Archive

July 14, 2010

The Dead Heat of Summer

One of my favorite Spike Lee movies takes place during a brutal heatwave in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, where the high temperatures and simmering racial pressures explode into anger and a deeply unsettling interrogation of Ame...
July 14, 2010

Lost Reform, Confused Spies

Alvaro Vargas Llosa has an op/ed in the Globe and Mail on the relationship between the incompetence of the arrested/swapped spies and the lost reform process in Russia. Whereas China’s Deng Xiaoping had a clear vision of a midterm path to a ...
July 14, 2010

No Flattery in Spy Saga

Writing in the New York Times, Tom Friedman reminds us that there is no news story, no matter how strange and arcane, that can’t be bent into shape to be used as a Friedmanian libertarian vehicle.  Look, if you had told me that we had j...
July 14, 2010

Energy Blast – July 14, 2010

As part of the Russian and Iranian energy ministries’ road map for long-term cooperation a joint bank will be established to help fund bilateral projects.  Royal Dutch Shell has announced that its LNG venture with Gazprom on Russia̵...
July 14, 2010

Today in Russian Business – July 14, 2010

Russia’s public-health chief, Gennady Onishchenko, has suggested that companies introduce a siesta regime for workers who are exhausted by the record heat wave.  The government is attempting to discourage cattle breeders from slaughteri...
July 14, 2010

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – July 14, 2010

TODAY: Interior Ministry official rejects Hermitage accusations over Magnitsky case; more than 30% of prison population is ill, says new survey; Russian laws accused of being responsible for worsening HIV epidemic; curators appeal.  Regional ...
July 13, 2010

Anna Chapman Auctioning Off First Interview

Arrested and deported redhead spy extraordinaire Anna Chapman is reportedly taking bids from reporters to have the first opportunity to interview her, according to Julia Ioffe’s Twitter stream. She’s also resumed posting to her incredi...
July 13, 2010

Russian Spies and STRATFOR

George Friedman of STRATFOR has published a new analysis which argues that the role of the undercover Russian spy ring was most likely to recruit talent and deep embedded sources, not collect the intelligence themselves.  This speculation com...
July 13, 2010

Video: Pavel Karpov and the Murder of Sergei Magnitsky

Here is the second video in the “Russian Untouchables” series from Bill Browder’s people, focusing on what the Russian government has done (or rather, what they have not done) to hold Maj. Pavel Karpov responsible for the tax reb...
July 13, 2010

Guinea’s Transition to Democracy

In its 52-year history since independence, the Republic of Guinea has been ruled mostly by dictators, coup leaders, and often very bloody military regimes.  However this summer the country is conducting its first fair and free democratic elec...