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Issue 4182 | Russian market | 7 Jul 2009

Vladimir Ryzhkov: Obama Will Not Shake Medvedev’s Free Hand
U.S. President Barack Obama arrived in Moscow on Monday on his first official visit to Russia. But despite his determination to “reset” U.S.-Russian relations, Obama will likely fail in the attempt, leaving supporters of both the “realistic” and the “values-based” camps without any cause for celebration.

Nikolai Petrov: The People Want Direct Elections
According to a poll just conducted by the Levada Center, 60 percent of Russians support the return of direct elections for regional governors, while only 20 percent oppose it.

Konstantin Sonin: 4 Reasons Why Obama Picked My University
U.S. President Barack Obama’s commencement address at the New Economic School, or NES, on Tuesday has been billed as his third major foreign policy address since taking office, after his Prague and Cairo speeches.

Op-Ed Contributor: In Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Trust
In New York in the late 1990s, I met with a prominent correspondent from The New York Times whose ancestors had emigrated from Russia in the early 1900s.

Issue 4181 | 6 Jul 2009

Alexei Bayer: The Different Face of Russia Abroad
We’re not used to thinking of Russia as a country whose citizens leave in large numbers as we do Italy or Ireland. Even in the 19th century, Russians who lived abroad were regarded warily. Suspicion was reinforced in the Soviet Union, with its pervasive spy mania focusing on Russian-speaking foreigners in general.

Yevgeny Kiselyov: From Brezhnev to Medvedev
Depite the much-discussed diplomatic blunder four months ago, when U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton gave Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a red button with the word peregruzka (overload) instead of perezagruzka (reset), both Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev are sincerely interested in resetting U.S.-Russian relations.

Vladimir Frolov: Obama Is Prepared to Call Medvedev’s Bluff
U.S. President Barack Obama descends on Moscow on Monday in the first major encounter between U.S. and Russian leaders since they both agreed to hit the “reset” button.”

Michele A. Berdy: Advice for President Obama
We expats are delighted that you’ve come for a visit and wanted to give you a few tips for negotiating the city, your hosts and those tricky arms treaties.
First, as you zip around the city at approximately 200 kilometers an hour, you’ll notice that the streets are packed with millions of parked cars.

Issue 4180 | 3 Jul 2009

Michele A. Berdy: Salt of the Earth
Соль (salt), that ubiquitous crystal white stuff on every kitchen table, looms fairly large in the Russian collective unconscious.

Op-Ed Contributor: Obama Should Walk in the Woods With Putin
U.S. President Barack Obama faces a major test of his leadership with his trip to Moscow to meet with Russian leaders. He has invested considerable political capital in the effort to “reset” relations with Russia, yet Moscow’s interests in such a “reset” remain dubious at best.

Issue 4179 | 2 Jul 2009

Konstantin Sonin: Sechin's Little Secret
An economist would normally criticize Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin.

Op-Ed Contributor: A Taxing 16-Year Marathon
Runners say that in a marathon, the last mile is always the most difficult one to run.

Issue 4178 | 1 Jul 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: The Missile Defense Silver Bullet
U.S. President Barack Obama's arrival in Moscow next week may either mark the end of the beginning of a long-term improvement in U.S.-Russian relations or the beginning of the end of their short, vaguely promising stage.

Yulia Latynina: Giving China a Piece of Russia
On June 17, President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao signed an agreement in which Russia will sell 300 million tons of oil to China over 20 years for $100 billion. That breaks down to $57 per barrel.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Navigating Together in Dangerous Conditions
U.S. President Barack Obama's visit next week to Moscow is generating more interest in U.S.-Russian relations than we have seen in a long time.

Issue 4177 | CAREERS FOR YOUTH | 30 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Obama Will Make Russia a Priority
U.S. President Barack Obama's administration came to the White House during a difficult period. The economic crisis forced it to make greater allowances for the domestic situation in developing its foreign policy than is customary for U.S. politics.

Alexei Pankin: Loyal Readers Help Press Ride Out Crisis
The crisis has apparently strengthened traditional Soviet journalistic practices. I came to this conclusion after speaking with participants at several recent national publishing conferences.

