Russia

December 6, 2009

Grigory Pasko: The Perm Nightclub Fire

According to preliminary data, 110 people died because of the fire in the nightclub in Perm. Over 100 are considered wounded and victims. Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. In all, there were 233 people...
December 4, 2009

Russia’s Most Classy Mullet

Whomever was in charge of telling me that Yevgeny Chichvarkin’s nickname was the “million-dollar mullet” is fired.  That is just too good.  Russia Profile has a very good article this week on his case, which is very com...
December 4, 2009

Watching Moscow’s Treatment of Iran

Alan Philps has a very good article today in the National: A clear cause for the cooling of relations between Moscow and Tehran is the Iranian rejection of a Russian-supported proposal under which Iran would send low-enriched uranium to Russia and...
December 4, 2009

Reflexive, Conditioned, Uncontrolled

Streetwise Professor hits one out of the park on the Putin murder accusation:  Completely ignoring the actual crimes for which Khordokovsky has been convicted and charged, Putin asserted that Khodorkovsky was guilty of five murders because th...
December 4, 2009

Putin’s Big Lie about Khodorkovsky

I have been getting a number of calls and emails about Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s impromptu attack against Mikhail Khodorkovsky during the televised call-in show this week, and there was one thing remarkably different from back ...
December 4, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Dec 4, 2009

TODAY: Putin Q&A dominates press, hints at return to presidency; Medvedev establishes diplomatic relations with the Vatican; NATO and Russia working through problems; Lukashenko acknowledges reliance on Russia; hackers destroy tabloid archives...
December 3, 2009

The Magnitsky Letters

The Associated Press has obtained exclusive access to a series of letters written by Sergei Magnitsky, the Hermitage lawyer who died in prison after being denied medical treatment, to his mother.  Heartbreaking reading. Nataliya Magnitskaya s...
December 3, 2009

Are You an Independent Russian judge? You’re Fired.

“One of the key elements of our work in the next four years will be ensuring the independence of our legal system from the executive and legislative branches of power.” – Dmitry Medvedev, Feb. 24, 2008 “Russia should be a d...
December 3, 2009

Video: George Friedman on the Coming Conflict

I usually don’t bother running RT videos, but this one has some highlights.  I hold occasional doubts about the information quality behind STRATFOR’s Russia analysis (they are heavy on the rumors), but Friedman is one of the few w...
December 3, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – Dec 3, 2009

TODAY: Russian judges resign over inability to perform their jobs in ‘ruined’ legal system; top courts shooting for transparency; media giants at war; Putin’s Q&A on air today, focused on terrorism and economy as Chechens cla...