Year: 2008

July 8, 2008

Gordon Brown Tripped Up by Leaks

Who is out to get Gordon Brown? Or perhaps more aptly, who isn’t? The beleaguered British Prime Minister probably couldn’t have had a more frustratingly empty first meeting with new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of...
July 8, 2008

Real vs. Rhetorical Liberalism

Over on the Guardian’s Comment is Free, William Harrison argues that releasing Khodorkovsky and providing citizenship for New Times journalist Natalia Morar (whom we’ve featured quite extensively on the blog) are the two tests for Dmit...
July 8, 2008

Video: The Tunnels of Moscow

This news clip from NBC explores the Stalin-era nuclear bunkers built 18 stories under the streets of Moscow, which since passing into private ownership in an auction are used for tourism (where visitors can simulate the ordering of missile attack...
July 8, 2008

Bullies Don’t Have Loyal Friends

Joshua Keating often does some great blogging about Russia over at FP Passport. His column today summarizing a number of simmering tensions (the Georgia-Abkhazia escalations to the Czech missile shield deal) underscoring Russia’s meetings on...
July 8, 2008

The BBC’s Big Scoop on Litvinenko

The biggest Russia news of the day comes not from the G8 meeting in Japan but rather from the BBC, which is reporting to have interviewed “a senior security official” from Whitehall about the murder by poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko...
July 8, 2008

Sechin, Maven of Competition

We’re all quite familiar with Igor Sechin, chairman of Rosneft, Deputy Prime Minister, and silovik extraordinaire, but few would describe him as a maven of open competition in Russia’s energy sector. Yet that is exactly what he appears...
July 8, 2008

Energy Blast – July 8, 2008

TNK-BP’s Russian shareholders, AAR, failed to have the firm’s CEO, Robert Dudley, dismissed, but signaled that they will continue to try to oust him. BP rejected claims that it had treated its Russian partners as “subjects, not equals&...
July 8, 2008

Today in Russian Business – July 8, 2008

At the G8 summit, Dmitry Medvedev said that the global financial system is outdated. United Airlines has postponed opening a route to Russia from the United States by six months due to high jet fuel prices. Norilsk Nickel‘s recently elected ...
July 8, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – July 8, 2008

TODAY: UK security officers say Litvinenko murder was backed by Russian state; blogger given suspended sentence; Medvedev’s meeting with UK’s Gordon Brown leaves relations “in the deep freeze”, and “no particular progress” with the US; Russia and ...