Russia

May 11, 2009

Unexpected Incidents

This Financial Times editorial came across my email alerts last night, reminding us that somewhere along the line either the U.S. government or the media or both came up with this mythic assumption that talking to Russia about security issues beca...
May 11, 2009

Obama Will Visit Russia in July

Reuters is reporting that the new U.S. President will visit Russia on July 6-8.  What do you want to be he gets to sign a replacement for the START treaty?
May 8, 2009

The Clinton-Lavrov Sibling Rivalry

Russia has made some brash moves in the past couple weeks.  They chucked out two Canadian diplomats, broke the ceasefire agreement in Georgia by advancing their troops to the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and even had one Duma member...
May 8, 2009

Don’t Mess with the Great Patriotic War

Don’t dispute any details of the official version of the Great Patriotic War in Russia – or else.  The idea had never occurred to me personally, but I have noticed that the quickening tempo of ultra-nationalism in many countries o...
May 8, 2009

Europe Remembers the East

It must be difficult for Ukraine or any other countries of Eastern Europe to summon must trust or optimism in the European Union after so many years of neglect.  In many respects, citizens in these countries legitimately feel as though Paris,...
May 7, 2009

Gazprom’s Hungarian Scam

There is a riveting business story posted at Asia Times Online by Roman Kupchinsky, taking a look at the removal of the allegedly shady RosUkrEnergo trading company – famous for its non-transparent middleman role selling gas between Turkmeni...
May 7, 2009

Russia’s Violence against the Media

From Christopher Walker in the Moscow Times: The authorities have also sought to muzzle foreign media outlets, including the programming of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the BBC and Voice of America. The Kremlin has undertaken a systematic inti...