Los Angeles Rattled By Second Quake In A Month

California has been hit by another earthquake, the second this month and the biggest to hit the state in six years.

The 5.1-magnitude quake caused rockslides, cut power to some 2,000 people, burst water mains and toppled furniture, but no injuries were reported.

Disneyland shut down rides as a precaution and a baseball game between the LA Dodgers and the Angels was briefly interrupted.

The earthquake followed a similar one in California earlier this month which measured 4.4.

The quake tipped goods off shelves in shops in La Habra

Hannah Hirzel, 17, who lives four miles from the quake's epicentre in La Habra, said: "I was home alone and I ran out of the house ... I was sitting where my bookshelf fell, but I ran too quick."

Shop worker June Soekmto said: "Suddenly we got a blackout and buildings were shaking like crazy. I just screamed to everybody 'get out of the store'."

A rockfall in Carbon Canyon, about six miles from the epicentre, caused a car to skid and overturn, though the driver escaped without serious injury. 

Robert Graves a seismologist with the US Geological Survey said a number of aftershocks had also been recorded.

Police responded to calls of property damage but no injuries were reported

"It was a magnitude 5.1, that's the main shock, very close to La Harbra and relatively shallow depth," he said.

"We've had a very energetic aftershock sequence, up to about 20, and two of those aftershocks had been greater than magnitude three."

California lies on the San Andreas Fault, the boundary between two shifting land masses responsible for devastating earthquakes that have caused the deaths of thousands of people.

"Tonight's earthquake is the second in two weeks, and reminds us to be prepared," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement.

Seismologists say a huge earthquake causing widespread devastation, referred to as 'The Big One', is 99% certain to hit the state sometime in the next 30 years.

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Inuit In 'Sealfie' Protest Against Oscar Tweet

A community of Inuit in Canada have launched a protest against Ellen DeGeneres' famous Oscars "selfie" which has raised $1.5m (£900,000) for an anti-seal hunting charity.

The comedian's photo with a host of Hollywood stars became the most retweeted post of all time and even caused Twitter to break for a short amount of time on March 2.

The picture also proved very lucrative for sponsor Samsung which also agreed to make a donation to the Humane Society of the United States, a charity chosen by DeGeneres which campaigns against killing the animals.

The website for The Ellen Show calls seal hunting "one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government".

Ellen was joined by a host of stars in the selfie. Pic: @TheEllenShow

But members of the Inuit indigenous population have now started their own online "sealfie" campaign.

They have been posting photos of themselves dressed in clothing made from seal fur.

Iqaluit film-maker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, with friends Nancy Mike and Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, spearheaded the protest which aims to show the importance of seal hunting from the Inuit point of view.

The activity is an important part of Inuit culture and provides much needed warmth, food and income.

Ms Arnaquq-Baril tweeted a photo alongside the words: "@TheEllenShow  I am an Inuit seal meat eater, and my fur is ethical, humane. #sealfie vs. #selfie".

Her tweet has spawned a host of others on the micro-blogging site, including by @papatsirojas who wrote: "@TheEllenShow First pair of sealskin kamiks I've sewn for myself. #Sealfie #embracingmyculture #cultralpide #inuit."

Ms Rojas told Sky News: "I'm passionate about this campaign because, as Inuit, we are defending our right to embrace our culture, which includes the use of the seal. My Inuit heritage is a source of great pride for me."

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Hostages Free After Taliban Kabul Siege

A siege on a Kabul guesthouse used by foreigners is over after the last remaining Taliban gunman was killed.

An Afghan security force spokesman confirmed all five attackers holed up inside the building had been killed.

Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of 111 Military Corps Kabul, said the militants detonated several suicide bombs while gunmen stormed the guesthouse, which was being used by a US-based anti-landmine aid group.

They held at least four foreigners hostage for several hours while a gun battle with police ensued.

Afghan police arriving on the scene

At least one Afghan child was killed in the attack.

There are thought to have been no foreign casualties.

A witness at the scene saw people being escorted from the building by security forces.

Gunfire and explosions could be heard during the assault, which officials said started with a large car bomb at the building's entrance.

Police took guests away

The Taliban, who said they were behind the attack, said the guesthouse was also used as a church.

The assault comes three days after Taliban militants stormed an office of the Independent Election Commission in Kabul, killing five people.

The militants have promised a campaign of violence to disrupt the ballot for the presidential election on April 5, urging their fighters to attack polling staff, voters and security forces in the run-up to election day.

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Mudslide: 'Difficult' Search For Bodies Goes On

Rescue workers searching for victims of a devastating mudslide in Washington state have admitted they "cannot say when or if more bodies will be found".

So far, 17 people, including a four-month-old baby, have been confirmed dead by the medical examiner's office.

