Month: June 2009

June 26, 2009

Energy Blast – June 26, 2009

Total is willing to invite Gazprom to collaborate in Africa and elsewhere.  Gazprom has hit out at the EU for allegedly discriminating against its gas pipeline projects, just two days before its meeting with Ukraine to discuss payment issues....
June 26, 2009

Today in Russian Business – June 26, 2009

According to the Moscow Times, Russia’s inflation rate in 2009 will be far less than had originally been predicted.  Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin is avoiding over-optimism, saying Russia will meet the target of 13%, although ‘ma...
June 26, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – June 26, 2009

TODAY: Politkovskaya suspects to be retried; NATO claims to be no rival to Russia; Medvedev says START negotiations still ongoing; extent of alcohol abuse deaths sends shockwaves; Duma speaker superhero Russia has announced that the three men who ...
June 25, 2009

Judging by Your Friends…

Garry Kasparov’s column in the Wall Street Journal today expounds on the significance of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s choice of Moscow as a good place to during the electoral turmoil to prove his international legitimacy.  He argues that...
June 25, 2009

New Report on Georgia

A recent post from our contributing editor El Maestro on a leaked EU report pinning some blame for the August invasion on Georgia has stirred up about 25 comments so far.  If I knew that’s all everybody wanted to talk about, I wouldR...
June 25, 2009

“How much is pork?”

One would think that with the confusing ban on U.S. pork imports, that Russia wasn’t really concerned with food supply or prices.  But with this news from the Moscow Times, I think Homer Simpson will be booking a ticket immediately.&nbs...
June 25, 2009

The Politkovskaya Trial Redux

Looks like the procuracy is going to have to take a mulligan on the trial of Anna Politkovskaya’s killers.  The Supreme Court issued a decision today overturning the not guilty verdict for Sergei Khajikurbanov, Ibrahim Makhmudov and Dzh...
June 25, 2009

Bolivarian Rule of Lawlessness

On Feb. 1, 2007, a Venezuelan judge named Yuri López admitted a complaint from a defendant, denouncing the improper conduct of judicial officials who shared his case materials with third parties, and then later perjured when questioned on the topi...