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Ukraine Crisis - Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Intercepts Russian Planes Over Baltic Sea
Ukraine Crisis - Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Intercepts Russian Planes Over Baltic Sea. The Royal Netherlands Air Force released footage showing RNAF F-16s intercepting Russian Planes...

By: WarLeaks

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Ukraine Crisis - Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 Intercepts Russian Planes Over Baltic Sea - Video

Ukraine said it needs an expansion of a bailout program thats keeping its economy afloat as bonds fell to a record and government forces continued to come under attack from pro-Russian separatists in the east.

Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius said yesterday its too early to say how much more aid Ukraine requires. The country may need to almost double its $17 billion emergency loan within weeks to avoid bankruptcy, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified officials. Representatives from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Kiev this week to discuss further payments under the existing program and a possible expansion.

Concerns are growing that the government in Kiev will be unable to repay its debts as the months-long fighting in two breakaway regions takes its toll on Ukraines economy. The countrys credit-default swaps are the highest worldwide after Venezuela, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The financing which Ukraine needs is so large, and the Western financing likely on offer or available of much smaller size, said Tim Ash, London-based chief emerging-market economist at Standard Bank Group Ltd.

The price of Ukraines dollar-denominated bonds maturing in July 2017 tumbled 6 cents to 67.3 cents on the dollar yesterday in Kiev, the lowest level on record. The yield surged to 27.582 percent, almost double the yield on bonds maturing in 2023.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble was said to have asked Russias Anton Siluanov to let Ukraine delay the repayment of $3 billion in bonds issued last year, according to the Financial Times, which reported that the IMF found a $15 billion shortfall in the countrys budget. Russia has the right to call an early repayment of the notes, due in December 2015, if Ukraines public debt tops 60 percent of economic output.

That ratio may jump to 70 percent by the end of the year, Moodys Investors Service said Oct. 30.

The new Ukrainian government of Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk needs to adopt a 2015 budget and tax laws complying with IMF requirements to qualify for the next $2.8 billion disbursement of its bailout package. Ukraine needs the cash to repay debt, buy heating fuel for winter and stem the hryvnias slump.

The economy shrank 5.3 percent from a year earlier in the third quarter, more than the 5.1 percent preliminary estimate, according to the Kiev-based statistics office.

Yatsenyuk is scheduled to speak in parliament in the Ukrainian capital today as lawmakers consider the cabinets budget plans.

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Ukraine Seeks Bigger IMF Package as Bonds Slump to Record

Published December 10, 2014

Dec. 11, 2014: Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, right, holds a book given to him by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as they meet at the federal government office(AP)

SYDNEY Australia pledged its support for Ukraine during a visit by the nation's president on Thursday, with Australia's prime minister calling for an end to the bloody conflict in Eastern Europe and Ukraine's leader urging Russia to withdraw.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a sharp critic of Russia since Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in July over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, said Russia must honor a little-respected cease-fire agreement signed in September.

Asked by a journalist if Australia was taking sides in a European war, Abbott replied: "The side we take is the side of freedom, democracy and self-determination.... And plainly, freedom, democracy and self-determination are currently at risk in parts of Eastern Europe."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, in Australia for a three-day visit, urged Russia to withdraw from the region, where both sides have been engaged in a one-day truce that Poroshenko proposed in a bid to revive the September cease-fire deal.

"Please stop the fire. Please release the hostages. Please withdraw your troops from my territory. Please close the border," Poroshenko said during a press conference in Melbourne. "And I promise if you close the border, within one, two, three weeks, we have peace and stability in Ukraine. Very simple."

Australia and Ukraine have formed close ties over the Flight 17 disaster, which killed everyone on board, including 38 Australian citizens and residents. Abbott and other Western leaders have accused Russia of providing military support for those who shot down the plane. Russian state-run TV has blamed Ukraine's air force.

"If it turns out that people under Russian authority had a hand in this, we absolutely expect them to be surrendered to investigators and to prosecutors because this is an atrocity," Abbott said. "It was mass murder on a vast scale."

The two also discussed a potential energy export deal, with the Ukrainian president saying his country may buy Australian uranium for its nuclear power stations, along with coal.

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Ukraine urges Russia to remove troops

On December 3,on national television,Sen. Rand Paul blamed politicians who pass cigarette tax laws for the death of Eric Garner, who died in a struggle with New York City police officers after he was arrested for sellingloose cigarettes. The junior senator from the Bluegrass State (thenumber two tobacco-producing statein the U.S.) isnot the firstnor willhe be the lastconservative to make this argument. Of course, everybody has the right to complain about the problems caused by high taxes. But to blame New York tax policy for the tragedy in Staten Island is opportunistic overreach. We have taxes that are lawfully enacted. Unless you are living in some fairyland, tax laws must be backed up by law enforcement. In 1794President George Washington himself led an army of 13,000into western Pennsylvania to enforce a federal tax on whiskey. The debate about the death of a father of six selling cigarettes on the street should stay focused on police tactics about how and why New York City police used deadly force in this case not on the popularity of the laws being enforced.

