An Exceptional Cruelty
While reviewing some of the coverage announcing Garry Kasparov‘s withdrawal from the presidential race, I noticed the following paragraph in the AP story, which left me speechless:
Month: December 2007
David Satter: Sidekick in Chief
David Satter has a great opinion column in the Wall Street Journal today: “Sharing power with another leader is not in Russia’s tradition, however, and given the conditions that exist in the country today, the lack of clear lines of au...
Michael McFaul: Stepping Down is Putin’s First Democratic Move
From Michael McFaul in the Moscow Times: By committing to stepping down as president by naming a successor, Putin has taken a small but important step toward democratization. Since December 1993, political forces of all ideological persuasions hav...
The Highly Sensitive Triangular Equations between Russia, China, and the United States
From the Asia Times: Apropos the “correlation of forces” (to use Marxian idiom) in the international arena, Putin has made a big statement. He has shrewdly estimated that Washington is doing all it can to mend fences with Beijing so as...
RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Dec. 13, 2007
Today: Lavrov clarifies British Council move; Kasparov steps down from presidential race; Poland could lift EU-Russia veto; news that Russia and Belarus are in talks to unite is met by protests; hopes of re-writing the CFE Treaty; Rostov bird flu ...
I Know Dmitri Medvedev, says Condoleezza Rice
Question: how does one cautiously express praise and approval, while at the same time scolding and criticizing? Answer: Condi Rice. Here’s an excerpt about Russia from the transcript her talk with a USA Today Editorial Board Roundtable: QUES...
Anders Aslund on the Yukos Confiscation
Today Anders Aslund has an interesting piece in the Washington Post looking into Geneva-based billionaire Gennady Timchenko, Igor Sechin, Oleg Shvartsman, and the rumors behind Vladimir Putin’s $40 billion of shares in companies Surgutnefteg...
RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Dec. 12, 2007
Today: Medvedev offers Putin a new job; Russia wants almost all operations of the British Council to be shut down; the OSCE urges Russia to reconsider its freezing of the CFE Treaty; Putin says “no state capitalism”. The biggest story in the UK to...
NYT Editorial: How the New President of Russia Can Show Power
An editorial in today’s New York Times makes the familiar point that Dmitri Medvedev is relatively weak within the administration, and does not possess an independent base of power outside of Putin’s favor. The newspaper argues that on...
Video: “Disbelief”, a Film by Andrei Nekrasov
Below is the full documentary film “Disbelief” by Andrei Nekrasov, who below penned a column for this blog. The film, which debuted in 2004, presents a theory of the 1999 apartment bombings.