100 posts
In Russia ‘The governor decides everything’
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It is easy to think that Russia is only Moscow, in the way that French history has only been made in Paris. That would be a mistake. Moscow is not Russia – but another country. Statistically,Read more…...
Russia Criticizes U.S. Election Process
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Russia’s Central Elections Commission has a few choice words for voting officials in the U.S.: Put your own house in order before criticizing us.
Russia needs a plan for modernising its economy
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Russia’s economy is not performing badly. Thanks to the high oil price, economic growth is likely to stay at 4 per cent or a little less for the next few years – respectable by West European standards. The problem is that Russia’s rulers do not...
EU-Russia/CIS relations: Bridging the gap in cross-border electricity trade
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Although different in terms of electricity market design, the EU and Russia are both moving towards the establishment of more open and competitive electricity markets. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to improve cross-border trade. This finding is...
Russia's Geopolitical Gazprom Blunder
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In the guise of a strictly legal procedure, the Gazprom case has brought into focus a geopolitical issue of the highest importance for Europe and Russia.
“Stop the Presses” | Youropa’s Press Review #14
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In this week’s press review, Youropa looks at Europe’s role in the US presidential election, at Russian bloggers and on the (lack of) EU spending on culture. The best articles on Europe selected by Youropa’s editors. ...
The Latest LiveJournal Sensation, Courtesy of the Russian Special Forces
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The anonymous LJ blog hardingush was created on September 15. Now, less than two months later, the blog, subtitled "Ingush Special Forces, is number 425th in LJ's general user rating. Netizens have left over 4,000 comments on its various posts. Fou...
Putin's puppet Medvedev on his way out
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Putin's KGB style dictatorship is tightening its grip on RussiaPrime Minister and former President Dmitry Medvedev is probably more "liberal" than Vladimir Putin. But in reality that has not made any real difference, because Medvedev has...
What Ever Happened to Russian Nationalism?
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Just two years ago, Russians' capacity for street protests seemed limited to soccer hooligans and race riots. This, it appeared at the time, was the most the world could expect from Russia's struggling civil society, a ramshackle patchwork of decided...
Rosneft’s Igor Sechin Q&A Transcript With WSJ
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The Wall Street Journal interviewed Rosneft President Igor Sechin twice in late October. Following are edited excerpts of the conversations.
Russia: Blogging Conference Draws Regional Participants
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Regional bloggers convened at a Moscow conference organized by a state run news agency. Was it simply an overture aimed at new media, or an attempt to exert more control over the internet?
Russia rooting for Obama in US election
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video Moscow is closely following the build-up to the US elections and has made no secret about its preference for O...
Putinomics
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IT HAS been a difficult year for Vladimir Putin. His decision to return to his old job as Russia’s president triggered widespread street protests in Moscow and other cities. It also led to a steep fall in his popularity, previously his most potent...
The Russian Orthodox Church as a Political-Moral Force
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While visiting the Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery in northwestern Russia in 2000, Vladimir Putin wrote in the guest book, “The revival of Russia and growth of its might are unthinkable without the strengthening of society’s moral foundations. The rol...
Russian Bourse Considers Adding Eggs to Its Basket
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Market players in Russia may soon be able to turn to a St. Petersburg bourse to dabble in a different kind of trade: hen-egg futures.
More Russians Consider Leaving, Poll Shows
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The percentage of Russians thinking about leaving their country for good increased by almost a third in the past four years, according to a new poll.
Putin's Russia: back in the USSR | Editorial
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The president's crackdown will do nothing to tackle the source of his problems: a corrupt and unreformable system of governmentThere is a glaring paradox about the crackdown Vladimir Putin has launched since being elected president for a third term.
Central Asians Treated ‘Like Crap' at Moscow Airport
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I realized that once you find yourself at [the Moscow airport] Domodedovo, you start feeling like you are [crap]. And you feel so not because you are actually [crap], but because the personnel at the airport treat you this way.
Russia: the Scuffles of the Moscow Literati
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Most online conflicts in the RuNet remain virtual. Sometimes, however, members of the Moscow creative class feel that fisticuffs are their only recourse.
Russia: Facebook Insults Lead to a Fight at the Bolshoi
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Earlier this week, an online spat between the chief editors of Russian GQ and Russian Tatler magazines came to physical blows on the steps of the famous Bolshoi Theater. First, Tatler's Eduard Dorozhkin insulted GQ's Michael Idov in a Faceboo...
Russia’s Massive Capital Outflow Has Silver Lining
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Capital outflows are usually deemed to be a negative development for any economy, but in Russia’s case they help avoid economic overheating and are natural considering the country’s poor business climate, Russia's finance ministry and the Interna...
