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Business Matters: Russia Threatens Retaliation After Crimea Blackout

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Russia Threatens Retaliation After Crimea Blackout

25/11/2015 GMT

BBC World Service - Business Matters, Russia Threatens Retaliation After Crimea Blackout

Russian Energy Minister says Moscow would cut gas to Ukraine on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Russian Energy Minister says Moscow would cut gas supplies and might also halt coal supplies to Ukraine in retaliation for a power blackout of Crimea.

US President Barack Obama has called for calm after the shooting down of a Russian military plane near the Turkish-Syrian border.  Turkey says its jets shot at the plane because it was violating Turkish airspace. But Moscow says the plane never left Syrian airspace.

These developments in the Middle East could have an impact on another geopolitical issue.  Relations between Russia and Ukraine are on another downward spiral after electricity pylons serving Crimea were blown up on Sunday, plunging much of the peninsula - annexed by Russia last year - into darkness. The BBC's David Stern is in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine, not far from Crimea.

Brussels is home to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO as well as being the capital city of Belgium.  But for the last few days the city has been in lockdown.  The metro system shut, schools and universities too, as heavily armed soldiers patrol the streets.  Many businesses have closed their doors too. We hear from a hotel owner, as well as the Financial Times Brussels bureau chief, Peter Spiegel.

For years, virtual reality has been a feature of science-fiction movies. And more recently we've seen it slowly creeping into our daily lives. 

With headsets such as the Oculus Rift and Sony's Morpheus due to come on to the market in 2016, developers are desperate to show off their products in the hope that it might justify their hefty price tags. But one sector which has already begun to embrace virtual reality is the art world, with exhibitions popping up in cities around the globe. Our reporter Joe Miller has been into central London to find out more.

All this and more discussed with our two guests from either side of the Pacific.  Tony Nash, chief economist at Complete Intelligence, in Singapore. Paddy Hirsch, senior editor at Marketplace, in Los Angeles.

(Photo: People walk along a street in central Simferopol, Crimea. Credit: Getty Images).

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