Russia: Other Points of View

Russia Hosts the BRICS Countries this week

DEAR FRIENDS,  IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY….

Russia would have gladly cooperated and become a member of the Western community.

Offered no responses to their continual questing to be accepted, below is the final result.

Although no one mentions it, we now have a bi-polar world again––both armed to the teeth militarily.This was and is still needless.

Will we ever learn????

Sharon

Published on Russia Insider News (http://russia-insider.com) 

Russia Warmly Accepted in Non-West Community

Marko Marjanovich

This article originally appeared at China Daily by Dmitri Trenin 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host two important international summits, one of the BRICS group on July 8-9 and the other of Shanghai Cooperation Organizations members on July 9-10.

For public relations, this will allow him to send a message to the world that despite the rupture with Europe and a new “standoff” with the United States, Russia is anything but isolated.

With leaders of China, India, Brazil, Pakistan, South Africa, Iran and several other countries in attendance, together representing roughly half of the world’s population, Putin will be able to project an image of Russia joining the global “new wave” of non-Western countries raising their profile and expanding their role in the world. 

The Dangers of a Declining Global Power

Friends, at last credible voices are speaking out about the primary cause behind Washington's incessant drive to take Russia down––or out.

Sadly,  our great America is in decline -- slowly but surely.  Russia (and China) definitely are on the incline.  Just having come from four different regions in Russia, it is clear that the latter  is a country whose momentum is upward and they are moving at a fast clip.  China, is even more so, I'm told.  So why is it that Russia is Washington's  #1 target? 

Perhaps it is that for some 130 years American administrations have been trying to out-compete Russia, including the 50 years of US-USSR confrontation during which we were in a duel to death with 50,000 nuclear missiles (on launch pads and ready to fire) between us.  We didn't have that personal history with China.  But with Russia and her ill-gotten Republics, it was a very personal vendetta.  And now in the 2000s to see Russia coming up in the world and ourselves in decline –– this must be a deafening blow to those elder white males whose power still runs America today. It becomes clear why the demonization of Russia and Putin have been so intense, so intractable––perhaps thinking that taking them out or down would solve our decline problems?

CHINA TIGHTENS BONDS WITH MOSCOW

REPRINTS

Xi tightens bonds with Moscow

By Brendan O'Reilly

Brendan P O'Reilly is a China-based writer and educator from Seattle. He is author of The Transcendent Harmony. He may be reached at[email protected]

Xi Jinping highlighted the essential nature of the Sino-Russian relationship by making Moscow his first foreign destination after his appointment as president. In talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Xi promised to expand economic, military, and strategic cooperation between the two nuclear powers.

The deepening bond between Beijing and Moscow has immense implications for the entire world - especially the United States. Indeed, it appears that Washington may have made a failed attempt at a "divide and rule" stratagem before Xi's Russian trip.

RUSSIA WEEK: PREVAILING NERVOUSNESS

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

By Chris Weafer

The dominant sentiment in all global markets is one of nervousness. Nervousness that Europe’s debt problems may worsen and threaten the pace of economic recovery in the region; nervousness that China’s efforts to contain inflation growth may slow demand for imported materials; nervousness that events across the Middle East may yet worsen and drive the price of oil to a level that also damages the growth outlook. That sentiment is unlikely to change much this week and, perhaps not for several weeks. For investors that means avoiding risk assets and stocking to defensive themes until some of these issues are resolved or stabilized (see Stock Watch below).

The eurozone and the euro will hold centre stage at the start of this week and that will be a big contributory factor to where the dollar-euro rate trades. The dollar remains one of the major factors in the oil and metals market and a driver of sentiment towards risk assets generally. EU Finance Ministers are scheduled to meet early this week to decide on what action is required to resolve Greece’s debt problem. The yield on Greek debt and the CDS market all clearly show that investors are pricing in a high risk of Greek debt restructuring, albeit most expect a fresh bailout as part of that restructuring

Last week the dollar extended the previous week’s rally as investors reverted to the US currency as a haven to escape the threat of a worsening debt problem in the eurozone and the threat to growth in Asia as China introduced further measures to slow credit growth. The dollar gained 1.4% against the euro to close at $1.4118.

Gold staged a strong rally early as traders took the view that a price below $1,500 per ounce is unjustified. But the mid week strength did not hold as the dollar rally undermined the case for haven assets. Gold fell 0.9% on Friday to cut the five-day gain to 0.1% and the closing price to $1,493.6 per ounce.

