Month: April 2010

April 13, 2010

Today in Russian Business – April 13, 2010

A memorandum regarding Russia’s forthcoming Eurobond issue says that any oil price reduction would have ‘a significant effect on Russia’s budgetary revenues and foreign reserves‘ and its ability to make payments on the bond...
April 13, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – April 13, 2010

TODAY: Leaders declare incomes and assets; Medvedev fed up with questions about Putin; Russia-US adoption to come under scrutiny; tributes to Polish President as ‘language barrier’ blamed for crash; Washington hosts nuclear summit; Dym...
April 12, 2010

Figuring Out Roza Otunbayeva

How do you see the new interim leader of Krygyzstan?  An independent, accidental democrat, or a shill for the siloviki?  Blogging at Oil and Glory, Sasha Meyer points out that the usual chorus of agreement among some Russia ske...
April 12, 2010

Obama at Home in Prague

Politico is running a rather innocuous piece about how Barack Obama is making his mark on Prague, much in the way that Ronald Reagan got to know Iceland. When he was born in 1961, Obama told the crowd, few people would have predicted someone like ...
April 12, 2010

Backing a Dictator Always Backfires

I was waiting for somebody to point this out.  Despite what the realists may say, it is ultimately not in U.S. interests to abandon values and human rights while kindly looking in the other direction in the face of conveniently oppressive dic...
April 12, 2010

Kaczynski’s Pilot

The New York Times looks at the key focus of the investigation into the plane crash which killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski and scores of others of political and military leaders in Russia over the weekend:  the decision of the pilot to ...
April 12, 2010

Energy Blast – April 12, 2010

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s failure to attend the ceremony marking the start of construction on the Nord Stream pipeline was a surprise to participants, says the Moscow Times, although President Dmitry Medvedev was on hand to sign the ne...
April 12, 2010

Today in Russian Business – April 12, 2010

The Chairman of the Central Bank is undecided on an interest rate cut this month, although he gave the recovering economy an overall positive review.  Almaz-Antei, the Russian air defense manufacturer, has been ranked 18th on a global Top 100...
April 12, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – April 12, 2010

TODAY: Russian response to fatal Polish crash praised as thousands gather to meet bodies in Warsaw; Bastrykin rules out technical failure, conspiracy theories inevitable; Russia pledges aid to Kyrgystan; police awarded for refusing bribe offer; Mo...
April 10, 2010

Lech Kaczynski, 1949-2010

When I woke this morning to read the news that Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, had died in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia along with 87 others, I was saddened and speechless.  Along with the president and the first lady, Poland lost a...