Month: June 2010

June 30, 2010

The State of Human Rights in Kazakhstan

A new report (download here) has arrived in our mailboxes from the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law, which takes a look at the country’s human rights record during the first half of the year in which they ...
June 30, 2010

Spy Story Exhaustion

It sure didn’t take long, but I am pretty well exhausted by reading the latest article on Anna Chapman’s favorite singles bar or combing Mikhail Semenko’s LinkIn profile for meaningless details.  Julia Ioffe gets it right in...
June 30, 2010

Energy Blast – June 30, 2010

Russia and the United States have offered to hold talks with Iran on the provision of nuclear fuel for its Tehran medical reactor, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told reporters.  Gazprom Neft  CEO Alexander Dyukov has said that the c...
June 30, 2010

Today in Russian Business – June 30, 2010

The Moscow Times takes an in-depth look at the battle raging between Rusal and Interros for control of Norlisk Nickel, ignited by the recent board members nominations.  The aluminum giant has said an exchange-traded fund for the metal will be...
June 30, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – June 30, 2010

TODAY: Russian officials see anti-reset conspiracy in spy case; story met with mockery in some media quarters; US assures that issue won’t hurt ties; Clinton and Putin discuss matter.  Major democratic decline reported in Russia; Limono...
June 29, 2010

Use the Front Door, Please

A good article from David Hearst in the Guardian points out that 1) nobody should be surprised that undercover SVR agents were operating in the United States (there’s a whole series of books on the subject), and 2) other nations such as the ...
June 29, 2010

An Audacious Arrest!

It’s only Tuesday, but my favorite headline of the week so far comes from New York magazine: Russia to U.S.: How Dare You Bust Our Secret Ring of Idiot Clown Spies? Also, as though the media weren’t already having too much fun, it appe...
June 29, 2010

Russia’s Espionage Inertia

Quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Dmitri Trenin has some useful explanations extracted below regarding the embarrassing incident of arrested spies in the United States.  The question I keep thinking of was raised by Yevgenia Albats – w...
June 29, 2010

Grigory Pasko: Russia, Country of Lawyers

There is not one, but two lawyers in power in Russia. And both are ceaselessly talking about the necessity of perfecting the institutions of state: the judicial power, for example, the legislative… They talk and they talk… And nothing ...
June 29, 2010

Despite Burger Summit, Disagreement Remains over Georgia

I never thought I would read something positive from Robert Kagan regarding the Obama Administration’s Russia policy, but here you go: Finally, on an issue where the administration has been weakest, there was a sign of a shift. Amid the happ...