Archive

January 21, 2009

Russia’s Weakening Automotive Market

Being in the car business is tough.  All the noise we heard about the Big Three bailout in the United States was just the tip of the iceberg for a troubled global market, as fewer and larger manufacturers scramble to place their bets on the b...
January 21, 2009

Energy Blast – Jan 21st, 2009

The inauguration speech of US President Barack Obama included a special focus on alternative energy sources and energy security.  The cash crunch facing Gazprom offers strong business opportunities for Western companies, says The Times. ...
January 21, 2009

Today in Russian Business – Jan 21st, 2009

Arkady Dvorkovich, the Kremlin’s economic aide, forecasts that the correction of the ruble is at an end, after the currency showed its first signs of stabilizing yesterday.  In response, the central bank has bought foreign currency for ...
January 21, 2009

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Jan 21st, 2009

TODAY: Russia sees NATO as test for Obama; gas supplies to Europe resume; Duma reading freedom of information bill; fighter jets transported to Lebanon; tributes to Stanislav Markelov.The Kremlin says that it considers the US position on NATO memb...
January 21, 2009

Rule of Law vs. the Mafia Petrostate

The Boston Globe makes it clear that the coexistence of regular political murders and the regularity of a rule of law state is not possible. Markelov had received death threats because of his efforts to keep the murderer of the strangled Chechen w...
January 21, 2009

Toasts of Celebration

Right now in Washington, dozen of galas are convening to raise a celebratory toast to a new era.  The champagne was also likely flowing in Moscow at more than one dinner table, however marking a far different type of outcome.  This excer...
January 20, 2009

Kozlovsky on the Moscow Double Murder

Oleg Kozlovsky, occasional contributor to this blog, has posted an extensive list of all the political murders in Russia.  However before he could finish writing his article, he was notified that the opposition activist Anton Stradymov, who w...
January 20, 2009

Watching Inauguration from Moscow

Today at noon in Washington DC, Barack Obama was sworn in as the President of the United States.  It was hard not to get swept up in the excitement of such a historical moment, even among us hardened cynics who may be wary of impossibly high ...
January 20, 2009

Grigory Pasko: Saint Putin

«Saint» Putin, with order, mounted Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. I like Germany and the Germans. True, not all Germans. Those who at times forget about the rules of decenc...
January 20, 2009

The Prophetess Vanga

We’ve all heard the stories about Igor Panarin, the “academic” who has become extremely popular in the Russian state media for his prediction that the United States will dissolve into five separate countries within a year, but th...