From AFP:
Russsian Car Sales Level Off In November After Steep Fall
Car sales in Russia practically stabilised in November after going into free fall in summer and autumn because of the crisis in Ukraine, industry figures published Monday said.
November saw sales of 229,439 cars, just 1.1 percent less than in November 2013. By contrast, in the summer months, car sales fell 20 to 30 percent year on year, and they were still down 10 percent year on year in October, the Association of European Businesses said in a report.
It attributed November's improved sales to a government cash-for-clunkers programme launched in September, and to people wanting to buy cars before anticipated price rises in the new year.
"Retail demand has been extraordinary in recent weeks, helped by government subsidies and consumers rushing to get ahead of widely anticipated new year price increases," Joerg Schreiber, chairman of the Association of European Businesses automobile manufacturers' committee, was quoted as saying in the report.
Car sales over the first 11 months of 2014 are still down 11.6 percent year on year. The top-selling car make was Lada, and nine of the 10 top-selling models were produced in Russia.
From Reuters:
Russia says would accept money or warships to solve Mistral dispute
MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) -- Russia would accept either money or the delivery of two Mistral helicopter carriers to resolve a dispute with France, a Kremlin official said on Monday.
France has suspended indefinitely the delivery of the first of the two warships, citing the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"Both options will suit us -- either the ships or the money. The money spent must be recovered," Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters two days after President Vladimir Putin had talks with French President Francois Hollande.
MH17 Wreckage Due In Netherlands On Tuesday
THE HAGUE, Dec 08, 2014 (AFP) -- Wreckage from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 will arrive from Ukraine at a Dutch air force base on Tuesday where the plane will be reconstructed as part of probe into the crash.
The convoy of lorries carrying pieces of wreckage from Ukraine is due to arrive at the Gilze-Rijen airbase in the south of the country at around 2 pm (1300 GMT), the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) said in a statement on Monday.
The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was blown out of the sky on July 17 over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board, two-thirds of them Dutch.
Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of supplying pro-Kremlin insurgents with the missile that shot down the jet, but Moscow and the separatists deny they were responsible and have instead pointed the finger at Kiev.
Dutch authorities are charged with establishing exactly what brought the plane down and are reconstructing part of the aircraft as part of their probe.
The convoy of trucks carrying pieces of the Boeing left Ukraine last week and will drive past next of kin on Tuesday who wish to see the wreckage arrive at the base, the OVV said.
"The arrival of the wreckage at the air force base will not be of a ceremonial character and those attending will not be permitted to be present during the opening or unloading of the trucks," it said.
The wreckage will be photographed, scanned and categorised before being reconstructed in a hanger.
The reconstruction will be closed to the public, although next of kin will be allowed to see it if they wish.
A preliminary report in September said that plane "broke up in the air probably as the result of structural damage caused by a large number of high-energy objects that penetrated the aircraft from outside."
A Dutch-led investigation team has so far identified 292 of the dead, but six victims remained unidentified as recovery work at the crash site shut down for the winter.
More on this week's truce talks by AFP:
War-Torn Ukraine Pins Hopes On New Peace Talks
Ukraine and pro-Russian insurgents prepared Monday for their first comprehensive truce talks in three months aimed at calming an upsurge of violence that has further eroded trust between Moscow and the West.
Local authorities have reported the death of at least 11 civilians over a bloody weekend in which government forces and organised militias exchanged volleys of Grad rocket fire across the devastated industrial east.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- once one of Europe's more moderate voices on Russian affairs -- blamed the unrest on attempts by an increasingly isolated Kremlin to halt east European states' drive toward the EU.
Russia's violation of "the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine must not be allowed to stand," Merkel told Germany's Die Welt newspaper.
She also defended the sanctions that Brussels and Washington have slapped on Russia for its alleged attempts to splinter its western neighbour in reprisal for the February ouster of a Moscow-backed president.
Russia has struck back by banning Western food and imposing other restrictions that have hurt European farmers and provoked a minor rebellion from businesses in countries such as Germany.
The diplomatic war of words and jostling for position has intensified as the prospect of new Ukrainian peace talks nears.
"The desire to rip (ex-Soviet republics) away from Russia has always been one of America's top foreign policy priorities," Russian Deputy Foreign Sergei Ryabkov told a session of parliament.
"But since the start of the year, this desire has surfaced with renewed strength and in an especially aggressive manner," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Ryabkov as saying.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is hoping that a calm in the east can help him focus on pushing through long-delayed economic legislation that could dig the country out of effective bankruptcy and open the way for more global aid.
He has proclaimed Tuesday to be a "day of silence" across the war zone that will be followed by a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line -- should the separatists also put down their guns.
Rebel leaders have promised to respect the ceasefire. But confusion has emerged over the fate of vital talks in the Belarussian capital Minsk that Poroshenko hopes to convene on the same day in the presence of Russian and European envoys.
Some separatist representatives said no meeting was possible until Friday -- a stance that seems at least partially aimed at adjourning talks on terms set by the insurgents themselves.
The Minsk negotiations are supposed to reinforce a troubled peace deal reached in the same city on September 5 that was followed by fighting the United Nations believes claimed another 1,000 lives.
UN estimates put the total death toll from the eight-month conflict at more than 4,300. But the number of rebels killed has never been firmly established and some analyst believe the true numbers are much higher.
Few analysts believe that Tuesday's truce and any talks that follow will be able to quickly restore calm.
But they also warn that the European Union must make the most of the opportunity to avoid the prospect of an increasingly assertive Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to expand even further his reach into Ukraine.
"The failure to find a political solution to the dispute increases the likelihood that separatist and Russian forces would attempt in the coming weeks to take additional territory (in the east) that has economic value," the Eurasia Group political risk consultancy said.
"The future of eastern Ukraine will ultimately be defined by processes that take place outside the region's border," the London-based European Council on Foreign Relations think tank added.
Russia Says Committed To Ukraine Cease-Fire Talks This Week
MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Russia is committed to holding another round of talks this week in the Belarussian capital Minsk on ending violence in eastern Ukraine, a senior Kremlin aide said on Monday.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said talks could take place involving Kiev, Moscow, representatives of pro-Russian separatists and the European OSCE watchdog.
Yuri Ushakov, the top foreign policy adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters Russia was ready "to do everything to have the contact group meeting take place in Minsk this week. I think this will be carried out."
Here is today's situation map of eastern Ukraine by the National Security and Defense Council:
