The Moscow Times

Market Matters: As Conflict Ends, Markets on Road to Recovery
After tumbling to its lowest point in almost two years on Tuesday, Russia's MICEX Index began to slowly claw its way back over the rest of the week, suggesting a possible end to the volatility that has plagued the country's markets since tensions erupted between Russia and Georgia on Aug. 8.

The Moscow Times » Opinion

Issue 3981 | 4 Sep 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Building a Strong Georgia
Given the tremendous damage that Russia has inflicted on Georgia, it is easy to conclude that the Kremlin has achieved its objectives. But, so far, the Kremlin has failed in its real goal -- getting rid of pro-U.S. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Op-Ed Contributor: Helping Russia Return To Its Reform Agenda
Only a handful of countries have supported Russia's military campaign in Georgia and its recognition of South Ossetian and Abkhaz independence. The country's global isolation has been a severe blow to its reputation.

Boris Kagarlitsky: Blame Capitalism, Not Medvedev
Whenever a writer promises to ""reveal the truth behind recent events,"" he usually digs up the latest conspiracy theory or divulges ""inside information"" that explains how key decisions were made.

Issue 3980 | 3 Sep 2008

Anders Aslund: 10 Reasons Why the Economy Will Falter
Aug. 8 stands out as a fateful day for Russia. It marks Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's greatest strategic blunder.

Yevgeny Kiselyov: How Russia Turns Liberals Into Authoritarians
Another August has ended. One would think that the last month of summer would be calm and quiet, but something dramatic and unusual happens almost every August.

Yulia Latynina: Turning Russia Into a Terrorist Enclave
Although no countries have joined Russia in recognizing South Ossetia's and Abkhazia's independence, Moscow can surely count on Hamas and Hezbollah for support.

Issue 3979 | 2 Sep 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: There Is No Such Thing as Post-Soviet Space
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, it has seemed that new rules were being established for the conduct of international relations in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The watchwords were independence and interdependence; sovereignty and mutual responsibility; cooperation and common interests. They are good words that need to be defended.

Op-Ed Contributor: The SCO's Rising Power
One of most discussed aspects of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Dushanbe over the weekend was the third point of the summit declaration devoted to the situation in South Ossetia.

Konstantin Sonin: Russia's Bronze Medal In International Affairs
Some people consider it a failure that Russia came in third in the medal count at the Beijing Games. Others feel that this was an honorable finish.

Nikolai Petrov: Andropov's Ghost Lives On
The open hostilities of the Georgian war have settled down, but the war of interpretations is still being fought.

Issue 3978 | 1 Sep 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Russia and the West Are a World Apart
The events of the last few weeks have made it clearer than ever that Russia has no place in Europe.

Op-Ed Contributor: Georgia Splits the Kremlin
To Our Readers The Moscow Times welcomes letters to the editor. Letters for publication should be signed and bear the signatory's address and telephone number. Letters to the editor should be sent by fax to (7-495) 232-6529, by e-mail to oped@imedia.ru, or by post. The Moscow Times reserves the right to edit letters. Email the Opinion Page Editor The Georgia crisis revealed a new strategic force in the Kremlin that opposes both Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. We still cannot name its players, but we are aware of its interests and impact on events in the same way that astronomers discern a new but invisible planet by recording its impact on known and visible objects in space. One after another, loyal Kremlin pundits have appeared on television and radio to denounce ""provokers,"" whom they dare not name, for ""planning the incursion of Russian troops all the way to Tbilisi and the establishment there of a pro-Russian government."" The line in the sand that U.S. President George W.

Mark H. Teeter: Show Russia the Good Side
September is upon us, and millions of Russian and American students, from fresh-scrubbed schoolchildren to grizzled doctoral candidates, are dutifully filing back into the halls of academe to resume the class struggle.

Matthew Collin: When a Toast for Peace Works Best in Russian
Sakartvelos gaumarjos!"" the young man shouted as he raised his brimming glass of wine high above his friends' heads in the traditional toast to his country, Georgia.

Issue 3977 | 29 Aug 2008

Editorial: Getting Russia to Pay for Its Defaulted Bonds

Op-Ed Contributor: Stalin's Poison Pills
A lot of attention was focused on the symbolic importance when Russian forces occupied Gori, the birthplace of Stalin. Few reflected, however, that this conflict, like many others in the post-Soviet states, is the product of what many in business call ""poison pills,"" arrangements that make it difficult, if not dangerous, for anyone to try to takeover or even change the basic arrangements of another firm.

Michele A. Berdy: One Way to Live Happily Ever After
To end up with nothingI don't know about you, but if I read, watch or see one more report on world events, I will lose my mind. I feel like I'm on the deck of the Titanic.

