LATEST: Russia has cut its key interest rate to 12.5 percent, from 14 percent, in a bid to boost the economy. (AFP, Bloomberg, TASS)
Russia cuts interest rates:
Russia has cut its key interest rate to 12.5 percent, from 14 percent, in a bid to boost the slowing economy.
Announcing the cut on April 30, the central bank said the decision took into account "lower inflation risks and persistent risks of considerable economic cooling."
It was the third reduction this year after the bank raised the rate by 6.5 percentage points, to 17 percent in December to shore up the rapidly falling ruble.
A rebound in the ruble this year has paved the way for cuts aimed to spur economic activity.
Russia's economy has been hit hard by a sharp drop in oil prices for oil last year and sanctions imposed by the West over its interference in Ukraine.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said gross domestic product dropped by about 2 percent in the first quarter of 2015 -- the first quarterly contraction since 2009 -- and that damage from the sanctions was likely to increase.
The World Bank on April 1 predicted that Russia's economy would contract by 3.8 percent this year. (Bloomberg, AFP, TASS)
Savchenko Transferred From Hospital Back To Jail
Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko has been transferred back to a detention center in Moscow after spending just two days in a civilian hospital.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service said that Savchenko was sent back to prison on April 30 after doctors in the Moscow city Hospital No. 20 concluded that her health condition was "satisfactory."
The announcement came hours after Savchenko’s lawyer, Mark Feigin, said his client wanted to go back to the detention center as conditions in the "special ward" at the hospital were "substantially worse than expected" and "certainly worse" than the medical unit at Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center.
Prison authorities said on April 28 that Savchenko was moved to a civilian hospital because her health had deteriorated.
Savchenko has been jailed in Russia since last July, when she says she was illegally brought into the country after being abducted by separatists in Ukraine.
She is charged with complicity in the killing of two Russian journalists who died in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, as well as illegal border crossing.
She denies guilt and conducted a hunger strike for more than 80 days to protest her incarceration in Russia.
Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax
Top U.S. Commander Says Russian Offensive Possible In Ukraine
The top U.S. commander for NATO says Russian forces have used a recent lull in fighting in Ukraine to reposition for a possible offensive.
"Many of their actions are consistent with preparations for another offensive," Philip Breedlove told the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on April 30.
Breedlove, commander of the U.S. European Command, said the situation in Ukraine is "volatile and fragile."
He said Russia is "aggressively applying all elements of national power -- diplomatic, informational, and economic, as well as military."
Breedlove said "it would not make sense" for Washington to "unnecessarily" take any of its options -- including providing weapons to Ukraine -- off the table.
Breedlove had said in March that the West should consider using all its tools to help Ukraine in its fight against Russian-backed separatists, including sending defensive weapons.