The Russia Blog
A few months ago, news broke (yet again) that Russia planned to build a tunnel under the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska. Well, it looks like a tunnel isn’t the only option on the drawing board.
Engineers are also considering how they could build a bridge across the Bering Strait. Or, to be more… Read the rest
Wow – Russia really is starting to strut its military stuff on the world stage again.
Two Tu-95 bombers flew to the US island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, paying a surprise visit to the US military base there. Shocked US pilots on the base were forced to scramble to intercept the Russian bombers.… Read the rest
“A New Cold War” is the latest International Affairs Forum debate.
“With talk of a new Cold War, and Russian President Vladimir Putin floating the possibility of aiming nuclear weapons at targets in Europe, how serious do you think the deterioration in relations is between Russia and the West? How should Western governments respond?”
Among… Read the rest
Last week Henry Kissinger led a delegation of US political big-hitters on an extremely low-profile mission to Russia. Kissinger and his team met with Vladimir Putin and an equally matched Russian delegation – led by former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov - to discuss some of the more pressing issues in US-Russia relations.
Make no mistake about… Read the rest
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has decided to pull an article from the next issue of the US-published Foreign Affairs journal.
Remember the story I posted a couple of weeks ago, about a member of Putin’s advance party to Kennebunkport trying to buy whisky with a fake $100 bill?
Well, it’s hit the mainstream – big time. A (rather deranged, it must be said) CNN presenter, has decided that the money came right from the… Read the rest
The Russian government has finally bitten the bullet, decided it wants to be in the World Trade Organisation more than it wants to be seen as a haven of music piracy, and closed Allofmp3.com.
The site, Allofmp3.com, was quietly closed as the Kremlin sought to end criticism from the United States that Russia
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
This beautiful map from Kommersant graphically demonstrates why Russia is concerned about the proposed US anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech republic.
If the US plan goes ahead as expected, high powered radars from Poland will be able to cover all of European Russia, and a good chunk of Siberia as well:
So, after spending the past few weeks ratcheting up the pressure, Putin has made an about turn and offered to work on a ‘joint’ missile shield with the United States.
Details of exactly how such a scheme would work are a little sketchy at the moment, to say the least, but it seems as… Read the rest
Russia test fired a new ICBM yesterday.
As you would expect, the western press – particularly in the UK – are muttering darkly about the new Cold War and a renewed arms race (see the Express and Guardian, for examples).
I was more interested by the following comment from First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei… Read the rest
Georgia is to more than double the size of its forces in Iraq, from 850 to 2,000. The increase will make Georgia the fourth largest contributor of troops to the Coalition in Iraq, behind the US, UK and South Korea:
In a statement, President Mikhail Saakashvili said that Georgia wanted to do everything possible to help the
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
Laurence Jarvik links to a couple of reports that Russia should buy Alaska to solve America’s finacial difficulties.
I read the original Washington Post column by Steven Pealstein that proposed selling Alaska as a solution to America’s financial problems. (It also said that Alaska had a Soviet-style economy because of federal spending obtained by
A joint Chinese-Russian military exercise is underway in the Russian Far East, the first between the two countries. 10,000 personnel are involved in an operation that is said to be one of humanitarian assistance:
[T]he scenario for these exercises – aid to a state suffering political violence – isn’t aimed against
Chechenpress has just published a copy of the transcript of ABC’s interview with Shamil Basayev (note: site no longer exists, so link removed). It makes hideous reading, particularly Basayev’s delusional comments (whether he believes his own words or not, I’m not sure) about who is to blame for the deaths of those hundreds of… Read the rest
Hmmm, so after all the stink that the Russian government kicked up over the ABC decision to air their Shamil Basayev interview it certainly is… interesting… to note that RIA Novosti had no qualms about interviewing Abdulla al-Jenabi the leader of one of Iraq’s largest armed guerilla groups.
Their decision to publish the interview… Read the rest
As I mentioned at the tail-end of yesterday’s post (here), the Russian Priz mini submarine stranded on the floor of the Pacific Ocean has been rescued. All seven crewmembers are reported to be in good condition. They’ll still need to undergo medical examiniation but, judging by this picture, they were fit enough to walk… Read the rest
A Russian mini-submarine with a full complement of seven sailors remains trapped on the floor of the Pacific ocean for a second day. The Russian Navy has reportedly begun its rescue mission, attaching cables to the submarine in an attempt to either lift it and/or tug it to shallower waters. Interfax reports that
