US Concerned Russia May Attack Ukraine Via Belarus

LOCAL NEWS

• US State Dept says it is concerned Russia may attack Ukraine from Belarus after draft constitutional amendments were made to host Russia’s conventional and nuclear weapons.
  • Says movement of Russian troops north under the auspices of military drills from 10-20 Feb are also concerning. Says normal exercises require 42 days of notice, international observers and generally involve 9k-13k troops, but this looks lie “something entirely different”
• Russian embassy calls on US to abandon plans to provide more weapons to Ukraine. Says instead Washington should use its influence to stop Ukraine from sabotaging the Minsk agreements. Also calls on Washington to end all hysteria about the Donbas issue, saying Russia is not planning an invasion
• Putin & Iran’s Raisi to hold talks in Moscow today discussing joint projects in the trade and economic sphere, current international and regional topics and the implementation of the JCPOA on the Iranian nuclear program
• Russia reduced the volume of investments in US government securities in November 2021 compared to October last year to $ 2.409bn ($3.72bn prior). This marks a notable decline from $96bn in April 2018

Data:

• 1600GMT: CPI wow, 0.56% prior
• 1600GMT: CPI Weekly YTD, 0.56% prior