Russia

April 29, 2009

Russia’s Rosneft Nailed in Yukos Suit for $389 Million

Kommersant, via Reuters, is reporting that a Dutch court has upheld a lawsuit brought by the former shareholders of Yukos against the Russian government – specifically Rosneft – obligating them to pay upwards of $389 million to compens...
April 29, 2009

Video: Russia’s Real and Imagined Security Concerns

During my interview with David Satter, I asked about the Russian decision to push the United States out of the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan, thereby hampering NATO’s chances of success in Afghanistan – which is arguably one example of ...
April 29, 2009

Kasparov Attacks Khodorkovsky Prosecutors

From the Associated Press: Chess master Garry Kasparov staged the latest of his guerrilla hit-and-run protests against the Kremlin on Wednesday, showing up at the criminal trial of a former billionaire and engaging in a brief, heated debate with o...
April 29, 2009

Marieluise Beck: Impressions of a Show Trial

The following is a translation from the website of Marieluise Beck, a German Member of Parliament who made herself available to attend hearings of the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky as an observer.  This memo summarizes her impressions ...
April 28, 2009

Video: Debating Georgia

Below is a video compilation of some of the interviews I shot in Washington DC this month with various Russia and Caucasus experts, this time commenting on the current political crisis in Georgia, the August invasion by Russia, and the general tre...
April 28, 2009

Moskalenko: Confront Medvedev on Human Rights

Karinna Moskalenko believes that foreign leaders have a moral duty ask the Russian president difficult questions, regardless of the inconvenience. We agree. From the Helsingin Sanomat: A day after the visit to Finland of Russian President Dmitri M...
April 28, 2009

Two’s a Crowd

If you only read one article about Russia today, we would highly recommend Peter Reddaway’s extensive analysis posted over at the National Interest (don’t worry, the tone is actually very measured).  Reddaway takes a look at the p...
April 28, 2009

Blaming Georgia

It seems that when it comes to the Russian invasion of Georgia in August 2008, impartiality is very hard to come by.  A supposedly independent commission from the European Union is soon due to put out its report on who did what, but the Germa...
April 28, 2009

The United Russia Victory Machine

There’s an interesting piece on the Sochi election over at the Power Vertical blog. Leaving aside for a moment what the election means for Solidarity, there are conclusions to be drawn from the Kremlin’s point of view. First, the victo...
April 27, 2009

Trouble Ahead for the Tandemocracy

Interesting piece by Pavel K. Baev at Eurasia Daily Monitor today: Berdimuhamedov apparently presumes that Gazprom is not what it used to be, while probably not reflecting much on the predicament of his own gas-centric mono-state. Gazprom is indee...