Word: russianizing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Over the past decade, oligarchs and oil have shaped the contours of the Russian landscape. After the Cold War, Russia was taken over by a handful of gangster-oligarchs, who purchased the country’s oil companies from the nation’s insolvent banks. The companies were corrupted by their leaders, who received manufactured goods at below-market prices and sold them at normal rates. Profits were retained outside Russia, and the country was, to say the least, robbed—for as much as $500 billion from 1993 to 1998. These egregious steals cultivated animosity among Russian...
Back then, the U.S. rhetorically toasted democracy while separating itself from Russia’s “internal” power struggles. But today, Russia’s domestic scene is of international concern because a good deal of oil and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s political career hang the balance...
Over the past six months, Russian oil companies have undergone rapid and considerable consolidation, attracting attention and investment from American and European firms. In April, the country’s biggest and fourth-biggest oil companies, Yukos and Sibneft, merged to form the largest Russian company in post-Soviet history; ExxonMobil and Shell immediately announced their interest in joining the new partnership. Prior to this, British Petroleum merged with Russian oil company TNK, and the new company rebounded financially. Such an influx of foreign investment is the first step toward linking Russian oil with the United States...
Transportation of oil has also long hindered Russian oil from reaching the United States, which imports eight million barrels a day, primarily from the Middle East. Until now, most Russian oil has reached Western Europe—whether through Ukraine and Belorus, Northern Europe, or Turkey and the Mediterranean. But after Sept. 11, the United States has become increasingly concerned that dependence on Middle Eastern oil could jeopardize national security. As a result, Russia’s five largest oil companies have been looking into constructing a pipeline from Western Siberia to Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean. From there...
...Clark’s larger record in the Balkans without blemish? Hardly. Leave aside his various mistakes in Kosovo, such as his ordering British Gen. Sir Michael Jackson to advance on Russian soldiers at Pristina airport. (Gen. Jackson refused, claiming such a move would’ve precipitated “World War III.”) Seldom mentioned, but indeed troubling, is the nature of Clark’s August 1994 meeting in Banja Luka, Bosnia, with Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic...