Russia has long heralded its "strategic energy partnership" with China, yet Moscow has recently approved the Japan-bound East Siberia-Pacific oil pipeline. Now Russia is struggling to offer Beijing a sufficient consolation prize. In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that China' state oil company, CNPC,... MORE

No serious observer can dispute the fact that Russia is no longer a "managed democracy"; it is a bureaucratic-authoritarian regime. On September 13, 2004, President Vladimir Putin announced that the leaders of Russia's regions would henceforth be appointed, not elected as they had been for... MORE

As the year 2005 begins, Russia's foreign policy strategy appears to be at a fork in the road. Most experts agree that the country's principal strategic dilemma remains unresolved. On the one hand, Russia aspires to join the "Western world." On the other, it cherishes... MORE

Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly wanted to have the last word about the year 2004. First he shifted his "traditional" lengthy press conference to December 23, and then he confidently insisted that the country is on the right course whatever question a bothersome journalist would... MORE

Speaking at his quarterly press conference, David Woodward, President of BP-Azerbaijan, surprised attendees with the announcement that BTC Co. shareholders, together with the British-Russian oil company TNK-BP, were considering the possibility of transporting Russian oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (Zerkalo, December 22). The independent daily... MORE

Russo-Chinese relations in 2004 were not all sweetness and light. Moscow's destruction of Yukos and preference for a Japanese rather than a Chinese pipeline in Siberia put severe pressure on Chinese oil supplies, because Yukos was China's main Russian oil supplier and Chinese demand for... MORE

On December 29, President Vladimir Putin conferred Russia's highest award, the Hero of the Russian Federation, on Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Moscow Chechen government's first deputy prime minister and son of the late Chechen president. According to the corresponding presidential decree, the younger Kadyrov was awarded... MORE

President Putin on December 27 handed out awards to a variety of officials, artists and other VIPs, RIA Novosti reported. Among the recipients were Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, who received an Order of Bravery, and Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov, who received a 4th degree For... MORE

Hundreds of people reportedly connected to the pro-Putin youth group Marching Together demonstrated near the home of actress Vanessa Redgrave in west London in December to protest her links to Chechen separatist emissary Akhmed Zakaev, Britain's Sunday Times reported on January 2. They also held... MORE

On December 23, two Russian military intelligence agents, who had been found guilty by a court in Qatar of the murder of former Chechen president and separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, returned to Russia. Their return was a result of a special agreement between the governments... MORE