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Russia’s economy is nose-diving: |
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© AP/Pavel Golovkin Via The Washington Post’s Jeff Stein, “Overnight, European leaders imposed new measures that effectively cut Russia off from its financial reserves. The U.S. Treasury Department followed suit with similar steps on Monday morning.” https://wapo.st/3Kk23d1 Basically: “[A]ll people in the United States and European Union are banned from trading with Russia’s central bank.” Even before this new round of restrictions: “Russia’s economy was already showing signs of severe distress before the new measures were implemented, with crowds of Russians rushing to withdraw cash from ATMs and the value of the nation’s currency plunging dramatically.” Where things stand with the Russian economy: https://wapo.st/3Kk23d1 |
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| ^ WHAT THEN HAPPENED — RUSSIA’S CURRENCY PLUMMETED IN VALUE: |
| Via The Associated Press, “The ruble fell about 30% against the dollar Monday — making it worth less than 1 U.S. cent — after the U.S., European Union and United Kingdom announced moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payment system…” https://cbsn.ws/3IuGl5r ^ Oh … and the Russian stock market closed today: https://cnb.cx/36ORXCm |
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| WHY THE FINANCIAL SANCTIONS HAVE BEEN THE STRATEGY — ‘THE WEST’S PLAN TO ISOLATE PUTIN: UNDERMINE THE RUBLE’: |
| Via The New York Times’s Patricia Cohen and Jeanna Smialek, “By targeting Russia’s central bank with sanctions, experts said, American and European leaders have taken aim at what could be one of President Vladimir V. Putin’s greatest weaknesses: the country’s currency.” Read the full explainer: https://nyti.ms/35DnciU |
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| NEW POLL — AMERICANS DO NOT WANT DIRECT MILITARY ACTION IN UKRAINE: |
| Via CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta and Ariel Edwards-Levy, “Americans overwhelmingly favor increased economic sanctions against Russia and broadly support further action to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but most oppose direct US military action, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.” The poll: https://cnn.it/35fpp4s |
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Happening today — a rare UN General Assembly emergency meeting: |
| Via CBS News’s Pamela Falk, “The United Nations General Assembly [is meeting] Monday for a rare Emergency Special Session to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine.” https://cbsn.ws/3povVNj The rarity of this meeting: This session is “the first of its kind in 40 years and only the 11th such session in U.N. history.” Here’s the C-SPAN livestream of the emergency meeting: https://bit.ly/3BXMncm |
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| It’s Monday. Today is the last day of February! I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@thehill.com — and follow along on Twitter @CateMartel and Facebook. Did someone forward this to you? Want your own copy? Sign up here to receive The Hill's 12:30 Report in your inbox daily: http://bit.ly/2UoupvN |
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Was this a Vlad tantrum or a real threat?: |
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© Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP Via The New York Times’s David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, “When Vladimir V. Putin declared Sunday that he was putting his nuclear forces into ‘special combat readiness’ — a heightened alert status reminiscent of some of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War — President Biden and his aides had a choice.” https://nyti.ms/3ItF5iQ The options: Escalate the situation or basically ignore Putin and call his bluff. The direction Biden has gone so far: “For now, at least, Mr. Biden chose to de-escalate. The American ambassador to the United Nations reminded the Security Council on Sunday afternoon that Russia was ‘under no threat’ and chided Mr. Putin for ‘another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all.’ The White House made it clear that America’s own alert status had not changed.” What we know: https://nyti.ms/3ItF5iQ |
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| ‘WOULD VLADIMIR PUTIN ACTUALLY USE NUCLEAR WEAPONS?’: |
| Via The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh: https://bit.ly/3vpU1uB |
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| TIDBIT — OMG, THE OPTICS OF THIS PHOTO: |
| ABC News’s Jonathan Karl posted a photo of Putin meeting with his advisers. The photo: https://bit.ly/3ppLLXJ |
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Zelensky is a global hero right now: |
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© AP/Efrem Lukatsky, file Via The Hill’s Ian Swanson, “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has emerged as a hero to his nation's citizens and far beyond as the former actor and comedian first elected in 2019 remains in his country at great personal risk during its bombardment by Russia.” https://bit.ly/3IyPjP2 “Zelensky, who agreed on Sunday to talks at the Belarus border with Russia to end the military conflict, has been his country’s man in the capital city of Kyiv, where he has issued a series of videos urging Ukrainians to resist the invasion.” The full story: https://bit.ly/3IyPjP2 |
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| HERE’S A VIDEO ZELENSKY POSTED FROM THE STREETS OF KYIV, UKRAINE: |
| Watch: https://bit.ly/3IKmaRf |
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| A LIGHTER, TANGENTIALLY RELATED TIDBIT — I JUST THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW: |
| Tweets surfaced over the weekend confirming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is, in fact, the voice of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian version of the 2014 movie. How the…?: “Before becoming president, Zelensky was one of the most popular and successful comedians in Ukraine and the star of several films and TV series.” More from The Hollywood Reporter: https://bit.ly/3hn7R99 Sooo, let us see!: Here’s a clip from Twitter user @hughbon: https://bit.ly/3hn5L9d |
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| SIGHTS AND SOUNDS IN UKRAINE THIS WEEKEND: |
