Latest Articles about Russia

Russia Resuming Gas Imports From Turkmenistan on a Small Scale

On December 22 in Ashgabat, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his counterpart in Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov witnessed the signing of documents on the bilateral gas trade and transportation. The documents mark the end of Russia’s punitive, nine-month halt of gas imports from Turkmenistan. The halt... MORE

Russia: Stuck in a Year of Events and Little Change

Last year was for Russia both extraordinarily hard and very unlucky –but it saw strikingly little economic reforms and practically no political development. Opinion polls show that a significant majority of Russians (62 percent) consider it as worse than 2008, when the arrival of the... MORE

Bulava Launch Failure and the Crisis of Russian Defense Industry

The recent Bulava launch failure has implications for US-Russian arms control talks (EDM, December 17) and will determine whether the Russian defense industry is capable of delivering advanced weapons systems at qualitative levels competing with analogous systems produced abroad. The issue involves the quality of... MORE

The Bulava SLBM and the US-Russian Arms Talks

US-Russian nuclear arms reduction negotiators seem close to concluding a follow up strategic arms reduction treaty (START). The Russian press reports that Washington has agreed to serious concessions and that the new START treaty will be signed soon. The new verification measures will be less... MORE

Russia Struggles to Revive Energy Ties With Turkmenistan

Russian officials insist that the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline project is not a matter of Moscow’s concern. However, Moscow has been struggling to sustain its earlier gas agreements with Ashgabat. The Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline project would not adversely affect Russia’s energy cooperation with China, including plans... MORE

Russian Gas and Oil Projects on Hold in Bulgaria

On December 11 in Sofia, a regular meeting of the Russian-Bulgarian inter-governmental commission on economic cooperation failed to restart the three major Russian energy projects in Bulgaria: the South Stream gas pipeline, Burgas-Alexandropolis oil pipeline, and Belene nuclear power plant. The center-right Bulgarian government, in... MORE

Russia and NATO Explore the Limits of the “Agreeing to Disagree” Posture

The habitually derisive tone of reporting on NATO’s “aggressive intentions” and “deepening divisions” in the mainstream Russian media noticeably changed last week after the unexpectedly fruitful meeting of the NATO-Russia Council; Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was particularly praised for securing this success (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, December... MORE

More Reboot or a Real Strategic Overload?

On December 1, after lengthy consultations with his military and political advisors, President Barrack Obama announced an increase of 30,000 US troops for Afghanistan and sent his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, to Brussels to help secure an additional 10,000 troops from other NATO members.... MORE