Feb 24, 2012

An alternative to Putin's way

by Andrey Borodaevskiy

A “frosty Saturday” Feb. 4 confirmed the deadlocked nature of the situation that has ripened in Russia for more than a decade of Vladimir Putin’s rule (as president and senior partner in the infamous “tandem”). The elections March 4 unequivocally mean a dozen more ...

Feb 16, 2012

Snow Revolution's orange shadow

by Anders Aslund

Vladimir Putin’s regime is warning Russians that their budding “Snow Revolution” will be as big a mistake as Ukraine’s Orange Revolution of 2004. But, while the similarities between these two popular movements are palpable, their differences are essential, so comparing them might help the ...

Jan 31, 2012

Back in Russia: peeling, meeting and shopping

by Esther Dyson

In mid-December, while trying to understand what was happening in Russia, I checked Twitter and found a tweet that somehow signified everything. It was from a young woman and it said, in Russian: “Gotta sleep! Tomorrow I go to [face] peeling, then to meeting, ...

Jan 16, 2012

Russia as a WTO member

A ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization in mid-December unanimously approved Russia’s request to join the world trade body. It also approved Samoa’s and Montenegro’s entry. It took 18 years for Russia to become a WTO member. This is the first time since ...

Jan 3, 2012

Unnerving year for Northeast Asia

While 2011 was “the great unraveling,” 2012 holds out the prospect of equally consequential changes for Asia, but the inflection points are visible well ahead of time. The most notable feature of the calendar will be elections that are scheduled to be held throughout ...