The Russia Blog
So, Putin’s coming to visit George W Bush in Kennebunkport this weekend, and his advance guard are in town, checking out the place.
Now, Kennebunkport isn’t the most exciting place to be if you’re a Russian Secret Service agent , and, well, you know how these Russians, they like their liquor:
A Russian man
Is it just me, or does Vladimir Putin’s latest public statement make it seem like he’s completely off his rocker?
Am I a ‘pure democrat’? Of course I am, absolutely. But do you know what the problem is? Not even a problem but a real tragedy? The problem is that I’m all alone, the only
Of all the world’s many leaders, I can honestly say that the one I’ve learnt the most from is Russia’s own Vladimir Putin.
Take a look at these Putin quotes – I think you’ll agree that his warmth, wit and wisdom shines through in every word he utters:
Putin on the importance of doing what… Read the rest
The move puts Ivanov on a par with Dmitri Medvedev, the other leading candidate who, until this morning, held a nominally higher government office than Ivanov. Promotion also means that Ivanov… Read the rest
Captain’s Quarters wonders what’s behind the recent spate of nuclear ‘incidents’ that can be traced back to Russia in one way or another:
A couple of scenarios could be in play. The first is that Putin has decided to gain hard cash by putting fissile material on the black market, which is not only
In a report that will surprise many, former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar has concluded that he was poisoned by enemies of Russia:
Most likely [...] some obvious or hidden adversaries of the Russian authorities stand behind the scenes of this event, those who are interested in further radical deterioration of relations between
If you live in the UK, you might want to check out Russian Godfathers, which will air on BBC2 this Thursday. Basically it looks like it will be a 50 minute roundup of who’s who in Russia, who is on the up, and who has recently come crashing down to earth.
Putin, able to
Following his sentencing, ex-Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been sent to a jail in Siberia – YaG-14/10 to be precise, which is near Chita. His co-defendant, Platon Lebedev has been sent to a prison in the Arctic region of Yamalo-Nenets, 2,000 km north of Moscow.
There is some concern about the legality of these moves,… Read the rest
Vladimir Putin once again managed to throw Kremlin watchers into a tizz, by giving another cryptic answer to the question of what he intends to do in 2008 when his second term as President runs out.
Asked if there should be a referendum about whether he should run for a third term, Putin replied:… Read the rest
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former Yukos boss and now full-time jailbird, has been pretty busy over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday saw the beginning of an appeal against his conviction for tax fraud and, predictably, the day ended in farce.
Cast your minds back to the original trial, earlier this year, and you’ll remember… Read the rest
Sitting in Glasgow airport’s Burger King (everything else was closed!) yesterday, this Times interview with President Putin caught my eye. Actually, it’s not a transcript of an interview, more a number of quick quotes that summarise Putin’s view on pretty much every major issue facing Russia today.
This, in particular, was interesting – simple,… Read the rest
President Putin has been playing at being a fly-boy:
President Vladimir Putin, sitting in the pilot’s seat, broke the sound barrier Tuesday as he flew in a long-range bomber to a Northern Fleet outpost to attend a war game similar to one that embarrassed the armed forces last year.
After
Jailed Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky has announced that he is considering standing for election to the State Duma in an upcoming by-election.
"I am absolutely confident that they will not allow me to run. But if I receive letters from people whose opinions are important for me, I will agree, even being aware of
Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov is the subject of a criminal investigation over an illegal property purchase. Kasyanov, who was Prime Minister through almost all of Putin’s first term, has been strongly critical of Putin during this last year, and is perhaps the most credible ‘opposition’ figure to emerge so far as a candidate… Read the rest
President Vladimir Putin presented his annual State of the Nation address yesterday( transcript here). The content of the address has been somewhat obscured by the rather inflammatory ‘money’ quote:
"Above all, we should acknowledge that the collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century."
Understandably, this has upset… Read the rest
Following last week’s meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, many observers – myself included – chose to make fun of the way in which Lukashenko related or, rather, did not relate to Putin’s pet labrador. But perhaps more was agreed at their meeting than we originally thought.. … Read the rest
Although very few people in the world really know what Presidents George W Bush and Vladimir Putin talked about in their summit, leaks are beginning to trickle out.
I found this one from Time Magazine particularly amusing, largely because of the number of bloggers who should know better (Chrenkoff, Myopic… Read the rest
