Some good news out of Russia: no longer will they hold those famously non-transparent bidding processes with energy companies to award oil/gas exploration and production licenses, which usually ended with either Gazprom or Rosneft winning, and sometimes with a multinational owing a big political favor. Instead, why not just cut to the chase, and have the silovik-in-chief just make a private, discretionary choice on his own? That’s what has happened with Igor Sechin recently, and Latynina is one the case with a column that speaks for itself.

Igor Sechin: The Great Arctic Conqueror By Yulia Latynina The vast oil deposits located in what the Kremlin believes to be an extension of Russia’s continental shelf in the Arctic will be distributed solely at the government’s discretion, without holding the usual auctions or tenders. In a meeting on Friday with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who oversees the energy sector, President Dmitry Medvedev explained the decision, saying, “This was done consciously to ensure rational use of this national wealth.”