Russia

January 6, 2009

Legal Jamming

Over at Transitions Online, Aleksandr Kolesnichenko writes about the increasing pressure against radio station owners out in the far-flung regions of Russia carrying content from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who can even sometimes face crimina...
January 6, 2009

Putting the “Cold” Back into Cold War

During the last showdown between Gazprom and the Ukraine in 2006, there were two competing narratives about the company’s motivations behind the supply cut – one arguing that the dispute was purely commercial, and the other pointing to...
January 6, 2009

Russia’s Political Dependency on Oil

Clifford Gaddy of Brookings and Barry Ickes of Pennsylvania State University have a new piece on the Putin economic model in The National Interest.  As usual with this publication, we have a number of disagreements about the piece, its underl...
January 6, 2009

Permanent Mandates for All

When the tandemocracy of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev successfully pushed through a constitutional amendment to extend the presidential term from four to six years in just 50 days, the reactions were diverse.  This new bill, along with ...
January 6, 2009

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Jan 6th, 2009

TODAY: Putin orders further cuts to Ukraine; Bulgaria supplies at ‘critical’ levels; EU officials forecasting further cuts.  Russia’s analysts offer predictable predictions; the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.Prime Minist...
January 5, 2009

Grigory Pasko: Putin’s List

Who lives well in Russia? Grigory Pasko, journalist Если Вы хотите прочитать оригинал данной статьи на русском языке, нажмите сюда. In their day, every schoolchild in the USSR knew the phrase that serves as the title of this article – a poem...
January 5, 2009

Russia’s Infrastructure Plan Crippled by Risk

A short piece by Liam Denning in the Wall Street Journal points out the problematic strategy behind Russia’s ambitious plan to spend $1.1 trillion on infrastructure by 2015, theoretically providing a cushion for crisis.  The problem:&nb...
January 5, 2009

Exorcising Past Humiliation

Robert Gates, the bridge between the Bush and Obama presidencies, is not very worried about Russia.  From the Washington Post: A longtime Russia analyst during his years with the CIA, Gates today sees Moscow as less of a threat than do many i...
January 5, 2009

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Jan 5th, 2009

TODAY: Ukraine gas cuts affecting the supply of seven EU countries; Russia calling for Gaza ceasefire; navy to station warships all over the world; opposition newspaper offices hit by fire; US-Russia adoption slammed by United Russia.The Czech Rep...
January 4, 2009

Kasparov’s Epiphanies

Garry Kasparov jots down a few epiphanies in the magazine Foreign Policy.  We think the last one is the best. I REMEMBER one of the guards followed me to the roof [of the jail] where I was walking, and he asked me, ‘How is it that a man...