Archive for December, 2009
Posted on December 31, 2009 - by Venik
Rusal is first Russian company to list on Hong Kong exchange
Struggling aluminium company plans IPO to raise £1.6bn to cut debt and add to international profile The aluminium company Rusal, controlled by the controversial billionaire investor Oleg Deripaska, is to become the first Russian company to list on the Hong Kong stock exchange, illustrating how the centre of financial gravity is moving east. The heavily [...]
Posted on December 30, 2009 - by Venik
As threats multiply and power fragments, the coming decade cries out for realistic idealism | Timothy Garton Ash
A foiled terrorist attack must not lure us back to simplistic illusions. Strategic co-operation between old and new powers is the order of the next decade if we are to tackle the big issues An Islamist terrorist caught trying to crash a plane over Detroit creates a flash of illusory clarity. The decade might have [...]
Posted on December 30, 2009 - by Venik
Russia’s Armageddon plan to save Earth from collision with asteroid
Space scientists in Russia are preparing to boldly go where no man has gone before, except for the actor Bruce Willis. The head of the Russian space agency said today that it was considering a Hollywood-style mission to send a spacecraft to bump a large asteroid from a possible collision course with Earth. Anatoly Perminov [...]
Posted on December 29, 2009 - by Venik
Putin says Russia will build weapons to offset planned US missile defences
Prime minister warns defence system could erode deterrent value of Russia’s nuclear forces Prime minister Vladimir Putin said today that Russia would build weapons to offset planned US missile defences and urged Washington to share detailed data about its missile shield under a new arms control deal. Putin’s remarks, posted on the cabinet’s website, set [...]
Posted on December 28, 2009 - by Venik
Report damns Russian authorities over lawyer’s jail death
An independent commission has condemned Russian authorities over the treatment of a lawyer who fought official corruption and died in prison. The Moscow Public Oversight Commission’s report concludes that Sergei Magnitsky was subjected to “physical and psychological pressure” and names officials blamed for his death. Magnitsky, 37, died last month after being denied treatment for [...]
Posted on December 27, 2009 - by Venik
Russia and Europe need to move closer | Sergei Karaganov
Old cold war rivalries have come back to the fore. It’s in both parties’ interests to work towards a new ‘Union of Europe’ Rapid changes in the global economy and international politics are raising, once more, an eternal issue in Russia: the country’s relations with Europe, and with the Euro-Atlantic region as a whole. Of [...]
Posted on December 25, 2009 - by Venik
I’ve changed my mind about the Soviet Union | MJ Akbar
Would the Bush-Blair partnership have invaded Iraq with such impunity if Uncle Stalin or Cousin Brezhnev had been around? I celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall, the downward slither of the Soviet Union and the defeat of the counter-revolutionary coup that sought to restore a communist regime in the Kremlin for two non-sustainable reasons: [...]
Posted on December 23, 2009 - by Venik
Arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky partner illegal, court rules
Russian court decision not expected to lead to release of former Menatap group head Platon Lebedev Russia’s supreme court today ruled that the 2003 arrest of jailed oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s main business partner, Platon Lebedev, was illegal. The ruling on Russia’s most politicised case came as a surprise in a country that often chooses to [...]
Posted on December 22, 2009 - by Venik
Russian hacker gang who ‘stole millions from Citibank’ under investigation
• Reports of sums taken are exaggerated, bank says• Crime network re-emerges as US cyber chief is named The FBI is investigating the activities of a notorious Russian internet gang amid accusations that it stole tens of millions of dollars from US banks. The hackers, known as the Russian Business Network, had been quiet for [...]
Posted on December 22, 2009 - by Venik
European weather deaths pass 100
Freezing weather brings death and disruption in Germany, Italy and across eastern Europe More than 100 people have been killed in the cold snap across Europe, with temperatures plummeting and snowfall causing chaos from Moscow to Milan. In Poland, where temperatures have dropped to as low as -20C in some areas, police appealed for tip-offs [...]
Posted on December 21, 2009 - by Venik
Severe weather kills dozens in Europe
Fifteen homeless people killed in Warsaw alone as temperatures dip to as low as -33C in Europe and snow leads to travel chaos Dozens of people are thought to have frozen to death as extreme conditions continued to affect many parts of Europe today. Polish news channel TVN24 said 47 people, mainly homeless, had been [...]
Posted on December 20, 2009 - by Venik
Copenhagen summit: ‘First step’ to a new order – or a ‘betrayal of our grandchildren’
India With India involved in the last minute negotiations that produced the compromise accord, its environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, called it “a good deal and satisfactory solution”. But another parliamentary delegate, Sitaram Yechury, complained that the final draft was “well short of expectations”. The Hindu newspaper called it an “important beginning” but noted that it [...]
Posted on December 18, 2009 - by Venik
Advertising campaign for TV channel Russia Today
Billboards advertising Russia Today have appeared on roadsides throughout Britain Original article Share on bebo Blog this! Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook Share on Linkedin Share via MySpace share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post
Posted on December 18, 2009 - by Venik
Russia Today launches first UK ad blitz
24-hour English-language TV channel aims to soften Kremlin’s image and win over British viewers They are appearing in newspapers and on posters alongside major roads in Britain. There is Barack Obama’s head, on it superimposed the image of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s leader. The slogan reads: “Who poses the greatest nuclear threat?” For many people the [...]