Truth serum for lunch
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THE office of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) in Kiev takes up part of the first floor of a brick building on Dashavska Street, in a quiet neighborhood in the outskirts of the city. On October 19th, in the morning, Leonid Razvozzhayev arrived...
Russia: Cryptanalytic Vulnerabilities in the Opposition's Online Elections
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The opposition's Elections Commission accidentally leaked personal voter data to one of its most dangerous enemies, Sergei Mavrodi's MMM group. How avoidable was this mistake, and does the fact that it happened indicate more serious vulnerabilities i...
Moscow Police Arrest Internet Scam Suspects
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Russian authorities have charged nine West African immigrants with allegedly stealing 900 million rubles ($28.8 million) from hundreds of foreign companies.
Giant Deal Raises Questions for Rosneft
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Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft’s $55 billion deal to buy TNK-BP and become the largest publicly traded oil producer has left analysts and investors scratching their heads. Where will the money come from?
Russia: With Opposition's Online Elections Over, Scandals Plague Results
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The Coordinating Council elections are finally over. Now that the final tally is in, it’s time to look more closely at what happened. Scandals and provocations have led to results with more than a few critics among and outside the opposition.
Russian Riled By Parliament
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Russian parliamentarian vents about the European Parliament, but says the Commission is pragmatic.
The EU Stepping In Against Putin’s Russian Bullying Which Flourished Thanks to Lack of Countermeasures From Obama White House?
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Hooray for the European Union — in spite of a Nobel Peace Prize awarded largely on the basis of wishful thinking — for taking an important, tough-minded step, avoided by NATO and the United States [i.e., Barack Obama]. Thus writes Jo...
Russia’s Business Climate Improves, Foreign Investment Slows
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Despite a six-place jump by Russia in the World Bank’s annual measure of countries’ business regulations, a separate report found that foreign direct investment in Russia tumbled 39% in the first half of 2012 from the same period a year earlier.
Gazprom Opens New Arctic Gas Field to Much Fanfare
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Russia’s largest gas producer OAO Gazprom went to great lengths Tuesday to make a launch event for a new arctic gas field as spectacular as possible, with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaking via a video link.
Putin Embraces BP: More Wealth Against Democracy in Russia?
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The Russian state-owned company, Rosneft, reached separate agreements in October 2012 to buy TNK-BP from BP and a group of Russian billionaires. According to the Wall Street Journal, the deal represents “an acquisition that promises to reshape the...
What Does Russo–Serbian Strategic Partnership Mean?
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By Stephen Blank Serbia is the key target of Russian foreign policy in the Western Balkans, as Moscow’s main...
Robert Amsterdam on Vladimir Putin: "A man who has stolen this much does not have the luxury of very many retirement hiding places"
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This man "who has ruled for this long and stolen this much does not have the luxury of very many retirement hiding places".Vladimir Putin is tightening his authoritarian grip on power. The Putin regime's mask is beginning to slip off and Putin...
Russia: DDoS Attacks Cripple Opposition's Online Vote
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Eight hours after online voting for the Russian opposition's “Coordinating Council” began, unknown assailants launched a sustained Denial-of-Service attack against the Election Commission's website, disabling the primary voting po...
Russia: Opposition Distracted by Virtual Elections, Loses Real Elections
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In August, Global Voices reported on several activists from Russia’s protest movement running for office in local elections. They hoped it would be easier to win these small-scale contests, which took place last weekend. They were wrong, and the Co...
Russia: A Ponzi Scheme to Destroy the Opposition's Coordinating Council?
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There are storm clouds rolling in for the Coordinating Council's coming elections, and the promise of a democratic triumph for the protest movement could be faltering, thanks mainly to the unsavory scheming of one of Russia's most infamous and odious...
Russia: Regional Governor Holds Twitter Q&A
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Two days ago Alexander Tkachev, governor of the the southern Kradnodarskiy Krai (one of Russia's 87 federal regions), announced a “twitter-conference” [ru], soliciting questions from his followers. Today he spent a few hours answerin...
Russia to Wow with Olympic Opening Ceremony
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Following the success of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing and the much-talked about event that kicked-off this summer’s games in London, Russia is pulling out all the stops to make sure the opening ceremony for 2014 Winter Games in Soc...
Obama's "reset" policy with dictator Putin's Russia is a huge failure
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In a long line of Obama presidency failures, the "reset" policy with dictator Putin's empire is beginning to stand out. "A pale of repression" is settling over Russia and "although the crackdown is wrapped in legislative garb", "the iron grip of auth...
Russia: Candidates Drop Out of Opposition Elections
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On October 16 two high profile candidates in the opposition's Coordinating Council elections announced they are withdrawing from the campaign. Economist Irina Yasina and writer Liudmila Ulitskaya published a statement [ru] on Yasina's blog,...
