Core Article: What We Believe

This about Politics, tagged , , , , was written by for on January 15, 2008 .9 Comments

In the first 5 days of its existence, this blog has been priveleged to receive more than more than 200 page views from more than 100 visitors from 18 different countries. We have also been linked to by the Winthrop88 blog and Marginalia (probably the leading English-language blog about Latvia) – of those that we’re […]

News 14 Jan

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on January 14, 2008 .2 Comments

President Putin’s visit to Bulgaria to bring pipeline deal, NPP contract A new company is being created, in which Russia will own a 51% stake, to build a pipeline to carry Russian oil via the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas and Greece’s Alexandroupolis on the Aegean, so as to bypass the congested Bosporus. It […]

Annals of Resurgent Russia – It’s the Economy (in 2007), Stupid!

This about Economy, tagged , was written by for on January 14, 2008 .No Comments

Twice a year the World Bank files a Russian Economy Report. The last one was in November 2007. Let’s look at its first chapter – “Recent Economic Developments”. It does what it says, i.e., condenses Russia’s economic situation in 2007 into a few pages of dense text, stats and charts. First comes the summary: RUSSIAN […]

News 13 Jan

This about Geopolitics, tagged , , , was written by for on January 13, 2008 .No Comments

Rally against Georgia poll result Thousands of opposition supporters have taken to the streets in Georgia in protest at what they say were rigged presidential elections last weekend. Those gathered in the capital, Tbilisi, are demanding a second round of voting. Pro-Western leader Mikhail Saakashvili polled 53%, narrowly averting a run-off against his nearest rival, […]

Mailbag: Back from a Russian Century?

This about Futurism, tagged , , , was written by for on January 13, 2008 .No Comments

Four days and 50 reader views into our baby blog’s existence, we have been priveleged to receive a number of letters to our darussophileATyandexDOTru address. All of them deal with our Towards a New Russian Century? core article (which is, in addition, the most popular item on this blog by far – possibly because colleen […]

News 11 Jan

This about Politics, tagged , , , , was written by for on January 11, 2008 .3 Comments

Net capital inflow into Russia hit $82.3 bln in 2007 MOSCOW, January 11 (RIA Novosti) – Net capital inflow into Russia reached a record $82.3 billion in 2007, almost double the previous year’s figure, the Central Bank announced on Friday. In 2006 the figure was $42 billion. In the last three months of 2007, net […]

News 10 Jan

This about Politics, tagged , , , , was written by for on January 10, 2008 .No Comments

Russian moves to ban tobacco advertising MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian government has decided to completely ban tobacco advertizing, by signing up to a World Health Organization anti-smoking convention. In its first session of the year, the government approved a draft law on joining the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), […]

Annals of Western Hypocrisy – Georgia Presidential Elections 2008

This about Politics, tagged , , , was written by for on January 9, 2008 .8 Comments

Saakashvili wins Georgian elections in first round (January 6th) TBILISI, Georgia: Georgia’s American-allied president won re-election over the weekend and avoided a runoff election in this small former Soviet state by a margin of 1 percent of the vote, according to official results released Sunday. … The main opposition candidate, Levan Gachechiladze, did not concede […]