(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, May 16, 2013) In thinking about Russia’s future, most of the country’s opposition figures remain trapped in the old debate about whether Russia is fundamentally European or really Asiatic, but, one Moscow commentator argues, it is time to recognize that “the successful Russia of the future” can and must be a country like the United States. In an article on the “Osobaya
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – March 22, 2013) The Cabinet on Thursday backed a plan to invigorate the economy of the Far East, and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said the government would later this month formally ask the parliament to slash taxes for new business projects in the region. Plans to develop the remote and sparsely populated region have gained a new urgency recently as a way
(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 45 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Pavel K. Baev – March 11, 2013) Entering the second year of his third presidency, President Vladimir Putin has shown uncharacteristically scant interest to foreign policy matters perhaps suspecting that Western “partners” are sponsoring Russia’s opposition movement and that neighboring post-Soviet leaders and even Chinese “friends” are losing confidence in his leadership. He keeps Prime Minister Dmitry
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jake Rudnitsky – March 7, 2013) Russia is on course to send an unprecedented 25 percent of its crude exports to eastern markets by 2015 as rising demand from China and other Asian consumers attracts sales at the expense of Europe. The country sent 1.1 million barrels a day east in February, or 22 percent of exports, according to Bloomberg estimates based on loading programs and
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Joseph de Weck – February 7, 2013) Russia may pivot to Asia should the proposed U.S.-European Union free-trade agreement hurt its businesses, said Kirill Dmitriev, the Chief Executive Officer of the $10 billion Russian Direct Investment Fund. “Any attempt to use the liberal language of free trade to create something that excludes other countries and puts them in a disadvantageous position will be met with the
MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) – The government program for the Social and Economic Development of the Far East and Baikal Region for the Period to 2025, drafted by the Far East Development Ministry, was discussed at a meeting held by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, business daily Vedomosti reported on Wednesday. “The document was not officially submitted to the government, but has already been considered at a meeting with
YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. Feb 11 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry’s office in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk has suggested to the Sakhalin division of the Russian Geographic Society naming an unnamed Kuril island after Soviet diplomat Andrei Gromyko. The Sakhalin division backed the proposal and submitted it to the Moscow office of the Russian Geographic Society for approval, Vladimir Nosov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s representative in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, told Interfax. “Despite the fact that Andrei Gromyko
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) – Russia will soon present the UN with the results of its research on the extent of the continental shelf in the central Sea of Okhotsk, and later in the Arctic Ocean more than 200 miles from the shore, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Lukashevich said at a Thursday briefing. “Russia has long been conducting systematic work on the proper clearance of its
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – February 8, 2013) Japan scrambled four fighter jets to intercept two Russian fighters it said invaded Japanese airspace near Russia’s Kuril Islands for about 11 seconds on Thursday, as Japan celebrated a national day of commemoration calling for the disputed archipelago seized in World War II to return to the Japanese. Russia’s Defense Ministry denied that an intrusion had taken place and
(opendemocracy.net – Ben Judah – January 25, 2013) Ben Judah is the author of Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In And Out Of Love With Vladimir Putin to be published in May 2013 by Yale University Press. He is an associate fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. The Yellow Peril was a feature of life in Soviet times and the demographics on either side of the Russia-China border
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anatoly Medetsky – January 16, 2013) Far East Development Minister Viktor Ishayev on Tuesday publicly reviewed the first draft of a program to pull the regional economy out of a slump. Presented to an assembly of officials, lawmakers and businesspeople at the Moscow office of the Sakha republic, the program immediately revealed a couple of points of contention that pitted Ishayev against some of the
(Thomas Graham – Thomas Graham, a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, was the senior director for Russia on the U.S. National Security Council staff 2004-2007.- A Russian version of this ran in Ekspert, Nov. 16, 2012 ttp://expert.ru/expert/2012/46/gde-iskat-buduschee/?n=87778) Does U.S.-Russian cooperation have a future? After the initial warming trend of the first years of the Obama administration, relations are once again under stress – over
