Last night Moscow closed the books on a very eventful 2008 – and in traditional Russian style, I have no doubt everyone rang it in with tremendous style as though it were still the halcyon days of July.

Russia finished the year with a much stronger share of the international spotlight than last year, assisted by the war in Georgia, the economic crisis, constitutional rearranging, and not to mention the confirmation that gas supplies to Ukraine were indeed cut today.  But President Dmitry Medvedev remained ebullient during his New Year’s speech to the local revelers:  “I am sure that no matter what difficulties we face, we will cope with them. And the government will do everything necessary to achieve this.“

Who can say what 2009 will bring?  I don’t believe there will be any shortage of events for us to discuss in this space.  However, instead of looking forward, let’s just take a moment to absorb the year in review – as told by this blog anyways…