Archive - Apr 26, 2014

It is becoming abundantly clear that any further attempts by the west (and Russia which ironically is a member of the OSCE) to inject third parties in what is a clear conflict between Russia and Ukraine, will be met with failure. Which is why we read with amusement that in the latest attempt to de-escalate violence, now that diplomacy has failed, the OSCE has dispatched a negotiating team to try to secure the release of the first OSCE group, a German government source said on Saturday. "A negotiating team from the OSCE is on the way to the region," said the source, declining to give further details, including exactly where they were heading.

It is not true that there has been a secret protocol, reintroducing fixed exchange rates, though the lackluster price action in the foreign exchange market and the continued erosion of volatility make it feel almost like it.