Georgia’s outgoing President Mikhail Saakashvili has been a darling in the West. Now that his opponents are in power, his fate will tell us much about the nation’s young democracy.
Source: KOMMERSANT
Kommersant (“The Businessman”) was founded in 1989 as the first business newspaper in the Russia. Originally a weekly, Kommersant is now a daily newspaper with strong political and business coverage. It has been owned since 2006 by Alisher Usmanov, the director of a subsidiary of Gazprom.
MOSCOW — It’s not often that the government’s plan and the people’s plan match as well as they do right now. The government is projecting an increase in real incomes in the next couple of years, but it also anticipates a decrease in the amount that people will save. And that is precisely what people […]
SESTRORETSK — There was a time when this northwest Russian city was considered the engine of the workers’ revolution. It had been the largest weapons factory in Imperial Russia, and just after the launch of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, workers frequently set off from here to expropriate property from the Czar’s followers in nearby St. […]
The Arctic, where Russia has dispatched military resources, is the last disputed area of such massive proportions. It’s a region where the interests of Moscow and Washington collide, an excellent stage for a Cold War parody.
Moscow’s goal be an exporter of manufactured goods must be done in the face of major political and financial uncertainties.
MOSCOW — The timing of the Geneva 2 conference about the future of Syria’s chemical weapons has changed once again. According to our sources, it is probably not going to be mid-November — as Russia and the U.S. had first indicated — but rather at the end of that month, or maybe even in December. […]
MOSCOW — In the wake of last weekend’s anti-immigrant riots in Moscow and the burning of a produce warehouse, the Russian government still seems to be holding on stubbornly to the idea that the problem is simply uncontrolled migration from the post-Soviet states. The government has made frequent tweaks to the immigration laws in the […]
Russians have one of the highest levels of indifference, or anomie, in the world. They don’t know whether they want tea or coffee, much less democracy or authoritarianism.
To satisfy Russian apetites, frozen shipments of the low-end *red caviar* have come in from Alaska. Not all are pleased.
BISHKEK — Russia has reached a deal with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to provide military aid to the two Central Asian nations. Though the details are still being hammered out, Moscow appears to have netted a deal with potentially major geopolitical implications. “We have agreed with our colleagues regarding the delivery of weapons, […]
MOSCOW — Since the first traffic camera was installed in Moscow in 2008, a new kind of traffic violation has been born — license-plate camouflage. The cameras capture license plate numbers, which is how drivers who break traffic laws are identified. Tickets are then sent by mail. More than 60% of traffic tickets are now […]
NEW YORK — At long last, the members of the United Nations Security Council have reached an agreement on a Syria resolution. The West has agreed to give up on including language that Russia had furiously opposed — that is, to automatically sanction the use of force against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he fails […]
– Commentary- MOSCOW — Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of defense is many things, but lazy isn’t one of them. Dimitry Rogozin has been jumping from city to city — holding conferences about the construction of new warships and delivering grandiose critiques of the leaders of the Russian space program. Everywhere he goes, he […]
MOSCOW – The Russian government is looking to change the law on mass communications, which could potentially have a serious impact on the way the media does business. Perhaps the most important proposal put forth concerns who can open and own a media company. Currently, media business owners must be legal adults, cannot be presently […]
-Analysis- MOSCOW — So Russian diplomats finally prevailed on the Syria question. Since the beginning of the clashes in 2011 between the Syrian army, which is loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and the armed opposition, Russia has used all of its power to prevent an international intervention, including blocking a UN Security Council resolution condemning […]
ST. PETERSBURG — The physics lab is under the school’s cupola, literally in a holy place. This used to be a small home chapel, and now it’s a specialized classroom. The St. Petersburg physics and math school No. 30 moved back to this building, its historic home in the Vasilyevsky Island section of St. Petersburg, […]
MOSCOW — One of the defining new features of 21st century life is an attachment to our mobile phones. In Britain, a company AppRiver has actually measured bona fide fear of being without it, with 54% of the UK’s residents saying they worry when they are not able to see or hear their phones, and […]
On the first day of school in Sept 2004, after terrorists took hundreds of children and parents hostage in Russia’s Northern Caucasus region, a bloodbath ensued. Questions and scars linger.
Things are getting nasty between Russia and bordering countries Belarus and Ukraine. And then there’s the Syrian factor.
