Latest Prism Articles

RUSSIA’S ECONOMY: AN UNCERTAIN SUCCESS

By Elena Chinyaeva While Russia's leadership remains optimistic regarding the prospects for the country's economy, the statistics paint a less certain picture. Last year's inflation was 18.5 percent rather than the planned 12 percent, growth of the gross domestic product has slowed and the structural... MORE

GAZPROM ON THE BRINK OF CHANGE

By Sergei Kolchin The management changes that took place in Gazprom in 2001--with Aleksei Miller replacing Rem Vyakhirev in the corporation's top job--were just the first of a number of major changes affecting the future of this, the biggest player in Russia's economy. And if... MORE

CHECHENS FIGHTING WITH THE TALIBAN: FACT OR PROPAGANDA?

By Nabi Abdullaev   Reports that hundreds of Chechen rebels and even one of their prominent leaders, Emir Khattab, have been fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan have appeared in the international media throughout the U.S.-led military campaign. These reports have been sketchy and poorly... MORE

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN THE “BLACKMAIL STATE”

By Taras Kuzio The trend towards an authoritarian, corporatist state in Ukraine has been particularly evident since 1997 with Ukraine (and Russia) regressing democratically.[1] Ukraine's regime has been described by Ukrainian and Western scholars as a "delegative democracy,"[2] with an inactive population's only participation in... MORE

MANAS AIRPORT BOOSTS KYRGYZSTAN’S GEOPOLITICAL STATUS

By Sadji AMERICA SEIZES THE INITIATIVE FROM NATO On December 6, 2001, the deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Kyrgyzstan's Jogorku Kenesh (Supreme Council) ratified a reply note from the republic's Foreign Ministry to a diplomatic note received from the U.S. Embassy, granting permission for... MORE

INTERNAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES

By Elena Chinyaeva As President Vladimir Putin has been making one successful international appearance after another--clear, pro-Western and predictable--Russian internal politics has been developing its own way--murky, Byzantine and incomprehensible to the outsiders. Out of this political debris new informal centers of power emerge. Whether... MORE

PUTIN IN 2002: ST. PETERSBURG PATRIOTISM–ITS NATURE AND PROSPECTS

By Aleksandr Tsipko It is worth remembering first what Russia's political analysts wrote and said about Putin's likely policies a year ago, on the eve of the new millennium, if only to appreciate what a thankless task it is trying to predict our president's actions... MORE

RUSSIAN ECONOMY WEATHERS A FALL IN WORLD OIL PRICES

By Sergei Kolchin There has long been discussion of Russia's need to adapt to the new state of the international oil market, characterized as it is by lower oil prices. From the end of 2000 to the fall of 2001, predictions of this kind have... MORE

HOW WILL RUSSIA’S CONSUMER MARKET DEVELOP?

By A. I. Kolganov Russia's economy still depends to a considerable extent on the state of the world's markets for raw materials and energy, and especially oil. However, it is the state of the internal market that has the greatest effect on Russia's economic development.... MORE

RUSSIA’S PROSPECTS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH

By A. V. Buzgalin THE SUDDEN SHIFT To determine how the factors governing Russia's economic growth will change in the near future, it is important to understand how this economic growth arose in the first place. After the destructive crisis of 1992-1994, a period followed... MORE