Month: December 2009

December 16, 2009

LilliPutin: The Illegitimate Son?

The New York Post is running a sensationalist piece today about the gymnast Alina Kabaeva giving birth to a son, which may or may not have something to do with the unconfirmed speculation of involvement with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. We’...
December 16, 2009

Moscow’s Manufactured Chill

Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, a former foreign minister of Denmark, has a great article on the politics behind Nord Stream in the Moscow Times, suggesting that in any other country, Gerhard Schröder would be prosecuted for corruption for taking a Gazprom ...
December 16, 2009

Putin, Schumpeter, and the Terrible Potential of Bureaucracy

An enjoyable piece from Paul Goble today, drawing on the analysis of Konstantin Remchukov published in NG. Drawing on the works of Joseph Schumpeter, Remchukov points out both that entrepreneurs play a key role in societal transformations and that...
December 16, 2009

Energy Blast – Dec 16, 2009

The eleven-member Gas Exporting Countries Forum says the question of it coordinating output volumes is ‘not yet on the agenda‘, but some members, the Algerian oil minister at very least, want GECF to be able to influence prices in the ...
December 16, 2009

Today in Russian Business – Dec 16, 2009

Yegor Gaidar, a primary architect of radical liberal reforms that helped Russia transition from communism to capitalism, has died in Moscow, aged 53.  ‘[W]hatever hopes that Russia’s leaders might hold, the lines between commerce,...
December 16, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Dec 16, 2009

TODAY: NATO Secretary-General in Moscow; START treaty will not be signed this week; Browder praises Medvedev, Yakunin slams Browder; civic police force; Izvestia accused of extremism; children’s ombudsman highlights rights issues. The Kremli...
December 15, 2009

Europe Doesn’t Need Russian Gas for 2-3 Years

We’ve been hearing quite a lot about the natural gas glut hitting global markets, and the rapid decrease in demand among the world’s leading consumers.  In essence, market forces appear to be rapidly deflating Gazprom’s pote...
December 15, 2009

Oleg Kalugin’s Mission to Afghanistan

Although this was published a few days ago, there is some interesting reading over at Foreign Policy as former KGB head Oleg Kalugin describes his experience planning the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  I sure hope Barack Obama is studying u...
December 15, 2009

Video: Can Russia Hang with the BRICs?

Although I can’t embed the video here, I recommend jumping over to the Business News Network to watch this interview with Rachel Ziembra, a senior analyst with Nouriuel Roubini’s group, talking about whether or not Russia can hang on t...
December 15, 2009

Reviewing the Russia-Venezuela-Cuba-China-Iran nexus

Jaime Suchlicki, Director of the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, has a paper summarising the Russia-Venezuela-Cuba-China-Iran relationship entitled, “The Cuba-Venezuela Challenge to Hemispheric Sec...