Issue 3976 | 28 Aug 2008

Georgy Bovt: Nation of Champions Starts in the Courtyard
With the Olympic Games over, we can now take a look at whether Russia achieved the status of athletic superpower.

Anders Aslund: Leonid Kuchma Built a Prosperous Ukraine
On Aug. 9, Leonid Kuchma turned 70 years old. For 10 years, from 1994 until 2004, he was the president of Ukraine. He arrived as the savior of his nation, but the Orange Revolution ended his second term. His legacy is rich but multifaceted.

Issue 3975 | 27 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: One Way to Save the Relationship
For anyone who cares deeply about U.S.-Russian relations, events in Georgia are a great tragedy, as they are for the inhabitants of the region -- the Ossetians, Abkhaz, Georgians and Russians alike.

Editorial: The Palestinians of the Caucasus
As of today, the main result of the Georgian-Russian war has been what might be called the ""Palestinization"" of the Caucasus.

Issue 3974 | 26 Aug 2008

Alexander Golts: Don't Trust Politicians With War
Until recently, I thought the famous quip by early 20th-century French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau that ""war is too important to be left to the generals"" had a lot of validity.

Alexei Pankin: Rethinking the War
Relying on common sense, it is clear to me that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili started the war.

Issue 3973 | 25 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Putin's Gold Medal War
What does the ""Olympics War,"" otherwise known as Russia's invasion of Georgia, really mean? The war itself, of course, was predicable and predicted. Its results are equally clear.

Alexei Bayer: The Age of Solzhenitsyn
Post-Soviet Russia is a curious place. It revels in unbridled jingoism that Soviet propaganda would have envied while renaming streets to honor dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But these may not be so incompatible after all.

Vladimir Frolov: How Pique and Spite Can Destroy Relations
The failure of Moscow and Washington to communicate over the conflict in Georgia has led to a rhetorical race that now threatens to shatter the U.S.-Russian relationship. Personal pique and spite have begun to cloud the leaders' judgment.

Op-Ed Contributor: Deadly Caucasus Avalanche
An avalanche that buries a town starts from a single rock rolling down the mountain. It is like the single spark that sets a forest ablaze. When the avalanche is crashing down the side of the mountain, we do not spend a lot of time thinking about how it started. Our first instinct is to run away from the danger.

Issue 3972 | 22 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Russia Values Oil More Than War
One counterintuitive feature of the five-day war between Russia and Georgia is its minimal impact on the energy flows from the Caspian to world markets.

Michele A. Berdy: When Leaving Is Not Quite Leaving
Every year as August approaches, I cross my fingers and hope that this month, so cursed for Russia, will pass peacefully without military, economic, social or political disasters. For a few years, August wasn't too bad. But this year, the curse is back.

Issue 3971 | 21 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Predicting the Next Aug. 17
What is there about modern-day Russia and the month of August? Each year it is rare that the month passes without Moscow finding itself caught up in some history-making event. This year it is the war with Georgia.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Georgian Crisis Is a Trap for U.S. Leadership
The fighting between Georgia and Russia has resulted in a serious political crisis in U.S.-Russian relations. It seems as if both sides have gone back to the sharp Cold War rhetoric of the early 1980s.

Editorial: Discussing the Complexities of the Caucasus War

Boris Kagarlitsky: Russia's Upside in the Georgia Conflict
Fortunately, the Russia-Georgia war was short-lived, but its repercussions will be felt for quite a long time. By defeating Georgia and showing that Washington was unable to defend its own ally, Russia humiliated the United States in front of the whole world.

Issue 3970 | 20 Aug 2008

Yulia Latynina: Looking Into Saakashvili's Caucasus Soul
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili's main aim in the war was to restore Georgia's territorial integrity. In this respect, he suffered a complete defeat.

Op-Ed Contributor: Going From Absolute Bust to Boom in 10 Years
For anybody who lived through it, Aug. 17, 1998, will remain seared in his memory.

Issue 3969 | 19 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: The End of the Post-Soviet Era
The dream that many inside and outside Russia had since the Soviet collapse -- to see Russia integrated with the West -- was crushed long before Russian tanks rolled into Georgia.

Konstantin Sonin: A Tried and True Diversion Tactic
In any country -- whether it is democratic or authoritarian -- politicians in power do everything they can to make citizens pay more attention to foreign policy issues and less to domestic ones. The reason is simple: it is easier to manipulate people when the issue is abstract and remote.

