With the release of a strategy dubbed its "Eastern Program," the Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom revealed its plans to boost gas exports to East Asian markets in the coming years. Alexei Mastepanov, an advisor to Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller, announced the strategy at the... MORE

On March 4 the Russian government announced the closure of the Federal Fund for the Support of Small Business, an agency created ten years ago with a budget of 25 billion rubles ($1 billion) to invest in small business promotion. The FFPMP set up a... MORE

Observing the bitter disputes around Russian military bases in Georgia, sour demarches in the State Duma against Moldova, and icy diplomatic exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, it is hard to believe that the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is still a functioning organization. As Russian... MORE

Russo-Japanese relations appear to have digressed back to the zero-sum, tit-for-tat, tenor that defined the relationship throughout the Cold War. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced on Thursday, March 10, that he would not attend the VE- Day celebrations to be held in Moscow this... MORE

Russia's nuclear policy has once again become the stuff of controversy. On the one hand, domestic right-wingers, darkly suspicious of rumored U.S.-Russian agreements to put Russia's nuclear arsenal under some form of American supervision or control, are attacking the regime for selling out Russian sovereignty... MORE

March 8 is an official holiday in Russia to mark International Women's Day. It is one of the most popular holidays on the calendar, with men buying flowers and chocolates for the "fairer sex" and doing some symbolic cooking and cleaning. Although Valentine's Day has... MORE

Unified Energy Systems, the Russian electricity giant, has pledged to capitalize on China's fast growing energy needs by exporting Siberian electricity to China. In the meantime, Russia's pro-active approach to energy projects in Central Asia has begun to take on geopolitical dimensions. UES says its... MORE

By all accounts, events in the Middle East are moving in a direction that could lead to significant breakthroughs in Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel-Palestinian relations. Yet Moscow, while claiming support for them, seems eager to undermine these moves toward peace and democracy in order to... MORE

A specter is haunting Russia's political class -- the specter of Ukraine's Orange Revolution. The Putinists seem hell-bent on preventing any repetition of Ukrainian or Georgian events in Russia. On March 1, the pro-Putin youth movement Walking Together announced that it "had launched a new... MORE

Russian officials have hailed Moscow's announcement of a potentially historic deal with Iran, concerning its continued involvement in developing the nuclear power facility at Bushehr, as a breakthrough. Alexander Maryasov, Russia's ambassador to Iran, believes it removes all concerns about the possibility of Tehran utilizing... MORE