🇸🇰🚫🇺🇦 Slovak President has said he is refusing to pay an official visit to Kyiv because Ukraine has stopped the transit of Russian gas that Slovakia has been receiving.
"If I have to go there just to take a picture, and they tell me that not a single drop of oil and gas will go to Slovakia, then I really shouldn't go there. Let no one be offended by me."
🇸🇰🚫🇺🇦 Slovak President has said he is refusing to pay an official visit to Kyiv because Ukraine has stopped the transit of Russian gas that Slovakia has been receiving.
"If I have to go there just to take a picture, and they tell me that not a single drop of oil and gas will go to Slovakia, then I really shouldn't go there. Let no one be offended by me."
Overall, extreme levels of fear in the market seems to have morphed into something more resembling concern. For example, the Cboe Volatility Index fell from its 2022 peak of 36, which it hit Monday, to around 30 on Friday, a sign of easing tensions. Meanwhile, while the price of WTI crude oil slipped from Sunday’s multiyear high $130 of barrel to $109 a pop. Markets have been expecting heavy restrictions on Russian oil, some of which the U.S. has already imposed, and that would reduce the global supply and bring about even more burdensome inflation. Telegram was co-founded by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, the brothers who had previously created VKontakte. VK is Russia’s equivalent of Facebook, a social network used for public and private messaging, audio and video sharing as well as online gaming. In January, SimpleWeb reported that VK was Russia’s fourth most-visited website, after Yandex, YouTube and Google’s Russian-language homepage. In 2016, Forbes’ Michael Solomon described Pavel Durov (pictured, below) as the “Mark Zuckerberg of Russia.” There was another possible development: Reuters also reported that Ukraine said that Belarus could soon join the invasion of Ukraine. However, the AFP, citing a Pentagon official, said the U.S. hasn’t yet seen evidence that Belarusian troops are in Ukraine. Again, in contrast to Facebook, Google and Twitter, Telegram's founder Pavel Durov runs his company in relative secrecy from Dubai. Also in the latest update is the ability for users to create a unique @username from the Settings page, providing others with an easy way to contact them via Search or their t.me/username link without sharing their phone number.
from nl
