Month: June 2008

June 6, 2008

Energy Investment in Venezuela and Nigeria, Parts 3 and 4

Here are the second two videos from Bob’s speech at the World Affairs Council of Houston. There is a lot of discussion about the rise of state-owned firms, the loss of U.S. soft power, and the new competition gap that international energy co...
June 6, 2008

Russian Corruption Bags $120 Billion per Year

Today a senior Russian prosecutor, Alexander Bastrykin, has been quoted as claiming that corrupt state officials are bleeding the state of a whopping 1/3 of the annual budget – an equivalent of $120 billion. This astonishing figure is hard t...
June 6, 2008

Careful Optimism Following Medvedev’s Visit to Germany

From the Moscow Times: There was also careful optimism at home about Medvedev’s comments. Yury Shmidt, a lawyer for Khodorkovsky, said by telephone from St. Petersburg that the statements were grounds for quiet optimism that Medvedev wanted ...
June 6, 2008

Energy Blast – June 6, 2008

“The Caspian Sea Basin — home to some of the world’s largest hydrocarbon resources — is becoming a new focal point for fierce competition.” The Russian government has approved a draft agreement to cooperate with the Lithuanian go...
June 6, 2008

Today in Russian Business – June 6, 2008

The “glitzy” St Petersburg Economic Forum will take place this weekend, giving Russia an opportunity to “project its new confidence on a gloomy world economy”. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and VTB’s president discussed the prospects for the estab...
June 6, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – June 6, 2008

TODAY: Medvedev adopts “soft-sell” approach in Berlin; EU officials mediate between Georgia and Russia; Putin seeks museum investment; future looks bleak for tabloid The eXile. President Dmitry Medvedev is “satisfied” with the results of his talks...
June 5, 2008

In BP’s Russia Crisis, Cui Bono?

It may have been Deepthroat’s sage advice to “follow the money” that led Woodward and Bernstein to take down the Nixon administration, but for those seeking to understand the prolonged crisis plaguing BP with regard to subsidiary...
June 5, 2008

Energy Investment in Venezuela and Nigeria (parts 1 and 2)

Here are some clips from a speech recently given by Robert Amsterdam at the World Affairs Council of Houston, Texas, on the comparative energy investment environments of Nigeria and Venezuela – with special attention paid to the rise of stat...
June 5, 2008

Tangled Pipelines in the Caspian

I realize that I have a lot of catch up to do with a number of interesting energy developments in Europe, not least what Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero has been saying, but also the Nord Stream discussions during Medvedev’s visit ...