Year: 2008

June 27, 2008

Today in Russian Business – June 27, 2008

Moscow’s arbitration court upheld a $10 million tax claim against German airline Lufthansa’s Russian operator, despite its attempt to appeal. The Bank of Cyprus has clinched a deal to buy 80% of Russian bank Uniastrum for $576 million. The n...
June 27, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – June 27, 2008

TODAY: EU-Russia summit begins amid row over wood tariffs with Finland; Russia’s “image problem”; Georgia suggests splitting Abkhazia; Kremlin funding pro-government movies? First reports from the EU-Russia summit say Dmitry Medvedev is “striking ...
June 26, 2008

McCain’s League of Democracies

I think Sen. John McCain’s (or perhaps more accurately, resurgent neocon Robert Kagan’s) proposal for a “league of democracies” is both unrealistic and very interesting. It’s unrealistic in that I don’t really b...
June 26, 2008

Russia’s Last Victory Hurrah . . .

…at least for a while. As I am posting this video, the final minutes are ticking away in the Euro 2008 semi-final match between Russia and Spain, which looked much more like a replay of the stinging defeat suffered by Guus Hiddink’s sq...
June 26, 2008

Medvedev as the Second Coming of Gorbachev

Back in May Andreas Umland published an article entitled “Gorbachev Number Two: Dmitry Medvedev,” which put forward a rare argument for the potential future of Russia’s new president playing a Gorbachev-like role as a reformer. H...
June 26, 2008

Birthday Wishes

The following is a translation from Russian of an Interfax article about Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s 45th birthday today. Chitan supporters of Khodorkovsky prepare to congratulate him with 45 years Chita. 25 June. INTERFAX-SIBIERA Supporters of e...
June 26, 2008

Khodorkovsky May Appeal for Parole

This one comes from the Associated Press – more info available at the mbktrial.com website. Lawyer says Khodorkovsky may appeal for early release after presidential change in Russia The Associated Press MOSCOW: A lawyer for the jailed founde...
June 26, 2008

Russia’s Sports Nationalism in the EURO 2008

It’s an exciting day for Russian sports fans as the national selection takes on Spain for the semi-final of the Euro Cup. The historic achievements of the squad, led by famous Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, have riveted the public, and certainly ...
June 26, 2008

Energy Blast – June 26, 2008

One Russian report says Russian shareholders will attend an annual general meeting of TNK-BP today, despite speculation that they could boycott the meeting, or that the venture’s Russian directors would be pulled. Viktor Vekselberg says the ventur...