Month: April 2010

April 27, 2010

Sevastopol Deal A Russian Sacrifice?

Russia’s controversial deal offering reduced gas prices to Ukraine in exchange for an extended lease on its Sevastopol naval base have commentators up in arms.  Ukrainian opposition to the deal has reached near fever pitch: Reuters repo...
April 27, 2010

Energy Blast – April 27, 2010

During his visit to Norway, President Dmitry Medvedev offered Statoil a role – potentially worth billions – in exploring Russia’s Prirazlomnoye oil field, apparently in a bid to gain foreign input where it lacks expertise.  ...
April 27, 2010

Today in Russian Business – April 27, 2010

First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov says the government may introduce a tax on capital transactions as a means of deterring short-term inflows of speculative capital, and suggests that import tariffs and subsidizations could be necessary in ...
April 27, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – April 27, 2010

TODAY: New bill could give FSB power over media; Dalai Lama visa refused; Senator wants Russian officials connected with Magnitsky’s death banned from the U.S.; Putin denies that personal ties with Berlusconi are driving deals; Medvedev not ...
April 26, 2010

Ukraine’s Retrograde Energy Policy

This editorial in the Financial Times criticizes Viktor Yanukovych’s questionable deal with Moscow to trade cheap natural gas for an extended lease for the Russian Navy at Sevastopol, Crimea, which will push Ukraine further away from the Eur...
April 26, 2010

EU Missing Out on Ukraine

Tony Barber at the FT’s Brussels Blog ponders the significance of Ukraine’s controversial gas-for-naval-base deal and how it colors relations with the EU.  The deal puts paid to any chance of NATO membership, Barber says, not...
April 26, 2010

The Things They Carried

One of the most powerful literary accounts of the Vietnam War was Tim O’Brien’s famous collection of stories The Things They Carried, which as a rhetorical device categorically listed the minute objects of possession carried by the sol...
April 26, 2010

Grigory Pasko: Interview with Andrei Illarionov

Journalist Grigory Pasko recently had the opportunity to sit down with Andrei Illarionov, former advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, and currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity at the Cato Institut...
April 26, 2010

Decorum Please!

This fantastic picture says it all.  Vladimir Putin looks up briefly from his reading material to smile knowingly as Liberal Democrat leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky mouths off about Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov in the Duma last week.  It’...
April 26, 2010

Energy Blast – April 26, 2010

Austria’s Economy Minister has signed a deal to join the South Stream gas pipeline project, under which an estimated 2 billion extra cubic meters of gas a year will pass through Austrian territory from Russia on its way to Europe.  Exxo...