Year: 2008

October 13, 2008

Video: Is Russia an Evil Empire?

In case you missed it, CBS provides us with a split screen monitor of how Senators Barack Obama and John McCain react to the rather pointed question on Vladimir Putin’s Russia. See if you agree with me that McCain seems to visibly relax when...
October 13, 2008

Happy Birthday, Svetlana Bakhmina

The following open letter is making the rounds of the Russian blogosphere these days. As October 13 is Svetlana Bakhmina’s birthday, we thought we’d do our part and publish an exclusive translation of it here on our blog to help bring ...
October 13, 2008

Grigory Pasko: Women’s Prison Colonies in Russia

Women’s colony – hell bedecked in flowers By Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. From the editor: Former YUKOS lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina has been transferred to colony № 21, whic...
October 13, 2008

Russia’s False Friendship with Iran

A few years ago, RA had a series of blog posts arguing that in terms of geopolitical interests, energy, and simple geography, Washington and Tehran could find that they have much more in common than the fiery and hostile diplomacy (or lack thereof...
October 13, 2008

Kremlin Control over Economy to Grow during Crisis

Today the Lex column at the FT points toward the massive redistribution of assets happening in Russia as a result of the global financial crisis, and the routing being experienced by a number of the country’s most wealthy oligarchs (Oleg Der...
October 13, 2008

Fostering Interdependence

This idea comes from a column by Aleh Tsyvinski in the Moscow Times: Trying to erect an Iron Curtain around Russian funds and businesses will prove counterproductive. Indeed, a large-scale “invasion” of Russian business would be a posi...
October 13, 2008

Unbundling Undone: The End of the Gazprom Clause

Competition authorities in the European Union face a very tough challenge in regulating foreign investment in energy infrastructure. For political reasons, it’s clear that they desire a level of “reciprocity” in the home market o...
October 13, 2008

Energy Blast – Oct 13, 2008

Smaller oil exploration companies across the UK’s energy sector will struggle to keep afloat due to debt refinancing issues caused by the financial crisis. Gazprom is looking likely to post some of its strongest profit margins this quarter due to ...
October 13, 2008

Today in Russian Business – Oct 13, 2008

Russia’s Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin says that the government is planning to invest money from its pensions fund in the stock market, and has called for the IMF to take action to help developing economies ‘caught in the whirlwind of the g...
October 13, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Oct 13, 2008

TODAY: Medvedev oversees missile test; United Russia wins regions across the country; Russia prefers Obama; anti-Russia party wins Lithuanian elections; Deripaska links dog British politician; Einstein. Attending a test firing of two strategic mis...