The Summer Gas War
Wait, I thought this stuff only happened every New Year’s? Though the heating of homes won’t be an issue in June/July, you know how the Europeans are about gas-fired kitchens… From Reuters: “Gazprom will only su...
Archive
Energy Blast – June 3, 2009
The vice-president of the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan has said that European energy firms must forget their rivalries if they wish to prevent Gazprom from buying up excess natural gas from the western Caspian area. President Obama hopes to &...
Today in Russian Business – June 3, 2009
President Dmitry Medvedev has said in an interview with CNBC that Russia’s economy will shrink at least 6% this year and the structure of the economy is to blame. He also reiterated the need for ‘more reserve currencies’ to...
RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – June 3, 2009
TODAY: Russia-Israel meeting sidesteps thorny issues; draft nuclear agreement could be ready for Obama’s July visit; state won’t put money into Sochi this year; road blockaded by protesters in Pikalyovo The Kremlin has said that the US...
Grigory Pasko: Among the Asylum Seekers in Finland
It’s no mystery that Russian journalists are an endangered species. Beyond the headlines grabbed by the famous cases of Paul Klebnikov and Anna Politkovskaya, there are so many more who are threatened, beaten, harassed, and forced out of wor...
Alfa’s Preferred Treatment
Here’s a quick line from an amusing Wall Street Journal piece about Alfa Bank’s undiminished swagger amid the other fallen oligarchs: Mr. Fridman says Alfa works within the law and dismisses the criticism as “PR” by Alfa...
Imprisoning East Germany
Der Spiegel has a fascinating article about a piece of historical documentation which has been uncovered, revealing whether it was Walter Ulbricht or Nikita Khrushchev who came up with the idea of building the Berlin Wall. Khrushchev, at any rate,...
Access to Information Tightening in Russia
Some more scary stuff from Memorial and the Russian government’s transparency to the historical archives, notes Paul Goble’s blog over at the Moscow Times: In an article in the current issue of Moscow’s “New Times,” N...
Sechin Moves on Gazprom
Every once in a while, it looks as though the Russian anti-trust authorities appear as though they are a normal, independent institution tasked with protecting the integrity of markets from monopolistic practices of business. On the other ha...
Maglevannaya Seeks Asylum in Finland
A few weeks back we reported on the case of reporter Yelena Maglevannaya (Grigory Pasko also interviewed her), and this week it looks like she is seeking political asylum in Finland. Whenever you have journalists who are fleeing the country ...