Russia

December 11, 2008

Splitting Serbia

UPDATE: The anti-Gazprom Serbian politician, Mladjan Dinkic, has apparently been forced to resign today. We’ve seen Moscow apply the Rumsfeldian divide-and-conquer disaggregation technique to split Europe from the United States on NATO and m...
December 11, 2008

Inventing Russian Holidays

Every year around this time, the Russian State Duma adopts a law declaring which days in the following year are going to be legal holidays. And, this being Russia, the process is always way more complicated than you’d expect. First, in order...
December 11, 2008

Looking Forward to Sec. of State Clinton

From RIA Novosti: Russia’s foreign minister said on Thursday during a TV interview that he was certain that Hillary Clinton would be easier for Russia to work with than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice. (…) In answering a question as ...
December 11, 2008

Don’t Blog about the Patriarch

We’ve written in the past about the Russian government’s worrying oversight of the blogosphere, but this one looks like it could be actionable.  From the Moscow Times: Renowned designer and Russian Internet personality Artemy Lebe...
December 11, 2008

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Dec 11th, 2008

TODAY: Abkhazia struggling under Russian influence?; EU and US can’t agree on Russia; Piontkovsky article; Russia adds Nicaragua to its Latin American portfolio; blogger accused of ‘satanism’. An opinion survey of ‘transatl...
December 10, 2008

European Solidarity with Khodorkovsky

The following press release was issued this evening from the offices of the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering: EP President Hans-Gert Pöttering expresses solidarity with the family of Mikhail Khodorkovsky Earlier today the P...
December 10, 2008

Obama and the Not-so-New Cold War

I like Michael Idov.  Even when I disagree with his opinions on certain trends in Russia, which is not infrequent, I’m left with the impression of hard-earned restraint. His article posted to The New Republic today examining the choices...
December 10, 2008

Crowning Russia’s Miss Constitution

Reuters is reporting that the clever minds over at the Nashi are whipping up a ultra-nationalist beauty pageant: The winner of a new Russian beauty contest must be attractive, talented and witty. But never mind wanting to help children. She should...
December 10, 2008

Targeting Bloggers

This is certainly scary to read.  RFE/RL has an article quoting a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists citing than almost half of the world’s imprisoned journalists are bloggers or online editors/reporters.  Russia ...
December 10, 2008

Grigory Pasko: The Russian Federation Corporation

The «Russian Federation» Corporation Grigory Pasko, journalist On 10 December at the Marriott Grand Hotel in Moscow, the Association for the Protection of the Rights of Investors held a conference on «Corporate Governance in Russia – The Cur...