MOSCOW — The city of Moscow is covered with graffiti, and proudly so. Members of the “Best City On Earth” project have said they will paint street art on 150 buildings by September. Meanwhile, there is graffiti at the Faces & Laces urban culture festival in Gorky Park, as well as an exhibition of a […]
It was prepared during the global economic collapse of 2008, but it isn’t now.
Western sources say Russia sought out the American whistleblower when he was on the run in Hong Kong. The Kremlin denies it.
BERLIN — There are a record number of asylum seekers pinning their hopes on Germany this year, and refugees from Russia by far represent the largest group. Of those, some 90% are from the North Caucasus, particularly Chechnya. German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has characterized the situation as “unsettling.” Germany has more asylum requests than […]
MOSCOW – Over the past couple of months, experts on international crime have started raising the alarm: criminal activity is crossing borders like never before. The response from law enforcement must therefore be no less transnational. The European Parliament has recently launched a Special Commission on Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering (CRIM) that is […]
When there’s too much wealth inequality, there’s no strong middle class to drive economic growth. Dividing inheritances among more people would help. And that’s where harems come in.
Although the number of foreign workers has declined sharply in Russia, Muscovites in particular fear the influx of immigrants – not that they necessarily want to do their jobs.
Despite a four-year ban on gambling, illegal casinos are thriving here — partly because of crooked police, and partly because law enforcement officials are confused by the murky law.
The Russian leader is expected to try to jumpstart negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program with the new president, considered more moderate than his predecessor.
MOSCOW – Legal vodka production in Russia was down nearly 40% in June from the same month last year. Could this mean that Russians are suddenly less devoted to this nationally beloved libation? Do they have fewer sorrows to drown? Unlikely. Instead, tax hikes on alcohol have made it more difficult for legal producers to […]
In some ways there’s been great progress in a woman’s ability to control her destiny in Russian society. But in other ways, it’s actually even worse than during the Soviet era.
They were sentenced to six-and-a-half and five-and-a-half years in prison in Germany, respectively. But their lawyer says that Andreas and Heidrun Anschlag are counting on a swift departure for Russia, as part of a spy exchange. The trial of this couple ultimagely convicted of spying for Moscow started last January, and included a total of […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s history is not going to be just “political” anymore. Publishers of new history textbooks for Russian schools have been charged with the task of “encouraging patriotism in the younger generation.” That is not all: History is now going to include “religious history,” especially the history of Eastern Orthodoxy. These are the backbones […]
Circuses in Russia are facing animal cruelty accusations and competition from abroad.
Duped like other international reporters, Kommersant’s correspondent took the phantom flight to Havana. Now he’s back in Moscow, as the search for Snowden continues.
MOSCOW – Earlier in June, during the last congress of the All-Russia People’s Front, a movement created by President Vladimir Putin in 2011, Putin announced that one of his primary goals was to create a new era of industrialization in Russia. Russia’s Minister of Economic Development Andrey Belousov announced in the same meeting that by […]
MOSCOW – June marks the end of Russia’s smoking free-for-all. A new law forbids smoking in offices and hospitals, on beaches, in public transport, on train stations, and on the stairways in apartment buildings. Even advertisements for tobacco products are now illegal, and in one year’s time cigarettes also will be banned in cafes and […]
With the United States embroiled over the National Security Agency’s alleged spying on American and foreign citizens, there are other battles taking shape over the Internet.
MOSCOW – There was a goat just outside the Moscow metro station, accompanied by a girl who was selling bottles of milk – the goat was obviously there as a live advertisement. “Look, she has white eyelids,” passersby would say, looking at the alien animal. “Look at the tail!” they said – and these were […]
AMMAN – King Abdullah II of Jordan personally tested one of the hand grenades during the opening ceremony of the brand-new Nashshab factory, built by the Jordan Russian Electronic Systems Co. The factory produces hand-grenades that were specially designed for Jordan by Russian specialists. Although the opening ceremony was held last week, the factory had […]
MOSCOW – The Volga River, the longest in Europe and one of Russia’s natural jewels, has not so much flowed for decades. When it’s not covered with ice, it fills with fish-killing microorganisms, and emits a putrid stench. Environmental organizations describe the situation in the Volga region in alarming terms, noting that the region is […]