Ukrainian lawmaker and failed presidential candidate Serhiy Tyhypko told an audience at a metallurgical plant in central Ukraine that the country's economy has adopted a dangerous trajectory, according to Interfax:
"We have lost exports of machines, pipes, steel and chemical products.... Our exports of grain and ore have grown. Ukraine is slowly transforming into a resource-supplying appendage of Europe and the global economy," Tihipko said during a visit to the Interpipe Group metallurgical plant in Dnipropetrovsk on Thursday.
The Kremlin seeks to calm investors, our news desk reports:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told potential investors in Moscow that "unwarranted" Western sanctions won’t stop the economy from developing.
In a bid to calm investors, Putin told an investment conference on October 2 that Russia remained committed to developing an economy that is "strong, flourishing, free, and open to the world."
Prospects for foreign investors in Russia have been dampened by Western sanctions over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis.
Putin said Russia aimed to "actively" use national currencies in trade deals with China and other countries -- implying a shift away from the U.S. dollar.
He also said Moscow didn’t plan to introduce restrictions on cross-border capital and currency movements after a dramatic decline of the value of the ruble.
Putin also said the state was prepared to support economic sectors and companies that are being hit by sanctions. (Reuters, AFP, TASS, and Interfax)
The Russian politician who broke the news of Russian soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine being secretly buried in Pskov now under more pressure:
From our news desk:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed hope that Ukraine's parliamentary elections later this month will help bring stability to the country.
Addressing the annual Russia Calling investment conference in Moscow on October 2, Putin said economic and political stability in Ukraine was in Russia's interests.
The Russian president said Moscow wanted a "predictable" and "reliable" relationship with Ukraine and that he regards the former Soviet republic as Russia's "most brotherly" nation.
The elections to the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada are scheduled for October 26.
Government forces and pro-Russian separatist continue to battle in eastern Ukraine despite a September 5 cease-fire in the conflict that has killed more than 3,000 people since April. (Reuters and Interfax)
A widow of a Russian officer who died in fighting in #Donbas Ukraine: "He wasn't a volunteer" http://t.co/Mfukc1oknL pic.twitter.com/SQu2g5iEvL
— Nataliya Gumenyuk (@ngumenyuk) October 1, 2014
Meanwhile, this just in from RFE/RL's Belarus Service:
Belarusian citizens fighting in Ukraine's east on either side of the conflict will be jailed.
Belarusian KGB chief Valery Vakulchyk told journalists in Minsk on October 2 that any Belarusians found to have fought in Ukraine will be defined as "mercenaries," who are banned under Belarusian law.
People in Belarus found to have acted as a mercenary can be sentenced to up to seven years in jail.
Media reports in Belarus said in August that some individuals have been recruiting people in Belarus to fight for pro-Russian separatist forces in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
There were also reports of Belarusian volunteers fighting for Ukraine against the separatists.
Ukrainian armed forces have been fighting against pro-Russian separatists in the country's east for six months.