Year: 2008

November 18, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Nov. 18, 2008

TODAY: Putin says decision to go ahead with tariffs does not conflict with the G20 Summit decision to hold off on tariffs; Politkovskaya trial to be open to journalists; Bakhmina to file petition for pardon; Obama supports Georgia, all sides denou...
November 18, 2008

Audio: A New Direction in Russian Relations

All Things Considered on National Public Radio has a new audio segment interviewing several experts and EU diplomats who hope to see a “new direction” in Europe-Russia relations following the first series of meetings since the war in G...
November 17, 2008

Welcome to RA 2.0

A note from the editor:  After about two and half years, more than 3,000 blog posts, and a respectably growing readership, the Robert Amsterdam blog has undergone a design makeover. Among the new features, readers will notice the horizontal t...
November 17, 2008

Grigory Pasko: Nord Stream, Putin’s Pet Project

Putin, you’re angry – that means you’re not right*   Grigory Pasko, journalist   During the time of a meeting with Finnish premier Matti Vanhanen on 12 November of the year 2007, Russian premier Vladimir Putin for the f...
November 17, 2008

Grigory Pasko: In the Kingdom of Military Bureaucratism

Without a paper you – are a bug, but with a paper – a person*   Grigory Pasko, journalist The Strasbourg court asked me to send them a document in supplement to my application – a document about how I had received a pension ...
November 17, 2008

France’s Budding Etymologist

The Wall Street Journal editorial board isn’t too happy with French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s decision to resume negotiations on the EU-Russia Partnership Cooperation Agreement without Russia having fulfilled the terms of the ceasef...
November 17, 2008

Russia Sued for $50 Billion Yukos Seizure

A group of former Yukos shareholders has begun its long promised legal campaign to sue the Russian government for damages caused by the unlawful nationalization of Yukos.  GML  (formerly known as Group Menatep) and a pension fund represe...
November 17, 2008

The House of Cards

From the Moscow Times: There are two reasons why Putin rushed to change the Constitution only six months after stepping down as president. First, he sees the political and economic dangers of falling oil prices. The house of cards built on an eigh...