Video: Zbigniew Brzezinski on Georgia
Russia
Russia’s “Fishy” Constitutional Changes
Vladimir Frolov of Russia Profile is not one known to be very critical of Russian government policies, but even among the most restrained and measured observers of the Kremlin there appears to be a gathering consensus over the lack of grounding fo...
An Impetus to End Rent-Seeking
An editorial in today’s Moscow Times explores the reasons why Russia’s economy has failed to diversify, despite many consecutive years of impressive growth. The answer – rent-seeking by the state, which may finally become l...
Alexei Frenkel Appeals Murder Conviction
Lawyers for Alexei Frenkel, the former banker who was recently convicted by a Russian court for ordering the murder of central banker Andrei Kozlov, have announced they are lodging an appeal, citing the violations of his rights throughout the proc...
The Politician Who Killed the Journalist
We never would have thought that the trial of Anna Politkovskaya’s killers (only the co-conspirators and not the trigger man) would have been anything close to interesting, but rather just the latest chapter in Basmanny Justice, in which the...
RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – Nov 25, 2008
TODAY: Russia accuses foreigners of fighting for Georgia; Poland denounces Russia after motorcade shooting; Medvedev arrives in Brazil, sealing various Latin American deals; UK surveillance suspect Russian teapot. Politkovskaya trial to rest...
The Return of the Druzhiny
A ubiquitous feature of Soviet life was the institution of people’s druzhiny – ostensibly voluntary citizens’ neighborhood law-and-order patrols, instantly recognizable by the red armbands worn by the druzhinniki. Well, they̵...
What Transparency Could do for Russia
Gregor Macdonald has an excellent blog post highlighting an interesting proposal for Russia in these times of economic crisis: Oil Glastnost. One gets the sense Russia wants to conceal its enormous dependence on oil and mineral exports, and the ho...
Brazil Drives a Hard Bargain on Russia
Dmitry Medvedev’s tour of Latin America is certainly making some headlines, but as I mentioned this weekend, there are still some fundamental misunderstandings about Russia’s goals in the region. However I did see an interesting ...
Empire States vs. Nation States
This bit comes from a review of the book L’Envers du Pouvoir by Marie Mendras (Odile Jacob, 2008) by Dr. Fraser Cameron of the EU-Russia Centre. Mendras begins by noting that Russia was always an empire state as opposed to a nation state. Th...