Stratfor writes today:

"Moscow’s options are varied, but its most likely strategy is three-pronged: bring pressure to bear on eastern Ukraine with limited military incursions; create unrest in the Baltics (now part of NATO and the European Union) and the Caucasus, and prevent anti-Russian movements from coalescing in eastern Europe.
"Europe’s position now becomes critical. Fractured and burdened by its ongoing financial crisis and lacking unity on military issues, the European Union could find it difficult to counter Russian moves – whether they appear as financial incentives to the struggling states of central and eastern Europe or threats of armed conflict along the periphery. Looking into the future, the Ukraine crisis ultimately could test the core assumptions binding the EU – and the NATO alliance – together."

What worries me more than the weakness of the west is that Putin changed course over the period of only 10 days, first saying that Russia didn't want to annex Crimea before the vote, and then going ahead with a full legal Russian takeover. The theory that Putin is a strategist with a plan is wrong: he made those hands-off statements before he acted in a contrary fashion to them.

So now the EU, NATO, the former Comecon, and the US will no longer believe any Russian promise. This is not a sign of strategic wisdom but of political weakness.

Today we have news of a water crisis in Brazil; stock down ratings in Jordan, London, and Dubai; my advice for an Irish bookie; news on Mongolian real estate; a profit warning from Canada, a "sin [without] bla bla bla" comment on Portuguese telecoms; news on the first company in our portfolio hit by Putin's Crimea land-grab; a note from Thailand; and a really raunchy new stock pick.

*There are major players trying to bridge the gap between alternative energy sources and the power grid. The gap is a major problem for solar roofing (because the sun doesn't shine overnight and people want a hot shower in the morning). It is a problem with wind power when the breeze stops blowing. While some pundits consider the idea of reversing the water flow in dams to store alternative energy for when it is needed, the future of electric cars and solar heating depends on better storage batteries.

There are many players. The battery guys are Rayovac (SPC), Energizer (ENR), Duracell (PG), Eveready (BSE). The electric car crowd includes not just Tesla (TSLA), but also Prius (TM), Mitsubishi (MIELY), Mazda (MZDAF), and China's BYD in which Warren Buffett has invested. And not to forget brown goods makers like Panasonic (PCRFF), Samsung (SSNLF), LG, Sony (SNE), Hitachi-Maxell (HMXLF).

Here is my entrant, raunchy  Electrovaya (EFL.TO, EFVLF on the pinks.) It designs and makes patented lithium ion SuperPolymer(R) batteries, battery and energy storage systems for clean electric transportation, portable energy, utility scale energy storage, smart grid power, consumer, and healthcare markets. Its manufacturing processes do not use toxic chemicals like cadmium or lead (why most batteries have to be recycled) or n-methyl purrolidone, which may cause birth defects. They are protected by 150 patents.

Founded in 1996 by an Indian-Canadian engineer and hq'd in Mississauga, Canada, Electrovaya is being boosted by the local government thanks to good connections. We discovered it because it was granted funding alongside our Canadian Solar (CSIQ) for a micro-grid energy storage project. It will be part of the PM Harper's Canadian delegation to sell tech to Germany right before its AGM March 28.

It's broke.

Its revenues rose 131% in Q1 of the current FY (it reports in US$ and its year ends Sept. 30). Its cash on hand dropped by half and it borrowed C$6.8 mn to keep going, backed among other things by shares owned by its founder, Chairman CEO Sankar Das Gupta. That was late last year and amounted to C$6.3 mn. It's less now with the loony down so I hope they moved the money fast.

It has never made any money but is close to break-even, having lost barely any money in Q1.

Electrovaya 18 months ago began to market the SuperPolymer® MN-HP Series. The energy version scalable battery holds 200Watts/hour per kilogram, one of the highest energy densities for a commercial lithium ion cell in a large prismatic design. It also makes an external laptop batter for laptop and tablets. It makes turnkey batteries for outfits like NASA in space and underwater vehicles.

The only thing it doesn't make is money.

The MN-HP series cells use commercially proven electrode materials such as graphite anodes and lithium metal mixed oxide cathodes to achieve long cycle life and good safety. Electrovaya''s MN-HP cells typically have 50-70% higher energy density than phosphate cells, over 120% higher energy density than lithium titanate cells, and about 600% higher energy density than standard lead acid batteries.

Higher energy density cells require less material for a given energy capacity, lowering costs. Higher energy density cells contain proportionately lower amounts of flammable electrolytes, which substantially improves safety. Electrovaya MN-HP cells come in 30-40 amps/hr format (110 - 150Wh) and are housed in a flat polymer pouch. You add a pouch if you need more storage. The electrode materials are commercially viable lithium metal mixed oxide cathodes and graphite anodes.

Electrovaya has been around. Before the global financial crisis, it partnered with GM to peddle battery- fed little"smart city" vans for postal or UPS deliveries. The Maya 300 was featured at the science museum in Baltimore. The jv, a first for electric car rentals which could go 125 miles on single charge, if slowly, died when GM filed for bankruptcy. The same vans are now being used by a British utility under a test program.

It also offers small portable systems for other usage, with 900 to 3600 megaWatts of power. It also makes green marine systems for powering maritime transport and big energy storage systems for the electric grid. For the calendar year 2014 Electrovaya expects sales to top $15 million.

