Business Watch
On December 19, Vladimir Putin will take part in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) Collective Security Council meeting, the meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) Interstate Council, and the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting.
by Gordon M. Hahn
As the Arab 'Spring' continues to devolve into an Islamist winter for Moscow and the U.S., both find themselves increasingly on the horns of multiple dilemmas. Russia's dilemma is rooted in its previously forced bet in favor of the Islamic world's Shiite populations over the Sunnis––which has been anchored in Russia’s trading partner and periodic support for Iran, a Shia nation. Unfortunately for the Kremlin, this bet was staked out just as a wave of revolutionary Sunni Islamism/Jihadism was rising across the ummah (Arabic for “nation” or “community,” but not necessarily a common ancestry or geography).
By Ian Mitchell
Friday 23rd: To the Golden Ring Hotel (Золотое Кольцо) on Smolensk Square opposite the gloomy mass of the Foreign Ministry, with its hidden treasury of “retro” art, for a conference hosted by the Russian Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on the problems arising from Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation three months ago.
By John Bonar
Two articles by Luke Harding in the Guardian on December 1 have incensed the Russian Embassy in London. Harding is the former Guardian Correspondent in Moscow who authored the immensely readable but biased and propaganda filled autobiographical book “How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia Mafia State”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has drafted a blacklist of US citizens Moscow suspects of violating human rights, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said in an interview with the web broadcaster Russian News Service radio on Friday.