Ruble’s Appeal at One-Year Low among Russians
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The Russian ruble has lost some of its popularity among Russian households as a savings currency after a period of weakening, a poll showed Wednesday.
Most Russians Would Vote Obama
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A new poll shows that 42% of Russians think it will be better for their country if President Barack Obama wins re-election, compared to just 4% who see Republican contender Mitt Romney as a better choice.
The Obama administration continues to appease dictator Vladimir Putin
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"Now all that is in the past. The Moscow bureau no longer exists. But we have carried out our mission; for all these years we have talked about another Russia, about events that often passed the official media by, and we have occupied a human rights...
Russia Takes on Smoking
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In political economy theory, democracy is said to have the drawback of excessive consumption of public revenues at the expense of investment, such as in infrastructure relevant to foreign direct investment. Latin American countries were contrasted ne...
Russia: Lawmaker Wants to Regulate Social Networks
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A few days ago several Russian bloggers were incensed by the idea that a Duma committee responsible for legislating the internet was going to propose a new law requiring passport identification for users of social networks.
Russia “cements” relations with Central Asian states
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video Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visits to the Central Asian states, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan...
Putin: "I don't deny myself anything."
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The Wall Street Journal reports that dictator "Vladimir Putin marked his 60th birthday by granting reporters from Russia's NTV network what was billed as an unprecedented inside look at his presidential routine".The hour long prime-time report surpri...
The Race for Eastern Europe: Russia vs. the EU
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Russia’s relationship with the West has never been easy. With the end of Cold War-era animosity, Russia has continuously sought reassurance that its Soviet-inherited geopolitical interests are protected. Ironically, EU policy might be helping Russi...
Russia: Philanthropy Through Advertising
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The project “A Minute of Your Day for Good” (1minute.ru) was launched in November 2011. Users of the platform can accrue "charity minutes," which advertisers later honor in cash. Aleksey Melnicheck, co-founder of 1minute.ru, spoke to Evgeny Vorop...
Kremlin Curtailing Federalism and Democracy in Russia
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When it looked like Igor Morozov, an insurgent candidate from within the local nomenklatura in Ryazan, Russia might beat the Kremlin-appointed incumbent governor in 2012, the Kremlin summoned Morozov and the next day he announced that he was dropping...
Russia: Nation's Top Blogger Headed to Prison?
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The criminal investigation targeting Russia's most prominent oppositionist blogger, Alexey Navalny, is heating up. Viacheslav Opalev, the former director of a logging firm in Kirov, has confessed [ru] to participating in the embezzlement of 16 m...
Russia: Ridiculing the Winter Olympics Slogan
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The just-announced slogan of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics (“Hot. Cool. Yours.”) has spurred a brief episode of merrymaking on the RuNet. At first that may seem surprising, while the English version of the slogan may sound slightly confusing and...
The end of Gazprom - and the Putin era - is near
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The demise of the Russian energy giant Gazprom - to be followed by the the fall of dictator Vladimir Putin - now appear almost certain, even if it will take a few years: Gazprom, the natural gas company controlled by the Russian state, is in cri...
Russia: The Kostin Report & The Trojan Horse of American ICT
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Earlier this week, the media got a sneak peek at a new report on the foreign penetration of the RuNet and the potential manipulation of the country's future elections. The Internet's growing popularity is transforming it into a political weapon: a we...
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
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For Russian socialite-turned-opposition it-girl Ksenia Sobchak, good things -- or in this case, a big pile of money -- come to those who wait.
Russia: Yekaterinburg Police Raid Regional Internet Publication
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On September 27th Yekaterinburg-based internet news portal URA.ru was raided by city police, reports [ru] Evgeny Roizman, local anti-drug campaigner. Roizman is dating the editor-in-chief of the portal, Aksana Panova, who has apparently managed to...
Russia: Ominous Predictions of Conflict in Dagestan
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Dagestan is among Russia’s most impoverished and ethnically diverse republics. Recent tension between Sunni Sufi and Salafi communities suggest more conflict may not be far to come.
Soft Power with an Iron Fist: Putin Administration to Change the Face of Russia’s Foreign Policy Toward Its Neighbors
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By Dumitru Minzarari Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s talk at the Russian Foreign Ministry on September 3, wh...
Gazprom and EU to meet face to face
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By Alexander Kilyakov The EU was not set on levying fines, but rather was interested in establishing...
Moscow closes US Agency for International Development (USAID) mission in Russia
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Agency for International Development U.S. ( USAID ) has ended its work in Russia, at the request of the Russian side, it said in a press statement issued by the State Department, without specifying the reasons that generated the request of the a...
Russia: Continued Scandals Plague the Registration of Opposition Candidates
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Earlier today, blogger Maksim Kononenko highlighted [ru] the Coordinating Council candidacy of convicted terrorist and neonazi Nikolai Korolev, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of fifteen people in 2006. On the election's offi...