Alexander Golts: Oil Will Dictate U.S. Ties
Whenever people ask me about the future of U.S.-Russian relations, I answer that they will be determined by the price of oil. If the price stays below $40 per barrel, relations will be great.

Op-Ed Contributor: Youth in the Kremlin, Gerontocracy in U.S.
Although the first meeting between Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev in London on April 1 held out the promise of major improvement in U.S.-Russian relations, we should not expect a great deal from the second meeting in Moscow next week.

Issue 4176 | 29 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Telenor's Worst Nightmare
Telenor, the Norwegian telecoms giant, is caught in a dispute with Alfa Group, one of Russia's largest holdings, over the highly lucrative mobile telephone business in Russia and Ukraine.

Op-Ed Contributor: Gas Spat Should Spur EU Energy Links
Just as Europeans are packing their bags for the beaches, another Russia-Ukraine gas dispute is flaring up. The European Union should use it as a stimulus to speed up connecting its energy networks to reduce Eastern Europe's vulnerability to gas cutoffs.

Matthew Collin: Marking an Anniversary With Harrowing Photos
The war between Georgia and Russia last August may have lasted only a few days, but politicians and analysts are still sifting through the debris to establish what really happened and what it means for the future of the region.

Issue 4175 | 26 Jun 2009

Michele A. Berdy: Answering the Call
Years ago, I had the brilliant idea that if I memorized all the Russian prefixes and suffixes and then worked my way through the main root words, in one summer -- lounging by the pool -- I would develop the capacity to understand virtually any word in the Russian language.

Issue 4174 | 25 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Putin's Laffer Curve
The current woes of the U.S. economy have given many Republicans an opportunity to reaffirm their faith in the magical power of tax cuts. It has long been a central tenet of the party's credo that tax cuts can provide such a strong kick to growth that they actually increase revenues.

Op-Ed Contributor: Ideology Minister Surkov
I likened Kremlin first deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov to Mikhail Suslov, the Soviet Union's chief Communist Party ideologist during the 1970s, in my comment published in Vedomosti and The Moscow Times in March.

Boris Kagarlitsky: Latvian Fundamentalism
Of all the former Soviet republics, perhaps Latvia has been the most assiduous and zealous adherent to the neoliberalism economic school. The country's political elite assimilated all of the fashionable theories and popular ideas with unbridled enthusiasm and put them into practice with a speed and diligence that surprised even their Western adherents.

Letters: Vote Rigging, Violence And Falsifying History
Your Letters

Issue 4173 | Employment | 24 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Spinning Russia and Telenor
When U.S. President Barack Obama first met President Dmitry Medvedev in April, almost two-thirds of Americans were thinking negative thoughts about Russia.

Op-Ed Contributor: Top 9 Ways For Voronin to Stay in Power
Moldova remains a wonderland of political machination and cabal. After the opposition forced dissolution of the parliament and new elections, President Vladimir Voronin is playing hardball while changing the rules to his favor.

Yulia Latynina: Preparing for Round 2 of Georgia War
Peacekeepers deployed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe must leave Georgia by June 30 after Russia vetoed on June 15 all attempts to keep their mission in force.

Anders Aslund: Latvian and Russian Crises Are Worlds Apart
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has stated that ""Latvia is just another Argentina"" that has to devalue its currency to escape from its financial crisis.

Issue 4172 | 23 Jun 2009

Nikolai Petrov: The Party That Can't Command 3 Chickens
It is not easy to keep a cool head during the summer months. With passions heating up, we have heard a number of critical statements in recent weeks.

Op-Ed Contributor: Coalition of the Unwilling
When Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced on June 9 that Russia prefers to withdraw from the current World Trade Organization talks and seek membership on new terms -- as part of a customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus -- most experts considered the move completely unexpected.

Vladimir Ryzhkov: The Kremlin's Pseudo Science
Russia's ruling regime doesn't stop for even a day from disseminating propaganda to the Russian people.