Another body was pulled from the rubble on Friday afternoon and at least eight more are yet to be recovered, a week after the mudslide swept through the tiny community of Oso, about 55 miles (90km) north of Seattle.

Rescue teams have faced challenging conditions as the search continues

Details of any distinguishing features of the 90 people still missing have been taken from their relatives to help authorities identify further victims.

Gary Haakenson, Snohomish County executive director, said search teams were working in a "very, very difficult environment".

"We cannot say how long this will last and when or if they will find more bodies," he said.

Military helicopters have been used to search for victims

"We want to continue to hold out hope but we have to, at some point, prepare for the worst."

Local mayor Barbara Tolbert added: "I cannot express how difficult it is for the rescuers. They're searching for their friends and family members.

"Our crews are weary and they're tired but they're doing a fantastic job.

Messages of support for rescue workers and local people have poured in

"This community will be healing for a very long time and we're so thankful for the support we've had."

An estimated 180 people lived in the path of the mudslide, which covered Oso when a rain-soaked hillside collapsed.

Scientists believe there were two slides about four minutes apart during the disaster, with smaller slips continuing for days.

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Putin Calls Obama Over Ukraine Diplomacy

Russia Feeling The Pinch Of Western Sanctions

Updated: 11:11pm UK, Friday 28 March 2014

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor

Russia's foreign minister came close to quoting Marx, not Karl, Groucho, in his reaction to the blackballing of Russia from the G8 community of rich nations by the remaining members of the G7.

"The G8 is an informal club, with no formal membership, so no one can be expelled from it. If our western partners believe that such format is no longer needed, so be it," said Sergei Lavrov.

"We aren't clinging to that format and we won't see a big problem if there are no such meetings for a year, or a year-and-half."

So there.

Well, not quite.

Russia may be trying to shrug off the limited sanctions the international community imposed in response to the Crimean annexation – but the cat-like claws of asset freezes and visa bans are already digging into the Russian economic body.

Andrei Klepach, Russia's deputy economics minister, has been an Eeyore ever since the Crimean adventure got under way.

This week he warned that capital flows out of Russia for the first quarter of this year were likely to soar to $70 billion (£42.4bn) - that's $7bn more than the total outflow from Russia last year.

He had already warned of declining growth, pressure on the Rouble and growing inflation.

"Capital outflow was already significant before this, and, of course, growing tensions and cooling relations make it even worse," said Klepach.

He hasn't joined the triumphalist parades and Soviet-style Putin praise parties which have gummed up local TV channels since the Crimea was taken from Ukraine.

Putin's move on the Peninsula might have been a strategic plan. Or a visceral response to the revolution in Kiev which seemed to drag the country, finally, away from the Russian sphere of influence.

He may have calculated on the loyalty of the oligarchs closest to him. Some of whom have, indeed, said they see the sanctions imposed on them as a badge of honour.

But investors want money, not medals.

So already, according to the Financial Times, companies which left profits in Russia to be used for future investment are now repatriating them fast.

They are fearful that their assets could be confined to Russia if a trade war breaks out in earnest.

Russia's economic position has also been weakened with China.

Putin has been looking to expand trade with the Asian giant - and especially to secure a deal to supply it with more oil and gas.

He's expecting, perhaps, to ink such an agreement in May.

But it had been negotiated before the West decided to start seeking alternatives to Russian gas, which supplies around a third of Europe's needs.

Now the Chinese can drive a harder bargain because they are not an additional buyer - but an alternative one of Russian fossil fuels.

Vladimir Putin's foreign minister may agree with Groucho's principal that "I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member".

But in the long term, Russia's economy will cool as it presses its face against the G7 club window.

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane: Man At Centre Of MH370 Storm

Learning Lessons From Missing Flight MH370

Updated: 9:23am UK, Saturday 29 March 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

23.18 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Plane Hunt: Multiple Objects Spotted

Learning Lessons From Missing Flight MH370

Updated: 9:23am UK, Saturday 29 March 2014

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Missing Jet: Learning Lessons From Tragedy

The small consolation that should come with every airline crash is that the knowledge gained from the tragedy should help prevent it happening again.

But if that were true, we might already know more about what happened to flight MH370.

After the Air France accident of 2009, in which 228 people died when their flight from Brazil plunged into the Atlantic, 120 representatives of the international aviation industry got together to recommend ways to make it easier to find aircraft which crash into the sea. 

None has been implemented.

They suggested that the flight data recorders - the black boxes - should have larger batteries so they would carry on transmitting a beacon for 90 rather than 30 days. 

Some have said black boxes should be made to float to the surface

But bigger batteries mean extra weight and extra cost for the airlines to install them.

