Ruminations on Russia

I have moved.  The unbelievable pain of finishing Gas - Hot and Otherwise  means I have given up on Blogger and moved to WordPress. This ve...

So much to write about, too much time spent in SVO and the route therefrom to home. SVO is a shithole, so bad that it makes Heathrow Termina...

I had failed to spot this little tidbit. Any clues in here as to why RenCap are off to Africa? Mr Misamore and two other Yukos executiv...

1. Fly via the 3rd World Airport otherwise known as Sheremeytevo and then drive in to the center of Moscow - approx 2 hours 30 minutes* 2. W...

According to the Moscow Times (no link love due to ante-deluvian archiving policy) Oleg "the natural resources beast" Mitvol is of...

I have not read Transitions Online, but it gets mentioned reasonably frequently in the english language Russian blogosphere so when this art...

Volga Views Big sky in the Saratov Oblast, right down by the Kazakh border. Crossing the Volga, elevation courtesy of GAZP. If I recollect...

After some considerable, but worthwhile wait, Ecto3 has been released; albeit in Alpha version. Has not crashed my struggling laptop yet.

Writing in today's (01/08/2007) FT Quentin Peel once again manages to put the western side of the Russian debate, whilst acknowledging R...

Returning to London to get SWMBO and CC#1 via Domodedovo. Firstly huge kudos to East Line for DME, it is really a first class airport these...

It's not often that anyone being quoted in a newspaper adds any value to the reader (as opposed to the journalist). However, Yury Korgun...

The end of an era approacheth?  It looks as though Friedman has been finally convinced to back off.  That's what happens when everything...

Have you any idea how much they cost? A lot in any language. And I have had two pairs stolen this week from the road outside work. Random o...

"The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty." E...

On waking on an overcast 25th July your first thought is; oh well that's the end of summer.

I enjoyed this piece from bne.  The government should do something about corruption however, it is worried that getting rid of corrupt chino...

I successfully managed not to post a quick response to Kuznetsov's comment on my post where I somewhat sharply described the stuff he ...

Before I get to more serious discussions, a small diversion.  The online magazine, The First Post, has an Aeroflot ad embedded in this artic...

There was remarkably little about the Litvinenko/Lugovoi affair in the British press at the weekend (back admiring cc#1's gurgling). La...

For those who care - a politer version of my own analysis from Ben's bne.  It looks as though I have some of the details of the contract...

Anywhere you care to look somebody is reporting that GAZP has brought Total in to Shtockman.  Some mild legal back flips allows GAZP to main...

The Russia Blog, see link below, is some form of propaganda tool designed to paint a contrasting picture of Russia from the propaganda writt...

I love a good road accident before 07.30 in the morning. On my way to Sheremeytevo for an early flight to London. Traffic lights fail at B...

I scribble from time-to-time on inflation , and here , and indeed here (I am sure that I have written more, but that's all I could find...

Ben's online bne gets better and better.  This article is way too polite, useless, overpaid wankers with no idea what their job is or ho...

Somewhat dumfounded by this piece in RIA Novosti.  Apparently the margin of error is 3.5% - personally I think it is closer to being complet...

Nothing to do with Russia. But way more fun than struggling through a Friday.

The joy of corruption is that it is a double-edged sword; one side cuts you, the other others (as it were.) Sometime between 20.30 last nigh...

Who knew that when Putin dragged Khordhokovsky out of his plane that it would have an impact on my apartment block in Moscow. I've writt...

The much read, if not always agreed with, Jerome a Paris, writing in The Oil Drum has begun to develop a new theme; that Britain's (over...