Buried down at the bottom of this blog post attacking Obama's Russia policy (mostly just picking on Joe Biden - it is the National Journal after all), are some interesting quotes from Igor Yurgens - a key advisor to Medvedev and one of those few remaining in the Kremlin who make quite a lot of sense."The dichotomy of attitudes towards Russia in the U.S. administration does not make things easy for us," said Igor Yurgens, an economic policy adviser to Medvedev, at a Nov. 5 lecture in London hosted by the International Institute of Strategic Studies. "It is a problem." (...)

Putting historical wrongs, real and perceived, to rest is especially important because there are issues where Washington's and Moscow's interests converge, none bigger than Afghanistan. (...)

Stabilizing Afghanistan is even more crucial. While

...

Fluor Corporation (FLR) reported third quarter earnings per share of 89 cents, matching the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Revenue declined by 4% to $5.4 billion, which compares with $5.7 billion in the third quarter of 2008. This change was driven primarily by decreases in the Oil & Gas and Power segments. Revenue in both Industrial & Infrastructure and Government segments was up from last year.  While three of the five business segments reported earnings growth over 2008, the Oil & Gas segment profit declined by 8% and the Global Services segment profit was impacted by a $45 million provision relating to a collection issue on a completed paper mill revamp project.  New project awards for the quarter were $2.9 billion, compared with record awards of $8.8 billion a year ago. Consolidated backlog at the end of the quarter was $28 billion. This represents a $2.9 billion increase ...

One of my favorite blogs, Business Monitor International's Risk Watchdog, had a post yesterday discussing the wider historical context of the Berlin Wall's fall. The discussion of the persistence of Communism and the comparison between 1979 and 1989 I personally found to be the most thought-provoking observations but the entire posting is worth reading, accessible here.

Observation 6: Communism did not entirely die.

China, Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, and Laos all retain Communist leaderships, although in the former two countries the free market has largely prevailed. Many of the 'Communists' in Eastern Europe merely changed their names to 'social democrats' and returned to power, albeit in reconstructed form. Overall, the phenomenon of significant state interventionism in economies lives on long after 1989,

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 4, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the latest Industry Outlook. Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Aerospace & Defense sector, including United Technologies Corporation (UTX), Oshkosh Corporation (OSK), The Boeing Company (BA) and Honeywell International Inc. (HON).

A synopsis of today’s Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/26834/Aerospace+%26amp%3B+Defense.

With core defense spending expected to slow, U.S. defense contractors need to identify additional revenue sources for the coming years. 2009 holds potential for interesting merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, mostly smaller deals by larger A&D firms to fill in capability gaps -- particularly in the security, defense electronics and aftermarket services business areas. U.S. defense firms may see opportunities in credit-squeezed markets to pick up U.S. assets at historically low price-to-earnings multiples.

Some large companies are expanding into the adjacent markets

...

OVERVIEW Inherently, big defense contractors are expected to eliminate jobs as the Pentagon has lowered spending on traditional weapon systems, while smaller, niche companies may accelerate hiring as the United States garners resources to protect ground troops and strategic computer networks. Industry pioneer Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) aims to reduce 600 jobs as a result of the US Defense Department's decision to terminate the VH-71 presidential helicopter program. The Boeing Company (BA) hinted that Pentagon cuts would claim 1,000 jobs in its defense business, affecting staffing at various work sites in the United States in missile defense and in the Army's Future Combat Systems modernization program, which is now being opened to more competition. The large commercial aircraft sector is expected to generate most of its revenue from Asia Pacific Japan (APJ) and the Middle East, relying less on U.S. orders because of the ...

British-Russian relations have suffered greatly in recent years, with a series of incidents souring relations: the Alexander Litvinenko scandal, the British Council restrictions, diplomatic exits and various extradition rows.  Foreign Secretary David Milliband will visit Russia next week, the first visit by a British Foreign Secretary since relations hit their rocky low.  In an optimistic piece in the Times, the former British ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, sees 'common ground' between Russia and Great Britain, and offers five suggestions for how the two sides can improve relations - without Britain shying away from tackling Russia on human rights.First, we should remain true to our own liberal principles. Russia is a signatory ...

AIDS experts are aghast to see that rates of HIV in Russia have doubled in the past 8 years, reports the Washington Post.  Russia's 'healthy lifestyles' program and advocacy of abstinence have not been effective in combating the problem, international AIDS workers at an Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference have argued.  Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Yakovenko has apparently defended Russia's 'humanitarian but not dubious methods' (the 'dubious' one being the widely-favored methadone substitution program - illegal in Russia) and advocated the increasing involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in curbing insalubrious lifestyle choices. So will any advice be heeded?  The problem of HIV in Russia seems to remain, in the Kremlin's ...

Whilst opposition leaders may still be in up in arms about October 11's sweeping United Russia victory, Clifford J Levy in the New York Times wonders why it is that the furor about allegations of vote-rigging seem to have very little in the way of grass roots support:There was none of the sort of outrage on the streets that occurred in Iran in June, when backers of the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, were accused of rigging the election for him. Nor the international clamor that greeted the voting in Afghanistan, which last week was deemed so tainted that President Hamid Karzai was forced into a runoff.The apparent brazenness of the fraud and the absence of a spirited reaction says a lot about the deep apathy in Russia, where people grew disillusioned with politics under Communism and have seen ...

General Dynamics Corporation (GD) recently received a $647 million contract from the U.S. Army TACOM Lifecycle Management Command for production of 352 Stryker vehicles. The contract was awarded to General Dynamics’ subsidiary General Dynamics Land Systems. The company expects to begin vehicle deliveries in July 2010. Work on the contract will be performed in Anniston, AL; Sterling Heights, MI; Lima, OH; and Ontario, Canada. The Stryker contract was originally awarded to General Dynamics in 2000. To date, the company has delivered 2,988 vehicles and trained 18,438 soldiers in their operations. The U.S. Army has seven Stryker Brigade Combat Teams, three of which are deployed in combat zones - two in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Earlier, General Dynamics had maintained its brisk pace in order booking, taking the total backlog at the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2009 to $67.6 billion. This was ...

While my editor was busily working away yesterday, Ariel Cohen had an opinion piece run in the New York Times.  Upon seeing the headline and lede, I was worried that we were going to see yet another one of those "there's a rift between Putin and Medvedev"-type articles which we have seen so much of over the past year, but Cohen is a little more careful than that in his argument.  Of course Medvedev's "Forward, Russia!" article and the quip about the blood tests have clearly illustrated that he feels, or wants us to believe that he feels, that he is a different kind of leader from Putin.  However, as Ariel's op/ed points out, this is all just a rhetorical exercise for the time being, so long as the reformers are without influence.

Some symbolic rifts have also

...