Now there are two ways to view the way Dr Das Gupta has bet the farm on the Super-Polymer MN-HP and the rest. Either he is a serial gambler, or he is on to something. The US share is in penny-land, at $1.05. There are no earnings. There are 75 million shares outstanding and the Das Guptas and the board own the majority. (Dr. Das Gupta's brother and some well-connected Canadians are on the board.)

*After the UK budget boosted taxes on one-armed bandits I hope Paddy Power plc (PLS.IE) will cut its silly program of trying to compete with British bookies in offering fixed-odds betting machines in UK stores. This is the key business of Paddy Powers rivals like William Hill and Ladbrokes. The tax was raised to 25% and the number of machines per site remains limited to four. Just to get at these rivals by offering what the Brits call "crack cocaine" gambling devices is not a good strategy for Paddy. Its current level of ~3% of the UK market is just fine with me.

*Paul Renaud writes from Thailand on the court over ruling the Feb. election which was supposed to end the crisis over Yingluck Shinawatra's legitimacy:

"Life goes on.

" Demco PCL (DEMCO) will participate in an institutional roadshow in Singapore Apri1 1 organized by MayBank Kim Eng.Demco is up 50% so far this year vs the index which is up barely 20%. The big boys will now learn about it as well, albeit at much higher prices."

Paul boats. While it is now 10 Thai bahts, Demco was as much as 17 bahts before the political crisis. It makes transmission lines for electric and telecom networks and has branched out into wind power. It reported a drop in earnings of 7.6% in 2013 to baht 6 billion on which net profit rose 17% to bahts 392.6 million with service revenues offsetting the drop in new sales.

But it is still trading at a 14x p/e ratio and yields a nice 2.2% in bahts to next pay May 22. He wrote this stock up for us years ago and we love it too. It is trading only in Bangkok and is not in the model portfolio as a result. But many readers and me still own it. You can buy it in Asia with brokers like boom.com on condition that you are not a US resident or citizen. We bought it before my bank (HSBC) dropped its Thai brokerage sub. Paul runs www.Thaistocks.com

*The reason Saneamento Basico de São Paulo is struggling: politics over a lack of rain. The reservoirs supplying ~30 million Brazilians in São Paulo state (covering municipalities outside the city) are dry. But facing an election, the Dilma Roussef national and Geraldo Alckmin state governments are resisting SBS pleas for imposing water-rationing to keep the faucets flowing. SBS reservoirs are now at a historic low, 14.9% of capacity. SBS is expensively hauling water in tank trucks from distant areas and tapping into the Cantareira technical reserve which is supposed to come into use only during the future dry season. I dread to think what will happen when the footfall World Cup demand hits.

*Desculpe; in the end, after struggling with the document, I opted not to vote to enable Portugal Telecom (PT) SGPS SA to discuss terms of its takeover by Oi shareholders in Brazil, firstly because the vote is not binding, and second because the document omits too much about the deal and the players.

Sim bla bla bla to quote the Oi ad slogan, it looks like PT is successfully selling the deal to the Oi institutional investors who count and lined up financing for the merger despite the generalized malaise of capital markets in both countries.

Now Brazilian banks have agreed to pay 6 billion reais ($2.5 bn) of new stock.

The deal will require Oi to sell ~8 billion reais in new stock and use proceeds to cut debt. PT will use its assets in Brazil but not its Oi stake to then own 38% of Oi, to be named CorpCo. Oi will own 30% of CorpCo and Brazilian banks and pension planes the remainder.

The capital increase for Oil is due to take place in April.

After selling another Brazil telco to Telefonica (TEF) of Spain, PT bought a quarter of Oil 4 years ago. Both stocks have sunk since pushed them to merge. Zeinal Bava, from the PT side, heads both companies.

The merger terms were worked out with two large private Oi controlling shareholders. It was attacked by Glass Lewis on behalf of minority shareholders in Oi. The capital increase, the NYC firm said, favors large Oi shareholders including PT.

*Mongolia Growth Group Feb. same store commercial rental income rose 41.6% in local currency, the Mongolian Togrog. Occupancy at properties owned for a year hit 92.7%, 98.7% in retailing sites and 81.5% in office. (MNGGF) stateside, (YAK+ in Toronto.

*Bauer Performance Sports (BAU) delivered a mid-quarter preliminary profit warning for the quarter to end Feb. It expects revenues to reach $61-63 million and to have gross profits of $19-21 mn. However, cash flow (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) will be negative $3.5 million to 2.5 million. EPS will be negative 10 to 12 cents, comparable to last year's.

*More bad news from Canada. Bombardier says its jv talks with Russia have been derailed by the Ukraine crisis, although they were not with its railroad arm, but for co-production of the Q400 turboprop airplane. BDRBF Aerospace Pres. Guy Hachey told an investors' conference yesterday that "discussions have softened up" on assembling the 66 to 90-seater plane under a US$3.4 billion deal for 100 planes for Rostec to be leased and funded by Ilyushin Finance..

*Hikma(HIK) was downrated to hold from buy by Jeffreries Intl brokers. The Jordanian drug firm is listed in Dubai and London; we own its ADR, (HKMPY).