Year: 2008

September 23, 2008

Grigory Pasko: Reacting to the Le Figaro Khodorkovsky Interview

Judge not, lest ye be judged Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. “…Right after Medvedev came to power, I have noticed signs of changes. Previously, for such an interview, ...
September 23, 2008

Rumors of Sarko’s Blow Up in Medvedev Negotiations

According to newspaper reports and my sources in France, the recent negotiations between Nicolas Sarkozy and Dmitry Medvedev over Georgia were – to put it mildly – “very strained.” Several insiders with whom I’ve spoken have quot...
September 23, 2008

A Bi-Partisan Consensus on Russia

Most observers are expecting Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama to use the first foreign policy debate this coming Friday to discuss U.S. policy toward Russia, and most likely highlight their (at times passionate) disagreements. What many may ...
September 23, 2008

Energy Blast – Sept 23, 2008

Ukraine has started electricity imports from Russia as domestic thermal power plants experience problems with coal supplies. The state company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. announced a new agreement with Gazprom concerning the Russian monopoly’s fir...
September 23, 2008

Today in Russian Business – Sept 23, 2008

Russia’s stock markets extended losses Tuesday as the Standard & Poors ratings agency revised its long-term outlook on seven Russian banks over liquidity concerns. Eurocement Holding today purchased6.52% of voting shares of Switzerland&...
September 23, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Sept 23, 2008

TODAY: Georgian authorities to protest to the European Union about violations of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement by Russia; Corruption in Russia is at its worst for eight years, watchdog Transparency International states; Georgia states it had shot...
September 23, 2008

Video: Carrots and Sticks

Below Richard Danzig of the Truman National Security Project discusses the available carrots and sticks in U.S.-Russia relations following the conflict in Georgia. The speech is a few weeks old, but still interesting.
September 22, 2008

Emergency Theory and the Crisis of Liberalism

Opinio Juris is one of my favorite blogs, and just last week I submitted a comment piece for the Russian online journal Gazeta.ru dealing with the exact same subject as this post about Carl Schmitt: My reason for moving away from Schmitt as a mean...
September 22, 2008

Le Figaro Interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky

The following is a translation of a rare interview with Mikhail Khodorkovsky by the French newspaper Le Figaro. See the original source here. “When Russia is wrong, Europe must say so” Interview by Laure Mandeville Le Figaro September 20-21, 2008 ...
September 22, 2008

Gazprom’s Political Currency in Bolivian Energy Deals

For some of you who regularly read this blog, you may want to file this note under “Gazprom – Preemption” – because it’s a topic we have seen come up time and time again. We have written quite a bit in this space abou...