Issue 4171 | 22 Jun 2009

Alexei Bayer: Captives of History
While in Central Europe, I got a sense of how much work awaits the Commission to Combat Attempts to Falsify History to the Detriment of Russia's Interests, which President Dmitry Medvedev set up in May.

Vladimir Frolov: PR Disasters Easier to Prevent Than to Fight
It is unfortunate that the new commission in the Kremlin to promote a positive image of Russia abroad was not formed in time to handle the recent ""milk dispute"" with Belarus.

Op-Ed Contributor: 400 Unanswered E-Mails
Forget about innovation and exotic new technology. People still haven't learned to use the technology we already have.

Op-Ed Contributor: A Possible Trap Awaits Obama in Moscow
State visits don't usually influence world politics. But the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Moscow on July 6 to 8 might become an exception.

Issue 4170 | 19 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: China Crosses the Rubicon
For two decades, Chinese diplomacy has been guided by the concept of the country's ""peaceful rise.""

Michele A. Berdy: What's in a Name?
As president, Vladimir Putin was renowned for giving foreigners -- and sometimes his compatriots -- lessons in arcane or colorful Russian.

Issue 4169 | 18 Jun 2009

Konstantin Sonin: A Test of Honesty, Not Knowledge
Soviet leader Josef Stalin and his henchmen discredited the word ""sabotage"" by accusing political opponents and their followers of the crime with reckless abandon.

Editorial: Ask for a Permit for a Diversity, Not Gay, Rally
Your Letters

Issue 4168 | Employment | 17 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Eastern Partnership Holds Key to Russia Ties
A fundamental tenet of Polish foreign policy is to support Eastern European countries' democratization and economic transformation.

Yulia Latynina: A Poor Man's Democracy
ranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been re-elected after winning what he describes as a free and democratic election.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Moscow Shows Who's Boss With WTO U-Turn
Moscow's decision to halt negotiations on joining the World Trade Organization and to focus instead on a joint bid through a customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus appears to be politically motivated.

Issue 4167 | Customs And Business | 16 Jun 2009

Alexander Golts: Gates' Pre-Summit Ploy
With three weeks remaining before the U.S.-Russia summit, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates caught analysts in both countries by surprise.

Alexei Pankin: The Power of the Pen
Russia Day on June 12 was created to commemorate Boris Yeltsin's election in 1991 as the first president of the Russian republic of the Soviet Union.

Op-Ed Contributor: The Wet-Finger Approach
There is a lot of commentary these days about Russian loan loss rates, but the data needs to be understood in terms of the Russian context.

Op-Ed Contributor: Cross Investments Are a Strong Agent of Change
At the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, oligarchs stood up one by one and talked about their billion-dollar investments in the United States.

Issue 4166 | 15 Jun 2009

Matthew Collin: Troublesome Signs of Pre-August War Events
Just over a year ago, I wrote in this column about the rumors that were disturbing the carefree, early summer atmosphere in the Georgian capital: predictions of impending war fueled by inflammatory rhetoric and increasingly shrill propaganda, with talk of Georgian spy plane sorties and Russian troop movements.

Richard Lourie: The Echoes of Cairo
Slim as an iPhone and just as adept at communication, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech in Cairo that has changed the game. His words were blunt but even-handed.

Op-Ed Contributor: Change Blowing in From the 2nd World
On Tuesday, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China will be meeting in Yekaterinburg for the first summit of the BRIC powers.

Issue 4165 | 11 Jun 2009

Nikolai Petrov: Pikalyovo 2009
The big story in the little town of Pikalyovo nearly eclipsed the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Op-Ed Contributor: Finished From the START
Three weeks before the U.S.-Russia summit in Moscow, it appears that the two sides won't be able to agree on vital negotiating positions on a new nuclear arms control agreement to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires Dec. 5.

Issue 4164 | EMPLOYMENT | 10 Jun 2009

Yulia Latynina: The Wahhabi Rule Dagestan
Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgirei Magomedtagirov was killed by a sniper on Friday.

