Archive

May 15, 2009

Grigory Pasko: Has the Great Thaw Arrived?

President Dmitry Medvedev recently met with human rights advocates. Hooray for Medvedev! Medvedev gave an interview to Novaya Gazeta. What a guy! They’ve released former YUKOS lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina. Respect – to him, naturally, the ...
May 15, 2009

Europe’s Balkan Reluctance

Reading this stark judgment on Europe’s performance of leadership in the Balkan conflicts from Foreign Policy, one can see how easily Russia established its influence in Southeastern Europe (or at least enough influence to take over the gas ...
May 15, 2009

Federation Council to Directly Appoint Judges

Earlier this week Russia Profile published an interesting piece about a new law being pushed by President Dmitry Medvedev to empower the Federation Council to handpick judges for the Constitutional Court.  Clearly the potential for rule of la...
May 15, 2009

Video: How to Press a Reset Button

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stopped by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to talk about missile defense, NATO enlargement, the conflict with Georgia, nuclear proliferation, past/future U.S.-Russia relations, and his f...
May 15, 2009

Energy Blast – May 15, 2009

The Russian Foreign Ministry has called the EU’s southern corridor agreements ‘counterproductive‘ as long as discussions do not take into account Russian interests.  The Telegraph analyses how oil prices have risen by 70% in...
May 15, 2009

Today in Russian Business – May 15, 2009

Russia has revised plans for state guarantees for the debt of major firms, which would make accessing government funds easier, in order to encourage them to lend to the real economy.  The government has hired one of the country’s top in...
May 15, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – May 15, 2009

TODAY: Russia willing to revive European Arms Control treaty; IOC praises Sochi but says task must not be underestimated; Russia pledges help to Abkhazia and South Ossetia; policemen on trial  Russia has proposed a new version of the Treaty o...
May 15, 2009

Behind the Delays of Russia’s Security Strategy

Earlier this week we blogged about Russia’s new National Security Strategy, a document signed by the president which was delayed one month in its publication.  What was happening during that month, and what changes were being made? ...
May 14, 2009

Cooperation vs. Confrontation

A piece from Yevgeny Bazhanov in the Moscow Times takes a look at what we can expect from the U.S.-Russia relationship this summer. Amid the economic crisis and after the unsuccessful, misdirected policies of former President George W. Bush, it is...
May 14, 2009

Analyze This (Country)

Another apocalyptic take on modern Russia from Paul Goble’s Window on Eurasia blog, quoting an article from Grani.ru.  I don’t think psychoanalysis should be applied to nations, and that Father Yakov Krotov’s arguments reek ...