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Analyses |
On 24 August, Moldova’s Ministry of Agriculture stated that Russia had almost completely blocked its imports of Moldovan fruits and vegetables. The official reason for this was that pesticides had allegedly been discovered in them. The…
Analyses |
On 30 August, Russia’s minister of agriculture Yelena Skrynnik revealed the size of the direct losses farmers have suffered as a result of this year’s drought; these have reached 37 billion roubles (over US$1.2bn). Over 20% of crops have…
OSW Commentary |
| Marcin Kaczmarski
Both this rhetoric and the atmosphere of co-operation in relations with the USA and the EU contrast with the assertive and aggressive Russian policy which was symbolised by and culminated in the Russian-Georgian conflict of 2008.
Analyses |
The Lithuanian energy minister Arvydas Sekmokas announced on 26 August that a letter from Gazprom received by the Lithuanian authorities, containing a protest against plans to reform the Lithuanian gas sector as being contrary to the…
Analyses |
| Iwona Wiśniewska
The unusually high temperatures seen in Russia since mid-June have caused a huge series of wildfires in central Russia. The scale of the disaster has laid bare the weakness of Russia’s state structures against natural disasters and also…
Analyses |
On 16 August a committee of the United Russia party put forward three candidates to President Dmitri Medvedev for the position of governor of the Kaliningrad Oblast. The current governor, Georgy Boos, was not among them. This means that…
Analyses |
On 12 August the Russian Border Guard admitted that at the beginning of the month at the request of Rospotrebnadzor, the chief sanitary inspectorate of Russia, it had introduced a ban on imports of Moldovan wine. Despite the fact that…
Analyses |
| Paweł Wołowski
Patriarch Kirill’s third visit to Kiev this year is part of a Russian strategy to regain influence in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government’s possible unilateral support for the Patriarch of Moscow would threaten to disturb the relative…
Analyses |
The Russian government has declared that in autumn, it will pass the state programme for re-armament for the years 2010 to 2020. According to a statement from the Russian government, the programme foresees an increase in expenditure on…
Analyses |
On 29 July, President Dmitri Medvedev confirmed changes to laws regulating the operation of the Federal Security Service; these changes have been criticised by Russian democratic institutions and human rights defenders. The new regulations…