They also suggested the recorders should be designed to break away and float to the surface, rather than sink to the sea floor along with the rest of the fuselage.

And that the frequency of the transmission should be altered to boost how far away it can be heard, beyond its current 2,000 metre maximum.

A new area is being searched after analysis of MH370 data

Salvage expert David Mearns, from Blue Water Recoveries, told Sky News: "If you reduce that frequency, the lower the frequency, the greater the range. 

"You go from 37.5khz , to say, 8.8khz as recommended, I think that would increase the range to over 10,000 metres.

"So that's a five times increase in your detectable range and that would help the teams out there now looking for these black boxes."

Change takes 'years' in the airline industry, says David Mears

As for why the recommendations weren't acted upon? 

"It's a very big industry. It's an international industry," said Mr Mears.

"It takes a lot of time for these things to work themselves through the regulations; how they would operate, how the pilots would be trained to use them; they have to be implemented on the aircraft, so it takes years for these things to be done."

In an age when we can all track most passenger aircraft on our smartphones and computers, how can a plane still go missing? 

Most, but not all, areas of the world are now covered by the Acars ADS-B system, allowing them to be constantly tracked. Although smaller, older aircraft are not equipped.

There are new regulations being introduced around the world compelling airlines to fit them in all passenger aircraft. 

Planes spotted two objects in the new search area

But in some places the deadline is 2020.  

Mikael Robertsson, the founder of Flightradar24.com, told Sky: "Maybe authorities in these countries don't want to rush or I guess it costs quite a lot of money for airlines to upgrade their equipment on board."

In any case, it appears the system on MH370 was switched off. 

One current 777 pilot told Sky he could not think of a good reason why he would do such a thing. 

And with so many flights criss-crossing vast expanses of water, knowing the plane's last position is crucial to a swift recovery. 

The backgrounds of the Malaysia Airlines pilots have been scrutinised

Mr Robertsson said: "I think this is something that should be discussed: How much pilots should be able to turn off, and how easy it should be to turn some systems off?"

The backgrounds of the pilots have been scrutinised to assess the likelihood of criminal or suicidal behaviour. 

Professor Robert Bor is a clinical psychologist who has studied those who fly, and was specifically asked to review an incident involving an American Jet Blue pilot who had a psychotic episode while flying from New York to Las Vegas.

Captain Clayton Osbon left the cockpit and screamed at passengers before being subdued by some of those on board. 

His co-pilot landed the plane safely in Texas. 

Prof Bor and others concluded there were no warning signs beforehand which could have prevented the incident.     

Captain Clayton Osbon had a psychotic episode in the cockpit

"Every year an airline pilot will have at least two formal medical checks which address not just their physical health but their mental health. Every time they are doing the job they are scrutinised by people."

Pilot suicide is not unheard of, and is considered the most likely explanation for the crash of an Indonesian SilkAir flight in 1997. 

The pilot was heavily in debt - 104 passengers and crew were killed.

Airlines may also be studying how Malaysia Airlines has handled the disaster from a public relations perspective. 

The families of the passengers have gone from grieving to protesting, angry at being kept waiting for news, furious about misinformation, and the final indignity - some of them were told the plane had crashed by text message. 

Pilot suicide is the suspected cause of the 1997 SilkAir flight crash

Crisis management expert Raine Marcus told Sky News: "The communications with the families didn't inspire trust from the beginning.

"If you don't build up trust and goodwill right from the beginning, that has a direct impact afterwards on communications with the families and also directly on your business."

In the months and years ahead, as details emerge of what happened to MH370, there will undoubtedly be calls for lessons to be learned.

And in the meantime millions of us will continue to fly, hoping that our flight will not be one of the very rare ones, which does not have a safe landing.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

India: Shock Dowry Deaths Increase Revealed

By Neville Lazarus, Sky News Producer

A woman dies every hour in India due to the demands placed upon her family as a result of the dowry system, according to figures from the country's National Crime Records Bureau.

This is an age old custom where the wife's family has to hand over endless amounts in cash and gifts at the wedding and beyond to secure her wellbeing.

It is illegal and the punishments are severe, but the number of cases is on the rise in a country that continues to grapple with the issue of violence against women.

Most of the victims of the dowry system die in the most painful way - burnt by their husband's family.

Neha, a 29-year-old mother-of-two, was treated in the intensive burns unit of a hospital in Delhi after suffering deep burns over almost half of her body.

She said her in-laws threw gasoline on her and set her alight. Doctors said it will take another six months before the bandages can be removed from her body.

Neha told Sky News: "The demands of dowry started right from the time I got married. My father gave whatever he could but their demands were endless and so was the violence and harassment.

