(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as NATO leaders prepare to meet in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine.
U.S. President Joe Biden, who is due to attend the summit on Thursday alongside meetings of G-7 and European Union leaders, said that he thought Russia might use chemical weapons in Ukraine. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Moscow against “nuclear saber-rattling.” His national security adviser said the U.S. will announce new sanctions against Russian political figures and oligarchs.
But Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled with Biden to Europe that “this is not the kind of circumstance where you just kind of feel reassurance. It’s going to require constant vigilance, constant monitoring.” Zelenskiy told Biden in a phone call to wait because Abramovich could become a go-between in efforts to negotiate peace, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the plans that it didn’t identify.
President Vladimir Putin said earlier that Russia will start demanding payment for its natural gas shipments to states that it deems “unfriendly” in rubles.Russia’s highly regarded central bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina sought to resign after Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine, only to be told by the president to stay, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
Amid the threat of a deepening divide over how to limit Moscow’s biggest source of revenue, another EU official said the 27-nation bloc and the U.S. could announce further asset freezes and travel bans against individuals and entities.NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Russia against making threats that could escalate the war in Ukraine.
Biden will join back-to-back summits Thursday with NATO, the Group of Seven and the European Union in Brussels, in an attempt to rally allies and partners behind his administration’s tough approach to Russia and to signal a united front to China.France doesn’t see new sanctions against Russia being adopted at this week’s EU summit, officials in President Emmanuel Macron’s office said.
A ban on short selling will apply, it said. Local stock trading has been halted from Feb. 28, marking the longest closure in the country’s modern history. Even with the ban on short selling, local traders and strategists are bracing for a selloff.Russian climate envoy Anatoly Chubais resigned and left the country, citing his opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, according to two people familiar with the situation.
In a speech Wednesday to the Japanese Diet, Zelenskiy reiterated his call for a trade embargo against Russia. The video address — like his other appeals to supportive parliaments — was peppered with references intended to strike a chord locally, such as an allusion to the 2011 tsunami that devastated northeast Japan and sparked a nuclear disaster.