You've got to respect Global Witness ... for a watchdog NGO, they bring a lot of creativity and innovation to their cause (see this past campaign for another example).  GW has also done a tremendous job in the past unearthing all the corruption surrounding RosUkrEnergo, a subject which has come up again and again (let's just say the corruption scandal reaches pretty high).  Today they published another hot report to remind the European Commission how they've got it all wrong in selling out human rights and democracy to the brutal dictatorship in Turkmenistan in exchange for eventual access to natural gas ... including a collaboration with the political cartoonist David Rees.Click here ...

Apparently U.N. inspectors have found 'nothing to be worried about' upon their first examination of the formerly clandestine uranium enrichment site in Qom in Iran.  'The [Obama] administration must consider whether it makes sense to grant the regime two more months of grace' says an op-ed in the Washington Post.  'Prospects for a breakthrough with Iran have narrowed dramatically since a high-level meeting in Geneva on Oct. 1', the paper adds, quoting a senior European diplomat.  Good news for Nord Stream - after considerable environmental concerns, it has received approval from both Finland and Sweden.  The construction of the Russia-Germany pipeline could spell the demise of Ukraine as a transit country, suggests the Wall Street Journal.   Lukoil has lost out on initial rights to develop Iraq's much-coveted West Qurna field, with an an Exxon ...

A Dissenter's march in Russia wouldn't be a Dissenter's march if it didn't end in large-scale detentions.  Saturday night's march was no different, with up to 50 protesters allegedly held.  Thanks to la Russophobe, for highlighting this link to activist Oleg Kozlovsky's English weblog, in which he recounts the details of his own arrest:   In order to find a pretext to arrest participants of the action, members of Rossiya Molodaya (Young Russia), a Kremlin-aligned youth group (a part of the so-called Putinyouth), were used as provocateurs. They began lighting flares, chanting slogans and throwing leaflets (mocking the opposition) in the middle of the crowd. The police were ready: they arrested the Putinyouth and many regular ...

TODAY: Russia keeps its voting rights in Council of Europe; Lavrov says Russia wants unbiased discussions about human rights; French Foreign Minister argues Russia flouting ceasefire; Israeli diplomat makes swift exit; UK Foreign Secretary visit to ease tensions?; Scientology 1- Russia nil.At a meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, Sergei Lavrov has asserted that the Kremlin has not avoided discussing human rights issues with other European states, 'but that dialogue should not be politicized, it should be concrete'.  According to Bloomberg, Kouchner has said that Russia is not honoring the terms of the 'Sarkozy-Medvedev' ceasefire agreement.   Ex-Georgian parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze has blamed President Mikheil Saakashvili for last year's conflict with Russia and has affirmed ...

TODAY: EU Russia-Georgia report out! Tilted towards blame on Georgia; Russia claims vindication on who started it issue; denies report's accusations of Moscow violating international laws; PR machines crank up on both sides.  PACE to vote today on rights; Yushchenko says he will meet Medvedev despite recent freeze in relations; Medvedev to ditch Putin's wordsmith? 'Open hostilities began with a large-scale Georgian military operation against the town of Tskhinvali and the surrounding areas, launched in the night of 7 to 8 August 2008' - the Telegraph quotes the EU report which suggests the blame for starting the war lies with Georgia, whose actions in South Ossetia were unjustifiable under international law.  Reuters argues the report is 'likely ...

Unless you have been living under a rock, everybody knows all about the very big deal being made out of this very big European Union report headed up by Swiss diplomat Heidi Taglivini (she must have drawn a very short straw for this job) looking into the cause of Russia's invasion of Georgia in August of 2008.As many of us expected, the report is all things to all people.  Russia wanted to make sure that the report put the blame on the Georgians for firing the first shot?  Sure, we can do that for you.  Georgia wanted the report to cite the pre-war planning, the ethnic cleansing and war crimes, and the illegality of annexation of the territories?  Sure, here you go.Read the full text of the report for yourselves right here. ...

This story about a kompromat sex tape made of a U.S. diplomat in Russia is spreading like wildfire across the internets.  Kyle Hatcher, a relatively young diplomat posted to the U.S. Embassy to liaise with religious groups in Russia, was allegedly filmed in a hotel room, and then the tape cuts to someone in the act with an alleged prostitute.  The full tape has lots of added extras, like alleged tapped phone calls and very bad synthesizer saxophone music to sleaze it up.So far, everything looks far from accidental.  The video was posted up to the same web site which had previously used a kompromat sex tape to discredit and eliminate James Hudson of the ...

What on earth do you think we'll hear from the Russians this year?  A defensive and hostile discourse on the evils of the United States and the West, or a slightly more conciliatory tone about Russia's long deserved global leadership?  In the Moscow Times, former diplomat Peter Belk writes about what he hopes will happen:Russia can achieve significant political, security and economic gains by positioning itself in a more solution-oriented fashion on Iran, such as by boosting international confidence in its economy and financial sector. Because the road to Tehran does indeed run through Moscow, Russia should view its relationship with Iran as a valuable piece of leverage to advance other core Russian national security interests.This concept, unfortunately, is nothing short of laughable.  The likelihood of Russia taking advantage of the UN General Assembly and G20 meetings to present a new willingness to ...

TODAY: EU chief has faith that Russia will not stand in the way of sanctions against Iran; US reproaches Russia on human rights; hope for WTO bid?  Yushchenko suggests NATO bid would receive popular backing; ethnic haters charged; new accusation for Berezovsky; chess matches and political clashes. Drama at the Bolshoi. EU foreign policy head Javier Solana has said that he does not believe that China and Russia will oppose new sanctions against Iran.  US diplomat Douglas Griffiths has told the UN Human Rights Council that 'in Russia we are concerned about killings with impunity of human rights defenders and journalists in the North Caucasus'.  First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said that Russia ...

TODAY: Medvedev defends the right to critical; suggests US responsible for crisis.  Washington concerns about arms deal with Venezuela.  Poland bombarded by Georgian refugees. Russian-German diplomat problems. Spiraling yet unenergetic Bolshoi renovation project to be investigated. In a move seen by the Washington Post to mark a break with predecessor Putin's zero tolerance approach, President Medvedev has defended the right to criticize and accept criticism from other countries.  Putting this into practice, ahead of his first trip stateside, Medvedev has implicitly blamed the US for the financial crisis:  'last year, we witnessed how one country's ill-conceived financial policies became the reason for a global financial crisis, whose effects every country ... feels today'.  The US ...