Russia

November 22, 2008

Russia’s Gaulists

Julia Ioffe, writing at the New Republic Plank blog about Russia’s extension of presidential term limits: What does the Kremlin say in its defense? It invokes the economic crisis and the time needed to deal with it; it points to Russian exce...
November 22, 2008

Replaying the Russia-Georgia War

Are you unsatisfied with the conclusions of the Amnesty International report on the Russian invasion of Georgia?  Have you ever wondered what it would be like to pilot a tank through the Roki Tunnel into South Ossetia?  Or to be a Osseti...
November 21, 2008

Why the Iskander?

Ariel Cohen at Heritage believes that Moscow has made a “shrewd geopolitical move” by threatening U.S. president-elect Barack Obama with missiles in Kaliningrad, and may have inadvertently painted him into a corner, given that he will ...
November 21, 2008

Uralkali Fights to Avoid State Theft

The last time we blogged about the Russian potash mining company Uralkali, currently under siege from a possible expropriation attempt from the government, it was in the context of the clan wars.  This week more details are becoming apparent ...
November 21, 2008

The Chinese Example

This bit comes from Bronwen Maddox at the Times: At the weekend’s G20 summit in Washington, Russia was almost silent. The contrast with China was startling. China, unlike Russia, has bought into the idea that it serves its own interest by em...
November 21, 2008

RBK Daily: Unpaid Wages Accumulating

Below is another exclusive translation from the Russian news outlet RBK Daily, a pro-government source that sometimes serves as an unintentionally illuminating guide to Kremlin thinking.  This piece of news, which has also been hit by the Jou...
November 21, 2008

Russia’s Unsubtle Censorship

It’s becoming clear that the Russian government is getting very, very paranoid about the financial crisis, and, as usual, their first target of harassment is the media.  Reporters and editors have been given strict instructions from the...
November 21, 2008

Gazprom Tells Ukraine to Pay Up

Yesterday Dmitry Medvedev ordered his old company Gazprom to enforce payment of a gas debt of $2.4 billion from the Ukraine, while Alexei Miller slipped in the announcement that Kiev would have to pay more than $400 per thousand cubic metres for g...
November 21, 2008

Russia to Benefit from Global Warming

We’re digging into this new 2025 report about the emergence of the multi-polar world, but for now, we have this from Forbes: The report says the warming earth will extend Russia and Canada’s growing season and ease their access to nort...