
Latest Articles about Middle East

SHVARTSMAN’S DESCRIPTION OF SILOVIKI BUSINESS PRACTICES – TRUTH OR FICTION?
The interview that Finansgroup head Oleg Shvartsman gave to Kommersant, which the newspaper published in its November 30 issue, has elicited a storm of reaction – almost eclipsing the December 2 parliamentary elections. Shvartsman claimed in the interview that his $3.2 billion fund management company... MORE
RUSSIAN REGULATORS BECOMING AWARE OF BAIKAL ENVIRONMENTAL WOES
This week Russian regulators suddenly moved to crack down on the factory poisoning Lake Baikal, the world’s largest reservoir of fresh surface water. On December 4 Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev ordered the ministry’s environmental watchdog, Rosprirodnadzor, to sue the Baikal Pulp and Paper... MORE

ORGANIZATIONAL SETBACKS AT OSCE’S YEAR-END MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
A consensus-based decision that Lithuania would chair the OSCE in 2011 became the only bright spot on the organization’s horizon at its year-end meeting in Madrid (see EDM, December 4). Other organizational issues, however, increasingly jeopardize the OSCE’s viability, after robbing it of effectiveness. Russia... MORE
KREMLIN LANDSLIDE WILL PROMOTE CONFRONTATION
The December 2 elections to the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, predictably ended in a landslide victory for the ruling United Russia party, headed by President Vladimir Putin. Only one opposition party -- the Communists -- will be represented in the Duma with... MORE

OSCE’S YEAR-END CONFERENCE NOT COPING WITH SECURITY ISSUES
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe held its year-end conference on November 29–30 in Madrid. Under Russian pressure and with the collaboration of the Spanish chairmanship, the organization registered new setbacks from which it may no longer be able to recover. Russian President... MORE
OSCE’S DEMOCRACY AGENDA SET BACK AT YEAR-END MEETING
President Vladimir Putin’s November 30 decree, suspending Russia’s participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, was one of several Kremlin-inflicted humiliations of the OSCE during the organization’s year-end meeting in Madrid. In a parallel move, Russia imposed crippling restrictions on the ability of... MORE

UNITED RUSSIA “WINS” A CONSTITUTIONAL MAJORITY IN THE STATE DUMA
Preliminary results from Russia’s December 2 parliamentary election show that four parties have won representation in the next State Duma, with the lion’s share going – to no one’s surprise – to the United Russia party. According to the Central Election Commission, as of 10... MORE
RUSSIA HAS VOTED AS ORDERED, NOW WHAT?
The big political event that happened in Russia yesterday, December 2, can hardly be called “elections,” since few of the 60 million Russians who cast their vote really cared about whom they were electing to the lower house of parliament. From the October 1 moment... MORE

FINANSGROUP: HOW RUSSIA’S SILOVIKI DO BUSINESS
Kommersant published an interview on November 30 that gave an unprecedentedly open and detailed picture of a financial structure that is close to the Kremlin siloviki and their putative leader, deputy Kremlin administration chief Igor Sechin. The interview with Oleg Shvartsman, head of the Finansgroup... MORE
CHEMIZOV TO HEAD NEW RUSSIAN ARMS CONGLOMERATE
This week Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill passed by parliament to create a new state corporation, Rostekhnologii. The corporation will take over the state arms trade monopoly, Rosoboronexport, and its assets, which include Russia’s biggest car-making company, Avtovaz; one of the... MORE