In March, Russia was faced with the unsavory prospect of a considerable loss of funds kept by Russian enterprises and individuals in Cyprus, traditionally one of the most attractive jurisdictions for Russian businesses A significant portion of those funds was frozen or seized by the Cypriot...

February saw yet another flare-up in the ongoing turf war between economic clans, first of all between Ivan Sechin's and Arkady Dvorkovich's groups of influence. The latest flare-up was so strong that it even spilled over into Russia's state-owned TV channels. Thus, in one of its programs aired...

January 2013 saw yet another surge in protests in Russia – now caused by Vladimir Putin's approval, on New Year's eve, of the draft law banning U.S. citizens to adopt Russian orphans (it should be noted that Russia's authorities have so far failed to offer the orphans anything worth mentioning...

In December 2012, the so-called ‘Magnitsky Law' came into force in the United States. This law empowers and obliges the U.S. President to compose the list of persons responsible for the death of the Hermitage Capital Management investment fund's counselor Sergey Magnitsky and persons violating...

In November 2012, RF Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdiukov, accused of abetting corruption in his ministry, was sacked from office; former Deputy Minister of Regional Development was arrested; criminal proceedings against the managers of Rostelekom and the former top officials of the RF Ministry of...

The top news story of November was the indirect polemical dispute between Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, centered on the RF Investigative Committee's attempt to restore at least one of its previous established powers – the right of investigators to open tax fraud cases without a request...

In August, Victor Ishaev was dismissed from his post as Russia's Minister for the Development of the Far East – his extravagantly costly approaches to solving the region's problems without having made even a feeble attempt at setting any priorities, had finally infuriated both the RF...

In July 2013, Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison. It appears, however, that he would be allowed – on procedural grounds, since no appeal hearing has been held yet – to run for mayor in mayoral elections in Moscow on September 8, 2013. A...

In August 2015, oil prices continued to slide, and the RF Ministry of Economic Development cut Russia's economic outlook for 2015. JSC Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin handed in his resignation; best seen in conjunction with recent developments in Russia's big state-owned companies, this...

In July 2015, the SCO and BRICS held their simultaneous summits in Ufa. The main result of those summits was the conclusion of agreements on the creation of the BRICS contingent reserve and the establishment of the New Development Bank. Another major event of July was the so-called Iran Nuclear...