Brussels has imposed sanctions on 22 Myanmar officials and a state- owned oil and gas company that has been a major source of funding for the ruling junta.

Russia's move to recognise the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk has sent ripples through global markets on Tuesday, with falls across Asia, and in early trading in Europe. Oil prices also jumped, with the international benchmark Brent Crude hitting its highest level since mid-2014. Investors are now focusing on which sanctions the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union might impose on Russia in response.

Global stock markets have taken a beating as investors rush for safe havens amid an escalation in geopolitical tensions over Ukraine. Russian stocks and bonds as well as the ruble are among the biggest losers.

All bets are off: the Russian president has made his move. Months of Western efforts to stave off a Crimea-like land grab seem to have been wiped out with the stroke of a pen. Does Vladimir Putin's recognition of two breakaway regions of Ukraine's Donbass as independent mean war? Armoured vehicles are now near the front line, after Putin claimed that another Vladimir - Lenin - gave away eastern Ukraine when he formed the Soviet Union. We discuss the situation, and the international response.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, says the geopolitical volatility and limited supplies mean oil prices will continue to rise and are likely to pass well beyond the symbolic $100 per barrel level.

The Biden administration has announced plans to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2 AG, the company building a controversial gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced sanctions against Russian banks and the country's wealthy elite after what he said was Moscow's launching of an invasion against Ukraine.

World powers, including the United States and the European Union, have announced their first round of sanctions against Russia over its recognition of two breakaway republics in Ukraine. They include blacklisting certain banks, barring American and European banks from trading Russian government bonds, and targeting individuals with asset freezes and travel bans. FRANCE 24's Business Editor Stephen Carroll looks at how the measures might affect the Russian economy.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will send experts and sophisticated monitoring equipment to help Peru assess and limit the environmental damage from a major oil spill in its coastal waters, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the Foreign Minister of the South American nation today.

Western nations have agreed on more economic sanctions against Russia, but the energy sector is a delicate issue, says Theresa Fallon, director of the Centre for Russia Europe Asia Studies.

Russia's top banks, technology and aerospace industries, and debt markets are targeted by the United States, Britain and the European Union in response to the invastion of Ukraine. But the West remains divided on excluding Russia from the SWIFT interbank transfer system.

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