France Looks to Cash In on “Ski Chechnya”

By James Kimer | Published: July 21, 2011

Remember all those good laughs we had back when playboy/warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said he wanted to turn Chechnya into a destination ski resort?  Certainly the live fire conditions seemed like the ideal place to train Russia’s Olympic biathlon team… Well now it appears that the Russian government is already throwing tens of millions of taxpayer […]

» Read More

China’s Cultural Isolationism

By James Kimer | Published: July 19, 2011

When you talk about China’s trade disputes with United States, usually it’s a discussion regarding the artificially cheap Yuan, rare earth metals export restrictions, or even the staggering trade imbalance.  The last thing you’d be worried about is whether or not the Hollywood studios that pumps out the Harry Potter franchise will make its ends […]

» Read More

Gorbachev, the Velvet Hammer

By James Kimer | Published:

Mikhail Gorbachev might not be the most popular guy in Russia, no matter how much respect the outside world might have for his statesmanship.  So although nobody is listening to him, he has been consistently amping up his criticism of the ruling government and the nature of the sovereign democracy model with regard to Russia’s […]

» Read More

Video: Russia Has Failed to Investigate Murder of Natalia Estemirova

By James Kimer | Published: July 18, 2011

Amnesty International has released a video plea requesting the Russian authorities to launch a serious inquiry, investigation, and prosecution of those responsible for the horrific murder of human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, who was abducted and assassinated on July 15th, 2009.

» Read More

Oxus Under Attack in Uzbekistan

By James Kimer | Published: July 12, 2011

The following news was reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  Oxus Gold Plc is a client of Amsterdam & Peroff LLP. The British mining company Oxus Gold says the Uzbek government is attempting to seize its assets by forcing its joint venture to be liquidated, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports. Robert Amsterdam, the lawyer representing Oxus […]

» Read More

Inside the Homophobic Mind of a Nashi Organizer

By James Kimer | Published: July 6, 2011

Not to spoil the recent attempts by the Nashi to re-brand itself as a an independent youth movement at this year’s infamous Seliger camp, but it sometimes seems like very few Western audiences are exposed to the actual rhetoric and conversations shared among Nashi members.  One Nashi spokeswoman, Kristina Potupchik (Кристина Потупчик), recently published a […]

» Read More

The Vampire Protection Society

By James Kimer | Published: June 30, 2011

So everybody knows that Vladimir Milov’s opposition party PARNAS was recently denied the right to compete in Duma elections, as the electoral authorities claimed that there were errors on the registration paperwork.  So even if the liberal democracy-leaning community is small, they won’t even get the chance to show how many votes they could get. […]

» Read More

Russia Eases on William Browder

By James Kimer | Published: June 27, 2011

Any regular reader of this blog is no stranger to William Browder’s roller-coaster history as a foreign investor in Russia, a one-time success story turned ultimate victim, including the horrific death in prison of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky following torture by denial of medical services.  While still no one has ever been held accountable for […]

» Read More

Crosstown Traffic

By James Kimer | Published: June 15, 2011

Julia Ioffe’s latest piece for Foreign Policy offers a microcosm of contemporary Russian social class tensions, corruption, elite insolence, and of courge, migalkas, the controversial private sirens given to more than 900 privileged motorists in Moscow. Rare is a day in Russia when we don’t hear of another accident involving a “VIP car.” As I […]

» Read More

Corporate Culture and Corruption

By James Kimer | Published:

The Financial Times is running a Russia supplement tomorrow, with a number of interesting articles, including the following bit from Leyla Boulton on the climate of fear and theft survived by businesses working in Russia.  I’ve noticed that it’s become rather customary to give BP a good kick in the ribs whenever a discussion of […]

» Read More