VENTURE CAPITAL POST

EU governments extended for a year a ban on trade and investment with Crimea on Friday, meaning European help for Russian Black Sea oil and gas exploration and visits by European cruise ships will remain outlawed.

Russia has handed a multi-billion dollar contract to build a bridge to the Crimea peninsula to an ally and former judo partner of Vladimir Putin who is under Western sanctions.

Russia has agreed on a new deal to supply coal and electricity to Ukraine, which is struggling with a lack of raw fuel for power plants due to a separatist conflict in the industrial east, Russian officials said on Saturday.

The world's two largest credit and debit card companies, Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc, said on Friday they could no longer support bank cards being used in Crimea, following U.S. sanctions imposed earlier this month.

Late on Monday night Russia's central bank governor wrung out an agreement with her officials to impose the country's biggest rate hike since the financial crisis of 1998 -- with the approval of President Vladimir Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Turkey on Monday will have trade and energy issues at its heart, but is not expected to bridge deep differences over Syria and Crimea.

Crimeans should pay off their debts to Ukrainian banks despite now living under Russian law, a Russian central bank official was quoted as saying, marking a change in position by Moscow which had suggested ignoring any payment demands.

Ukraine will be forced to buy coal from Russia to get through the winter, a serious setback to the country's efforts to lessen energy dependence on its powerful neighbor, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan said on Wednesday.

Russia's largest steel pipe maker TMK (TRMK.MM) is considering an initial public offering for its U.S. unit to help offset an expected 1-2 percentage point rise in rouble borrowing costs over the next few years as Western sanctions bite.

Female central bankers from Ukraine and its bitter rival Russia took the stage together in Washington on Saturday and described differing fallout from the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

A selloff on Ukraine's dollar debt is focusing attention on a controversial $3 billion bond held by Russia, raising investor concerns that President Vladimir Putin could use the issue to trigger a cascade of defaults across Kiev's sovereign Eurobonds.

The European Union slapped new economic sanctions on Russia on Friday, but said they could be suspended if Moscow withdraws its troops from Ukraine and observes a ceasefire.

The Kremlin's worst clash with the West since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union has accelerated the outflow of two of Russia's most prized assets: money and brains.

Fighting flared in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Monday as investigators began to inspect the bodies of victims of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 last week.