Letters: Fill the Bus With Gas Before the Tour Starts
Editor, This is Your Space Dear readers, We welcome letters to the editor and have devoted this space to print your comments. You can send your letter directly to the Opinion Page Editor by - e-mail: oped@imedia.ru - fax: (7-495) 232-6529 - mail: The Moscow Times, 3 Polkovaya Ulitsa, Bldg. 1, Moscow, Russia,127018 You can write in English or Russian. We edit letters for grammar, style and length. Please include your full name and the city from which you arewriting. We look forward to hearing from you! I have just returned to Britain following an almost wonderful trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg. It is hard not to appreciate the beauty and cultural of these two great cities and their people. But, unfortunately, the experience was marred by an incident in Moscow that demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the importance of customer service in the tourism sector. We arranged a bus tour of Moscow in May.

Op-Ed Contributor: Praying for High Oil Prices
While spending three days at the 13th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, I was constantly thinking to myself, ""What is the main message of the forum and what can I take away from it?""

Issue 4163 | MARKET REVIEW | 9 Jun 2009

Boris Kagarlitsky: A Bottom-Up Democracy
It had to happen sooner or later. The first bill on nationalization has been submitted to the State Duma.

Op-Ed Contributor: History Under Lock and Key
The only way to fight a real battle against the falsification of history -- something that President Dmitry Medvedev has made a priority after creating a special commission to handle this issue -- is to keep government archives as open as possible for historians.

Issue 4162 | 8 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Kim Jong Il's Dangerous Ploy
Pyongyang's underground nuclear test on May 25 and its April 5 test-firing of a long-range missile that flew over Japan was condemned almost unanimously across the globe. It is easy to understand why.

Alexei Bayer: Too Much of a Good Thing
President Dmitry Medvedev has talked about using the economic crisis to wean Russia off its oil dependency and to create a more balanced economy by investing into new technologies.

Vladimir Frolov: Smart Economics but Sloppy Foreign Policy
At the 13th annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, President Dmitry Medvedev reminded the audience of his prophetic warnings in 2008 about the origins of the global economic crisis.

Issue 4161 | 5 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: A Shortage of Social Security
As the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum gets under way, it is striking to compare how much difference a year makes.

Michele A. Berdy: The Best Instrument in the Case
Here's your first pop quiz of the summer. The ablative case is: a) a new mystery by Dan Brown; b) an expensive briefcase favored by oligarchs; c) a grammatical case in Latin; or d) who the heck cares?

Issue 4160 | 4 Jun 2009

Konstantin Sonin: Learning Modernization from Gref
There are several reasons for the relative calm regarding Russia's economy. First, the crisis looks worse on the pages of newspapers and analytical reports than on the streets of Moscow, where it doesn't appear that we are in the middle of a deep crisis.

Op-Ed Contributor: Being a Smart Investor In All Kinds of Weather
The global downturn seems to have sent many fair-weather investors from the West scuttling for the first flight home.

Op-Ed Contributor: Putin's Payroll
Former German Chancellor Gerhard SchrЪder is a legend in Russia. He serves Gazprom's interests for a measly couple of million euros a year, sits in at sessions of the Russian Academy of Sciences and writes books about his staunch friendship with ""Genosse Wladimir,"" who, in the not-so-distant past, earned himself the well-deserved nickname of ""Stasi"" among business circles in gangster-ridden St. Petersburg.

Op-Ed Contributor: Too Early to Judge Putin
In a pleasant surprise, Russia has made business headlines across the globe in recent months. The latest example was on Saturday, when Sberbank and Oleg Deripaska's GAZ joined forces with Canadian auto parts maker Magna International in a successful bid for Opel.

Issue 4159 | EMPLOYMENT | 3 Jun 2009

Yulia Latynina: The Axis of Madness
North Korea tested a nuclear bomb near Russia's border, but the Foreign Ministry advised Russians not to panic.

Yevgeny Kiselyov: When Interpreting History Becomes a Crime
I would be fascinated to know if Westerners can fully appreciate the political significance behind President Dmitry Medvedev's decision to create a special commission ""for counteracting attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russia's interests.""

Issue 4158 | Social Responsibility in 2009 | 2 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: The Productivity Trap
Russian experts and policymakers have increasingly raised the question of productivity, stressing that the country's lag behind leading global economies has become an acute nationwide challenge.