| Ukraine’s foreign minister says Ukraine ‘is not ready to surrender or capitulate’: More from CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt: https://cnb.cx/3BYeubp A sign in Kyiv: Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko tweeted, “New sign in Kyiv: Putin lost. The whole world is with Ukraine. Leave without blood on your hands.” Photo of the sign: https://bit.ly/3M6Hp1v Ukrainian soldiers adopted a puppy: Via The London Economic, Ukrainian soldiers brought a small, stray dog into their post. From the soldiers: “We felt sorry for him. It was freezing outside. We took him into our post, and he stayed with us.” https://bit.ly/3tfFkrB Watch the clip — it has more than 3.4 million views: https://bit.ly/3HyC53j ^ My favorite line: CNN’s Natasha Bertrand tweeted a line from the clip, "He is security. That's his job!" https://bit.ly/3HyC53j Yes, you are, Rambo! |
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| SIGHTS AND SOUNDS AROUND THE WORLD THIS WEEKEND: |
| The growing protests in Moscow, Russia: Political scientist predicted, “surely getting bigger when the [R]ussian economy implodes…” Watch: https://bit.ly/3MbgHEO
A huge line outside a Ukrainian restaurant in New York: MSNBC’s Lauren Peikoff tweeted, “Line around the block for NYC’s amazing Ukrainian restaurant Veselka.” Photo: https://bit.ly/3ItyLrv
Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) Putin description: “He’s a small, evil, feral-eyed man,” Romney said over the weekend. https://bit.ly/3MkmiJk There were some protests outside the White House: Photo from The Huffington Post’s Igor Bobic: https://bit.ly/3BZbjjy 
© AP/Alex Brandon Flowers and notes have been left at the Ukraine embassy in Washington, D.C.: Photo from @OverheardWDC: https://bit.ly/3pnZHBy |
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| ‘WHAT IS PUTIN’S EXIT STRATEGY?’: |
| Read The Hill’s op-ed from The Atlantic Council’s Harlan Ullman: https://bit.ly/3C0r5KX |
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A sad way to start the week: |
| Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) announced this morning that her husband, Richard Blum, has died from cancer. From her announcement: “My heart is broken today. My husband was my partner and best friend for more than 40 years. He was by my side for the good times and for the challenges. I am going to miss him terribly.” Read Feinstein’s full statement: https://bit.ly/35CPgmQ |
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Up next on the balance beam, we have Joseph R. Biden: |
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© Giphy Via The Hill’s Alex Gangitano, “President Biden’s first State of the Union address Tuesday is poised to be a delicate balancing act between relaying his legislative priorities before a closely-divided Congress and courting weary voters ahead of the midterms who are feeling the pain of inflation and continued pandemic fatigue.” Plus, the obvious: “The address also comes against the backdrop of freshly issued U.S. sanctions that aim to punish Russia in response to aggression by the Kremlin toward Ukraine.” More on the dynamic Biden must balance: https://bit.ly/3vlZvGV |
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| BRIEF VIDEO PRIMER ON WHAT TO EXPECT DURING BIDEN’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS: |
| Watch: https://bit.ly/3hw9QHX |
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The fence around the US Capitol is back: |
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© AP/Patrick Semansky Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger announced yesterday that fencing will return around the U.S. Capitol for President Biden’s State of the Union address this week. https://bit.ly/3Hncaf6 Why — from Manger: “Out of an abundance of caution, and in conjunction with the United States Secret Service.” |
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| LATEST WITH THE CORONAVIRUS | |
Remember the 500 million free COVID-19 tests Biden gave out?: |
| Well, nearly half of those tests are still unclaimed, according to The Associated Press’s Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar: https://abcn.ws/3vrBQVw |
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| CASE NUMBERS: |
| Coronavirus cases in the U.S.: 79,245,629 U.S. death toll: 953,406 Breakdown of the numbers: https://cnn.it/2UAgW3y |
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| VACCINATION NUMBERS: |
| Total number of vaccinations administered in the U.S.: 552 million shots have been given. Seven-day average of doses administered: An average of 201,369 doses For context: The U.S. population is roughly 331 million. Breakdown of the numbers: https://bloom.bg/3iVTPLH |
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I logically know these are actors, but this is still a very weird photo for me: |
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© Giphy Here’s a photo of the actors who play Logan Roy, Kendall Roy and Roman Roy in HBO’s “Succession” hugging at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG Awards). Photo: https://bit.ly/3tiIKto |
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| The House and Senate are in. President Biden and Vice President Harris are in Washington, D.C. 9:50 a.m. EST: President Biden returns to the White House from Delaware. 10:30 a.m. EST: President Biden and Vice President Harris received the President’s Daily Brief. 11:15 a.m. EST: President Biden hosted a secure call with allies to discuss Russia and Ukraine. 2 p.m. EST: The House meets. 3 p.m. EST: The Senate meets. 5:30 p.m. EST: Up to two votes in the Senate. The Senate’s full agenda today: https://bit.ly/3GZExzG 6:30 p.m. EST: First and last votes in the House. The House’s full agenda today: https://bit.ly/3M9tzLS |
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| 2 p.m. EST: President Biden and first lady Jill Biden host a celebration to mark Black History Month. Vice President Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and a big group of administration officials also attend. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3JWV3SQ 2 p.m. EST: State Department spokesperson Ned Price holds a press briefing. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3IufK8F 3 p.m. EST: White House press secretary Jen Psaki holds a press briefing. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3JZ5aXq |
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© AP/Larry Crowe Today is National Chocolate Souffle Day. |
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| And because you read this far, here’s a standard pile of puppies: https://bit.ly/3su4jZ5 |
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