Archive

August 27, 2009

Russia Copes with Less Cash

Craig Pirrong has a stinging piece over at Seeking Alpha on all the upcoming nastiness he expects out of the economic crisis in Russia, beginning with the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam explosion to Gazprom’s disappointing first quarter results.&nb...
August 27, 2009

Nemtsov on the Violence in North Caucasus

Boris Nemtsov has an aggressive piece running in the Wall Street Journal today criticizing the Russian government’s handling of the escalating violence in the North Caucasus.  Agree with him or not, he is pointing at a very important pr...
August 27, 2009

Energy Blast – August 27, 2009

The Russian government plans to invest as much as $1.9 trillion in its energy sector by 2030 in an attempt to increase idling oil and gas output.  Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdori has proposed that a Russia-Mongolia natural gas pipel...
August 27, 2009

Today in Russian Business – August 27, 2009

Prime Minister Putin has proposed revamping the financing structure for the Sochi Olympics as a state corporation model has not proved to be wholly workable, favoring a return to the previous model used, the federal targeted program.  Inflati...
August 27, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – August 27, 2009

TODAY: Russia sets its sights on milestone warship purchase; Putin says ‘no one wants to be a vassal’ of US; Medvedev steadfast on South Ossetia and Abkhazia independence; no illusions on question of international recognition.  Ch...
August 26, 2009

Grigory Pasko: Under the Wheels in Russia

Back on Jan. 20, 2009, a 35-year-old previously convicted criminal named Sergey Vlasenko was driving a MAZ truck with a semi-trailer on the road leading from the Volgogradskoye chaussée to the settlement of Konstantinov of Ramenskoye Rayon of Mosc...
August 26, 2009

The Costs of Playing Chicken with Kiev

An amusing turn of phrase from the Financial Times’s take on Gazprom horrible first quarter results (-62%!!).  While many stock analysts have been laying on the abuse on Gazprom, and of course we’re skeptical of its opacity and po...
August 26, 2009

The Arch-Heresy of Our Time

Robert Skidelsky has an interesting piece here on RealClearWorld which takes a look at the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as newly independent nation states by Russia and Nicaragua, the polemics of confusing state and nation.  The ...
August 26, 2009

Energy Blast – August 26, 2009

Reconstructing an oil deposit consumed by fire in the north Siberia’s Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area will cost $48 million.  Despite the huge blaze, pipeline operator Transneft says that regional oil supplies are secure.  The conflag...
August 26, 2009

Today in Russian Business – August 26, 2009

The chairman of the German government-backed trust designed to oversee the sale of Opel has said that GM cannot afford to keep control of the European unit, as it needs to focus on its fortunes stateside.  According to the New York Times, the...