Derek Brower: Another lame duck

By Citizen M | Published: October 17, 2007

A proposal to import Central Asian oil into eastern Europe and break the region’s dependence on Russian crude faces the same old problems Derek Brower, journalist FOR politicians in Poland and the Baltics, it seems like a wonderful idea. If Russia is no longer willing to export oil to the region, then upgrade an existing […]

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RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct. 17, 2007

By Citizen M | Published:

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev (R-L) pose for photographers while attending the Caspian Sea Littoral States summit in Tehran October 16, 2007. (Raheb Homavandi/Reuters) President Vladimir Putin’s annual call-in show, due to take place this week, has already attracted […]

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Webcast: Congressional Hearing on Yukos

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: October 16, 2007

Tomorrow at 2:00 PM (EST), the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology is holding a hearing on the Yukos affair with my colleague Tim Osborne, Anders Åslund and others. You can tune in for a live webcast here. U.S.-Russia Economic Relationship: Implications of the Yukos Affair Wednesday, October […]

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Video: McDonald’s Booming in Russia

By James Kimer | Published:

This video from the Wall Street Journal accompanies the much-discussed article “As Burgers Boom in Russia, McDonald’s Touts Discipline.” As this blog has reported in the past, there remain tremendous business opportunities in Russia for retail, advertising, financial services, and consumer and food services. Strategic sectors are a whole other question. There is of course […]

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Worldwide Press Freedom Index and Russia

By Robert Amsterdam | Published:

Press freedom watchdog Reporters without Borders has published its 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which ranked Russia at 144, just below Yemen and Afghanistan and above Tunisia and Egypt. Poland and Bulgaria were among the worst performers in the European Union.

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Yukos: The Theft that Keeps on Giving and Giving

By Robert Amsterdam | Published:

Hats off in congratulations to the bureaucrats sitting atop Rosneft, which just reported strong quarterly sales results of $10.8 billion – up from $8.6 billion from the same period in 2006, thanks to the company’s “managerial excellence” (Or, as Vidya Ram of Forbes writes: “The success was largely thanks to the company’s acquisition of refineries […]

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Three Hundred Meters to Murder

By Robert Amsterdam | Published:

Back on Sept. 20, a deadly firefight broke out in the mountainous breakaway region of Abkhazia – the separatist “frozen conflict” area where Georgia and Russia play an endless game of tug-of-war. When the smoke cleared, there were two dead Abkhazian fighters, two dead Russian soldiers, many wounded, and two differing accounts of the incident. […]

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The Ideological Challenge of Economic Success

By Robert Amsterdam | Published:

In today’s column, Anne Applebaum spends some time in the Skype offices of Tallinn, Estonia to contemplate the difficult dynamic of historical reckoning, sovereignty, and economic growth among Russia’s former satellite states: One Estonian politician told me that a German colleague had instructed him to forget about history and move on, saying that “you’re wasting […]

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The Importance of Russian Trade Associations

By Robert Amsterdam | Published:

This week a new study was published by the talented Dr. Ariel Cohen and Viacheslav Evseev about the growing importance of the Russian private sector’s role in sustaining economic ties with the United States (given that political relations are at such a low). The conclusions of this study are another reminder that it is in […]

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RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct. 16, 2007

By Citizen M | Published:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin review an honor guard, during an official welcoming ceremony for Putin, who arrived to attend the Caspian Sea leaders summit in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) The Other Russia opposition coalition plans to hold rallies in a number of major Russian […]

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