την επίτευξη πρωτογενούς πλεονάσματος το 2013: «Από τα επίσημα στοιχεία προκύπτει ότι η Γενική Κυβέρνηση παρουσίασε έλλειμμα 2,1% του ΑΕΠ, χωρίς να λαμβάνεται υπ' όψη η «ενίσχυση» των τραπεζών (και 12,7% αν ληφθεί υπ’ όψη)». Μέχρι εδώ σωστά. Συνεχίζει όμως: «Επί πλέον, το δημόσιο έχει και ληξιπρόθεσμα χρέη σε προμηθευτές του, που έπρεπε να έχουν καταβληθεί εντός του 2013. Με άλλα λόγια, το 2013, το ελληνικό κράτος δεν θα μπορούσε να καλύψει μισθούς, συντάξεις και αποπληρωμές προμηθευτών. Όπερ μεθερμηνευόμενο, το ελληνικό κράτος είχε πρωτογενές έλλειμμα [...] Η ΕΛΣΤΑΤ μας λέει ότι, για το 2013, κατέγραψε «λευκές τρύπες» 770 εκ. ευρώ στην Τοπική Αυτοδιοίκηση και 4,7 δις ευρώ στα ασφαλιστικά ταμεία (από έλλειμμα 2,2 δις το 2012). Πιστεύει πράγματι κανείς ότι τα πτωχευμένα ασφαλιστικά ταμεία, και οι εξαθλιωμένοι δήμοι, έχουν τέτοια πλεονάσματα τα οποία να μπορούσε, έστω και εν δυνάμει, να χρησιμοποιήσει η κυβέρνηση για να πληρώνει μισθούς, συντάξεις και προμηθευτές; Σε καμία περίπτωση.»

Ukraine Crisis: Heavy Fighting in Pro-Russian Separatist Stronghold

Deaths Reported on Both Sides From Sustained Fighting in Slovyansk

The Wall Street Journal

By LUKAS I. ALPERT and ANDREA THOMAS

Updated May 5, 2014 12:32 p.m. ET

Heavy fighting erupted Monday around a pro-Russian separatist stronghold in eastern Ukraine, with dozens of casualties reported as the standoff between insurgents and the government entered a more dangerous phase.

The fighting was the most sustained since acting President Oleksandr Turchynov first sent troops to eastern Ukraine about three weeks ago, in what he called an antiterrorist operation. Accounts from both sides suggested the military was pushing further into the volatile, heavily defended city of Slovyansk, following days of intermittent clashes focused there.

Mr. Turchynov reiterated Monday that the government was prepared to negotiate with the pro-Russian protesters, who are seeking greater autonomy for eastern Ukraine.

U.S. to banks: 'No such thing as too big to jail'

CNN

Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY 6:40 p.m. EDT May 5, 2014

WASHINGTON — Foreshadowing possible criminal charges against banking giants Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas, Attorney General Eric Holder offered an ominous warning Monday, saying, "There is no such thing as too big to jail.''

Greece seeks to open debt relief talks with creditors

Finance minister to raise subject with eurozone counterparts on Monday in further sign Europe's economic crisis is receding

Helena Smith in Athens

The Guardian, Sunday 4 May 2014 19.08 BST

In a step likely to be hailed as further proof of Europe's receding economic crisis, Greece is poised to formally open debt relief talks with its creditors.

The Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, will raise the once off-limits topic with his eurozone counterparts in Brussels on Monday, almost four years to the day after Athens received its first slice of international aid.

Why India Will Soon Outpace China

FORBES ASIA 5/04/2014 @ 11:00AM

By James Gruber

On the face of it, the title of this article will seem absurd to many. While China’s economic growth has slowed, it’s still running at a brisk 7.4% annual rate. Moreover, the Chinese government seems to be successfully slowing credit in order to rein in a burgeoning debt issue. And it’s implementing a plethora of reforms which should propel the next phase of growth.

Meanwhile, India’s a mess. This fiscal year’s GDP will be below 5% and near decade lows, government and corporate debt is high, the current account deficit has been out of control until recently, inflation reached double-digits late last year, business confidence and investment are at extreme lows and corruption remains rampant.

Greek conservatives regain lead in polls ahead of EU election

ATHENS Sat May 3, 2014 2:02pm EDT

(Reuters) - Greece's co-ruling conservatives have regained a narrow lead over the main, anti-bailout opposition three weeks before a European Parliament election, two polls showed.

The election, which coincides with a key local vote, is seen as a test for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' fragile coalition in a country still reeling from the debt crisis and banking on loans from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Samaras' New Democracy - which leads the coalition with the Socialist PASOK party - and its rival, the leftist Syriza party, have been running neck-and-neck in polls for months, with voters often swinging in favor of one or the other party.

Ukraine suffers deadliest day in months; 34 killed in Odessa

By Simon Denyer and Anna Nemtsova, Published: May 2 E-mail the writer

DONETSK, Ukraine — Ukraine suffered its bloodiest day in nearly three months on Friday, with at least nine people killed when the army launched its first major assault on a rebel stronghold and 34 killed in clashes between pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian mobs in the Black Sea port city of Odessa.

Behind the Masks in Ukraine, Many Faces of Rebellion

By C. J. CHIVERS and NOAH SNEIDERMAY 3, 2014

The New York Times

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — The rebel leader spread a topographic map in front of a closed grocery store here as a Ukrainian military helicopter flew past a nearby hill. Ukrainian troops had just seized positions along a river, about a mile and a half away. The commander thought they might advance.

He issued orders with the authority of a man who had seen many battles. “Go down to the bridge and set up the snipers,” the leader, who gave only a first name, Yuri, said to a former Ukrainian paratrooper, who jogged away.

Opinion: Putin's empire building is not a new Cold War

By Russia Foundation chair David Clark, Special to CNN

April 29, 2014 -- Updated 1105 GMT (1905 HKT)

[Editor's note: David Clark is chair of the Russia Foundation, which is a UK-based think-tank focused on education and dialogue on themes including democracy and economic cooperation. Clark was a special adviser to former foreign secretary Robin Cook between 1997 and 2001. Follow Clark on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely his.]

London (CNN) -- The full scale of Russian President Vladimir Putin's new imperial ambition was revealed recently when he referred to the southern and eastern territories of Ukraine as Novorossiya (New Russia).

This was the name given to the region by Catherine the Great after she captured it from the Ottomans in the late 18th century and began colonizing it with Russian, Ukrainian and German settlers.

Along with his assertion that Crimea belongs to Russia because of the blood-price Russian troops paid to conquer it more than two centuries ago, Putin's appropriation of Tsarist terminology establishes a new and troubling benchmark for his irredentist project.

Amid continued defiance, Ukrainian official vows: 'We are not stopping'

By Greg Botelho, Victoria Butenko and Nick Paton Walsh, CNN

May 3, 2014 -- Updated 2314 GMT (0714 HKT)

Slavyansk, Ukraine (CNN) -- On the one side, Ukraine's interior minister said Saturday that military operations in the east would continue and vowed, "We are not stopping."

On the other, there was the pro-Russian separatist leader in Luhansk who announced the formation of an army to march on Kiev.