There are, however, some good points to be made by conservatives while the national spotlight is shining on New Yorks cigarettes taxes. Lets take a step away from the impassioned headlines and half-baked sound bites and examine the policy and politics behind cigarette taxes. For years I have been swimming against the tide andarguing that cigarette taxes are too high. There are two reasons. First, as a practical matter, sky-high cigarette taxes ($5.85 a pack in New York City) areextremely difficult to enforce. The opportunities for arbitrage are irresistible. Multinationals earn profits in the United States and book them in tax havens. Smugglersbuy cigarettes in Virginia(where the tax is 30 cents a pack) and sell them in Staten Island. The tax difference is more than $50 a carton. Whether its corporate profits or cigarettes, stuff that moves easily over borders is hard to tax.

Second, and more importantly, high cigarette taxes are unfair. Government statistics show that smokers are generally less educated and poorer than the population as a whole. And because they smoke, they are likely to live less healthy and shorter lives than the general population. The onerous taxation of smokers is doling out extra pain to people who already have enough problems. Of course, there is some good from cigarettes taxes to the extent they discourage smoking. But there are still42 million smokersin the United States. Nicotine is extremely addictive. These folks should elicit our compassion, not our contempt. And if we are going to fine them for their sins, the revenues should not inure to our benefit.

Now, about the politics. The unfairness of high cigarette taxes is a perfect issue for Republicans who are trying to make inroads with working-class voters. Unlike in the past, todayRepublicans are no longer minimizing the plight of the poor and the power of corporations. Thats because they know that if they ever want to win the White House again, they must directly address the economic insecurity of the vast majority of middle-income Americans whose paychecks have hardly grownin two decades. By endorsing the heavy taxation of cigarettes, Democrats play into the hands of Republicans who like to portray them aselitistswho are out of touch with the struggles of regular people.

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Rand Paul Puts Chokehold On Cigarette Taxes -- He's Got A Point

ABUJA

Nigerias main opposition party is holding primaries on Wednesday to choose its presidential candidate.

The All Progressives Congress is meeting at a stadium in Lagos to choose its presidential contender. Whoever they pick will be tasked with unseating incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party, who assumed power in 2010, after the death of President Umaru Yar Adua.

Five candidates are in the running, but there are only two real frontrunners, says political analyst Chris Ngwodo. Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar have the best chance of securing the nomination of the party, which was formed last year as a coalition of the countrys best-known opposition groups. Buhari and Abubakar both have long histories in Nigeria. They also have political baggage, which the PDP will use against them, Ngwodo says.

Buhari commands support among people in Nigerias north, but hes also lost several elections and is remembered by older generations as an authoritarian ruler who was booted out in a coup. Some Christians in the south think hes a Muslim radical, but Ngwodo says theres little evidence to back that up. I mean, optimistically, this is actually going to be perhaps the closest election weve had since 1999. So if its Buhari, thats what he will bring to the contest. However, this is a man who has also lost three elections previously to three different candidates to the ruling party. His biggest problem is a perceptual one, a reputational one, Ngwodo states. Abubakar is seen as experienced and savvy when it comes to winning primaries, but Ngwodo says his checkered past, including his defection from the PDP, may be used against him. This is a gentleman, after all, who was in the ruling party and who was vice president of the ruling party," says Ngwodo. "Its going to be difficult to mount a sustainable critique of the ruling party, which he was a member of and served as vice-president in just a few years ago. So I think they have a ready, a very ready strategic response to that candidacy if he does emerge. The APC is a relatively new party and took longer than the PDP to coalesce behind a candidate. President Jonathan has been the PDPs de facto candidate for months. But Ngwodo says the delay hasnt hurt the partys chances. With the sort of name-brand recognition that the two main front-runners have, thats Buhari and Atiku, that shouldnt count for too much in their disfavor," he says, "They believe that they will be able to compensate for that lag, that time lag by producing someone, probably most likely Buhari, who has name-brand recognition nationally. Whoever is chosen will face a stiff challenge overcoming President Jonathan. But I think its going to be difficult simply because of the incumbency factor," Ngwodo says. "Its not going to be easy for the ruling party either. Im looking at an election that will be very keenly contested. A decision from APC is expected early Thursday morning.

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Nigeria Opposition Party Choosing Presidential Contender