Heading towards World War III?

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Wednesday that it would not be legal for the United States to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to help rebuild Ukraine.

Yellen was referring to an estimated $300 billion in assets from Russia's central bank that have been blocked by the United States and its allies as part of their sanctions over Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.

There have been discussions lately among Western allies on how to finance Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction and whether the frozen Russian assets could play a role.

“I think it’s very natural that given the enormous destruction in Ukraine, and huge rebuilding costs that they will face, that we will look to Russia to help pay at least a portion of the price that will be involved,” Yellen told reporters.

She, however, added: “That said, while we’re beginning to look at this, it would not be legal now in the United States for the government to seize those assets. It’s not something that is legally permissible in the United States.”

www.rt.com/business/555700-seizing-russian-assets-illegal-yellen

A Ukrainian officer who at one point commanded the notorious neo-Nazi Azov regiment has gloated on social media over graphic photos of dead members of an opposition party. The activists “disappeared” from the Ukrainian-held city of Severodonetsk in early March and appear to have been extrajudicially executed, with Maksim Zhorin implying such a fate awaits all “traitors.”

“This is what the ‘Patriots for Life’ from Severodonetsk look like now,” Zhorin said in a now-deleted Telegram post on Wednesday. “They disappeared on March 7, and now their new photos have appeared. They look like that,” he added with a smirking-face emoji.

“I would not be surprised if the investigation finds out that they shot themselves in the head – when they realized how stupid they were when they went to cooperate with [Ilya] Kiva,” he added, in a reference to the Ukrainian MP who fled to Russia in January.

Prosecutors in Kiev had charged Kiva, an outspoken critic of President Volodymyr Zelensky, with treason on March 6, the day before the activists went missing. He had fled the country after being kicked out by his party, “Opposition Platform — For Life.”

That did not save the faction, and almost a dozen others, from being temporarily banned by Zelensky on March 20. A law allowing for permanent bans was adopted on May 14.

Zhorin’s post showed the badly disfigured faces of three men and a woman, in body bags. They appear to have been extrajudicially executed in a cruel manner, said the Telegram channel “Witch Hunt,” which first brought attention to the Azov leader’s post.

www.rt.com/russia/555714-azov-kharkov-opposition-executions

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), seeking to insulate the country’s top brass from Western sanctions like those imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, has allegedly issued a directive discouraging senior officials from buying assets abroad.

The new policy will block promotions for CCP elites who have significant overseas holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The restriction will apply not only to assets owned directly and indirectly by high party officials themselves, but also those held by their wives and children.

The CCP’s Central Organization Department is said to have issued the new investment restriction in an internal notice in March, weeks after Russia launched its military offensive against Ukraine. Ministerial-level party leaders will no longer be allowed to own such foreign assets as real estate and stocks, according to the report.

www.rt.com/news/555778-ccp-bans-foreign-holdings

The attempt by the US to take over Ukraine’s grain reserves may spark a humanitarian crisis in the country and lead to grain shortages globally, Maksim Oreshkin, an aide to President Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday.

According to the official, a global famine could break out by this coming fall.

“It is important that in the conditions, for example, of a global famine that will occur closer to autumn, by the end of this year all over the world, Russia should not suffer, but be fully provided with food,” Oreshkin stated, as cited by RIA Novosti.

The main reason for this potential global famine, in his opinion, is the increase in the cost of wheat in the world market, which stems from Washington’s irresponsible monetary policy.

“Until about 2020, wheat prices on the world market were stable, but following the increased printing of the dollar, which started around July 2020, prices started rising sharply,” he stated, referring to Washington’s measures to curb the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. However, according to Oreshkin, the Biden administration’s more recent actions are likely to worsen the situation, which is already dire.

“In fact, what America is trying to do with Ukraine now is to take out the grain reserves that Ukraine currently has in its possession – just another action that dooms Ukraine to serious humanitarian problems, but also dooms the global community to having big problems with hunger,” the official warned.

Wheat prices have shot up more than 60% this year, with the latest spike resulting from supply disruptions caused by the conflict in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow. The two countries account for almost a third of the world’s wheat exports.

The situation was further exacerbated after major grain suppliers Russia, Kazakhstan, and India largely banned exports to protect their domestic food supplies.

Following the news from New Delhi, the price of wheat futures rose by 5.9% on Monday to reach an all-time high of $12.68 per bushel on the Chicago commodities exchange, before correcting slightly in the following days. In the European market, the price reached a historic high of around $461 per ton.

www.rt.com/business/555740-globe-hunger-us-ukraine

Russia will not export food to the detriment of its own market, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council and former president Dmitry Medvedev said, adding that the West has to blame its own “cosmic cretinism” for the looming crisis.