[Despite Moscow's Promises, Russia's Far East Remains 'More Dead than Alive,' Experts Say - Window on Eurasia - Paul Goble - Nov. 30 - http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2012/11/window-on-eurasia-despite-moscows.html] Paul Goble writes, for Windows on Eurasia, about the state of Russian ambitions for development of the Russian Far East: Yesterday’s meeting of the Russian State Council devoted to the Russian Far East and the Trans-Baikal and chaired by President Vladimir Putin shows that those
NOVO-OGARYOVO, November 29 (RIA Novosti) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready to rejuvenate government plans to create a mega state corporation to develop Russia’s depressed eastern Siberia and Far East. “The idea of a government corporation was discussed and I know that far from everyone shares this approach,” Putin said at a State Council meeting to discuss the social, economic and demographic development of the
(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – Nov. 27, 2012) The Moscow punditocracy has had China on its mind lately. In fact, one leading commentator even confessed to suffering from “China envy.” When the Chinese Communist Party elected the country’s new top leaders earlier this month, with Hu Jintao relinquishing power to Xi Jinping, many in Russia’s chattering classes noted how favorably the system stacks up to their own. “The Chinese have
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Alex Morales – November 27, 2012) Thawing permafrost threatens to intensify global warming, sending the planet beyond the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of increases that envoys at United Nations climate talks have set as a maximum. Frozen soils that cover a quarter of the land area in the northern hemisphere contain 1,700 gigatons (1,700 billion tons) of carbon, twice the amount currently in
(Howard Amos – Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 21, 2012) Despite the establishment of a Far East Development Ministry in May, the area from Siberia to the Pacific coast lacks an effective administrative body to coordinate investment projects, according to Alexander Bazhenov, head of the Far East Development Fund. Decaying infrastructure, extreme weather conditions, a decreasing population and the legacy of Soviet economic planning all blight the Far East.
MOSCOW, November 8 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti) – The new generation of Chinese leaders is prepared to maintain Beijing’s partnership with Moscow and may even seek closer ties should the geopolitical standoff with the United States in the Asia-Pacific intensify, Russian analysts said. Domestically, the crawling democratization of the last decade, coupled with growing inequality, may result in increased demand for political freedoms, but no street protests are expected, said
(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Yulia Ponomareva – October 15, 2012) The recent APEC summit hosted in Vladivostok once again brought to the fore the need to develop Russia’s Far East, a region that accounts for a third of the country’s territory but only 4 percent of its population, and which is challenged by the bustling economy of its southern neighbor, China. The government aims to take advantage of the
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 Subject: USAID Russia Lessons Learned From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> USAID Russia Lessons Learned by Sarah Lindemann-Komarova, Siberian based civil society development activist. Almost everyone knew it was time for a USAID end strategy in Russia. The possible exception to this maybe a few organizations that did not leverage years of generous support from the American people to cultivate a Russian constituency. Hope for a strategic
Siberia placed to be the new Middle East – Asia Times – By Yong Kwon – September 24, 2012 – http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/NI25Ag01.html Yong Kwon is a Washington-based analyst of international affairs. Asia Times examines the impact of Middle Eastern instability on oil and the global economy, and Siberia’s emergence as a significant source of petroleum. Russia actually starting serving as a major oil source more than a century ago, albeit impacted
Newsweek.com - September 17, 2012 - Shrinking Siberia: Why young people are fleeing Russia’s Far East. – By Anna Nemtsova – click here to read more from original article After first profiling a Siberian policewoman fashion model, Anna Nemtsova addresses Siberian population decline. Within a generation, Siberia, which is larger than China, will have less people than Moscow or St. Petersburg: Siberia’s population is disappearing. In a generation, if current
Russia reveals shiny state secret: It’s awash in diamonds; Trillions of carats’ lie below a 35-million-year-old, 62-mile diameter asteroid crater in eastern Siberia known as Popigai Astroblem. The Russians have known about the site since the 1970s. – Christian Science Monitor – September 17, 2012 – By Fred Weir, Correspondent – JRL 2012-165 click here to read orginal article Russia is claiming that a vast diamond field containing “trillions of
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