Year: 2008

May 9, 2008

Energy Blast – May 9, 2008

Russia’s oil production strategy “is now yielding diminishing returns”. Gazprom has become the world’s third largest listed company by market value, so why has its stock only risen by 4.3% this year? Prime Minister Vladimir Putin intends to ...
May 9, 2008

Today in Russian Business – May 9, 2008

Vladimir Putin has predicted that Russia’ economy will be larger than Britain’s by the end of this year, and promised to rein in inflation in his new role as Prime Minister. Roman Abramovich has bought a $36.3 million Colorado ranch. The European ...
May 9, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – May 9, 2008

TODAY: Russia celebrates Victory Day; Russia expels two US military attachés; Communists vote against Putin’s appointment as Prime Minister; Medvedev to restore Pushkin Fine Arts Museum. 56 of the 450 members of Parliament, all Communists, voted a...
May 8, 2008

Hanging Tough

No one expects immediate changes in Russia, so why ponder any change in policy? That’s pretty much what the Economist argues in this editorial: The best approach to Mr Medvedev will be to heed what he does, not what he says. For example, if ...
May 8, 2008

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

The great thing about blogging is that often readers will send in articles, asking us to post them – which of course makes my job easier. The article below comes from one of our regular who wishes to remain anonymous, and although I don̵...
May 8, 2008

Warren Coats on Democracy

The highly respected economist Warren Coats, who has spent years working with post-Soviet economies, recently sent around an interesting article about his trip to the Middle East, expounding on some observations about democracy, which I thought so...
May 8, 2008

Grigory Pasko: Nord Stream, Scandinavian Style, Part 2

Grigory Pasko: Looking a gift horse in the mouth Nord Stream, Scandinavian Style – Part 2 Grigory Pasko, journalist Returning for a moment to my previous article about the view of the Nord Stream pipeline from the shores of Finland, I will p...
May 8, 2008

McCain on Medvedev

I’m sure Sen. McCain hopes that this is the first of many things he gets to say about Russia’s new president: “I sincerely hope the beginning of the (Dmitry) Medvedev presidency will also be the beginning of a new era for Russia ...
May 8, 2008

Inaugurating Legal Nihilism

The Washington Post is running an editorial about the inauguration, bringing back the whole “legal nihilism” beat. Given the strong words from the new president, it strikes me that Medvedev could either make important progress on rule ...