Issue 3968 | 18 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: The Kremlin's New Containment Policy
The war between Russia and Georgia is not about disputed territory or the personal animosity between Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Mark H. Teeter: Still Going for Their Gold
Several months after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, I spent an evening at a congenial Washington tavern with some visiting Russian scholars and a few local friends.

Matthew Collin: Fighting Russian Tanks With Patriotic Defiance
There was a long line at Georgia's southern border crossing as a growing number of cars, trucks and minibuses queued into the night to get out of the embattled country.

Issue 3967 | 15 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Indifference as a National Idea
I have often heard Russians say, Русский пофигизм неизлечим (The Russian attitude of ""I couldn't care less"" is incurable).

Issue 3966 | 14 Aug 2008

Georgy Bovt: Medvedev's Toughest Presidential Test
It was bound to happen at some point -- President Dmitry Medvedev would have to face the difficult test of responding to a serious crisis. It came last week, when Georgia attacked South Ossetia with a barrage of Grad truck-fired missiles.

Op-Ed Contributor: Georgia's Big Democracy Lie
The missile attacks on South Ossetian towns that Tbilisi started on Aug. 7 have had catastrophic consequences.

Issue 3965 | 13 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Russia Has Crossed the Line
In weeks and years past, each of us has argued that Russia was pursuing a policy of regime change toward Georgia and its pro-Western, democratically elected president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

Op-Ed Contributor: Georgia Caused This War
The war in South Ossetia must be understood for what it really is -- Georgia's one-sided escalation of the conflict. This places full responsibility for the bloodshed on Georgia's side.

Yulia Latynina: Gulliver's Battles
Late Thursday night, after destroying as much of Tskhinvali as it could with truck-mounted missiles, the Georgian military took control of the city.

Issue 3964 | 12 Aug 2008

Alexander Golts: The Failure of Realpolitik
The thinking in the Kremlin matches the realpolitik of the 19th century.

Alexei Pankin: Finding Out Who's to Blame for This War
Since Friday, I have been trying to figure out who is at fault for what is happening in South Ossetia.

Issue 3963 | 11 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: In Search of a Free Georgia and South Ossetia
Last week, tension between Russia and Georgia, which had been growing since the Rose Revolution brought Georgia's reformist, pro-U.S. President Mikheil Saakashvili to power in 2004, finally led to open hostility between the two countries.

Op-Ed Contributor: Moscow's Vassal and Enemy
After a weekend of heavy fighting in South Ossetia, accusations have been flying as to who did what to whom and when.

Vladimir Frolov: Georgia Set the Perfect Trap
This week will mark the first 100 days of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency, and foreign policy is unlikely to be counted as one of his major successes during this period.

Issue 3962 | 8 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Let's Go to the Moon and Mars Together
The United States and Russia are slipping and sliding into a dark vortex together. If this continues, the results won't be pretty.

Op-Ed Contributor: Stalinism Was Just as Bad as Nazism
Last week, Russia furiously attacked President George W. Bush for his statement that, ""In the 20th century, the evils of Soviet communism and Nazi fascism were defeated and freedom spread around the world as new democracies emerged.""

Issue 3961 | 7 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Solzhenitsyn's Troubled Prophetic Mission
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, viewed as a political figure, was very much in the Russian conservative tradition -- a modern version of Dostoevsky.

Yevgeny Kiselyov: The Great Writer Who Buried Communism
At Moscow's Donskoi Monastery on Wednesday, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was laid to rest. He was undoubtedly Russia's most internationally renowned modern writer.

Boris Kagarlitsky: Pyrrhic Olympic Victory for China
For China's leaders, the 2008 Summer Olympic Games were supposed to mark the country's incredible achievements -- a testament to the Celestial Empire's rebirth as a modern world power. Some observers even speak of China as the next global leader that will soon eclipse the waning power and influence of the United States.

Issue 3960 | 6 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Lessons From Solzhenitsyn's Life and Death
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who died Sunday evening in Moscow at 89, lived a life that is almost impossible to imagine.

Op-Ed Contributor: When the Kremlin Picks Its Own Bedfellows
A person who constantly takes offense at others often shows his own immaturity. Similarly, children, teenagers and emotionally unstable people are most often the ones who are easily offended.

Yulia Latynina: Justice According to Kadyrov
News agencies reported last week that Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov was the target of an assassination attempt.

Issue 3959 | 5 Aug 2008

Nikolai Petrov: The Same Old Presidential Reserve
Two weeks ago, President Dmitry Medvedev addressed a group of key aides and selected ministers about the acute need for attracting more qualified people to serve in government.

