Hello and welcome to RVK Newscast! Editor-in-chief, Valur Grettisson, is joined by his Chief Morale Officer Pollý to bring you all the latest in Icelandic news: verbal clashes with Russia, the controversial sale of an Icelandic bank and an avalanche in the Westfjords. Sigurður Ingi, Minister of Infrastructure in Iceland and chair of the Progressive Party, has come under fire from the Russian embassy after he made a speech referring to Russian politicians as “villains.” Sigurður made the remarks at his party’s conference last week, and the Russian embassy was quick to respond via a Facebook post where they demanded he rescinds his comments. In what has become a tit-for-tat war of words, Sigurður has announced he will gladly take the comments back – if Russia stops its war against Ukraine. Read more here.
The Icelandic government has sold a 22.5% share of the nationally-owned bank, Íslandsbanki. The sale has been very controversial due to the shares being offered at a lower price than their worth, and the secrecy surrounding the sale and the identity of the new investors. Minister of Finance, Bjarni Benediktsson, has been criticised by MPs from other parties, as well as by the head of one of Iceland’s biggest unions, Ragnar Þór of VR. A woman has miraculously survived driving through an avalanche in the Westfjords. Dagbjört Hjaltadóttir, was driving between Ísafjörður and Súðavík when she was caught up in the avalanche. Incredibly, both herself and her car escaped unscathed, but she has been critical of the authorities for not closing the road sooner when there was clearly a risk of such a disaster occurring.
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