Russia

July 10, 2009

A Threatening Farewell from U.S.-Russia Summitry

Charles Krauthammer at the Washington Post is catching a lot of flak for his article today which argued that Obama’s reset diplomacy with Russia and the new agreements to cut nuclear stockpiles was somehow a gesture of capitulation, selling ...
July 10, 2009

Video: Pepsi’s $1 Billion Bet on Russia

Matthew Chance on CNN gets right to the point in this interview with Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi – will doing business in Russia mean getting involved in bribery and corruption?  After all, the poor climate for transparency led Ikea to thro...
July 10, 2009

The Arc of Obduracy

Alan Cowell has an interesting piece in the New York Times today: In some of the same lands described by President George W. Bush as an axis of evil, the Obama administration confronts an arc of obduracy from Pyongyang to Tehran. The riddle persis...
July 10, 2009

Russia as the Besieged Fortess

Leon Aron at the American Enterprise Institute has a new brief out on Russia following the Summit.  Here’s just one section from the report on the use of anti-American propaganda by the Kremlin. The Kremlin’s valiant defense of Ru...
July 10, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – July 10, 2009

TODAY: ‘True partnership’ hoped for between Russia and US; Russia wants second airbase in Kyrgyzstan.  Planes edging into British airspace, deemed ‘unfriendly’ by Commons; Russia warns Japan on Kurils.  Is the sep...
July 9, 2009

A G8 Flashback for Russia

Remember the good ‘ole times from back in the summer of 2006?  Russia was about to host the G8 Summit, Anna Politkovskaya and Stanislav Markelov were still alive and working hard, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky had only been in the gulag 2.5 ...
July 9, 2009

Subtlety, Brilliance Not Enough to Save Russian Civil Society

This bit about Barack Obama’s limited reach in Russia comes from Masha Lipman: The Kremlin keeps a firm grip on societal forces: Its concept of civil society implies loyalty to the state and rules out genuine autonomy. Those who dare defy th...
July 9, 2009

Made of Wood and Dreams

Ambitious Soviet architecture plans are a real favorite of mine.  Right up there next to the planned-but-never-built Palace of the Soviets is the work of Vladimir Tatlin, an architect whose tremendous Monument to the Third International also ...
July 9, 2009

Russia’s Rule of Law and Deep Security

Here’s the latest article by Robert Amsterdam posted to Huffington Post: President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev should be good friends by now. Following his visit with the family to the Kremlin earlier this week, ...
July 9, 2009

RA’s Daily Russian News Blast – July 9, 2009

TODAY: Diplomats positive on Obama trip, analysts more sceptical on progress; Medvedev hits G8 summit.  Opposition discuss their meeting with Obama; Abkazhia accuses Georgia of spying A high-level Russian diplomat has called the meeting betwe...