Year: 2008

February 21, 2008

Lukashenko Attacks Putin over Kosovo

Stratfor is reporting that Belorussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko has given a vitriolic interview with two Russian television stations in which he attacks Vladimir Putin as being a weak leader for allowing Kosovo’s delcaration of independ...
February 21, 2008

An Ideal Job for Putin

“He has a strong personal brand, undimmed self-belief, a devoted public following, a distinctive balding pate and – unlike Adam Applegarth – plentiful experience of bringing private-sector assets gently under the wing of the stat...
February 21, 2008

Asymmetry Grows Between Gazprom and Europe

A new article at the European Voice calls upon the European Union to get its act together with a common energy policy to achieve bargaining parity with Gazprom: Imagine, say, winter 2015, and an announcement by Gazprom that it cannot provide the g...
February 21, 2008

Energy Blast, Feb. 21, 2008

According to one UK newspaper, the Nord Stream project is either “the answer to Europe’s energy needs, a multibillion-pound black hole, [or] a Kremlin conspiracy.” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has met with Vladimir Putin and Pri...
February 21, 2008

Today in Russian Business

“If RusAl and Norilsk Nickel merge, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service could demand the creation of a commodity exchange trading in non-ferrous metals.” Vladimir Potanin’s Interros, a key shareholder in Norilsk Nickel, is cons...
February 21, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Feb. 21, 2008

TODAY: Russia sets up new democracy think tank abroad; Adamov sentenced. Putin and Medvedev unveil $1bn aviation project; Medvedev is “ignoring” the presidential race; Russia expresses concern over US missile. Hot on the heels of news that Kenneth...
February 20, 2008

¿Quién es más macho?

The Reuters news blogger Oleg Shchedrov is obsessed with how Dmitri Medvedev fails to live up to the muzhik image, given that he didn’t look like he was having very much fun inspecting Kalashnikov factories and sitting in Yakovlev training j...
February 20, 2008

Gulag Healthcare

Below is a featured exclusive translation from an upcoming issue of Lev Ponomarev’s weekly human rights bulletin about access to medical treatment inside Russia’s Federal Service for the Execution of Punishments (FSIN). The All-Russia ...
February 20, 2008

The On-File Obituary of Russia’s Elections

Mark Medish of Carnegie points out how Operation Successor Russia is making the job of the media very easy: “Medvedev’s impending victory makes the job of the domesticated Russian media easier. Like on-file obituaries, the post-election stor...
February 20, 2008

Freewheeling, Vibrant, and Critical

That’s how the Associated Press has described the Russian blogosphere, where the postings “are sometimes barbed, frequently satirical and always unfiltered — a marked contrast to most of Russia’s major media, where many reporters...