Russia dreams of creating an alternative to Suez

Eurasia Map

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ilya Dashkovsky, special to RBTH – August 26, 2013) Railways across Siberia and the Far East might become alternatives to the sea route. An ambitious program of railway expansion in Russia’s Far East opens up the prospect of creating rapid new trade routes between Asia and Europe. At least $17bn is to be […]

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Sobyanin claims rivals see mayoral polls as bridgehead in trying ‘to storm the Kremlin’

Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) Acting Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has slammed candidates for mayor of the Russian capital who “say that, generally speaking, Moscow is just a stage for them in trying to seize power in the country, to storm the Kremlin.” “I don’t think this trick will work. Neither you and I nor the Muscovites would put […]

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Prokhorov’s Future Hazy as Elections Approach

Mikhail Prokohrov file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Oleg Sukhov – August 27, 2013) Civil Platform leader Mikhail Prokhorov’s future seemed uncertain Monday as he denied a report that he would leave politics, while analysts said the billionaire may have indeed scaled down his political ambitions even as his party establishes itself ahead of regional elections. Some commentators argued that the tycoon’s refusal […]

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RIA Novosti: Kremlin to Finance ‘Foreign Agent’ NGOs – Report

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) ­ The Kremlin will give grants to the Memorial human rights organization and several other opposition-minded NGOs that prosecutors earlier this year accused of being “foreign agents,” the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti reported Monday. Two regional branches of Memorial will receive a combined 800,000 rubles ($24,000) from the 2.3 billion rubles ($700 million) […]

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Tensions Rise In Georgia’s Breakaway Regions

Georgia Map

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Liz Fuller – August 26, 2013) Five years after their formal recognition by the Russian Federation as independent states on August 26, 2008, Georgia’s breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are on very different trajectories in terms of relations with their northern neighbor. But both are plagued by growing domestic political instability. Abkhazia has experienced […]

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Putin Wants Me Dead or Caged, Georgia President Saakashvili Says

Mikheil Saakashvili file photo

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – By Helena Bedwell, Henry Meyer, Hellmuth Tromm – August 26, 2013) Georgia’s outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wants him jailed or dead and urged the U.S. to help curb what he says is Russia’s rising influence over his country. Saakashvili, a 45-year-old American-educated lawyer who allied Georgia with the U.S. after […]

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Russia failing to test vulnerable groups for HIV

HIV Infection Microscopic Photo of Cells

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ivan Varentsov, public health expert with the Andrey Rylkov Foundation; special to RBTH – August 22, 2013) The country’s ineffective and conservative policy stymies efforts to stop the epidemic. The HIV epidemic is one of the most pressing public health problems in Russia today. According to the latest UNAIDS global report, Eastern Europe […]

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Taken from Chita, Made in China

Map of Russia

(opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Loginov – August 24, 2013) Mikhail Loginov is a journalist and novelist based in St Petersburg. He is the author of the recently published bestselling political thriller “Battle for Kremlin”. Lake Baikal, the largest freshwater lake on the planet, is part of Russia’s DNA, and many romantic ballads sing of its size and beauty. Beyond the lake […]

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U.S. interference in Syrian conflict will lead to chaos in Middle East – political expert

Syria Map

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 26, 2013) U.S. President Barack Obama could possibly resort to military intervention in the Syrian conflict due to pressure of his political opponents, but will try to limit it to a short-term war, head of a working group under the Russian president’s human rights council, political expert Sergei Karaganov said. Obama will do everything possible not […]

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Moscow expects UN to start examining Russian bid for extending seabed borders

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) Russia expects that its application to the United Nations to approve its bid for extending the boundary of its part of the Sea of Okhotsk section of the continental shelf will receive consideration in the international organization early next year, said Deputy Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Denis Khramov. Russia also wants the […]

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Georgia is ready to wait for voluntary return of Abkhazia, South Ossetia – Georgian minister

Georgia Map

(Interfax – TBILISI, August 26, 2013) Georgian Reintegration Minister Paata Zakareishvili believes the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will make a final choice between Russia and Georgia over the next several years. “We will always give them [the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia] a chance to choose between a developed Georgia and a Russia of those times. That […]

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Paid political rallies do brisk business in Moscow

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – August 26, 2013) Paying or coercing participants to come to rallies is an ongoing issue in the capital’s political sphere It’s a warm summer morning, and I’m standing with a disjointed cluster of about fifteen people outside Tretyakovskaya metro station. A young blonde woman ­ dressed in grey sweatpants and a hoodie with dangling rabbit […]

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Moscow mayoral battle: Clash of political cultures

Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yulia Ponomareva, RBTH – August 26, 2013) Kremlin ally faces convicted opposition leader Navalny after a date change rules out Prokhorov. A political contest for control of Europe’s largest city has become a fight between Kremlin-backed Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and opposition activist Alexei Navalny. The Sept. 8 election for mayor of Moscow will […]

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About half of crimes in Moscow are committed by migrants – poll

Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Interfax – August 23, 2013) Half of crimes in Moscow are committed by migrants; in general, the situation with ethnic crime in the Russian capital remains tense; the head of the Moscow city’s central directorate of the Interior Ministry, Anatoliy Yakunin, told Russian privately-owned news agency Interfax on 23 August. “I’d like to say that 50 per cent of all […]

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1953 Says More about Future of Russia than Does 1991, Pastukhov Argues

File Photo of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 25, 2013) Most people in Moscow and the West see Russia’s current political problems as a working out of the events of 1991, a view that very much defines what they are doing and what they expect to happen next, according to Vladimir Pastukhov, perhaps the most penetrating analyst writing on […]

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Presidential Order Bans Protests in Sochi During the Olympics

File Photo of Sochi Olympics Banner Near Highway in Warm Weather with Vehicle and Cyclicsts Nearby

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – August 26, 2013) Public protests in heightened security zones in Sochi will be prohibited during the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games next year, according to a presidential order published Friday. Some activists have denounced the order as unconstitutional, though Human Rights Watch representatives said that protests might still be possible since the […]

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Snowden was forced to remain in Moscow over Cuba’s decision to bar his entry – daily

Edward Snowden file photo

(Interfax – August 26, 2013) Former CIA employee Edward Snowden changed his plans of flying from Moscow to a Latin American country after he learned that Cuba had decided to deny landing to an Aeroflot plane carrying him, Kommersant reported on Monday. “Moscow definitely expected that Edward Snowden who arrived at [Moscow’s] Sheremetyevo airport on June 23 would fly to […]

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Kadyrov denies Islamization of Chechnya

Ramzan Kadyrov file photo

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, said there is no Islamization in Chechnya, the people of the republic simply have deep respect for Islamic traditions and unity with Russia is a choice of the Chechen people. “We don’t have any Islamization. To our great regret, we have young women who go around naked, without […]

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Effects of 1991 August Putsch still felt in Russia

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexander Kolesnichenko, special to RBTH – August 23, 2013) The collapse of the Soviet Union, the transition to a market economy, the ban on the Communist Party, the complete transformation of the public and the economic structure of the country ­ all of these followed the coup attempt on Aug. 19-21, 1991. The […]

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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#153 :: 21 August 2013

Map of Russia

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#153 :: 21 August 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]

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Ukraine-EU Deal to Entail Protective Measures – Putin

Map of Western CIS/FSU and European Environs

(RIA Novosti – ROSTOV-ON-DON, August 23, 2013) The Moscow-led Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan may have to use protective measures should Ukraine sign an association agreement with the European Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. “If our neighbors [Ukraine] resort to a substantial liberalization of their customs regime with the EU, goods that are not bad in […]

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Russia and Ukraine on the Verge of a Decisive Choice

Russian Naval Vessel in Ukrainian Port

(RIA Novosti – August 22, 2013 – Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of the Russia in Global Affairs journal, authoritative source of expertise on Russian foreign policy and global developments) Russian-Ukrainian relations are again at the center of attention. Nothing has happened between Moscow and Kiev in the three years since the signing of the Kharkiv agreement, under which Ukraine extended Russia’s […]

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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#156 :: 25 August 2013

Map of Russia

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#156 :: 26 August 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]

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Navalny Faces New Pressure as Mayoral Race Heats Up

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova and Ezekiel Pfeifer – August 23, 2013) The mayoral campaign of opposition leader Alexei Navalny faced a new wave of pressure by authorities Thursday as the Moscow Elections Commission warned he could be struck from the ballot and police raided a printer of his campaign materials. With just over two weeks left before […]

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Georgian government extends contract with U.S. lobby company

File Photo of U.S. Capitol Dome

(Interfax – TBILISI, August 22, 2013) The Georgian government has extended its contract with the influential lobby and legal firm Patton Boggs, which is headquartered in Washington, DC, until the end of 2013, the Georgian media have reported. Under the contract, Patton Boggs will receive monthly payments of $110,000 for its services, which is $20,000 more than it received before. […]

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Empty Towns, Destruction in Georgia Show `Everyone Is to Blame’

Georgia Map

(Bloomberg – Lucian Kim – August 18, 2013) Twenty-five miles on the main road west from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Russian soldiers argue with a mercenary as refugees trudge along in the summer heat. The scene, reminiscent of the Balkans in the 1990s, is the result of a 10-day conflict over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia. The […]

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Lawyers Want Community Service for Pussy Riot – ­ Report