Russia: Omsk Telecom Temporarily Bans YouTube
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For roughy seven hours earlier today, Rostelecom's customers in Omsk were unable to access YouTube. The short-lived ban prompted a flurry of panicked online activity, including urgent tweets [ru] from the city's most vocal netizen, Viktor K...
Russia: SocialCamp, Crowdsourcing and Open Data
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A SocialCamp Russia 'unconference' took place in Moscow from 7th to 9th of September. Over the course of three days social activists spoke about projects aimed at raising awareness, improving mutual understanding, promoting philanthropy, and much mor...
New Tension Over Russian Media Law
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A move by Russian authorities to ban a trailer for the anti-Islamic film has revived tensions over a controversial new media law and has led the communications minister to warn that it could result in all of YouTube being blocked.
The Russian opposition’s move towards a more concrete left-wing platform may be a game changer in the struggle for Russia’s future
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The past week has seen the ejection of opposition politician Gennady Gudkov from the Russian parliament and a 20,000 strong march in Moscow to protest against President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Mark Galeotti argues that these events are occurring aga...
To Russia, with love
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"THE only thing I love more than Russia, is Serbia," gushed Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic last week during a visit to Russia. Serbia’s previous government proclaimed Russia, America, the European Union and China were the four pillars of its fo...
Russia: Ksenia Sobchak's Civil Platform Candidacy
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Earlier today, the Central Elections Committee officially registered a bevy of candidates for the coming elections of the first Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition. Among today's new entries to the General Civil category was socialite and...
Why Gennady Gudkov was expelled from the Duma
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AS Gennady Gudkov tells it, he now feels a bit more free, a less bound by “rules and limits,” and without any need “to be careful with my emotions.” He is also now a man without a parliamentary mandate. On September 15th, the Russian Duma vot...
Russia Moves to Ban Anti-Islamic Film
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ussian authorities are moving to have the film “Innocence of Muslims,” banned for extremism after it set off a wave of violence in the Middle East that led to the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Russia: Reading Genius into Putin's Blunders
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One of the more striking things about Vladimir Putin, aside from his affinity for displays of machismo, is the degree of nuanced multidimensional-chess-like strategic planning attributed to him and his team by both opponents and supporters.
In Interview, Putin Defends Policies and Offers Warnings to the World
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video By Dan Peleschuk Russian President Vladimir Putin ad...
Russia: Forecasts for the Protest Movement's Elections
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On October 20, the new "Central Elections Committee" will hold elections to select 45 individuals to form the first "Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition." When this process is complete, the protest movement will have a representative body...
Russia: Protest Movement Struggles with Keeping Itself Democratic
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Maksim Martsinkevich, who goes by the nickname Tesak (Machete), gained notoriety on the RuNet between 2005 and 2007. A white-supremacist who later spent several years in prison for inciting ethnic and religious hatred, Tesak has returned to public li...
Russia: Religiosity & the Murdered U.S. Ambassador
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Responding to the attack on U.S. embassies across the Muslim world (specifically the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Libya), Russian bloggers have addressed the perceived growth of religiosity in their own country, and used the incident a...
Gazprom - Myth and Reality
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Schröder and the "flawless democrat"Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder has today announced the date for the inauguration of the second Nord Stream gas pipeline: The second line of the Nord Stream gas pipeline linking Russia and Ger...
Big Bash for Russian Gas Giant
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Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom hasn’t had much to celebrate recently, but it’s found a way to raise spirits: a $1.8-million party in the Kremlin.
Dushanbe, Moscow reach agreement on military base
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Dushanbe and Moscow have reached an agreement on the terms and conditions of a further stay of the 201st Russian military base in Tajikistan, sources close to the negotiations told CA-News. READ MORE...
Independent Gas Producers Were Left without Sales
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By Ksenia Dokukina, Timofey Dziadko, Elena Mazneva «Gazprom» Figured Out the Way to Prevent Gas Pr...
Dr. Osipov’s book on ethnicity and equality in Russia is available
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'Этничность и равенство в России: особенности восприятия' is the title of Dr. Osipov’s most recent book. It was issued in Moscow ultimo August by SOVA. Continue reading →Source: ECMI InfoChannel...
Book: “Managing Ethnic Diversity in Russia” was issued in early August
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In early 2010, EURAC and ECMI formed a Russia study group. In the beginning of August 2012, the group’s work resulted in the edition 'Managing Ethnic Diversity in Russia'. Edited by Oleh Protsyk and Benedict Harzl, it is published by Routledge. Con...
Ousted Magazine Editor Meets With Putin
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Last week, Vladimir Putin took to the air in an ultralight aircraft to help save endangered Siberian cranes. This week, the Russian president intervened personally to try to save the job of a prominent journalist - which she'd lost after refusing to...
