Latest Articles about Russia
Russia’s Slow Start into a Post-Prosperity Year
The extra-long Christmas-New Year-Rozhdestvo (Orthodox Christmas) celebrations in Russia have been muted this season, and unmistakable anxiety stands in stark contrast to the exuberance that greeted the arrival of the year 2008. Just two weeks before that “best-year-ever start,” President Vladimir Putin had announced the... MORE
Gazprom Stops Gas Deliveries to Ukraine—What Next?
On the morning of January 1, OAO Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas monopoly, in league with the Russian government, decreased the volume of gas shipped to Ukraine by 90 million cubic meters a day—the amount that Ukraine had contracted for in 2008. Gas shipments of... MORE
Russia to OSCE: Recognize South Ossetia or Get Out
Russia is threatening to run the OSCE out of South Ossetia at the end of the year. Moscow will only relent if the OSCE recognizes the Russian-installed authorities as legitimate and treats Russian-occupied South Ossetia as an essentially sovereign state.The OSCE has maintained a monitoring... MORE
The Kremlin Defends Its Energy Interests
Russia moved to support the 2 million barrel a day cut in oil production by OPEC by reducing its own oil exports. The country's oil companies and energy projects appear, however, to be facing an uncertain future amid continued volatility in global energy prices.Russia dispatched... MORE
A Military Reform That Does Not Seem to Satisfy Anyone
Last October Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov revealed drastic plans to reform and cut the Russian military (see EDM, October 16). Since then, defense experts, the public, and thousands of officers in active service who maybe forcibly retired at short notice have been seeking clarification of... MORE
The Price of Gas and Russian Democracy
Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom is preparing for a major financial hit in 2009. The world-wide economic slowdown has diminished gas consumption for Gazprom’s European industrial customers. The price of gas, which is indexed to the price of oil, has been dropping from the current... MORE
Russia or the South Caucasus: Options for NATO and the United States to Supply Forces in Afghanistan
The incoming U.S. Administration and (less credibly) NATO declare their intention to augment forces and escalate combat in Afghanistan. At the same time, however, security risks have reached unacceptable levels on the route for military and civilian supplies into Afghanistan via Pakistan. The Pakistan route... MORE
Russian Dezyinformatsia Campaign against the Orange Coalition
On December 9 it was announced that a larger orange coalition had been agreed upon in Ukraine. It was formally registered on December 16. The news came as a surprise, as it had been widely assumed that Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s bloc (BYuT) was close... MORE
Russia’s “Strategic Partnership” with China Set to Grow in 2009
On December 10 Chief of the General Staff Nikolay Makarov repeated Russia’s threat to deploy short-range Iskander (SS-26) missile systems as one of the promised countermeasures against planned U.S. positioning of several interceptors in Poland as part of the Ballistic Missile Shield (BMD). Makarov said:... MORE
Purge of Serb Negotiating Team To Precipitate Onerous Energy Agreements with Russia
Serbia’s coalition government has removed Economics Minister Mladan Dinkic from his concurrent assignment as head of the negotiating team on energy agreements with Russia. The impending oil and gas deals involve essentially a Russian takeover of Serbia’s energy sector. Dinkic and his colleagues who were... MORE