File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) ­ Lawyers of the two jailed members of the Russian feminist punk protest group Pussy Riot are filing a petition to have their clients’ remaining jail time replaced with community service, a Russian daily reported Friday. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were sentenced to two years in jail last August for their February […]

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Most Russians indifferent to Obama, 17 percent admit attitude toward Obama lately deteriorated – poll

File Photo of Barack Obama Sitting at Desk with Mike McFaul Standing Next to Him Facing Him

(Interfax – August 23, 2013) The majority of Russians think that the refusal of U.S. President Barack Obama to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin will not have any impact on the countries’ bilateral relations and they support Moscow’s decision to grant asylum to former employee of U.S. special services Edward Snowden, sociologists said. Half of Russian citizens (50 percent) […]

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2.5 million liters of Georgian wine imported to Russia – official

Tblisi, Georgia, File Photo with Building with Tower on Hillside and City Buildings in Valley in Distance

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 23, 2013) Around 2.5 million liters of wine have been delivered by Georgia’s enterprises to the Russian market since Russia lifted its ban on Georgian wine imports, Gennady Onishchenko, head of the consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor and Russia’s chief epidemiologist, told Interfax on Friday. “A total of 690 shipments of alcohol products weighing more than 2.4 […]

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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#155 :: 23 August 2013

Map of Russia

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#155 :: 23 August 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]

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Russia not hurt by WTO membership, will not revisit terms of accession – official

WTO Logo

(Interfax – August 22, 2013) Russia’s membership in the World Trade Organization, the first anniversary of which was on Wednesday, has not had a negative impact on the country’s economy and there are no plans to reconsider the conditions of Russia’s accession to the trade body, the director of trade negotiations at the Economic Development Ministry, Maxim Medvedkov said in […]

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Russia flirts with recession

File Photo of Cash, Coins, Line Graph

(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – August 22, 2013) Russia never does things by halves. Before the global crisis of 2008, the talk was of an economy overheating. But the latest data showing second-quarter GDP grew just 1.2% from a year ago suggests the country is sliding toward recession and the government seems, at first […]

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Campaign Against Migrants Gains Momentum as Elections Loom

Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – August 22, 2013) All illegal street markets will be closed in the Moscow region by the end of this year, acting Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov said Wednesday as the campaign against illegal immigrants amid two key elections was gaining momentum. During debates on regional television on Tuesday, Vorobyov boasted a 15 […]

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Russians Must Take Nationalism Away from the Nationalists, Writer Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 22, 2013) Like Americans, most Russians view nationalism in a negative way, according to a Russian Jewish émigré living in New York, but they will not  be able to integrate their society and escape from the Soviet past unless they take nationalism away from those who call themselves Russian nationalists and […]

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Russian rights watchdog head queries security service anonymous tip-off proposal

File Photo of Partial FSB Headquarters Building Facade

(Interfax – August 21, 2013) A proposal that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) should react to anonymous tip-offs could lead to an increase in such messages and would in practice duplicate work done by the police, Tatyana Lokshina, head of Human Rights Watch’s Moscow bureau, told Interfax news agency on 21 August.(1) On the same day, government-owned Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya […]

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22 ‘Foreign Agents’ Detected in Russia After Mass Searches, Prosecutor Says

Kremlin and St. Basil's

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 22, 2013) Mass searches of NGOs across the country have helped to detect 22 “foreign agents,” a top official from the Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday. The law, which requires non-governmental organizations that receive funding from abroad and engage in “political activity” to register as “foreign agents,” came into effect in November. In March, […]

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Businesses Urge Mayoral Hopefuls to Pursue Laissez-Faire Policy

Aerial View of Moscow From Beyond Stadium, file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Guennadi Moukine – August 22, 2013) Small business representatives called for equality before the law and less interference from the government, sharing their concerns with Moscow mayoral candidate teams at a round-table discussion organized by the For an Honest Market movement Wednesday. The meeting was attended by mayoral candidate Sergei Mitrokhin of the liberal Yabloko […]

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Navalny’s Campaign Relies on Innovation

Alexei Navalny file photo

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – August 22, 2013) Standing on a soapbox, mayoral hopeful Alexei Navalny asks the people who’ve gathered to listen to his campaign speech near Timiryazevskaya railway station: “What do you know about me?” After a brief silence, someone in the crowd hesitatingly replies: “Corruption.” “What do you mean corruption? You mean I stole […]

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Opposition can offer serious competition to party of power in Yekaterinburg and Voronezh – report

Arm and Torso of Person in Brown Sweater Placing Paper Ballot into Ballot Box

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 21, 2013) The Foundation for the Development of Civil Society (FoRGO) predicts that United Russia candidates may win all gubernatorial elections on September 8 but the opposition can offer strong rivalry in mayoral elections in Voronezh and Yekaterinburg. “We assume that that candidates nominated by United Russia or supported by United Russia will win in all […]

