Arctic Progress is a new blog from Anatoly Karlin devoted to the Arctic region.
I'm singin' in Ukraine…
April 27, 2010 By
Gazprom's private army
July 4, 2007 By
The Russian Duma has today voted in favour of allowing Gazprom to form its own private army. Reuters reports:
A law backed by 341 lawmakers in the 450-seat State Duma lower house of parliament gave Gazprom, and oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, special exemption from strict limits on private businesses wielding arms.
The two state-controlled
Australia to export Uranium to Russia
June 6, 2007 By
Australia and Russia have signed a deal allowing Australia to supply uranium to Russian nuclear reactors.
Initially this struck me as rather odd – I’d always assumed that Russia was pretty much self-sufficient when it comes to uranium.
But, interestingly, Russia doesn’t mine anywhere near enough uranium to fuel all its nuclear reactors (military or… Read the rest
Joseph Nye – what Russia is doing wrong
January 30, 2007 By
Joseph Nye (the soft power guy) offers up four reasons why Russia will not be a major power in 2020:
They are failing to diversify away from energy and develop a broad based economy rapidly enough. - They need a rule of law that protects entrepreneurs and helps foster a middle class that will
How the Belarus oil story has grown
January 9, 2007 By
I picked up some incoming traffic from Matthew Yglesias’ blog today. Wondering what was going on, I wondered over to his site, to find the following story about the Russian decision to shut down the flow of oil through Belarus:
All of Europe gets cut off from crude oil supplies, apparently.
His source is… Read the rest
Oil wars
January 8, 2007 By
It looks as though Russia’s neighbours have made a New Year’s resolution for 2007 – to demonstrate to Russia that they too can flex their energy muscles. In the past few days:
- Belarus have slapped a tax on Russian oil transiting Belarus, and siphoning off Transneft’s oil to pay for it. In response, Transneft
Belarus reaches last minute deal with Russia over gas price
January 2, 2007 By
Just minutes before Gazprom implemented their threat to cut of gas supplies to Belarus, a deal was reached to secure gas deliveries until 2011.
Under the terms of the deal, Belarus will pay $100 per thousand cubic metres this year, but the price will steadily rise until it reaches around $250 per thousand cubic metres… Read the rest
Belarus-Russia relations sour over gas deal
December 18, 2006 By
It looks as if relations between Belarus and Russia are becoming increasingly strained, as reports come through that no agreement has been reached on the future of gas prices.
Although there has been no official announement yet on the outcome of the talks, Reuters are reporting that the talks went so badly that Lukashenko decided… Read the rest
Closed cities from the inside
October 10, 2005 By
Last week I wrote about the disgraceful number of closed cities in Russia, another of those leftovers from an anarchic age that Russia remains addicted to, despite (or perhaps because of) the restrictions it places on the human rights of their 1.7 million residents.
In a rather timely decision, the BBC have just… Read the rest
UNESCO may designate Lake Baikal as "in danger"
October 8, 2005 By
The Moscow Times reports that UNESCO are becoming so concerned about the environmental safety of Lake Baikal that they are considering putting the Lake, already a World Heritage site, on their “in danger” list. And not just that, but they may even do so without the permission of the Russian government:
An evaluation team
Closed cities and the Democratic Deficit
October 6, 2005 By
If you thought that the demise of the Soviet Union meant the demise of closed, or secret cities, then you’d be wrong. Today, it is thought that there are up to forty closed cities (also referred as ZATO’s, or Zakrytye Administrativno-Territorial’nye Obrazovaniia) in Russia, although the Russian government will only confirm the existence of ten.… Read the rest
Russia to stop supplying cheap oil and gas to CIS
August 24, 2005 By
According to this Moscow Times report, the Russian government has decided that it should no longer supply gas and oil to Former Soviet states at a discounted rate.
"As market reforms proceed in our countries, we will be increasingly basing our intergovernmental … and economic relations on world practices," [Foreign
Invest in Russia!
March 18, 2005 By
I occasionally moan about how President Putin’s mismanagement is putting companies off investing in Russia. Providing a counterweight to pessimists like me is Bill Cara, securities trader, global market strategist and blogger. He’s writing a series of posts on investing in Russia, with case studies on the energy and mineral industries. Helpfully,… Read the rest
Russia and the Kyoto credits market
February 16, 2005 By
The Kyoto Protocol comes into force today, 90 days after Russia’s ratification meant that countries making up 55% of global energy are now signed up.
A major part of the protocol involves the creation of a market for buying and selling carbon emission credits – if a country’s emissions fall within its quota, it… Read the rest
