Russia’s Urals oil has been over $100 a barrel for a year now. The country’s budgets are balanced. Debt is low. Savings are piling up. Russians are getting their pre-recession mojo back. On the consumer end, sales of foreign cars made in Russia jumped 90 percent during the first quarter of 2012 over last year. […]
Join Russia and USA by Rail Tunnels under the Bering Strait?
Posted April 28th, 2012 at 11:18 am (UTC+0)
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Kremlin to Viktor Bout: Game Not Over
Posted April 25th, 2012 at 5:16 pm (UTC+0)
As Viktor Bout starts his 25-year jail sentence in the United States, the question on the minds of movie goers worldwide is: will the convicted Russian arms merchant take a visit from Nicolas Cage? In the 2005 Hollywood movie, Lord of War, the American actor played a Ukrainian-American arms dealer who made his fortune selling […]
Kremlin TV Channel to US: No Reset
Posted April 21st, 2012 at 9:41 am (UTC+0)
One generation ago, I reached the level in Russian language studies at Yale University where the next course looming in my face was: “Soviet Newspapers.” Faced with spending winter afternoons in a windowless basement classroom with CIA wannabes as we parsed Pravda and Izvestia, I ran away to Rio (literally). For today’s junior Kremlinologists, there […]
Putin to NATO: Yankees, Please Stay in Afghanistan
Posted April 14th, 2012 at 7:29 am (UTC+0)
God bless the American soldiers in Afghanistan. This message of good cheer came from an unexpected corner this week: Russia Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, addressing the entire Duma in Moscow. First, he set the deputies up by denouncing NATO as “a relic of the Cold War.” Applause, applause. Then, before the clapping could fade, he […]
Russia Has the Wheels; Now it Needs the Roads
Posted April 10th, 2012 at 8:23 pm (UTC+0)
This year, for the first time, Russia is expected to top Germany as Europe’s largest car market. With car purchases increasing by 20 percent in Russia this year, the Center of Automotive Management predicts that Russians will buy 3.2 million vehicles during 2012, slightly more than Germany. So how are Russia’s roads? According to the […]
Stalin: A History Gap Divides Russia From Its Neighbors
Posted April 5th, 2012 at 6:05 pm (UTC+0)
In Moscow, adults are snapping up school notebooks for children. Why? The cover has a heroic image of Stalin. The Stalin notebook is part of a “Great Names of Russia” series. On one level, it is depressing that many Russians do not seem to know that “Stalin,” was born Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, a Georgian. (Please […]
Putin and Romney: Back to the Cold War?
Posted April 2nd, 2012 at 7:34 pm (UTC+0)
Americans living in Moscow are suffering from mental whiplash. During Russia’s recent presidential election, we enjoyed the moral high ground. Our politicians, we thought smugly, would never stoop to reviving the Cold War to wake up their conservative bases. But, in a city where snow fell on April Fool’s Day, it’s dangerous to walk with […]
