Month: November 2010

November 17, 2010

Brazil-China Trade Yet to Take Off

I saw this interesting article in the Financial Times earlier this week, and did not want to let it go by unmentioned.  The journalist reports from some excerpts of a new Standard & Poor’s report on trade relations and economic growth be...
November 17, 2010

How to Pass a Nuclear Treaty

Kurt Volker, a former US Ambassador to NATO, has a piece in Christian Science Monitor recommending that Congress wait until later in order to ratify the replacement START treaty with Russia.  Volker picks apart the arguments for immediate rat...
November 17, 2010

Energy Blast – Nov 17, 2010

Russia has made it into the top ten of a British consultancy’s index on greenhouse gas emissions, but trails well behind UAE, Australia and the United States.  According to Gazprom chief Alexander Medvedev, falling demand saw European c...
November 17, 2010

Today in Russian Business – Nov 17, 2010

City Hall officials have apparently received $38.6 million in kickbacks from winners of state this year, according to the head of the Federal Financial Monitoring Service.  RFE/RL suggests that Kyrgyzstan would be unwise to join Russia’...
November 17, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Nov 17, 2010

TODAY: Bout in detention in New York, Thailand fears Russia will cut ties; Kashin may give evidence today; one year on, US renews calls on Magnitsky case; Medvedev to reorganize Russian territory?  Military aid to Lebanon includes 31 tanks; S...
November 16, 2010

Protecting Russia’s National Interests

Jackson Diehl on Russia’s reaction to Thailand’s extradition of Viktor Bout: “Extreme unjustice,” fumed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Said the Foreign Ministry: “There is no doubt that the illegal extradition of V.A...
November 16, 2010

Channeling Goebbels

You have to hand it to the Nashi – they do a better job communicating what they are truly about than any of their critics can imagine.  Some people might sensibly suggest that an organization funded by the government that invokes Nazi p...
November 16, 2010

Thailand Coughs Up its Most Valuable Prisoner

As Viktor Bout heads from the confines of his Bangkok cell towards the United States in a specially chartered jet, one can only wonder about what kind of improbable backroom deals were put in place to secure his extradition. On an intelligence lev...
November 16, 2010

Magnitsky and Russia’s Opportunity Cost

November 16th marks the one-year anniversary of the murder of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was imprisoned last year in Moscow under pre-trial detention and intentionally denied medical care which led to his death. The responsibility lies w...
November 16, 2010

Energy Blast – Nov 16, 2010

Bulgaria-Russia energy relations may have been smoothed with a South Stream agreement and a canine gift, but apparently Bulgaria is not happy with the projected cost of the Belene nuclear power plant, at €6.3 billion.  Nor will Bulgaria be a ...