Issue 3958 | 4 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Moscow's Triangular Diplomacy
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Over three decades ago Richard Nixon pioneered a ""triangular diplomacy"" by forming two separate alliances with China and the Soviet Union, which had adversarial relations with each other in the early 1970s.

Op-Ed Contributor: Kazakhstan at Crossroads in Space
The politics of space are frequently eclipsed by the politics of energy, and yet disruptions in the satellite world can often have unforeseen consequences. There is a certain danger whenever you take either pipelines or satellites for granted.

Mark H. Teeter: A Summer of Discontent
You call this summer? The calendar says we're in the ""dog days,"" a steamy-scorchy period in which the ancient Greeks claimed ""the seas boiled, wine turned sour and dogs grew mad."" In Moscow's recent weather, the dogs aren't even mildly upset.

Matthew Collin: When Georgia's Piety Is Mixed With Politics
The defrocked priest left jail much more quietly than he had arrived.

Issue 3957 | 1 Aug 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Sechin's Ax
When examining the Mechel scandal, you can detect several symptoms of a larger, systemic malaise in Russia's economy.

Michele A. Berdy: Cleaning the Kitchen, Clothes and Mechel
Hygiene is real simple in English -- at least in terms of language. For the basics, all you really need to know are two verbs: to wash and to clean.

Issue 3956 | 31 Jul 2008

Georgy Bovt: King of the Hill
With all of the tremendous political weight that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accumulated over the last eight years, he has the rare ability to wreak havoc on financial markets with only one short phrase.

Op-Ed Contributor: Ending the Silent EU War
There has been little mutual trust lately between the governments of Russia and the European Union. Diplomatic relations between Britain and the Kremlin are at a low since Alexander Litvenenko was murdered -- allegedly by a Russian agent -- in London in 2006.

Anders Aslund: WTO Can Place Russia on the Right Track
The World Trade Organization's Doha round on further trade liberalization has just fallen apart in Geneva. Does that mean that Russia's application for WTO membership is now a nonissue? On the contrary, the WTO remains relevant regardless of whether or not further liberalization proceeds.

Issue 3955 | 30 Jul 2008

Alexander Golts: Dance of the Mad Swans
If you were to believe what is written in the Russian-language media, you would think that this country is on the verge of war -- not with tiny Georgia, but with the big United States.

Yulia Latynina: Putin's $60Bln House Call
On Thursday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin heaped criticism on a company for activities that he said were harmful to the country's economy.

Issue 3954 | 29 Jul 2008

Fyodor Lukyanov: Lessons From Bosnia
The arrest of Radovan Karadzic, who bears a significant portion of responsibility for the horrors of the civil war in Bosnia, is an appropriate ending to his political career.

Editorial: Good Theater Is Bad for the Stock Market
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's invective last week against Mechel sent shares in the coal and steel major tumbling. The immediate fallout from the prime minister's public accusations of price fixing saw the value of Mechel's capitalization plummet by $6 billion.

Alexei Pankin: Hoping for a Better August This Year
President Dmitry Medvedev's first August in office is approaching. Ever since the putsch attempt against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, Russians have awaited this month with anxiety. For some reason, the worst catastrophes seem to occur in August.

Issue 3953 | 28 Jul 2008

Vladimir Frolov: UN Veto Poorly Handled
Whether by accident or design, a badly thought-out decision on an international issue of minor importance to Russia has renewed the confusion in Western capitals as to who is really in charge in Moscow.

Editorial: A New Idea Smacks of Old Nomenklatura
President Dmitry Medvedev should be commended for publicly admitting what everyone knew was a large contributing factor to corruption in post-Communist Russia.

Alexei Bayer: Traffic Police Reflect Russia's Value System
My cousin once took her husband, a New York City narcotics detective, to her native Moscow. Late one night, as they chatted with friends on a boulevard, her husband took a walk to a nearby bush to answer the call of nature. There, he was promptly detained by a group of three police officers.

Issue 3952 | 25 Jul 2008

Michele A. Berdy: The Language of Overindulging
As someone who is always looking forward to my next snack or meal, I'm very happy in Russia. Russians are good eaters.

Issue 3951 | 24 Jul 2008

Op-Ed Contributor: Russia's Engine Is Stalling
Investors across Russia could be excused for missing the controversial economic data that came out on Monday. Unlike its Western counterparts, the State Statistics Service prefers not to preannounce release times.

Boris Kagarlitsky: Capitalism in One State
When Vladimir Putin was president, he liked to give short, somewhat ironic answers to difficult questions. In 2000, for example, when U.S. television talk show host Larry King asked him what happened to the Kursk, Putin answered, ""It sank.""

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