Archive

September 2, 2009

Russia Not Ready to Give Up Stalin

This piece in the Financial Times sees positive steps in Vladimir Putin’s efforts to talk about Molotov-Ribbentrop, but observes that the current leadership is still very far away from the comfort level of being able to openly debate Joseph ...
September 2, 2009

Extradition, Torture, and… Release?

Usually when human rights groups lobby to foreign governments not to extradite a Chechen back to Russia, their concerns are well founded by fears of torture, inadequate legal rights, and a less than shining record on treatment of detainees.  ...
September 2, 2009

Russia Approaching Conflict on Three Fronts

Here goes a little piece from openDemocracy about Russia’s triple-pronged security mess, with confrontations broiling from Ukraine to Georgia to the North Caucasus.  The authors assume that the leadership is playing with fire in terms o...
September 2, 2009

Energy Blast – September 2, 2009

Russia may raise electricity prices more than the 5% planned following the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station disaster, says Reuters.  Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has stated that the country’s gas problems with Russia have ...
September 2, 2009

Today in Russian Business – September 2, 2009

A government source has suggested that Russia may reach pre-crisis levels in 2012.  Budget revenues in 2010 are expected to exceed expectations with predictions of oil trading at $57 a barrel as opposed to $54.  Despite the optimism, the...
September 2, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – September 2, 2009

TODAY: Poles riled by Russia’s take on war; conciliation comes with recrimination; Beslan families still seeking justice; Lavrov advises against freezing Iran out; Bagapsh verbal attack on Georgian ships; Gazprom tower causing friction. Trop...
September 1, 2009

Grigory Pasko: Battling the Bottle

Some of the Western media has been picking up on the story of the summer here in Russia: our leaders have declared a war on alcoholism, which some consider to be a certain political grave. Consider the odds: A ticket to the movies in Moscow costs ...
September 1, 2009

Medvedev the Photographer

I just spent an entertaining few minutes perusing the amateur photography gallery of President Dmitry Medvedev (the Moscow Times is running a story on this one).  So far I think Medvedev’s photos are much better than Vladimir Putin̵...
September 1, 2009

Putin Tackles Polish Gas Corruption

Coming from the people who brought you the Khodorkovsky show trial, the release of alleged gas mobster Semyon Mogilevich on bail, and campaign to return merchant of death Viktor Bout from his Thai jail cell to freedom (or a career in the Duma), no...
September 1, 2009

Russia’s Imperial Blowback

Yesterday on Foreign Policy Christian Caryl published one of those “Russia-more-isolated-now-than-ever-thanks-to-their-own-policies-of-confrontation” type of articles.  We are beginning to see this topic come around and around eve...