Apparently no agreement was made on when gas supplies to Russia will resume at Medvedev's meeting with Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.  Following Iranian complaints of exclusion from the Aktau meeting, Medvedev has acknowledged that all countries involved in Caspian issues should be invited to participate.  The Guardian reports that Russia is planning on entering the British nuclear market:  Atomenergoprom is apparently in talks with Siemens on supplying reactors to Britain.  The Times looks at Greenland's untapped energy reserves.  Russian oil companies may form a consortium to enhance their development in Iraq.  EON has suspended one coal project in Russia and ruled out further projects due the economic slowdown.  Venezuela and a group of Russian companies will invest $20 billion in the Junin 6 block in the Orinoco Belt.  President Hugo Chavez has said that the ...

TODAY:  Drug use nightmare for Russia; Medvedev calls for US support.  START talks to restart; tanks for Chavez.  Possible loan to Ukraine whilst relations remain chilly.  Black September anniversary; Scott Anderson interview.  Russia denies arms in Arctic Sea; infrastructure shortcomings scrutinized.  Russia is the world's biggest consumer of Afghan heroin, says President Medvedev, which 'is a threat to the country's national security' and 'a serious challenge to the health of the nation', which is already fighting demographic decline.  The President is calling on US troops to help curb the wave of drugs leaving the war-torn country.  Sergei Lavrov has said that isolating North Korea must be avoided and resumption of six party talks prioritized.  Lavrov has also objected to claims ...

So why don't I have more interest in digging around the ghost ship story?  It has all the hallmarks of the kinds of stories we like to cover around here - with siloviki, arms, corruption, and cover-ups - but untangling all the conflicting versions just doesn't seem too rewarding.  It's a strong reminder that nobody can produce so many stories of diametrically contradicting headlines as Russia.  Today for example, Russian officials have gone to the press to angrily deny that there were ever any arms on The Arctic Sea ship:Speaking to reporters, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the reports: "This is absolutely not true." (...)"All will become transparent, and I hope that everyone will be convinced ...

Remember the Ghost Ship story?  How all the explanations just didn't seem to add up?  The one Russian military journalist to piece together a coherent theory suggested that there had been no pirates involved in the hijacking of "The Arctic Sea" ship (which would have been the first pirate attack in the Baltic Sea in many decades), but rather separate groups moving on an illegal arms shipment arranged by high ranking members of the Russian government.As reported in our earlier news blast, now that journalist has been forced to flee Russia under alleged threat of arrest.  I guess that means his story must have been true?  From the BBC:

Mikhail Voitenko said he had been told

...

TODAY: 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two - officials meet in Gdansk for carve up of history; Putin acknowledges 'immoral' treaty and Katyn suffering; NATO receptive to plans for Russian defense; Stalin's grandson sues for libel; Other Russia leader detained; Arctic Sea carrying weapons?; five-year anniversary of Beslan. 'We meet here to remember who started the war, who the culprit was, who the executioner in the war was, and who was the victim of this aggression', says Polish premier Donald Tusk in Gdansk.  Reuters has a preview on the anniversary service - quoting a poll from Rzeczpospolita newspaper which says that most Poles believe that Russia carries equal responsibility for the outbreak of the ...

TODAY: Russia pushes for recogition of breakaway regions; Ukraine denies allegations of involvement in war; USSR plan to invade Manchester revealed; Russia's silent monuments to nuclear victims; Arctic Sea, dark spots. Russia's Foreign Ministry has reiterated a request that the sovereignty of breakaway Georgian regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia be internationally recognized.  Traditional partners Belarus and Kazakhstan have been silent on the matter; only Nicaragua has joined Russia's call.  Georgia's minister for refugees and accommodation has granted refugee status to a Russian soldier who deserted on July 1.  According to Bloomberg, Ukraine has denied claims that its soldiers fought alongside Georgian troops in last year's war.   ...

TODAY: Putin orders infrastructure overhaul; blogger charged; Rogozin praises cooperation with NATO; Abkhazia warns Georgia over blockade; criminal charges for 'negligent' Ingushetia police; fire at rights organization HQ; Medvedev warns United Russia against complacency.  Flag owners beware.Prime Minister Putin has ordered a review of all of Russia's Soviet-era structures in light of the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station disaster.  Russia's roads, airplanes, and pipelines have all shown signs of being dangerously outdated in recent times. Putin also promised payouts of $31,300 to each of the dead worker's families, to be paid by Rushydro.  The New York Times reports that blogger Mikhail Afanasyev, who questioned the government's handling of the disaster, has been charged with libel.  Envoy Dmitry Rogozin ...

TODAY: Security shake-up in Ingushetia; blame put on local police; Russia does tit-for-tat on diplomats; Medvedev and Peres meet to discuss Middle East, Russia to reevaluate plan for weapons to Iran?; hope for power plant disaster survivors wanes.  CPJ fears for the death of journalism.According to the BBC, President Medvedev has appointed a new interior minister in Ingushetia, Viktor Zhirnov.  Russia's Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev's has slammed local police for failing to act on a tip-off they received about the bombing.  Medvedev has sent 'battle-hardened' Deputy Interior Minister Colonel-General Yedelev to Ingushetia to put the region 'in proper order'.  Reuters reports on the 'Afghan-isation' of the North Caucasus where the Kremlin's policy of '...

TODAY: Violence explodes in Ingushetia; Interior Minister fired. Wall rumored to be built between Georgia and Abkhazia; Georgia to leave CIS.  Russian diplomats expelled.  Dozens missing in hydropower plant disaster.  Ship found.President Medvedev has dismissed Ingush Interior Minister Ruslan Meiriyev after a suicide bombing in Nazran which killed 20 people and injured 138.  Tatyana Lokshina from Human Rights Watch has described the attack as 'a big blow to the Kremlin', which is wrestling with insurgency in all corners of the region.  Ingushetian President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov has said that it is in the interests of 'the United States, Britain, and Israel' to destabilize the Caucasus, and 'to prevent Russia from reviving the former Soviet might'.  A ...

TODAY: Merkel condemns activist murder; explosive violence in Caucasus; South Ossetians encouraged to disarm.  Medvedev merciless on Yushchenko; Venezuela and Russia tighten relations; military may scrap underperforming missile.  'Absolutely unacceptable' is how Chancellor Angela Merkel described the recent murders of NGO worker Zarema Sadulayeva and her husband  and instructed Medvedev that 'actions must also follow'.  Medvedev has ordered Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to punish those responsible for the slayings.  The end of last week andthr beginning of this week are particularly bloody in the Caucasus, with over twenty people killed in different shootouts.  The New York Times reports that South Ossetian citizens, for whom 'a weapon is an essential part of daily life', are being ...