Archive

August 11, 2009

Grigory Pasko: The Gas Emperor

A few days ago the Russian mainstream media were talking about all the agreements reached with Turkey during the most recent visit of the Prime Minister, hailing the accords as the latest Putinite achievement. Supposedly positive but vague results...
August 11, 2009

Kadyrov’s Unlikely Victims

Philip P. Pan of the Washington Post has some better information on the married couple who were murdered in Chechnya yesterday.  Ramzan Kadryov’s quote is breathtaking:  in explaining that he would have no reason to have one woman ...
August 11, 2009

Video: Medvedev Attacks Ukraine

From the President of the Russian Federation’s video blog, an attack on the Ukraine, which has been picked up by some news outlets.  Medvedev’s complaints about the Ukrainian leadership are familiar – NATO, energy relations,...
August 11, 2009

Untangling Empires

Mary Dejevsky of the Independent believes that for Russia the South Ossetians and Abkhazians are basically, well, a pain in the ass.  I credit Dejevsky for an original take on a tired subject, but a lot of things don’t add up.  Rus...
August 11, 2009

Getting Famous the Hard Way

Some people talk about Russia learning from the Iranian experience in the recent attack on an individual Georgian blogger – an impressive feat of hacking which actually succeeded in crashing Twitter and hampering Facebook with a DDOS attack ...
August 11, 2009

The Chechnya Murder Spree Continues

When the Chechen human rights worker Natalia Estemirova was snatched off the streets of Grozny and later deposited in a roadside ditch with a few bullets to the head, the grotesque brutality of the act was hard to swallow.  In response, not a...
August 11, 2009

Energy Blast – August 11, 2009

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has said there is no immediate necessity for Russia to extend a loan to Ukraine to ensure its buying of natural gas.  In a highly critical open letter to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, Dmitry Medvedev has ...
August 11, 2009

Today in Russian Business – August 11, 2009

MDM bank and Ursa Bank have completed a merger which makes the new $16 billion enterprise Russia’s second biggest non-state bank after Alfa.  The bank may sell a minority stake to investors and plans to increase its loans portfolio by 2...
August 11, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – August 11, 2009

TODAY: Human rights activist and husband murdered; Medvedev has idea for military abroad; Georgia suggests the Kremlin seeking justification for incursion.  Ukraine-Russia ties on the rocks; reports to be submitted about bribery.   ...
August 10, 2009

Tell us how you really feel (about the Russian economy)

Some tough words from President Dmitry Medvedev about the state of the Russian economy and the need to make urgent reforms.  These comments are likely to be followed by decisive actions and changes more comments. From AFP: He told Russian pol...