NOVEMBER 2007

From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/25/2007 7:31 AM
Friday, November 23, 2007
Higher Gas Prices Create a Dilemma
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer

Gazprom's plans to raise natural gas prices for Europe by at least 20 percent next year could generate more cash for a faster development of its giant Arctic fields, but could easily cast a shadow over future demand on the market.

Meanwhile, extra revenues could lead to pressure on the Kremlin to put off raising gas prices for domestic industry, as the country faces rising inflation during a sensitive election period.

Gazprom deputy chief executive Alexander Medvedev told analysts this week that the company's European customers would have to pay from $300 to $400 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas next year.

Gazprom, which supplies more than one-quarter of Europe's gas needs, links its prices to those for oil products with a lag of six to nine months. Oil prices have climbed above $90 per barrel in recent weeks, at times stopping just a hair's breadth short of $100.

Under ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/25/2007 7:44 AM
Friday, November 23, 2007
The Dangers of Populism

Vedomosti

President Vladimir Putin's speech on Wednesday at a rally at Moscow's Luzhniki arena, organized by the "For Putin" movement and the United Russia party, was the second major event that defined his new role as head of United Russia's federal ticket.

The first was his meeting with a group of construction workers in Krasnoyarsk on Nov. 13, where he defended his participation in the State Duma election campaign on the grounds that only a United Russia victory would ensure that his political program would continue after his second presidential term ends. The president's position was based on the principle that his political vision is patently correct and should not be subject to question. Moreover, voters can confirm their support for this course when they vote in the Duma elections, which have essentially turned into a vote of confidence in Putin.

When Putin addressed the 5,000-strong crowd of young supporters at Luzhniki, he urged ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/25/2007 7:58 AM

Central Partnership

Masha Shalayeva plays a young girl with relationship troubles in "The Mermaid."

War's Female Face

Galina Vishnevskaya stars in powerful

Chechen drama "Alexandra," while "The

Mermaid" is another whimsical tale

from Anna Malikyan.

By Tom Birchenough
Published: November 23, 2007

Galina Vishnevskaya's title role in Alexander Sokurov's new film, "Alexandra," is little short of extraordinary. For those used to see her as an elegant, elderly opera diva, her transformation into a simple grandmother who travels to Chechnya to visit her grandson speaks volumes, as much for the film's silences as for its script -- incidentally, the first the director has written himself. Glances and gazes most often come to replace words.

Vishnevskaya plays a woman whose every movement attests to a hard life, and an equally hard present. Her hair is grey -- you suspect as much from exhaustion as anything else -- and she seems to shuffle slowly rather than walk. Sokurov's film catches two days in her life, spent largely in a Russian ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/26/2007 11:00 PM
Bear democracy
Publication time: 26 November 2007, 19:22
The history of Russian elections since the twilight days of the Soviet Union.

1991

June: Boris Yeltsin becomes the first popularly-elected president of the Russian Republic, defeating the Communist candidate and former prime minister, Nikolai Ryzhkov. His victory is widely seen as a mandate to counterbalance Mikhail Gorbachev's power as Soviet leader and to further decentralization, democratization, and economic liberalization.

August: Yeltsin's iconic stand atop a Soviet tank during the failed Communist Party putsch against Gorbachev turns him into an emblem of progress.

December: Gorbachev [above] steps down as head of the Soviet Union, heralding its demise.

1993

September: Yeltsin dissolves the parliament and schedules new elections for December, sparking massive political unrest. After rejecting Yeltsin's decree, parliament tries unsuccessfully to impeach him and swears in Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi as acting president.

October: Thousands take to the streets protesting the dissolution of parliament. Yeltsin declares a state of emergency as armed defenders of the parliament barricade themselves ...
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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/26/2007 11:05 PM
Monday, November 26, 2007

Russia: Putin's Kremlin Searches For Legitimacy

By Robert Coalson

Russia - Marsh Nesoglasnyh, 24Nov2007
Many participants at opposition Marches of Dissent across Russia were detained on November 24-25
(RFE/RL)
November 26, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Although the Union of Rightist Forces (SPS) party is, at best, a long shot to win any seats in the next State Duma, the party has been the target of intense harassment from officials across the country since campaigning began last month. Deputy party leader Leonid Grozman told "Vedomosti" recently the Kremlin's attention means that support for the party is higher than opinion polls indicate.



In short, politics in Russia have reached the point where the only way for parties to gauge their popularity is by measuring the lengths to which the Kremlin will go to suppress them. This is one vivid example of the way in which the country's political system has been deformed by the Kremlin's long-standing insistence on managing every aspect of acquiring ...
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