Not too late to get for Christmas...and the price keeps falling!
The Lenin staue-defacing war continues:
Authorities in Novosibirsk say suspects accused of painting the colors of the Ukrainian flag on a monument to Lenin in the Russian city have been detained.
Activists sprayed yellow and blue paint on a Lenin monument, as well as a Soviet tank and an artillery piece at a World War Two memorial, in the Siberian city last week.
They painted the word "Glory to Ukraine!" on the Lenin monument.
Police opened an investigation on a charge of "vandalism motivated by political, ideological, racial, ethnic or religious hatred."
Regional Governor Vladimir Gorodetsky said on December 15 that suspects had been detained, but not say how many or give their names.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March and has supported pro-Russian rebels whose conflict with government forces has killed more than 4,600 people in eastern Ukraine since April. (Tayga.info, TASS, and Interfax)
Readers of this blog may have heard of the Center for Eurasian Strategic Intelligence (CESI) that seems to promote a "hawkish" view on Russia's foreign policy. In his Twitter, Edward Lucas has recently raised doubts about the authenticity of this organisation, and, as I found out, for a good reason. Let's have a closer look at CESI.
Russia's economy continues to suffer, in part because of the Ukraine sanctions:
The Russian ruble has hit new lows against the dollar and the euro in early trading in Moscow.
The ruble hit 58.2 rubles to the dollar and 73.14 rubles to the euro, up sharply from the December 12 records of 57 rubles/$1 and 70 rubles/euro.
The rates reflected slight drops in the price of oil on world markets.
The Russian stock indexes MICEX and RTS were steady in early trading on the Moscow stock market.
The ruble has lost about 60 percent of its value against the dollar in 2014, with most of the losses occurring since the summer after the United States, Canada, the EU, and other Western countries imposed economic sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine. (Interfax and TASS)