As many readers are aware, the Russian government has been on a recent censorship tear, including talk of banning off-color and proudly offensive animated TV imports such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and South Park (oddly, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has already done the same).  No reason to stop at TV shows.  Today we're seeing reports that the government has ordered Russian retailers to pull the video game title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from its shelves while a ban on the game is considered.  The game, which pits players in bloody gunfights in a slew of imaginary international conflict zones, is already being called one of the decade's most successful product launches - hitting $310 million in one day alone....

President Medvedev proclaimed in his recent Der Spiegel interview that there is little difference between the rights record of Russia and that of its European counterparts: 'Our values are the same as yours. I don't see any major differences in terms of freedom and human rights, especially in comparison to the new EU member states'. Kati Marton and Nina Ognianova of the Committee to Protect Journalists and authors of the "Anatomy of Injustice" report would beg to differ (and doubtless they wouldn't be the only ones.)  In an op-ed in the New York Times, they explain why it is crucial that international diplomacy redoubles pressure on Russia to stop the killing of journalists with impunity, following the lead, they say, of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "It's time to stop treating Russia as ...

TODAY: Clinton turns attention to civil society and gives speech tackling human rights abuses; Walt Whitman statue unveiled; Putin advises against intimidating Iran; opposition politicians stage Duma walk out.  Memorial to appeal.  Putin turns pop svengali?'In an innovative society, people must be free to take unpopular positions, disagree with conventional wisdom, know they are safe to challenge abuses of authority': Hillary Clinton affirmed her support for dissidence and human rights protection in a speech at Moscow State University.  'That's why attacks on journalists and human rights activists are such a great concern, because it is a threat to progress', she is quoted as saying in the New York Times.  Click here for a video of Clinton ...

Hillary Clinton has expressed hope that Boeing will win a $3 billion contract to supply planes to Russian airline Rosavia.  Sberbank president German Gref seems to be in the dark about the signing of the Opel deal after thanking reporters for informing him that it may take place this week.  Apparently no industrial partner has been chosen as of yet.  Chinese metals giant Chinalco apparently has its eye on Rusal facilities in Australia, but Deripaska's firm says it has no intention of selling.  The billionaire has suggested breaking RusHydro up into four companies and taking a stake in a large Siberian dam serving his aluminum plants.  Dmitry Medvedev has called upon Alfa Group chief Mikhail Fridman to lead a study of possible ways of seeing the country's economy out of the crisis.  Russian Standard Vodka's billionaire owner, ...

TODAY: Did Clinton get what she wanted?; media reports possible silence for sanctions deal; START treaty progress.  Georgia accused of abetting al-Qaida; Putin 'satisfied' with job.  German official castigates Medvedev for investigation into Stalin-researching historian; the man of steel's grandson loses battle with newspaper; psychological perils of police force and military; mafia boss funeral. According to the Moscow Times, Hillary Clinton received a 'cool welcome' from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the crucial issue of sanctions on Iran, with Russia still resisting.  Clinton apparently 'brave-faced' it, saying, 'we did not ask for anything today. We reviewed the situation', and added 'Russia has been extremely co-operative in the work we have done together'.  Reports have circulated that the ...

Out of the many, many interesting quotes we got from Vice President Joe Biden during his famously candid Wall Street Journal interview (which sounded like it was done in a cocktail lounge), was the following appraisal of the United States believes that Russia must feel about the possibility of Iran becoming armed with nuclear weapons:  "I can see Putin sitting in Moscow saying, 'Jesus Christ, Iran gets the nuclear weapon, who goes first?' Moscow, not Washington." Logically and rationally, of course Biden is correct here.  Russia and Iran may be enjoying a brief honeymoon in their relations, but over history there are still some serious unresolved conflicts, involving everything from regional political disputes, pan-Islamic anger over Chechnya ...

James F. Collins of Carnegie Endowment has a column in the Moscow Times about the need to create an institutional apparatus to carry out relations between Moscow and Wasington in a structured and predictable environment ... in other words, make the relationship Biden-proof.

The creation of a bilateral commission led by Obama and Medvedev has given the impetus for new machinery to address this problem. The commission will provide a framework for the two governments to carry out routine work effectively and prevent neglect of issues with the potential to cause trouble. As set out in their statements from Moscow, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lavrov will lead and coordinate the work of the commission's working groups. Each of the groups is structured to address a major element of U.S.-Russian relations and will permit the governments to develop pragmatic, mutually beneficial programs to deepen and broaden dialogue at

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If you want to know what Russia's energy ambitions are in the emerging markets of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, I used to tell people that all you had to do was carefully track the travel schedule of Vladimir Putin.  Nowadays, the same can be said of the Energy Czar Igor Sechin, as his itinerary is bound to be connected with the signing of major deals.Case in point, yesterday afternoon, Russia's RIA Novosti Spanish wire service reported on the arrival of the Deputy Prime Minister and Rosneft Chairman to Caracas, Venezuela.  The reason for the trip, as duly reported by the state news agency, was to prepare for Hugo Chavez's upcoming visit to Moscow and a high-level inter-governmental ...

Why blog about the day's news when you can shoot a quick video?  Today we take the lazy approach, as Robert Amsterdam speaks briefly about the controversy over the Joseph Biden and Hillary Clinton comments on Russia, the release of the alleged mobster Semyon Mogilevich, and the deepening problems in the Caucasus, such as the arrest of mourners at the Estemirova funeral followed by the suicide bombing attack, which illustrate that the Kremlin's ability to govern in these areas is becoming diminished.

It looks like this hasn't gone away yet, as the Russian newspapers opened the week with several front page stories on the Biden comments (though not so much about the Hillary response):From the Associated Press:

Some newspapers and commentators noted that Russians say the same things about themselves. The question, they said, was why Biden made the comments so quickly after this month's summit by Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev, and after Biden's own trip last week to Ukraine and Georgia, former Soviet republics whose growing ties to the West are deeply resented in Moscow.

Sergei Rogov, director of the government-funded USA and Canada Institute, was quoted in Kommersant as saying the interview was aimed in part at addressing criticism in the U.S. that the

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