Wealth divides and political opportunism are creating a toxic mix of economic sentiments in Putin’s Russia.
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 – The 9,265-kilometer trip across Russia, from Saint Petersburg to Vladivostok, via the Transiberian Railroad, the world’s longest railroad, is the most popular product for the British tour operator Russia Experience. The trip is 16 days long, with a full week spent on the train. Tourists can decide how to spend the rest – […]
MOSCOW – Only a couple of years ago, government jobs were lucrative and only for the highest-ranking executives in Russia. But that is changing, and now the public sector is aggressively competing in the job market, offering competitive salaries and poaching talented employees from private companies. In Russia, unlike in Europe or the United States, […]
Moscow allowed for observer status for additional countries that don’t border the Arctic, but will grant them virtually no voice whatsoever on policy.
Patriarch Kirill is trying to expand Russian Church’s influence in West and East. But Beijing is tricky terrain for religious head.
New bill would require artists and others in the “creative” fields to prove they are competent, and active in their roles.
The first question in European capitals remains: freedom for Yulia Tymoshenko
MOSCOW – In December, the Kazakh space agency announced that it was going to be reevaluating the terms under which Russia leases the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world’s largest facility for space launches — and the only cosmodrome that Russia uses to launch manned space flights. The announcement sent a wave of panic through the Russian […]
MOSCOW – There’s a novelty for the spring in two of the capital’s parks that has the air of democracy: Muscovites can now submit applications to hold public events on the official websites of Gorky Park and Sokolniki Park without having to get authorization from the authorities. This is part of a new program instituted […]
MOSCOW – As the U.S. woke up to discover that the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing had been identified and one had been killed, the news also came out that the two young men were Russian citizens, Chechen brothers who appear to have grown up in Dagestan. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a […]
MOSCOW – On Friday, the United States made public its list of Russian officials who are barred to enter the U.S. under the Magnitsky Act. The law imposes visa and banking sanctions on Russians officials accused of human rights violations. It is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a corruption lawyer and whistleblower who was accused of […]
MOSCOW – Last week President Vladimir Putin put into place the mechanisms to audit all of Russia’s government employees, who have until July 1 to rid themselves of any overseas property, stocks or bank accounts. Based on an Executive Order he signed last week, Putin’s administration – not an independent auditor or other part of […]
MOSCOW – The past month has brought record-breaking snowfall and cold snaps throughout central Russia. But the bad weather has done much more than spoil people’s moods and clog roads — it has raised new alarms about global climate change. First the data: March was one of the coldest in the past 50 years in […]
MOSCOW – Since February, Russian authorities have been investigating all of the NGOs operating in the country in an attempt to root out any organizations with foreign ties or foreign funding sources. The entire operation risks further alienating Moscow from Europe – particularly from Germany, after Russian authorities cracked down on two German NGOs operating […]
Vladimir Putin is genuinely convinced that protests against his rule are fomented abroad
NICOSIA – The Cyprus Parliament’s initial rejection of the terms of the European Union bailout plan is bad news for Russia. The opposition to the required taxes on bank deposits means the risk is rising of a long-term freezing of corporate assets in Cyprus. Meanwhile new proposals for taxes on depositors in the island could […]
MOSCOW – Catholics aren’t the only ones who have noted the significance of Pope Francis’ name choice. Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, Metropolitan of Volokolamsk and head of the Russian Orthodox Church“s Department of External Relations, says the Argentine pontiff’s decision to honor Saint Francis of Assisi puts “service to the poor” at the top of the […]
MOSCOW – Berel Lazar, the Chief Rabbi of Russia, was born in Milan and went to college in the United States. A U.S. citizen, Lazar is a controversial figure, but not because of his unusual pedigree. He arrived in Russia in 1990, and quickly attracted several Jewish oligarchs to his congregation. Their money lent his […]
MOSCOW – When word first came out in 2011 that Hugo Chavez was suffering from a serious illness, a Russian military source predicted the consequences of the end of the Chavez era: not only could Moscow lose contracts already signed, but it might also never get paid for weapons it has already delivered to Caracas. […]
Would-be parents in the US are more likely than any other nationality to adopt children with disabilities. The issue is heating up again after the death of a Russian boy in Texas.
