Mikhael Gorbachev has penned an article in the New York Times reflecting on how the period since the fall of the Berlin Wall (the 20th anniversary of which will be celebrated on Friday) has not necessarily heralded a less distrustful approach to Russia.  He cites the open letter to  to Barack Obama by Vaclav Havel and other European luminaries in September, counseling the US President to take a firm stand on Russia, and the OSCE resolution equating Stalinism and Nazism as moves demonstrating that latent russophobia is still hampering unity in Europe.To my regret, the events took a different course. This has stalled the emergence of a new Europe. Instead of the old dividing lines, new ones have ...

Tracing the policy movements of Presidential power-handler Vladislav Surkov is rather like witnessing a three-point turn in a dark alley - as a piece in the Power Vertical points out today.  Whilst transparency is the last thing once can expect from the Kremlin's shadowy ideologue, his moves of late are dizzying analysts.  Brian Whitmore identifies some of Surkov's recent twists - from the motives for his alleged involvement in the Duma walkout - to the matter of his oscillating stance on liberalizing political structures to aid economic development.Whitmore quotes from a Stratfor.com analysis, which suggests that Surkov's maneuvring is underpinned by a familiar motive: power rivalry.  In a recently published four-part series titled "The Kremlin Wars," Stratfor.com offers up one possible answer.According to Stratfor, the Kremlin is divided into two roughly ...

The following is an exclusive translation of an article about the second trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky published in the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung:New Version of a Russian Judicial FarcePOLITICAL PROCESS The imprisoned ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev are in court a second time, this time for oil theft. Observer: Many laws have been violatedBy KLAUS-HELGE DONATHMOSCOW taz | The walls are falling apart, the furniture is disgusting. The Kamovnichesky Court in the center of Moscow is a place of particular misery. The years since the oil boom have passed over the justice system without a trace. It is as though the state wished to show how little it cares for those who pronounce ...

I can understand some complaints coming from the Putinistas and even the moderates that criticism from the opposition can begin sound a bit like a broken record:  the same laundry lists over and over, just updated with the latest murdered human rights worker or journalist (which is a sad statement on current affairs in general).  The oppo rhetoric can especially get stretched whenever it comes to the Baltics, Ukraine, and Georgia, where the Kremlin arguments are well honed and even better funded. Anders Åslund, whom we've interviewed in the past for the blog, raises what I think is a new point in this new Financial Times piece ... that the state of poor relations between Moscow and Kiev can be seen as something of an embarrassment of failed Russian policy.  In writing about Dmitry Medvedev's recent hostile lashing ...

Christopher Walker of Freedom House has a very powerfully argued opinion article just published by the Wall Street Journal.  No holds barred, openly strident, and given the violence against journalists this summer, totally appropriate.

After a decade of Putinism, a deep chill on free expression has set in. Self-censorship has become a matter of survival. The rule of law, though much discussed, does not exist. Corruption flourishes at all levels of society. The assault on Russia's freedom is not just a domestic human-rights problem. Anyone seeking to do business in the country loses in a system that operates in the dark, where shady deals involving state-run companies and corrupt officials are the norm and police and regulatory agencies don't enforce the law but the Kremlin's agenda.

Early hopes that the new president, Dmitri Medvedev, would bring more openness and liberalization have been shattered. Even though Mr. Putin has returned to

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TODAY: Medvedev visits South Ossetia in move called 'provocation' by Saakashvili, flouting US comments about unity of Georgia?; British academics bemoan closure of history website; Bolshoi's musical director quitsMedvedev has made a surprise visit to South Ossetia to pledge support for its leadership, a move condemned by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who called the visit 'the most immoral and shameful precedent in centuries'.   Medvedev and South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity visited a Russian military base in Tskhinvali.  The Russian President promised citizens that rebuilding would take place and announced that 'there is a need to support and cooperate in the defense sphere'.  Commentators suggest a rebuke to Obama who asserted the independence of Georgia on ...

Keep an eye on the Chinese and Brazilian stock markets on Monday.

The two emerging market nations - both members of the BRIC group (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) - will each welcome a major new IPO to their respective stock markets.

The fact that they’re debuting on the same day is purely coincidental, but the story here is that both are very significant not only to their own countries, but could also underpin the emerging market area.

Let’s take a look at these IPOs in the context of the broader emerging market topic… the effect this often volatile but flourishing pack of nations is having on the global economy - and how you can hitch a ride…

Emerging Markets Rebuilding Momentum

In the excellent movie “Wall Street,” Michael Douglas’s slimy Gordon Gekko character famously proclaims, “Greed is good. Greed works.”

Some equally unscrupulous Wall Street characters lived by this mantra. But they became so fat

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According to this piece in TIME, Russia may be on the cusp of changing its policy toward Iran and cooperating with the United States on strengthening sanctions - but maybe not.  Although the warmer diplomacy from the Obama administration has been appreciated, there are still many in Russia that don't like the idea of linking the Iran issue to the cancellation of the missile shield in Eastern Europe.

Aware that it needs Russia's help, the Obama Administration has been looking for ways to persuade Moscow to support tougher sanctions. In a secret letter in March, Administration sources tell TIME, Obama promised President Dmitri Medvedev that the U.S. would freeze plans to install an anti-missile system in eastern Europe to which Russia strongly objects if Russia helped curtail the Iranian nuclear program. The U.S. has also initiated high-level nuclear-arms reduction talks with Moscow, and President Obama

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Karinna Moskalenko believes that foreign leaders have a moral duty ask the Russian president difficult questions, regardless of the inconvenience. We agree. From the Helsingin Sanomat:

A day after the visit to Finland of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, a Russian visitor of a different kind arrived in Helsinki.Right at the beginning of the interview, human rights lawyer Karina Moskalenko, 55, takes up a matter that has caused her some consternation during her visit to Helsinki."Why didn't your president speak about Russia's human rights situation during Medvedev's visit? Relations between countries cannot be built without speaking about human rights. If there is a problem, it should not be kept in silence", says Moskalenko. ...

span style=”font-weight:bold;”Guardian Unlimited/spanbr /br /By Jason Corcoranbr /br /span style=”font-style:italic;”Vladimir Putin’s denial that he is a ‘billionaire-slayer’ looks increasingly unconvincing/spanbr /br /The Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin will have raised someeyebrows amongst west London’s oligarchical clique by rebuffing his image as “a billionaire-slayer”.br /br /Putin has been wielding his power to lance the ambition of aspirational tycoons for almost a decade and is showing no signs of stopping now. In an interview with Bloomberg, the Russian leader insisted the country’s rules and laws are a level playing field for all of its citizens.br /br /Well, tell that to jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who haslanguished in a Siberian prison since 2005 on back-dated charges of tax evasion in what many viewed as an attempt to silence a political opponent. A court rejected Khodorkovsky’s parole request last year, citing reasons such as a refusal to take part in a sewing course.br …