Seema Mishra with her daughter

"It got worse when my daughter was born. I never thought they would do this to me; they would beat me up and throw me out of the house in the middle of the night. But I never thought they would try to kill me by burning me."

The case is being investigated and four people are in police custody. Neha is now looked after by her parents at their home on the outskirts of Delhi.

Her father Virender Yadav said he did everything possible to make sure his daughter was safe, but never imagined the situation would get this bad. He wants the severest punishment for all those involved in the attack. 

Seema Mishra said she saved herself from unbearable misery when she left her husband's home with her eight-year-old daughter.

She said the demands made were beyond her father's means. This resulted in physical violence and harassment which caused her to lose her first child. Unable to cope, and in fear for her daughter's life, she left.

Laws aimed at protecting women were passed after the Delhi bus gang rape

Her case has been in court for five years now, and Seema's family have poured their savings into fighting it.

She told Sky News: "There is no justice in sight. There is no future for us, if have no hope for any support from anyone."

Since 2001 an estimated 100,000 women have been killed due to dowries. But the worrying factor has been the increasing numbers of such deaths and dowry cases registered by the NCRB.

Kamla Bhasin, a women's rights activist for more than four decades, told Sky News she was shocked by the rising numbers and believes there is a direct correlation with India's economic progress.

"It's really linked to greed of money and its linked to patriarchy. Traditional patriarchy is bad enough. This combination of capitalist patriarchy is lethal," she said.

The system has far-reaching effects on Indian society. It is the primary reason for female foeticide and infanticide. Activists estimate 500,000 female foetuses are aborted illegally every year.

Kamla Bhasin sees a correlation with India's economic progress

For many families it is the boy who brings in the riches while a girl continuously depletes it.

Mrs Bhasin said: "Female foeticide takes place in the progressive states like Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, resulting in a distorted sex ratio.

"It's not the uneducated or tribals that practise this but the affluent societies in large cities and towns of the country. And all this for the want of money."

The horrific Delhi bus gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student in December 2012 led to unprecedented protests across the country.

Under pressure from the public, the government passed tough laws aimed at protecting women. Fast track courts were established to try cases of violence against women and punishments were increased.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More

Klitschko Rules Out Run For Ukraine Presidency

Russia Feeling The Pinch Of Western Sanctions

Updated: 11:11pm UK, Friday 28 March 2014

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor

Russia's foreign minister came close to quoting Marx, not Karl, Groucho, in his reaction to the blackballing of Russia from the G8 community of rich nations by the remaining members of the G7.

"The G8 is an informal club, with no formal membership, so no one can be expelled from it. If our western partners believe that such format is no longer needed, so be it," said Sergei Lavrov.

"We aren't clinging to that format and we won't see a big problem if there are no such meetings for a year, or a year-and-half."

So there.

Well, not quite.

Russia may be trying to shrug off the limited sanctions the international community imposed in response to the Crimean annexation – but the cat-like claws of asset freezes and visa bans are already digging into the Russian economic body.

Andrei Klepach, Russia's deputy economics minister, has been an Eeyore ever since the Crimean adventure got under way.

This week he warned that capital flows out of Russia for the first quarter of this year were likely to soar to $70 billion (£42.4bn) - that's $7bn more than the total outflow from Russia last year.

He had already warned of declining growth, pressure on the Rouble and growing inflation.

"Capital outflow was already significant before this, and, of course, growing tensions and cooling relations make it even worse," said Klepach.

He hasn't joined the triumphalist parades and Soviet-style Putin praise parties which have gummed up local TV channels since the Crimea was taken from Ukraine.

Putin's move on the Peninsula might have been a strategic plan. Or a visceral response to the revolution in Kiev which seemed to drag the country, finally, away from the Russian sphere of influence.

He may have calculated on the loyalty of the oligarchs closest to him. Some of whom have, indeed, said they see the sanctions imposed on them as a badge of honour.

But investors want money, not medals.

So already, according to the Financial Times, companies which left profits in Russia to be used for future investment are now repatriating them fast.

They are fearful that their assets could be confined to Russia if a trade war breaks out in earnest.

Russia's economic position has also been weakened with China.

Putin has been looking to expand trade with the Asian giant - and especially to secure a deal to supply it with more oil and gas.

He's expecting, perhaps, to ink such an agreement in May.

But it had been negotiated before the West decided to start seeking alternatives to Russian gas, which supplies around a third of Europe's needs.

Now the Chinese can drive a harder bargain because they are not an additional buyer - but an alternative one of Russian fossil fuels.

Vladimir Putin's foreign minister may agree with Groucho's principal that "I don't care to belong to any club that will have me as a member".

But in the long term, Russia's economy will cool as it presses its face against the G7 club window.

23.17 | 0 komentar | Read More