In a lengthy Telegram post, Medvedev commented on recent statements by Western leaders about food security. As Russia and Ukraine are major wheat suppliers, accounting for some 30% of global exports, the prices have significantly grown since the launch of the Russian military offensive in the neighboring state and the subsequent sanctions imposed on Moscow by the US, the EU, the UK and some other Western nations. On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that fertilizers and food products from Russia should be available to the world markets without obstacles.

Medvedev agreed that without wheat and other food supplies from Russia, the importing countries would “have a very difficult time,” especially, he noted, because, without Russian fertilizers, “only juicy weeds [would] grow” on their fields.

www.rt.com/russia/555785-food-russia-crisis-opinion

Wheat prices have surged to record highs over the past two months as major producers like Russia, Kazakhstan and India scrapped exports to protect their domestic markets. This has sparked fears of food insecurity and hunger around the world.

According to experts who spoke to Russia’s Izvestia newspaper, since the beginning of the year the cost of wheat has risen in price by more than 60%. They say the surge was caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which provide nearly a third of the globe’s wheat exports.

In the 2021-2022 season that began in July last year, Russian suppliers accounted for 16% of global wheat exports, and Ukrainian producers accounted for 10%. But due to the conflict both countries banned wheat exports. In February Russia restricted the export of all grains (wheat, rye, barley and corn) outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) until June 30. Meanwhile, Ukraine has shut its only remaining port in Odessa.

Anti-Russia sanctions forced international companies to sever long-standing business ties and leave Russia, which caused supply disruptions. In one example, the EU recently banned cooperation with the Black Sea Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, through which more than half of the exported grain is shipped.

www.rt.com/business/555679-grain-crisis-russia-sanctions

President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly maneuvering to send more advanced anti-ship missiles to Ukraine to help the former Soviet republic break a Russian naval blockade of its Black Sea ports.

The missiles in question are the Harpoon, made by Boeing, and the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), made by Kongsberg and Raytheon Technologies, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing three unidentified administration officials and two congressional sources. Talks are active on whether to ship the missiles directly to Kiev or to transfer them through a European ally.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been lobbying since at least April for his Western backers to provide Harpoons or other missiles with similar capabilities. However, as Reuters noted, countries have avoided being the first nation or the only nation providing such weaponry to Kiev, “fearing Russian reprisals if a ship is sunk with a Harpoon from their stockpile.”

One “well stocked” country is now considering becoming the first to ship such missiles to Ukraine, while others might follow, according to the report. The NSM can be launched relatively easily from the coast and has a maximum range of 250 kilometers. NATO allies have mobile ground-based NSM launchers available to loan, Reuters said, and the warheads would come from Norway.

The Harpoon can destroy targets from nearly 300 kilometers away, but it’s typically used as a ship-to-ship missile, and there are few platforms available for launching it from shore. The US may try to solve that issue by pulling a launcher off an American warship, Reuters said. The Harpoon cruises in a low, sea-skimming trajectory and has active radar guidance.

Ukraine has also requested Multiple Rocket Launcher Systems (MRLS), such as Lockheed Martin’s M270, which now can reportedly be considered for shipment after Thursday’s passage of a $40 billion aid bill by the US Senate. The M270 can hit a target upward of 70 kilometers away, a far longer range than is offered by Ukraine’s existing howitzer rounds.

Breaking the Russian blockade of Odessa and other Black Sea ports might allow for shipments of wheat and other Ukrainian exports to get out of the country. Russian officials have warned that Western weapons shipments to Ukraine are “pouring oil on the flames” and could spark a wider conflict.

www.rt.com/news/555783-us-anti-ship-missiles-ukraine

Warsaw is ready to build permanent military installations to house “light infantry units” of the US-led NATO bloc, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday. The PM urged further NATO military buildup in Eastern Europe amid the ongoing Russian offensive in Ukraine.

“Permanent allied bases should be built in the countries of the eastern flank of NATO. Poland is ready to build such bases that would be provided for the permanent deployment of light infantry units,” he told the Strategic Ark forum in Warsaw.

Continuing NATO military buildup is the only way to “deter” Russia, the PM argued, calling for ramping up military aid for Ukraine as well. Warsaw has been among the most active combat suppliers to Kiev in the ongoing conflict, sending old Soviet-made tanks and other hardware for Ukrainian troops.

www.rt.com/news/555761-poland-permanent-nato-bases