An interesting opinion piece today by Vladimir Ryzhkov in the Moscow Times sees one of the last bastions of media freedom - Ren TV - looking like it may have to fight for its independence.  The increasingly popular station, the only one in Russia to offer a critical interpretation of the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam disaster and cover the Dissenter's Marches in Moscow and St Petersburg, may be fettered by management 'restructuring'.Controlled by National Media Group, owned by Putin ally Yury Kovalchukm, Ren will have a new Director General and will find new lodgings alonside state-controlled RIA-Novosti and the tow-the-line RT.  Ryzhkov recollects Gazprom's Media's overhaul of NTV which followed similar lines: could this be another nail in ...

With the Estemirova murder, many journalists are digging through the (regrettably) robust archives of other dead Russian journalists.  One that has always struck me as tragically under-mentioned is the case of Ivan Safronov - he wasn't a crusading dissident, he didn't touch Chechnya, but rather was a well informed military muckraker.  It other words, you can find yourself targeted as a journalist reporting on almost anything, not just politics and Chechnya.Here's a little note from CPJ, dated June 25, 2009, which makes mention of Safronov's reporting on the spectacular failures of the Bulava missile - a topic which has returned to the news this week.Ivan Safronov, 51, a prominent military ...

by Edward Hugh: Barcelonabr /br /br /The Russian ruble strengthened the most in more than three months against the dollar yesterday (gaining 1.7 percent to 32.2247 per dollar at one point) as oil rebounded above $60 a barrel and OAO Sberbank reported better-than-expected earnings. Sberbank shares jumped 5.1 percent after first-quarter net income turned out to be above analyst estimates. But the rise was also helped by the fact that Russia’s central bank spent approximately $2 billion from reserves to try to stop the ruble from falling yesterday, taking central bank reserve spending over the two working days since they lowered interest rates half a percantage point on Friday to around $4 billion, a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchiveamp;sid=aTqgrOY1vdEo"according to reports in the newspaper Kommersant/a.br /br /Russia’s central bank cut its main interest rates for the fourth time in less than three months at the end of last week after the government estimated the ...

Paul Goble is covering this story about the extremist group, Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI), which is making a bid for mainstream respectability.  The success and acceptance of this group is, well, very disappointing.  DPNI and many other similar movements have alarmingly grown in size and influence in Putin's Russia under the banner of "Russia for Russians," and other slogans which at times dovetail with the statist "Nashi" narrative.  With a rapidly shrinking population (140 million, smaller than Pakistan), Russia faces the prospect of having to attract and incorporate a very large number of immigrants over the short term to remain competitive and continue the bid to regain "superpower" status.  This xenophobic attitude appears at odds with Russia's potential ...

Tuesday's big news was that the Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies purchased a 2% stake of preferred shares in the immensely popular social media platform Facebook.  But who is this group, and who's behind it?  Other the company's official website, you can expect the Financial Times to devote several pages to the story in tomorrow's edition.  According to the company site, DST was founded in 2005 by Yuri Milner and Gregory Finger, and was given a nice doorway into Goldman Sachs when they were joined by Alexander Tamas in 2008 (the FT piece acknowledges that GS helped provide the introduction between Milner and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerman which eventually led to the deal).  DST's most well known internet property is Mail.Ru ...

by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaThe medium-term outlook is sensitive to external developments and policy responses. A benign external environment, featuring even higher steel prices and FDI, could produce growth in excess of 7 percent, but inflation could prove hard to control under a peg. Under an adverse external outlook, by contrast, the peg could lead to external sustainability problems.IMF 2006 Article IV Consultation Staff Report (February 2007)Ukraine's economy is in trouble, there is no doubt about it. The cost of protecting debt against a sovereign default by Ukraine's government soared to a record on Friday, following the arrival of a twin storm of both political and financial uncertaintly. The Ukraine president Viktor Yushchenko announced earlier in the week (only to be challenged on Saturday by his perpetual rival Julia Tymoshenko) that he was going to call what would be the country's third parliamentary elections ...

OAO Gazprom climbed in Moscow trading after a newspaper said the state-run company has implemented plans to pay back 230 billion rubles ($9.2 billion) of debt by the end of the year. Gazprom, whose debt bill exceeds $50 billion, "has not suffered in the global financial crisis and is confident it will be able to fund all its projects in due course", its chief executive was quoted as saying in business newspaper Kommersant today. That said, its capitalization almost halved to $193 billion last week with the dive in the Russian share market. Russian tycoons Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov are close to a final asset split deal involving stakes in metals giant Norilsk Nickel and gold miner Polyus. Eclipse Aviation, US maker of four-seat light private jets, said it had reached an agreement to begin assembly of the aircraft in Russia from 2010. The supervisory ...