Is it really easier to work in groups or is it just a way to shift responsibility?
This question is relevant after the recent summit in Pittsburgh, where the G-8 has sort of transformed into the G-20. And even though the G-8 will be still meeting annually as well as the new G-20 format, the world leaders have announced that G-8 is not capable to solve world economic problems alone anymore. Maybe there is a similar reason for Russia to insist…
While this speech is mostly hogwash, I am surprised and delighted to be able to find one thing to praise in it:
Later this week, I will work with my colleagues at the G20 to phase out fossil fuel subsidies so that we can better address our climate challenge
This is the right thing to do, for reasons I explained in my recent paper co-written with Sterling Burnett of NCPA (extract follows jump).
While many governments of developed nations argue for a worldwide reduction…
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev has signed into law amendments that will bring increased penalties for price collusion and unfair competition. The new amendments will allow the authorities to bring unscrupulous businessmen and bureaucrats to justice. Government officials will be subject to disqualification and sufficiently large fines if they will restrict the movement of goods across the country. Section 178 contains a very harsh sanction - up to six years imprisonment for committing a crime in the area of restriction of…
It has been almost 20 years since the end of the Cold War yet the agenda of the U.S.-Russia summit remains unchanged. In the middle of a global economic crisis, the two leaders discussed many important military matters, but neither broached the subject of the economy. Presidents Obama and Medvedev have signed no less than six different documents, none of which addressed economic cooperation and development. No trade agreements or investment initiatives were even discussed.
Unsurprisingly, U.S.-Russia trade relations are much…
“Russian Voting Tinged with Green”
This Washington Post headline from earlier this month illustrates one of worrisome side-effects of authoritarian rule. Political freedom is denied the citizenry but the pressures to allow some form of dissent remain. Religious dissent often is treated more liberally - and the eco-theocratic values of today are the dominant religion of our secular society. The risk the Russians face is that in their effort to escape Red tyranny they may rush into the hands of the…
In a recent poll conducted in Russia on who is the “greatest” Russian ever, Joseph Stalin came in third (after Alexander Nevsky, who repelled Western invadesr in the 13th century, and reformist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin).
As disturbing as this result may be, it is, sadly, understandable. Russia has not gone through a process similar to de-nazification in postwar Germany. And many older Russians, having experienced the upheaval of the collapse of the Soviet Union, long for a time when their country…
Former CEI Warren Brookes Journalism Fellow Neil Hrab has an interesting take on Russia’s offer to help out Iceland with its own personal portion of the current global financial meltdown.
The West’s list of grievances against Russia is long…
But one can hear no peep of opposition today from any western country following Moscow’s offer to lend 4 billion euros to Iceland. Full Comment reported on that tiny nation’s current financial difficulties yesterday. Of all the countries affected by the crisis, Iceland may be…
Incisive article in the Wall Street Journal today on how Russia is using energy supply as part of its strategic renaissance. An excerpt:
Despite Russia’s repeated use of energy as a political weapon in Eastern Europe, Western Europeans keep repeating the mantra that Russia has been a reliable supplier to “Europe.” They also choose to ignore that natural-gas giant Gazprom serves as the Kremlin’s leading foreign-policy arm. The company is primarily state-owned, and many members of Gazprom’s leadership are current or former…
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