NEWSWATCH: “Weak Oil Prices Fuel Ukrainian Hopes of a More Conciliatory Russia” – Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal covers Russian economic vulnerability amidst falling oil prices and its possible impact on efforts to resolve the Russo-Ukrainian conflict .
Ukraine’s political elite is hoping that plummeting oil prices will restrain neighboring Russia’s interventionist ambitions—and give Western sanctions on Russia a bit more bite. … diplomatic overtures have raised hopes in Kiev that Moscow—which annexed Crimea and has supported eastern Ukrainian separatists in a conflict that has claimed more than 9,000 lives—is charting a somewhat more conciliatory course. With crude about $30 a barrel, Ukrainian officials are cautiously optimistic that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his oil-dependent government will be forced to rein in a muscular foreign policy.