Month: November 2007

November 22, 2007

Cleaning Up the BS

Here’s great photo from Kommersant’s article “Unity of Forum and Content.” The photo shows the stage at at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin made his especially aggressive speech yesterday attacking...
November 22, 2007

The Renegade of United Russia

This week the fiery commentator from the Moscow Times, Yulia Latynina, has a column about the “renegade” of the ruling United Russia party, who brazenly suggested on national television that the party’s slogan should not be ̶...
November 22, 2007

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Nov. 22, 2007

President Vladimir Putin addresses the crowd at the rally, organized by backers at a stadium in downtown Moscow on Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007. Thousands of people gathered in a sports arena to show their support for Putin ahead of parliamentary elec...
November 21, 2007

Helmut Schmidt Makes Alarming Claims About Russia

Yesterday I wrote in the German magazine Stern that the SPD is probably the European political party most captured by the Kremlin’s influence. Is there no one left among the old guard of the social democrats that doesn’t have the wool ...
November 21, 2007

Weapons Maker Loves Russia’s Current Political Path

In reference to the United Russia rally which I blogged about below, here’s an interesting bit of news: in attendance was one Mr. Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, the 88-year-old designer of Russia’s third most popular export after oi...
November 21, 2007

Russia’s Delusions of Persecution

There are times when it can be an interesting exercise to examine the statements of politicians and try to separate what they actually believe from what they just say in order to get things done. In the case of Vladimir Putin, we had all better ho...
November 21, 2007

Sakhalin as a Global Energy Power Play

In the new issue of Condé Nast Portfolio, there’s a great extended feature and photo slideshow about Vladimir Putin’s ambitions with the energy reserves of Sakhalin Island, which have brought outstanding prosperity to some islanders wh...
November 21, 2007

Derek Brower: Nabucco realities

The discovery of more gas in Azerbaijan could be good news for the Nabucco project. But an agreement between OMV and Gazprom makes it irrelevant By Derek Brower THE BUREAUCRATS must be scratching their heads. Having long-trumpeted the Nabucco pipe...
November 21, 2007

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Nov. 21, 2007

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin stands before a meeting at the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow in this April 2007 (File photo. REUTERS/ITAR-TASS/PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE) The Supreme Court has rejected a request f...
November 20, 2007

Stalin’s Poetry, Mussolini’s Violin

File this piece of news under WTF: The Russian government’s English-language overseas news network, Russia Today, wants you to make them your preferred source for cable and satellite news. So they recruited a new mascot for their advertiseme...