RA in the Guardian
Robert Amsterdam is quoted in today’s Guardian coverage of TNK-BP: Bob Amsterdam, a lawyer who specialises in Russia, says the dispute is a ‘very regressive step’ for Russia. ‘I don’t know how many conferences on corp...
Archive
The Long, Long Shadow Cast by the Yukos Legacy
The legacy of the Kremlin’s systematic dismemberment of the Yukos oil company via selective legalism, regulatory harassment, and farcical judicial proceedings just doesn’t seem to be fading away into that dark void of Russian memory. I...
Gazprom’s European Lobbyists
For several years now I have argued that Gazprom enjoys the support of extremely powerful lobbyists in European capitals – the local national energy champions themselves. In exchange for minority stakes in energy production projects, the Rus...
EXCLUSIVE: The Sergei Storchak Letter
Yesterday we reported on the return of former Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, whose unlawful pre-trial imprisonment on fraud charges is a focal point of the Kremlin clan wars between the liberal St. Petersburg economists and the hard-line...
Video: TNK-BP’s Robert Dudley Evacuates Russia
A Baltic View on Russia’s New Foreign Policy Concept
Baltic states such as Latvia have been very busy reading the tea leaves from Dmitry Medvedev’s presentation of the Russian Federation’s new foreign policy concept paper. I came across this interesting translation which illustrates some...
Grigory Pasko: Eastern Promises Broken
Bureaucrats Behind Bars, or “Dictatorship of the law” – Putin-style Grigory Pasko, journalist On one of my business trips to Baikal last year, I made the acquaintance of the mayor of Listvyanka, Tatiana Kazakova. About Kazakova I had been told by ...
Russia as the Rising Phoenix
Alexandros Petersen of ISS and CSIS has a short op/ed in the Boston Globe today pondering the “risks and rewards” or Russia’s resurgence. I often feel increasingly isolated when I insist that Russia’s return to the global p...
Cumbersome State Intervention Bludgeons Russia’s Markets
It’s a peculiar contrast: Americans are furious with the perceived recession in the economy, caused by bad mortgage debt, poor fiscal planning, high energy prices, and profligate government spending on war, among other factors. This week the...
Energy Blast – July 25, 2008
TNK-BP’s chief, Robert Dudley, has been “forced” to leave Russia after being unable to get his visa renewed. BP says the move comes as a result of “sustained harassment”. Viktor Vekselberg said BP had brought too many of its employees on loan to T...