The full note, with this week’s Stock Watch, diary, weekly funds flow analysis, tables showing the best and worst share performance of last week and year to date can be downloaded here Download Russia_Week_May_17_11.

RUSSIA STRATEGY BRIEFING: MODERNIZATION – THE POLITICAL PRIORITY INDUSTRIES

RUSSIA STRATEGY BRIEFING

by Chris Weafer

Included below are three informal notes looking at the practical implications for investors of the president’s modernization programme. Economic Glasnost was issued Dec 21^st and Talking Modernization, Prioritizing Energy was issued January 5^th. Modernization – the Political Priority Industries was issued January 14^th.

Strategy Briefing: Economic Glasnost

Twenty years after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost brought about the end of the Soviet Union, the government of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is again embarked on a strategy of openness. Only this time they are banking on economic glasnost to attract the investment flows that Russia needs to both create greater diversity in the country’s oil-dependent economy and to rebuild its aging infrastructure. 

They are also hoping that the open door will swing both ways as Russia’s industries also need to create strategic links with established companies, especially in Europe. That is what is behind the government’s greater determination to improve how foreign investors, legislators and major corporations view Russia. It also explains why the country is so keen on attracting major sporting events such as the World Cup and a Grand Prix, and why, after 17 years of hesitancy, there is now greater urgency to be admitted into the World Trade Organization in 2011. Russia needs the investment capital and the expertise of Western companies if it is to break the stranglehold of oil. That is why the modern-day economic glasnost is real and will be sustained.

THE CHINA CARD

by Eugene Ivanov

(This piece originally appeared on Russia Beyond the Headlines)

Long gone are the times when aged and frail denizens of the Kremlin would go on a foreign trip only on special occasions: to sign a strategic arms control treaty or to visit with fellow septuagenarians in the so-called fraternal socialist countries.  (In the latter case, the visit would begin with a triple fraternal kiss.)

These days, Russia’s young, youthful and fit leaders travel abroad non-stop.  However, it’s not arms control negotiations, much less “ideology,” that is driving them.  It’s all about business.  Usually accompanied by a bunch of prominent businesspeople, Russian top guns relentlessly tour the world to advance Russia’s economic interests.

President Dmitry Medvedev’s three-day trip to China last week was no exception: Out of 15 documentssigned by the two countries, 12 dealt with different aspects of Russia-China economic cooperation.  The visit itself pointedly ended with Medvedev and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, presiding over the opening of a 625-mile oil pipeline from Eastern Siberia to China.

Russia, China, Iran Redraw Energy Map

REPRINTS

By M K Bhadrakumar

Asia Times, January 8, 2009

The inauguration of the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline on Wednesday connecting Iran's northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan's vast gas field may go unnoticed amid the Western media cacophony that it is "apocalypse now" for the Islamic regime in Tehran. 

The event sends strong messages for regional security. Within the space of three weeks, Turkmenistan has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and Iran. It has no urgent need of the pipelines that the United States and the European Union have been advancing. Are we hearing the faint notes of a Russia-China-Iran symphony?

RUSSIA'S TILT TOWARD CHIINA

ROPV CONTRIBUTORS

by Andrey Tsygankov

Russia is increasingly unable to resist the charm of China’s economic and political influence. As Russia’s relatively low productivity translates into declining competitiveness, China’s ways of influencing the north continue to expand.

Even routine domestic economic decisions in Russia are increasingly made with a consideration for China. For instance, Beijing sent a delegation to Moscow in July to negotiate conditions of a large group of ethnic Chinese affected by the Moscow government’s decision to close the large Cherkizovsky Market following multiple violations of labor and immigration law. Headed by Beijing’s deputy trade minister, the delegation negotiated restoration of the trading area on condition of a Chinese $1 billion investment.

But in recognition of the growing need for China’s investments and export markets, Russia was unwilling to press environmental claims against its neighbor when it polluted the Amur River.

China’s rising importance has translated into the growing prominence of the Sinophiles in Russia’s national discussions. Since the end of the Soviet Union, the China discourse has evolved from one dominated by the Westernizers to one largely controlled by the Sinophiles, who have supporters in the government, energy firms with ties to Asia and the military-industrial complex.