Year: 2008

February 11, 2008

Today in Russian Business

Sergei Ivanov, speaking at an international conference on security, held in Munich, said that Russia needs $1 trillion in investment to modernize its economy. The chief executive of Norilsk Nickel, Denis Morozov, has flown to London to persuade in...
February 11, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Feb. 11, 2008

TODAY: Putin declares onset of new arms race; Sergei Ivanov gives “conciliatory” speech. Putin’s Playground? Human rights issues; Aleksanyan moved to a specialized clinic. Russia to write off Iraqi debt; Japan angry over violation of airspace. Pre...
February 9, 2008

Le Monde: Putin’s Vindictiveness

The following is a translation from the French newspaper Le Monde: Le Monde, Editorial February 8, 2008 Putin’s Vindictiveness The vindictiveness of Vladimir Putin knows no bounds. In 2005, he went after Mikhail Khodorkovsky, one of the Yeltsin er...
February 9, 2008

Bolivarian Bourgeoisie and Kremlin Kleptocrats

Both have considerable oil resources, both are ruled by dictators and thieving cliques, and both are experiencing increasing instability. I’ve spoken often about the parallel political convergence between Russia and Venezuela as well as thei...
February 9, 2008

Addressing the Misuse of Law in Russia

There’s a great opinion article about the tragedy of Vasily Alexanyan by Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Rubin argues that even after the Yukos affair, “this blatant manipulation of courts and laws seems to have been insuffic...
February 8, 2008

Trepashkin on Alexanyan

Former political prisoner Mikhail Trepashkin writes in the Moscow Times about his experience in Building 6 of the Matrosskaya Tishina pretrial detention center, the same place where Vasily Alexanyan was being held: “In addition, the authorit...
February 8, 2008

A Collision with the FSB

La Russophobe has posted a translation of an interesting letter written by the Russian filmmaker Vladimir Sinelnikov to President Vladimir Putin published in Yezhednevniy Zhurnal. Two years ago, Sinelnikov was in a car accident with an FSB officer...
February 8, 2008

International Law and the New Russia

The highly respected Bill Burke White is guest blogging over at Concurring Opinions, and has done a terrific post entitled “International Law and the New Russia.” Below is just an excerpt. Indicative of Russia’s disregard for human rig...
February 8, 2008

Still No Confirmation of Medical Care for Alexanyan

On the 11th day of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s hunger strike, we see more and more contradictory reports that fatally ill prisoner Vasily Alexanyan has been “spirited off” to a new facility to finally receive the medical care he was b...