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Massive Flooding Highlights Moscow’s Failure to Invest in Infrastructure

File Photo of Past Disaster

(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, August 21, 2013) The Russian government’s failure to maintain the infrastructure that existed at the end of Soviet times is one of the primary reasons why this year’s flooding in the Russian Far East has inflicted so much damage and suffering on the population there, according to Moscow experts. Many Moscow commentators […]

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Russians expect country to gradually assume more Western features – poll

World Map Showing Continents, Greens, Browns, Ice

(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 21, 2013) Most Russians tend to expect that Russia will develop according to the Western, not Asian pattern, sociologists from Levada Center have told Interfax. According to a poll conducted in July in 130 towns and cities in 45 territories of Russia, over a quarter (27%) of the interviewed assume that in 50 years science, technology […]

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Bering Strait Shipping Route to Slash Voyage Times Between Asia and Europe

Polar Map Showing Permafrost Areas, Adapted From NOAA.gov Graphic

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 22, 2013) Traders that have been looking for the shortest route from Asia to Europe since the days of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot may have finally found it, though the way may be colder than expected and the cargo will probably consist of less silk and spices. Yong Sheng, a 19,000 ton Chinese […]

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Planetary defense: Which strategy will Russia choose?

Stylized Satellite View of Globe Highlighting Russian Impact Location for Meteor

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Kislyakov, special to RBTH – August 22, 2013) Russian researchers have been developing systems to gather data on the most dangerous threats to the Earth ­ and to destroy them, if need be. Yet a specific strategy for neutralizing space threats has yet to be developed. The latest news from space is […]

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RIA Novosti: Moscow Says Obama’s Visit to Russia Postponed Not Cancelled

Edward Snowden file photo

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 22, 2013) US President Barack Obama’s official visit to Russia has been postponed, not cancelled, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Thursday. “The visit has been postponed, not cancelled,” Alexander Lukashevich said. “The invitation that Mr. Obama has is still in force, and we hope that he will use it at some point in […]

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Kremlin Aide Threatens End of Free Trade With Ukraine

File Photo of Ukrainians with Ukrainian Flag in Public Square Near Tower with Golden Dome

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Irina Filatova – August 22, 2013) Russia could annul a free trade regime with Ukraine and scrap joint projects in a number of industries if Kiev signs an association agreement with the European Union, Kremlin advisor Sergei Glazyev was quoted as saying Wednesday. By signing the agreement ­ which is slated for November ­ Ukraine […]

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Georgia and Russia: Rekindling an Old Love Affair?

Georgia Map

(Voice of America – James Brooke, VOA Moscow bureau chief, covering Russia and the former USSR – August 15, 2013) When I first visited Georgia, on a reporting trip, in September 1991, I arrived in Tbilisi armed with four years of college Russian ­ and gung ho to use it! To my dismay, the independence-minded residents of the Georgian Soviet […]

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Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#154 :: 22 August 2013

Map of Russia

[check back for updates, including more links; links also posted to facebook and twitter] Johnson’s Russia List :: 2013-#154 :: 22 August 2013 E-Mail: davidjohnson@starpower.net A project of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs: www.ieres.org JRL homepage: russialist.org JRL on Facebook: facebook.com/russialist JRL on Twitter: twitter.com/JohnsonRussiaLi Support […]

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Of Russian Tourists, Egyptian Violence, and Fate

Map of Egypt and Environs`

(RIA Novosti – Natalia Antonova, Acting Editor-in-Chief, The Moscow News – August 19, 2013) The news of violence coming out of Egypt is horrifying, and it must be said, unfortunately, that we haven’t seen the end of the horror. So why are Russians continuing to flock to the country for vacation this month? The short answer is economics. Vacation packages […]

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RIA Novosti: U.S. Left Five Extradition Requests Unanswered – Russia

File Photo of Vladimir Putin Leaning Towards Barack Hussein Obama With Flags Behind Them

(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 21, 2013) Five of Russia’s extradition requests sent to the United States in the past few years have been left unanswered, a deputy Russian prosecutor general has said in an interview. “Since 2008, the United States has refused 16 times to extradite people to us citing the absence of a relevant treaty,” Deputy Russian Prosecutor […]

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Russian firms cautiously aiming at new investments

Cash, Calculator, Pen

(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – August 21, 2013) Growth in targeted investment is the key message of the 2013 American Express/CFO Global Business and Spending Monitor, scheduled for release in Russia this week. While businesses worldwide are still exercising caution, the report’s findings cite growing optimism among companies toward investment, with specialization in markets and value delivery […]

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