Month: June 2010

June 11, 2010

Court Ruling from a Rwandan Show Trial

Below is the translated text of a decision from a Bond court hearing in Kigali, Rwanda on June 7, in the case of the unlawfully imprisoned U.S. lawyer Peter Erlinder.  This decision, which makes for absolutely chilling reading, comes from a j...
June 11, 2010

Energy Blast – June 11, 2010

Iran says its uranium enrichment program will not be derailed by new sanctions, with President Ahmadinejad promising to put the UN’s measures ‘in the waste bin’.  Russia has apparently suggested that it will discuss the poss...
June 11, 2010

Today in Russian Business – June 11, 2010

The World bank has suggested that Russia’s economy will be one of the motors driving improvements in the economic climate across the whole of Europe and Central Asia this year.    ‘One country where forecasts are moving in th...
June 11, 2010

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

TODAY: Putin trust rating plummets; children encouraged to pray for their leaders; human rights activists urge France to address rights abuses during Putin Paris trip; Solidarity coalition leader assaulted.  Russia and China at SCO meeting &#...
June 10, 2010

Video: Putin’s Peculiar Dinner

OK, this story might already be dead, but in case you have been sleeping under a rock for the past two weeks and somehow missed all the news and discussion about the on-air confrontation between Vladimir Putin and the rock star Yuri Shevchuk, here...
June 10, 2010

Gazprom and the Fear of the Spot Market

Today Vladimir Putin is visiting France and enjoying his new role as a potential economic savior to the dying eurozone … but of course there is a bit of a catch:  these are precisely the same economies who buy so much of Russia’s ...
June 10, 2010

Thai PM Seeks Confrontation, Not Reconciliation

The Abhisit Vejjajiva administration in Thailand has made a number of symbolic gestures in recent days which are being viewed as a “reconciliation bid” following the killings of protesters in Bangkok over the past several months. ...
June 10, 2010

Rwanda Must Release Peter Erlinder

I’ve been closely following the horrific persecution of lawyer Peter Erlinder, an American political prisoner of the Rwandan government who was detained under false charges on May 28th, just one week after his client, the opposition leader V...
June 10, 2010

Thailand Lacks Creditability to Investigate Bangkok Killings

The following press release was distributed via wire from Paris this morning. Thailand Lacks Creditability to Investigate Bangkok Killings Paris, June 10, 2010 – The panel established by the Thai authorities to investigate the violence again...
June 10, 2010

Energy Blast – June 10, 2010

The UN has reportedly approved ‘necessary’ sanctions against Iran.  Iranian President Ahmadinejad has responded with a warning to Russia that ‘they must be careful not to be on the side of the enemies of the Iranian people&#...