Russia threatens to become a colony of China
05:40 | Russia threatens to become an “economic colony” of China as its isolation from the West grows after its invasion of Ukraine, US CIA director William Burns said Tuesday.
“Russia is becoming increasingly dependent on China and in some ways risks becoming an economic colony of China over time, dependent on the export of energy resources and raw materials,” Burns said at an event at Rice University in Houston.
Russia tests the ICBM
03:02 | Russia has conducted a test with an intercontinental missile, reports the Russian Defense Ministry via state news agency RIA. In the southern region of Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, a long-range ballistic missile was launched from a military training area. The missile landed as planned at a training area in neighboring Kazakhstan, the ministry said.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Moscow has already tested several long-range missiles. On March 25, Russia announced it would deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. These are missiles that have a shorter range than ICBMs.
World Bank: Europe must also finance the reconstruction of Ukraine
02:45 am | The World Bank wants to contribute to the future reconstruction of Ukraine after the Russian invasion, but the international financial institutions cannot bear the costs alone and Western European countries will have to intervene. The president of the World Bank, David Malpass, said this on Tuesday during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Malpass noted in his speech that the World Bank played an important role in rebuilding the European steel industry after World War II. A similar role could be played by the institution in Ukraine today. However, he described the scale of the aid needed as “daunting”. According to a recent estimate by the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Commission and Ukraine itself, $411 billion (€376.5 billion), or 2.6 times the gross domestic product, is needed to rebuild the Ukrainian economy scheduled for 2022.
The estimated costs are mainly due to the damage the Russians have caused to infrastructure, especially the electricity supply, road network and railways, Malpass said. And: “The European Union has large financial resources that can be used”.