Kremlin Declares its Sphere of Influence in Business

It is rational and logical for some governments to declare certain sectors of the economy as sensitive to national security, and therefore requiring some type of overview process before allowing foreign ownership and management – defense and utilities, for example.  However in Russia, when a sector is declared as “strategic,” and therefore vulnerable to arbitrary […]

Energy Blast – Dec 26th, 2008

Gazprom has renewed its warning to Ukraine that it will cut gas deliveries on January 1 if new contracts were not signed for 2009 and all debts cleared, and now Dmitry Medvedev has threatened Ukraine with sanctions if the money is not paid.  ‘It is impossible to go on like this,‘ he said.  ‘It’s embarrassing […]

Today in Russian Business – Dec 26th, 2008

‘In reality, Russia is not going through an economic crisis. The real crisis is that its government model is fundamentally flawed,‘ says Yulia Latynina.  Russia has let the ruble fall for the third time in five days – the eleventh time in six weeks – and it has since fallen to another record low against […]

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Dec 26th, 2008

TODAY: Medvedev interview focuses on security and sport, dodges Khodorkovsky question; soldiers sent into regions badly hit by economic crisis; Orthodox media.President Dmitry Medvedev’s Christmas Eve message to Russians focused on Russian security and the necessity of using force to protect it, defending his relationship with Vladimir Putin as ‘right, and rather effective‘, and praise […]

Pashin: Courts Are Not Meant to Serve the FSB

The other day I was reading an interesting article over The Power Vertical, which was published last week, about an open letter signed by the eminently respected former Moscow City Court judge Sergei Pashin to President Dmitry Medvedev urging him to reject the resolution passing through the Duma to eliminate jury trials for terrorism cases […]

Russia’s Forex Gets a Much Needed Holiday Bump

This is very good news, if not unexpected, for Russia’s economy – thanks to a rise in the value of the euro and greater efforts by commercial banks to make foreign currency deposits, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by a record $15.4 billion in the last week.  That’s a record. But this isn’t a […]

Slumping Gazprom

From Guy Chazan in the Wall Street Journal: Gazprom has also been hit. Last summer, Mr. Miller boasted it would be the world’s biggest company by market value within seven to ten years, with a capitalization of $1 trillion. At the time, Gazprom’s market cap was $360 billion. Now it’s around a quarter of that. […]

Video: Who Was the Biggest Loser in the Russia-Georgia War

Flight from Risk

A new report in the Financial Times points to the continued weakening of oil prices caused by an overall flight from risky assets over the Christmas holiday.  In related news, other reports indicate that Russia is facing its first budget deficit for 2009 in a decade because of these low oil prices, while another Kremlin […]

Energy Blast – Dec 24th, 2008

Vladimir Putin has heralded the end of cheap energy resources, but short-term energy markets do not reflect his comments, analysts say.  The meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum saw producers maintain that they would be unable to fix prices, because supplies remain tied to fixed pipelines and long-term contracts.  Producers did agree to consult […]