Free Republic

A group of Russian dissidents and Kremlin critics said in an open letter Tuesday that Poland gives too much credit to Russia by not asking any questions about Russia’s investigation into the April crash that killed the Polish president. Russian-Polish relations have for years been spectacularly bad as both countries fought for influence in the post-Soviet countries of eastern Europe and the Caucasus and Poland asserted it independence. Current disagreements over energy and military plans continue to cloud the relationship already marred by historic disputes, especially over the Soviet Union’s brutal domination of nations in central and eastern Europe in...

EUOBSERVER / TBILISI – The Georgian president had no other option than to attack South Ossetia in order to save his country from a Russian coup, Andrei Illarionov, former advisor to Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with EUobserver on the margins of the "European Resource Bank" conference which took place in Tbilisi last weekend (9-12 October). The official explanations of the Russian authorities, that they defended the "life," "health" and "dignity" of Russian citizens - regardless how these people were granted citizenship in the first place - "do not hold water," since there were many other conflicts like...

Flat production is causing high prices across the nationWASHINGTON - For most of the past decade, Russia, the world's second largest oil producer and exporter, provided the extra supply needed to meet the world's growing thirst for oil. Now its production is flat and the world oil market is drum tight. The timing of Russia's failure to expand oil production couldn't be worse, and experts differ on why it no longer can be counted upon as a swing producer. Some say President Vladimir Putin is deliberately keeping production flat to keep prices high and expand Russian influence. Others think its...

Close your eyes and say it out loud: "G-8." Let the two syllables run across your tongue again: "gee-eight." What images drift into your brain?If you are like most Americans, I suspect that this simple psychological experiment will produce something like, "stuffy statesmen, boring meeting, prepackaged conclusions." Or maybe, "screaming protesters, riot police, prepackaged slogans." Or even, "turn the page and read something else."~SNIP~Perhaps you think it ridiculous to sound so apocalyptic about a meeting that most Americans find too boring to read about. But don't listen to me, listen to Andrei Illarionov, an economic adviser to Putin before he...

MOSCOW — An economist who resigned as President Vladimir Putin's adviser to protest what he called the government's backtracking on freedoms accused the Kremlin on Thursday of turning Russia into a "corporate" state run by self-interested bureaucrats. Speaking to Ekho Moskvy radio, Andrei Illarionov said that Russia cannot be considered politically free and warned that government-controlled corporations have stifled competition and ignored the interests of the people. "These quasi-state corporations are in fact driven by private interests while taking advantage of their state status and privileges," Illarionov said. "The state has come to serve the interests of several corporations instead...

THE RESIGNATION of Russian President Vladimir Putin's top economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, was an uncommon gesture of integrity.... He described as ''swindles of the year" recent notorious takeovers of private energy companies by state-owned outfits. He also crossed a red line by praising the Ukrainian government of President Viktor Yushchenko for annulling the fraudulent sale of a state-owned steel plant to the son-in-law of his corrupt predecessor, Leonid Kuchma, for only $800 million. The plant was then sold to a German firm for $4.82 billion. Illarionov had to know that spotlighting the Putin clique's particular shady deals, and lauding Yushchenko's...

President Vladimir Putin's outspoken liberal economic adviser Andrei Illarionov announced his resignation to protest what he said was an end to political freedom in Russia. "It is one thing to work in a partially free country, as Russia was six years ago. It's another when the country has stopped being politically free," Illarionov, 44, was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS news agency on Tuesday. He said he expected Putin to accept his resignation. Illarionov, who became Putin's economic adviser in 2000, said he did not recognise the country anymore. "In these six years the situation has radically changed and in...

MOSCOW - When President Vladimir Putin recently booted one of his top advisers out of a key post, many Kremlin-watchers thought the man probably had it coming. After all, liberal economist Andrei Illarionov had used the indelicate phrase "scam of the year" to describe the government's gutting of oil giant Yukos. He also had ridiculed the Kremlin's bungled interventions in the recent Ukrainian presidential election. But Putin's demotion of the naughty Illarionov from his inner circle was far more than an overdue wrist slap or personnel shuffle, analysts said. And it begged the larger, nagging question: Where is Putin taking...

MOSCOW, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has stripped adviser Andrei Illarionov of a key role after the maverick economist lambasted the state's legal assault on oil giant YUKOS . Illarionov is famously outspoken, but his comments on the state-imposed sale of a key YUKOS asset -- which he called "the scam of the year" -- were strong even by his standards. Putin has said the sale of YUKOS unit Yuganskneftegaz, which was bought for $9.4 billion by state oil firm Rosneft, had been a legitimate business deal. A Kremlin statement released late on Monday appointed Igor Shuvalov...

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday stripped many of the duties of his top economic adviser - an outspoken critic who has accused the Kremlin of trying to muzzle voices of dissent and civil society in Russia. Andrei Illarionov, who last week said the Kremlin efforts to censure the public would eventually spark mass protests, was stripped of his responsibilities as Russia's envoy to the Group of 8 industrial nations, the Kremlin said. Another top adviser, Igor Shuvalov, was given Illarionov's duties, which typically involve heavy preparations for G-8 summit and meetings, earning the envoys the affectionate...

<p>President Bush could kill two shibboleths with one stone were he to pick up the phone and tell Vladimir Putin what an asset the Russian President has in Andrei Illarionov. It could encourage Russia to finally ditch the Kyoto Protocol, as well as serve as the start of a much smarter global warming policy in the U.S.</p>