Alexander Golts: A Case of General Distress
It appears that a powerful information war has been unleashed against Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Last week, newspapers quoted not only retired General Leonid Ivashov, but also unidentified high-ranking sources in the Kremlin and Defense Ministry as saying that Serdyukov would soon be fired.

Op-Ed Contributor: Abkhaz Future Free of Georgian Domination
By Yanal Kazan Abkhazia must chart a course for tomorrow and beyond. A 21st-century Abkhaz state must be prepared for the challenges and opportunities that lie before it. It is essential that all Abkhaz at home and in the diaspora chart a course in rebuilding their homeland. They must transform their resources into an economic engine that creates jobs and wealth for their people. The diaspora, which has been living in exile for the entire 20th century, must play a significant role in transforming their society and contribute in building the new Abkhaz nation. Abkhazia needs a sensible and pragmatic privatization program, and it must provide opportunities to foreigners who wish to invest in the homeland, both in real estate and business. By encouraging foreign investment in Abkhazia, it will promote hard currency, jobs and technology that are currently scarce. Abkhazia needs hotels, tourism, travel, export of natural resources and stable and reliable transportation and banking systems that encourage investment. The young people of Abkhazia deserve a bright future, devoid of Soviet economics and Georgian domination. That chapter of history has been closed forever. The Abkhazia of today and tomorrow must achieve total harmony and respect for all religions. It should embrace the wonderful mosaic of all religious beliefs, free from government influence. At the same time, the people must be sensitive to the awakening of Russian Orthodoxy and nationalism among their Russian friends to the north and within Abkhazia and how it will relate to the welcoming signs made by the indigenous Abkhaz to the new settlers from the diaspora. Georgia plays no role in the political and economic future of Abkhazia. Georgia represents the past. All Abkhaz must look to the future. Accordingly, the only discussions with their neighbors to the east should be centered on normalization of relations and economic cooperation between the two Caucasian states. All nongovernmental organizations should cease to operate in Abkhazia, and offices of the United Nations' mission to Georgia should be removed from Abkhaz territory. If Abkhazia is an independent state, then it is time to act like an independent state. The path that the Abkhaz take will be determined by the choices that they make. Choose wisely. Yanal Kazan is president of Abkhaz Alliance based in Paterson, New Jersey.

Issue 4157 | 1 Jun 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Lukashenko's Achilles' Heel
One of the questions I was repeatedly asked during a recent trip to Minsk was whether President Barack Obama's administration would opt for greater pragmatism at the expense of idealism in foreign policy. Both the government and opposition in Belarus have a vested interest in the answer.

Matthew Collin: Protests Turn Unknown Into Tbilisi Political Star
More than seven weeks of nonstop opposition protests in Georgia may not have achieved their desired goal -- the resignation of President Mikheil Saakashvili -- but they have turned one man into a political phenomenon: pop star Giorgi Gachechiladze.

Richard Lourie: Help Wanted
Russia needs a genius. One will do, although for some odd reason, geniuses tend to come in clusters -- Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky emerged at the same time, along with Anton Chekhov and Ivan Turgenev.

Issue 4156 | 29 May 2009

Op-Ed Contributor: Cuba of the East
The European Union recently embarked on a policy of ""constructive engagement"" with Belarus. None too soon. Previously, EU policy was to isolate Belarus, which itself was seeking isolation.

Michele A. Berdy: Stop, Look and Listen
Visitors to Moscow can't help but notice that the city is a war zone: пешеходы (pedestrians) and водители (drivers) are locked in battle.

Issue 4155 | 28 May 2009

Boris Kagarlitsky: The Illusion of Stabilization
There has been a distinct deficit of good news lately. News influences financial markets, and that is why leaders try to organize, distribute and manipulate the news in such a way as to convert today's headlines into tomorrow's quick profits.

Vladimir Ryzhkov: A Backward Tradition of Manipulating History
The Kremlin opened a new front against its ""internal and external enemies"" on May 19, when President Dmitry Medvedev created a presidential commission ""for counteracting attempts to falsify history to the detriment of Russia's interests.""

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