Archive

February 25, 2008

Ponomarev in the Washington Post

Lev Ponomarev, who now facing criminal charges in Russia and has had his travel privileges revoked, is featured in a column by Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post today. But criminality isn’t limited to the Kremlin; it may be Russia’s...
February 25, 2008

Russians React to the Times Article

OK, so here goes: The New York Times has published an article about another New York Times article which prompted strong responses from the Russian public. Yes, I think I’ve that right. What happened is that someone came up with the interest...
February 25, 2008

Energy Blast, Feb. 25, 2008

Deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev is in Serbia today, supposedly to focus on South Stream, a €10 billion ($14.65 billion) project designed to bring Siberian gas to Europe via the Black Sea, but also as a show of support after Russia supported ...
February 25, 2008

Today in Russian Business

SeverStal, Russia’s biggest steelmaker, is to mount a $6 billion investment program in its home operations, including building several new plants and doubling output at one of its key factories this year. “Russia and China are two very excit...
February 25, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Feb. 25, 2008

TODAY: Orthodox Church endorses Medvedev; contract killings on the rise; BBC G7 poll on Putin; racially-motivated violence on the rise; increased media attention for Putin and Medvedev in run-up to elections. Alexei II, patriarch of the Russian Or...
February 24, 2008

U.S. Candidates Ignoring Russia

Lionel Beehner at Huffington Post remarks on the near total absence of any Russia debate in the U.S. presidential campaign: What’s also remarkable is how little Russia has surfaced in the American presidential election–whereas it’...
February 24, 2008

Squeezing Out the Vote in Russia

The New York Times has published the first article of the pre-election series Kremlin Rules, entitled “Putin’s Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates His Opponents.” The Federal Security Service, known by its initials in Russian, F.S.B.,...
February 23, 2008

Uprooting the Siloviki

Can Dmitri Medvedev become the moderate that everyone hopes he will be? Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post argues that this will depend upon his ability to uproot the siloviki, and Putin may allow them to be “tossed to the anti-corruption w...
February 22, 2008

Lev Ponomarev Under Investigation

I have just received news from Russia that prosecutors have launched an investigation against human rights leader Lev Ponomarev, who recently traveled to the United States to debrief journalists on torture and abuse in the country’s prison c...
February 22, 2008

The Real Power Struggle in Russia

The following opinion article by Robert Amsterdam will be published in tomorrow’s edition of the International Herald Tribune. The real power struggle By Robert Amsterdam If Europe and the West want to understand what is happening in Russia,...