Staunton, July 31 – Many have been transfixed by the size of the US $50 billion judgment by the international court in the Hague against Moscow in the YUKOS case, but the real threat to Russia lies not from that vast sum but rather in the principle that the international court has articulated, according to […]
This article was written on Saturday, May 24, ahead of today’s elections. Kiev: Election observers have descended on Ukraine for the presidential elections this Sunday, May 25. Given the tumultuous situation in Ukraine’s separatist eastern regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, the elections are particularly important for legitimating Ukraine’s central government and reestablishing faith in Ukraine’s democracy […]
Staunton, May 11 – Vladimir Putin’s demands for the federalization of Ukraine not only are hypocritical because of the absence of federalism in Russia but dangerous for both countries because it would convert the east of Ukraine into “a Palestine,” according to Ekho Moskvy commentator Yuliya Latynina. Such a project, she said on her “Access […]
Staunton, April 27 – When an individual, a leader or a country takes something personally rather than viewing it as being in the way of business, that makes the situation far more dangerous because the usual options others have for countering actions taken on the basis of hard-headed calculation fall away. Still worse, such shifts […]
Today or tomorrow, Platon Lebedev will be released [note – there are reports he was released Friday afternoon, after this article was published — Ed.]. It was decided by the Supreme Court as the result of hearings on the two “Yukos” cases. A month ago Platon Lebedev spoke about his upcoming release in an interview […]
Why does the image of the Russian state, despite the tens of millions of dollars invested in PR, leave much to be desired? This is what The New Times asked Angus Roxburgh, who served several years in Ketchum PR-agency, that advises the Kremlin In 2013, just one year after the “premiere”, a new edition of […]
This is the second part of the first interview that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has given since his pardon last week. In this installment, he talks about Putin’s motives for freeing him, as well as his next steps now that he is a free man. — Ed. Read part 1: Mikhail Khodorkovsky: “I Will Return to Russia” Freedom […]
This is the first part of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s first interview after his pardon. Read part two — Khodorkovsky: Putin Sent a Message That He’s Stable and Not Afraid Black polo neck shirt, jeans – a change from the prison trousers, a gray “hedgehog” [short prison haircut], glasses in thin frames, a marked stoop, and on […]
This article was originally published in Kommersant, originally titled “Mikhail Khodorkovsky Surrenders to Pardon.” It reports on what was happening behind the scenes when Mikhail Khodorkovsky made the decision to ask for a presidential pardon. The claims have not been verified, but in an official statement, Mikhail Khodorkovsky wrote, “the issue of admission of guilt […]
It’s very unlikely that Ukraine will immediately become a European country as a result of the second “orange revolution” in its short post-Soviet history. But these events may have a significant impact on the situation in Russia. The Russian authorities’ passion for geopolitical games without thinking about the consequences has led to a situation where […]
