Month: August 2010

August 26, 2010

Hard Bargaining Over Viktor Bout

The saga of the “merchant of death” Victor Bout has taken a stunning new turn. Last week, a Thai appeals court reversed a lower court judgment and ordered the Russian citizen extradited to the United States. This was clearly in respons...
August 26, 2010

Grigory Pasko: A drop of bile in the barrel of Putinite honey

There is such a news wire under the name of «Kaplya zhelchi» [A drop of bile–Trans.] There, wonderful Russian journalists, as a rule, oppositionally disposed in relation to the regime of Putin, subtly observe certain peculiarities of this re...
August 26, 2010

Energy Blast – Aug 26, 2010

Rosatom is eagerly anticipating a ‘nuclear renaissance‘.  Ukraine’s Prime Minister points out that ‘extremely unfavorable agreements with Russia‘ for gas supplies are putting serious strain on the economy, and is...
August 26, 2010

Today in Russian Business – Aug 26, 2010

A group of high-ranking bankers is suspected of laundering more than $65 million a month.  ‘Russia’s stock market is currently trading at a third below its historic valuation levels.‘  Moscow’s City Hall is offeri...
August 26, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Aug 26, 2010

TODAY: Amnesty members detained at U2 concert; Strategy 31 cop under investigation; Triumfalnaya closure won’t deter protesters; anti-Putin report confiscated; Luzkhov prefers bees; Young Guard leader stepping down; bombers near Canadian air...
August 25, 2010

Putin’s Latest Action Photo Op

A day after Medvedev sipped tea with Bono on the sunny veranda of his summer villa, Putin chased whales in choppy waters near Russia’s Pacific coast. How symbolic of the role division in the Medvedev-Putin duumvirate. The AFP reports: Dresse...
August 25, 2010

Grigory Pasko: The quiet war with the occupiers

My acquaintance Katya Veresova, a journalist from Babayevo, told me a fascinating story. At the end of July the Babayevo district federal court issued a guilty verdict in a criminal case in relation to the chief of the Borosovo-Sudsky territorial ...
August 25, 2010

Grigory Pasko: Dialogue of the mannequins

Pre-election stories from the hagiography of the Great and Inimitable Vladimir Putin – and this has been noticed not just by me for a long time already- have begun to appear more and more often in the Russian mass information media. You may ...
August 25, 2010

Energy Blast – Aug 25, 2010

Transneft has not yet given up on Bulgaria, saying that it will push harder for permission to place an oil pipeline on its territory; the Bulgarian prime minister initially rejected the request, saying that Transneft had offered insufficient finan...
August 25, 2010

Today in Russian Business – Aug 25, 2010

Consumers are having trouble finding buckwheat in stores, with prices set to rise by another 60% as supplies decline.  World wheat prices have fallen slightly on optimism about Russia’s forecasted rains that are expected to aid the sowi...