politicodiary

Boris Johnson does not want Rishi Sunak to replace him. The withdrawn PM has not totally withdrawn from the situation. The biggest bone of contention is the sense of betrayal that he has felt from the former chancellor of the exchequer. A surprising revelation is that, Johnson feels that his downfall has been because Sunak somewhere had been plotting against the leadership and paving way for his own succession. What is also coming in focus is Sunak’s association with Indian IT millionaire Narayana Murthy as his son-in-law. There is no evidence of open recommendations by Mr. Johnson, but unofficially, he feels inclined towards ‘woman power’ and is indirectly hinting at the candidature of foreign secretary Liz Truss. Also, he seems to be open and welcoming towards the appointment of junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt for the top job. The Times quoted sources as saying: “The whole No. 10 team hates Rishi. It’s personal. It’s vitriolic. They don’t blame Saj [Sajid Javid] for bringi...

There is a manpower crunch in the Ukraine war and Russia is desperate for more heads to join the war that that has shaken up the Western world. The new tactic to recruit is to by offering signing bonus four times as big as a monthly salary and attracting young people to join the army. It’s a three-month contract that most have to sign up to get a huge joining bonus. Advertisements everywhere are offering positions in the army as Russia is short of army recruits.  A recruiter for the military in Chechnya too has also offered a first-month salary of 300,000 rubles ($5,200). As of end of March, 1300 and more soldiers had lost their lives in the war. Ukraine has also lost a lot of lives. Many who have a conscience have quit the war already. These are more of Russian military that Ukrainians. No one is happy with the way there has been loss of lives in large numbers. Looking the way the war has consumed so many lives, Vladimir Lisin, a Russian billionaire, told employees at stee...

The World Economic Forum 2022 had a special address this time. Via a video call, the Ukrainian President addressed the gathering in Switzerland. Sitting in the war zone, he continues to hold the helm with great courage. He received a standing ovation even before he started to speak. The forum expressed great respect for his ‘courageous leadership’ and was eager to what he had to say about a peaceful nation being restored. There was no sign of agitation in him; only mature leadership speaking through and through. President Zelensky has called for ‘maximum’ sanctions against Russia in his speech. The best way you can cripple an economy today is through trade sanctions; if not war. The latter should never be an option. But here, the reasons are completely different. Zelensky, has also stressed on the fact that businesses needed to ‘completely withdraw’ from Russia, and that there should be no trade with the country in order for the world to set a precedent. Indeed, that would be t...

  He spent a decade in prison but once was the richest businessman in Russia. Having spent a decade in prison, Mikhail Khodorkovsky was charged with fraud and tax evasion for which he served a long jail sentence. As the former CEO of the Russian oil giant Yukos, he temporarily became Russia's richest man in 2003 with a reported net worth of  $15 billion . In 2001, he founded Open Russia, a diplomacy initiative that was later shut down by Russian authorities. He served a sentence from 2005 for nine years. In 2013, he was actually pardoned by Vladimir Putin himself. Khodorkovsky has now predicted that the Ukrainian war is technically going to reduce Putin’s era of leadership. One wonders why would he speak against the person who pardoned him in the first place? But the fact of the matter was revealed in a 2010 Reuters report where Khodorkovsky said that his imprisonment was actually politically motivated. Putin's former prime minister testified that the Kremlin ordered Khodo...

UK has announced sanctions on three billionaire ‘cronies’ of Russia over the current crisis between Russia and Ukraine. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made an announcement against three “very high net wealth” Russians. These are also called as the as “cronies” of President Vladimir Putin. Eight years ago, UK has sanctioned Gennady Timchenko and Boris Rotenberg, now the third Igor Rotenberg, was also hit by sanctions. Bank Rossiya has invested in Ukraine, by opening its branches after 2014, which is annexation of Crimea. 69 years old Gennady Timchenko is a major shareholder in Bank Rossiya. As per a statement by the UK officials, Bank Russia is involved in forging transport links and travel cards that allow the public to travel easily around the Crimean Peninsula. Mr Timchenko is known as the Russia’s richest man. A citizen of Russia, Finland and Armenia, Timchenko has businesses established in Oil and Gas. He has an Electrical Engineering degree from an institute i...

Friendships are becoming thick on the wrong sides- Russia and China, who are now calling each other strong friends in arms. This becomes more apparent as both leaders of the powerful nations engaged in a long video call that lasted 1hour and 30 minutes, local media has reported. Russia is looking for security guarantees from the West and China is backing it in its attempts to do so. In their virtual summit, they have vowed to stand up against the West. So, the two very powerful nations of the world are ganging up against the rest of the world. One of their key points of discussion was the escalating war like situation between Russia and Ukraine and the former’s desire to claim ownership of the latter. Russia wants the United States and NATO to guarantee the military alliance will not expand further eastward or deploy weapons systems in Ukraine and other countries on Russia's border. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have interacted on many occasions in the last two years discussing key...

After a huge gap, Kremlin has decided to make a visit to India. Indeed, everyone is seeing how the New Delhi-Kremlin bond is becoming stronger. Indian PM Narendra Modi has played his cards well, to keep the powerful on his side. Vladimir Putin is definitely one of those choices. Putin’s visit comes at the strategic time of Russia’s delivery of the S-400 air defense systems, a technology that was to attract secondary sanctions from America. But India knows where to butter its bread and has decided to shake hands with Russia over military partnership for the next decade as well. Let us not forget that Russia is dominated the supply of natural gas to many in the Western world. With India having made a bigul call of going completely green on its fuel consumptions through investments elsewhere, partnership with Russia could make sense in a later stage. Despite India’s increasing closeness to the West, a strong Russia and stronger India-Russia ties are important for India’s vision of a mult...

Erdogan's power game in Libya is disturbing a world order Moscow had asked Turkey not to intervene in Libya and send military support  The legitimate Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) had asked for military help and that is when Turkey stepped in. According to a public statement that Erdogan has made over sending troops to “ensure there is a ceasefire in Libya. They are not there to fight.” But that is an ironic statement to make, owing to the fact that this legitimate government has not been able to handle the offensive by the self styled General Haftar in the East. As of now, at least three different groups can claim to have the ability for credible and legitimate governance in Libya. But the fact of the matter is that only the Government of National Accord (GNA) is recognized, and that also outside the country and in the West. In fact, Western nations and the United Nations don’t just recognize the GNA—they created it. So, Erdogan is going to play u...