Year: 2008

November 24, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Nov 24, 2008

TODAY: Medvedev meets Bush for the last time, travels to Latin America to strengthen ties; Georgian president accuses Russian troops of firing on him in South Ossetia; Lugovoi will visit UK if granted immunity; Supreme Court to investigate closing...
November 23, 2008

Spain Wary of Lukoil’s Interest in Repsol

Many were surprised by the universally hostile reaction in Spain to the on-again-off-again interest from Gazprom in acquiring a 30% stake in Repsol – one of the biggest private energy companies remaining in Europe.  In fact, it seemed as tho...
November 23, 2008

Russia’s Energy Stranglehold

This comes from an op/ed in the Washington Times by William F. Shughart II of the Independent Institute: When its tanks rolled into Georgia, the Kremlin sent notice it intends to dominate the oil and natural gas resources of the former Soviet repu...
November 22, 2008

The Irrationality and Maximalism of Russia

Liesl Schillinger at the New York Times reviews Owen Matthews’ book Stalin’s Children: His parents, he learned, met and fell in love in Moscow in 1963, while his father was doing graduate work at Moscow State University. After they tri...
November 22, 2008

Missing the Point on Latin America

With the APEC Summit getting underway this weekend in Lima, Peru, the world’s eyes are on Latin America, focusing with unusual interest over this oft-forgotten continent, looking for an indication of the prevailing economic winds.  Natu...
November 22, 2008

Russia’s Gaulists

Julia Ioffe, writing at the New Republic Plank blog about Russia’s extension of presidential term limits: What does the Kremlin say in its defense? It invokes the economic crisis and the time needed to deal with it; it points to Russian exce...
November 22, 2008

Replaying the Russia-Georgia War

Are you unsatisfied with the conclusions of the Amnesty International report on the Russian invasion of Georgia?  Have you ever wondered what it would be like to pilot a tank through the Roki Tunnel into South Ossetia?  Or to be a Osseti...
November 21, 2008

Why the Iskander?

Ariel Cohen at Heritage believes that Moscow has made a “shrewd geopolitical move” by threatening U.S. president-elect Barack Obama with missiles in Kaliningrad, and may have inadvertently painted him into a corner, given that he will ...
November 21, 2008

Uralkali Fights to Avoid State Theft

The last time we blogged about the Russian potash mining company Uralkali, currently under siege from a possible expropriation attempt from the government, it was in the context of the clan wars.  This week more details are becoming apparent ...
November 21, 2008

The Chinese Example

This bit comes from Bronwen Maddox at the Times: At the weekend’s G20 summit in Washington, Russia was almost silent. The contrast with China was startling. China, unlike Russia, has bought into the idea that it serves its own interest by em...