Year: 2008

October 27, 2008

Competing Visions of U.S.-Russia Relations

Had there not been a massive financial crisis crippling the U.S. economy over the past two months and seemingly dominating the public’s short attention span for news, this very well could have been the foreign policy election of the post-Col...
October 27, 2008

VEB Becomes Russia’s Pawnshop?

The importance of the Kremlin-controlled piggy bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) is rising during this financial crisis, as the group becomes the government’s critical instrument in its efforts to re-nationalize a large slice of the economy from th...
October 27, 2008

Energy Blast – Oct 27, 2008

OPEC has received international criticism for cutting output in an attempt to prevent the oil price from crashing. Meanwhile the possibility of a ‘Gopec’ consisting of Russia, Iran and Qatar, has some observers worried. Russia and China are planni...
October 27, 2008

Today in Russian Business – Oct 27, 2008

Oleg Deripaska’s Strikeforce Mining and Resources must postpone its IPO due to poor market conditions, and Deripaska’s Aughinish Alumina refinery is facing legal action ‘that puts his empire in jeopardy’. Will the oligarchs survive the financial c...
October 27, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct 27, 2008

TODAY: Lavrov unhappy with US sanctions on arms; EU to restructure Russian relations; Kremlin keeping tags on bloggers?; Lukhkov accused of influencing foreign policy under Vladimir Putin; UK’s Peter Mandelson under scrutiny for ties with Oleg Der...
October 26, 2008

Richard Lourie: Time to Release Khodorkovsky

Here’s an excerpt from the latest Richard Lourie column in the Moscow Times: It is now in Russia’s interest to release former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky from prison. That wasn’t always the case. Early on, the benefits outweig...
October 26, 2008

Grigory Pasko: The Five Year Prison Plan

Five-year plan in prison On 25 October of the year 2003 Mikhail Khodorkovsky was arrested Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. On 27 October of the year 2005 the press-center of ...
October 25, 2008

On the Karinna Moskalenko Situation

I have been receiving questions from several friends, colleagues, and a few reporters regarding the situation of Karinna Moskalenko. As many of you recall, Karinna discovered what looked like mercury pellets in her car on Sunday, Oct. 12. That wee...
October 25, 2008

WSJ: Putin’s Prisoner

From the Wall Street Journal editorial page: Putin’s Prisoner Khodorkovsky dared entertain political ambition. Five years to the day after his arrest and incarceration in a Siberian prison camp, former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky might ha...
October 25, 2008

Letter to the Telegraph: Democracy in Singapore

Robert Amsterdam has a letter published in today’s Telegraph on the Singapore case. Democracy in Singapore Sir – This week, the Singaporean opposition party leader Dr Chee Soon Juan and 17 others are standing trial on unlawful assembly charg...