Gazprom’s Finance Director Andrey Kruglov announced recently on Russian TV plans for the energy giant to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Technically it would be the first Russian Company to do so, as Oleg Deripaska’s UC RUSAL is structured under a Jersey based entity and listed prior to a policy change by Hong Kong regulators in…

There is no stronger example of the schizophrenic nature of American foreign policy toward Russia than comparing statements written in the formal National Security Strategy (NSS) of President Obama with actual testimony given by the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. In 2010 the NSS asserted that the U.S. would endeavor to ‘build a…

(original post in Russian) In 2014, the Information and Press Department (DIP) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) became one of the winners of the Runet Prize, the annual national award honoring Russian websites. Maria Zakharova, deputy head of the department who became the main MFA spokesperson on the internet over past years, noted…

During the last part of 2014, optimism steadily raised over the unusually low prices of oil and their allegedly positive economic effects on the economies of oil importing countries. Although some evidence points in this direction, a more thorough assessment leads unfortunately to different conclusions.
 
The Deceptive Optimism
 
Late in…

Former U.S. DOD chief Leon  Panetta asserts, "The greatest threat to our national security is dysfunction in D.C."  What he left out is that the fault lies primarily with  Pied Piper POTUS  whose doctrine is "strategic patienc" and leading from behind,  Consistently, he  not only leads from behind but…

The 17 hours Minsk negotiations of EU, Russian and Ukrainian leaders has produced a cease fire, effective February 15 -- but will this one stick?  A prior September 5th Minsk agreement, did not.
 
First we must know what produced this one. Not just depressed oil prices, but the real threat of the U.S. arming the Ukraine and applying…

 
There is a decided chicken-and-egg quality when trying to unravel Russian-American relations. The general pessimism and pejorative characterizations that come from the U.S. Congress clearly have a negative influence on Putin’s strident bravado and dismissive arrogance to the United States. What is perplexing is how this dilemma, which…

The full text of the Minsk agreement signed on February 12, 2015 has been published (Unofficial translation: The Telegraph).   The text, entitled “the Package of Measures on the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements”, is without a doubt a step forward. But there are still a number of questions that remain unanswered.  …

Suppose you're the world's policeman watching two states fight. Engaging directly is too expensive, but you can send weapons to one party which will improve its chances of winning. Should you do so? If yes, whom to help?
 
If you only wish to end the war, you should help the stronger state, i.e. the one with better chances of…

 
America seems reluctant in accepting the fairly benign fact that countries do not like to be dictated to and thus misses opportunities for creating new dialogues. This is especially prominent in explaining the poor relationship at the moment with Russia. There seems to be an element of purposeful animosity in the way Russia is viewed, analyzed…

     
 America presently faces three clear and present dangers to our vital national security; War with ISIS, Putin´s escalation of the war in Ukraine and the acquisition of the bomb by rogue state Iran through deceitful negotiations.  The first two threats are immediate.  The third will be full blown in the…

There are numerous think tanks, both in the United States and Russia, which are deeply concerned about the state of Russian-American relations. Places like the Moscow Carnegie Centre or the Brookings Institution in Washington DC are regular go-to places for the media when seeking expert opinion and analysis. However, these centers of independent…