A Moscow court placed a US citizen under arrest for attempted drug trafficking, the latest of several Americans to be detained in Russia in recent years.

The United Arab Emirates banned ships arriving in its waters that sail under the flag of Cameroon — a move that distances the emirate from risky vessels that have been assembled to transport sanctioned oil.

Putin orders faulty defence plant to be nationalised

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a defence plant producing ammunition to be nationalised after it triggered a heating failure in an area near Moscow amid freezing temperatures, the local governor said.

Andrey Vorobyev, the Moscow governor, announced Putin’s decision in a post on Telegram on Tuesday. He cited issues with the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant’s boiler room. The plant was sanctioned by the US in July 2023. 

Investigators also arrested a senior local official and two factory managers for the heating system breakdown, Russian authorities said. 

The heating failure in the Podolsk area, where temperatures have reached as low as -20C, is just one example of regional power and heat infrastructure issues that have left thousands freezing in their homes this month. About 10 regions across the country experienced heating interruptions during the New Year holidays, including near Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg, the Izvestia newspaper reported.

More than 300,000 people live in the Podolsk district, including 50,000 in the Klimovsk area, which bore the brunt of the heating failure. Authorities have struggled to fix the problems for almost a week. 

Russia arrests US citizen accused of drug trafficking

A Moscow court placed a US citizen under arrest for attempted drug trafficking, the latest of several Americans to be detained in Russia in recent years. 

Robert Woodland Romanov will be held until 5 March under the order, the Interfax news service reported on Tuesday, citing the court. Other details of the case weren’t disclosed by the court. 

Putin said in December that Russia and the US were discussing possible prisoner swaps when he was asked about detained US citizens Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan. Putin said that any agreement between Russia and the US “must be mutually acceptable”. The US earlier had said Russia rejected an offer to secure the release of the two men.

Whelan was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison on spying charges. Gershkovich was detained last March on spying charges and still awaits trial. The US insists Russia is wrongfully detaining both men.

WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested at a Russian airport on drug possession charges, sentenced to nine years and moved to a penal colony before her release in December 2022 as part of a one-for-one trade for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer imprisoned in the US.

Blinken, Macron and Li to headline World Economic Forum in Davos

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron and Chinese Premier Li Qiang are among global luminaries set to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos. 

Those politicians are among a roster of attendees that will include 60 heads of state and government convening at next week’s meeting in the Swiss mountain resort at a time of simmering global tensions from the Middle East to the Pacific. 

European Union Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen, the leaders of Qatar, Spain and South Korea and the recently inaugurated president of Argentina, Javier Milei, are also on the guest list, while Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky will address the 15-19 January gatherings too.

“Rebuilding Trust” is the theme of the meeting of business and political leaders — “a direct response to the erosion of trust that is evident in societies, and among nations”, WEF managing director Mirek Dusek told reporters at an online briefing on Tuesday. 

Around 70 top officials will participate in a 14 January meeting on Ukraine’s peace formula to rally the Global South’s support in its resistance against Russia’s invasion. 

Read more: US, Allies met secretly with Ukraine, Global South on peace plan

Some 1,600 business leaders, including more than 800 chief executive officers, will attend sessions on global security, trade, climate change and the energy transition, as well as the impact of artificial intelligence on economies and jobs.  

UAE bans tankers flying Cameroon flag on safety concern

The United Arab Emirates banned ships arriving in its waters that sail under the flag of Cameroon — a move that distances the emirate from risky vessels that have been assembled to transport sanctioned oil. 

The Cameroon flag has been added to a restricted list and maritime companies and ship agents should not provide vessels registered in the African country with services, according to a Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure circular published on the Port of Fujairah website. The ban won’t apply to ships that have been assessed by a wider international classification body. 

Most merchant ships sail under flags far from the countries in which they’re owned or operated. Popular ones include Panama and the Marshall Islands, which are integral in upholding safety standards in the shipping industry.

But when Russia assembled a vast shadow fleet of tankers to keep its oil moving in the face of US sanctions, part of that fleet turned to little-known flags such as Cameroon’s.

As recently as the middle of last year, Cameroon was designated as having a very high risk of vessels failing safety inspections when calling at ports. 

The Cameroon-registered fleet of oil tankers is small but most have been to Russia in the past year. 

Russia reduces December crude output by most since cuts started

Russia curbed its crude oil output in December by the most since starting its cuts in early 2023, yet the nation still pumped more than its target, according to Bloomberg calculations based on official data.

Daily crude production averaged 1.306 million tonnes last month, said people familiar with data from the Energy Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the figures aren’t public. That equates to 9.57 million barrels a day, based on the typical 7.33-barrels-per-tonne conversion ratio for the nation’s oil.

That means Russia’s crude output in December was almost 60,000 barrels a day lower than the prior month and some 375,000 barrels a day below the February baseline for its production curbs, Bloomberg calculations show. Russia has pledged to reduce its crude output by 500,000 barrels a day until the end of this year. DM