It’s more about secret oil reserves than Cold War nostalgia.
Most foreigners in Finland hail from the former Soviet Union, many hoping to find more greater (and cleaner) economic opportunities than back home.
Delayed by the popular uprisings in the Arab world, the first-ever summit between Russia and the Arab League is on this week in Moscow. Though Syria is on the agenda, many the questions linger.
MOSCOW – After the meteorite shower and the damage it caused last Friday, Russian scientists say the threat from the sky is serious — and something must be done. Scientists recommended that the threat could be minimized by creating a network of modern telescopes, at a cost of around two billion dollars. These experts suggested […]
MOSCOW – Russia’s Surgeon General, Gennadi Onishenko, is a well-known teetotaler who recommends not drinking for everyone, even on New Year’s Eve. So it came as a surprise last week when he spoke out enthusiastically about wines from neighboring Georgia. “How long has it been since Georgian wine has been sold here?” Onishenko complained to […]
As the Catholic Church reels from the surprise announcement Monday that Pope Benedict XVI will step down at the end of the month — the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years — the world will again watch from afar as the Cardinals prepare for the secret Conclave to pick his successor. Meanwhile, the Russian […]
Shortages of manpower leave many of the construction projects for the Winter Games far behind schedule.
MOSCOW – According to Anton Zharov, a lawyer specializing in adoption, the proposals coming out of the Duma (Parliament) to solve Russia’s orphan problem are like a printer that has gone insane. “You can’t solve Russia’s orphan problem in one year or in three years. Instead of talking to specialists and trying to establish a […]
Categories
Is There Such A Thing As Good Corruption?
From Russia to South Korea and Switzerland, thereis a different between kleptocrats and diligent greasers of wheels.
GDP v. Happy Planet Index? Some New Year’s number crunching from Moscow, comparing life in cold and warm climates, rich and poor countries, free and less free societies.
MOSCOW – President Vladimir Putin recently announced that this year was a record year for Russian weapons exports, with $15 billion in contracts for next year and $14 billion worth of weapons that have already been sold in 2012. This past year the main customers for Russian weapons were once again India, Algeria and Vietnam. […]
President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that he will sign the so-called “anti-Magnitsky” bill into law is just part of the widespread anger toward Washington.
MOSCOW – Human rights organization “Shield and Sword” has become the first Russian non-profit forced to register as a “foreign agent.” This comes with the activation of a new law that requires any non-profit that receives funding from outside of the country to register as such with the Russian government. Activists say the legislation was […]
MOSCOW – Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that establishes normal trade relations with Russia for the first time in decades, including the repeal of the 1974 Jackson-Vanick Amendment that denied “most favored nation” status to countries restricting human rights. But the bill also included the so-called “Magnitsky” Act, which calls for sanctions […]
MOSCOW – When Vladimir Putin took office as President for the third time, he sent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a document outlining the philosophy that would guide his approach to international relations for the next five years. Only recently released, the document is very revealing, showing that Putin’s worldview, and his idea about Russia’s […]
Russia worries the Patriot missiles set to be deployed by the West to the Turkish-Syrian border could actually be moved to any part of Turkey.
MOSCOW – There are four global logistics companies (DHL, FedEx, UPS and TNT) that are generally considered barometers of the global economy. They told of a crisis before it had engulfed the world, when international exchanges began to lag as trade was slowing down, and the price of shipping packages became cheaper. That’s why economists […]
MOSCOW – Seeking to guarantee greater energy and food security for its population, China is coming up against serious limitations. Just look at the basic numbers: the country only has 8% of the world’s energy reserves, and only 11% of the world’s arable land – yet, it is providing for 19% of the planet’s population. […]
VLADIVOSTOK – Located in Russia’s frigid Far East, Vladivostok has long relied on coal power to heat the city through its long winters. A major new gas pipeline that was promised as a benefit for hosting the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit was seen as a chance for the city to finally have a […]
MOSCOW – At the beginning of November, Russian automaker executives testified in front of the Trade and Industry Ministry about a network of sites around the country they had set up to allow car owners to drop off unwanted cars for recycling. It was the first sign in a move towards the creation of a […]