The Russian reconaissance ship Liman crashed into a Turkish freighter and sank; 78 sailors on board were rescued. Anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny was attacked and Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia was declared ‘undesirable’ and searched by the FSB’s Extremism Center.
Russian propagandists say that the Kremlin leader was not involved in the Russian doping program, something improbable on its face, given Putin’s micromanagement of many affairs.
The Russian Ministry of Finance is proposing to slash support of small and medium business nearly in half.
LIVE UPDATES: With Iran’s appearance on the oil market the price of energy is plummeting to record lows, and the ruble is following suit. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. Recent Translations: […]
Shevtsova’s Disturbing But Compelling Pointillilst Portrait of Our Time 2016-02-05 15:03:27 Staunton, VA, January 10, 2016 – Sometimes a simple enumeration of apparently unrelated events provides a more compelling and often more disturbing portrait of a time than a more formal analysis. That is what Russian analyst Lilia Shevtsova has provided today in a Facebook page. Under […]
Can Russia afford its military adventures in Ukraine and Syria? Can the Russian economy continue to grind along if oil is less than $50 a barrel? Has Putin’s authoritarianism reached its lowest point, or can things get worse for Russia? Is there a scenario where civilians stop being targets for Russian and Syria airstrikes? Our […]
Staunton, October 19 – The imposition of new rules prohibiting the sharing of statistical information among various levels of Russian government and the continuing impact of Soviet assumptions that individuals only work where they live mean that 33 to 37 percent of the population of Russian regions is “invisible” as far as state statistics are […]
Samuel Johnson famously advised James Boswell and his circle to “clear your mind of cant.” This is equally sound advice for students and commentators about Russia but it is not always followed. As a result much of contemporary writing about Russia falls prey to various mythologies. One of the pervasive and most stubborn of these […]
Sergei Pugachev, founder of the failed Mezhprombank who has fled to France, has filed a suit for $10 billion against Russia in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, even as the Russian government has demanded his extradition on charges of embezzlement of over a billion dollars in Russian loans. Welcome to our column, […]
Russia’s GDP shrank by 4.6% in quarter two, and oil hit a six-month low on Monday morning. Are there signs that the Russian economy can rally? Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. […]
