Month: May 2010

May 11, 2010

Preserving the Status Quo

Brian Whitmore has a good new post over at Power Vertical about the “new” pro-Western Russian foreign policy currently in ascedency.  Stay tuned here for a video interview we shot with Whitmore during our last visit to Prague. The...
May 11, 2010

No Avoiding Criticism of Obama’s Approach to Russia

Not a big surprise, but Paul Saunders from The Nixon Center has a new article published in The National Interest which argues that President Barack Obama is unlikely to escape criticism for his reset policy with Russia – so he should have ac...
May 11, 2010

Energy Blast – May 11, 2010

Russia and the UAE have offered their assistance to the US in tackling the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  BG Group will pay £633 million for a 50% stake in game-changing shale gas assets from Exco Resources, in the British gas producerR...
May 11, 2010

Today in Russian Business – May 11, 2010

Russia’s GDP may apparently increase by 8.7% in the second quarter, according to a RenCap forecast.  The IMF has suggested that Russia may need to use capital controls in order to protect the economy against excessive inflows but has a ...
May 11, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – May 11, 2010

TODAY: Medvedev to discuss thorny issues on first trip to Syria; Obama submits civilian nuclear bill to Congress; Putin Black Sea base plans sends message to Ukraine.  Replica of destroyed Georgian war memorial to be built in Moscow; past and...
May 10, 2010

Russian Perspectives on International Law

In preparing for a talk I will be giving later this week on Russia and international law at Chatham House, I’ve been combing through some of the classic texts of my archives and rediscovering some of the country’s greatest legal minds ...
May 10, 2010

Putin’s Naftogaz Prank

Over at Oil and the Glory, Steve LeVine sees Vladimir Putin’s unexpected offer to take over the Ukrainian economy as something akin to a practical joke. Putin likes to sneak up behind neighbors, throw up his arms, and shout, Boo! Usually, th...
May 10, 2010

Igor Sechin Eyes Ukrainian Hydroelectric Business

Graham Stack has a good one on Russia’s enthusiastic interest in the Ukrainian economy published on Business New Europe, which he likens to “a horde of shoppers at the spring sales.”  Buried down near the bottom of the piece...
May 10, 2010

Don’t Give Up on Nabucco

Katinka Barysch of the Centre for European Reform has always produced of the highest quality research on EU-Russia energy relations, and her latest article on the continuing need to push forward with the Nabucco pipeline project is no exception. T...
May 10, 2010

The Political Punch of Shale Gas

There seem to be two kinds of views out there on the development of shale gas, which has already had a big political impact on supplying governments such as Russia.  On the one hand, we have the oracles of energy revolution declaring the dawn...