Content: 2 Top Stories 5 The Regions This Week 10 Eastern Europe 13 Eurasia 17 Central Europe 20 Southeast Europe 23 Opinion 25 Lists 24 Lists
bne:Newspaper Follow us on twitter.com/bizneweurope February 13, 2015
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Marathon talks produce partial peace deal for Ukraine bne IntelliNews After a marathon negotiating session that lasted 17 hours, Russia, Ukraine and the EU have thrashed out the framework for a partial peace deal to bring the fighting in the east of Ukraine to an end, the various parties announced on February 12. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a brief statement, after what has been dubbed the "Duracell summit" in the Belarusian capital of
Minsk, that a ceasefire would come into effect at midnight on Sunday, February 15, when both the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russia separatists must withdraw their heavy weapons. "I would ask conflicting parties to stop the bloodshed at the earliest possible date and start a See page 2
Raiffeisen draws in its horns in CEE Robert Anderson in Prague Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), the second largest lender in Central and Eastern Europe, will sell its banking operations in Poland and Slovenia, and scale back its exposure to Russia and Ukraine in order to boost its capital buffers. The decision follows steep falls in the Austrian bank’s shares and bonds in January sparked by the Ukraine crisis and the Swiss central bank’s
decision to end the Swiss franc’s peg to the euro. RBI is heavily exposed to Russia and Ukraine, and has thousands of clients in the region who have taken out Swiss franc mortgages. The bank said in a statement on February 9 that the moves should help increase its Tier 1 capital ratio to See page 4