Unusually upbeat article on Russia from the Toronto Star
Critics may warn of the erosion of political rights in Russia - but consumers just want to hit the malls.
Customers jostle and push, stuffing their carts with everything from Swedish furniture to Calvin Klein underwear. The stores – IKEA, Zara, Marks & Spencer – would be familiar [...]

So, BBC’s Panorama has cracked the Litvinenko case. As the opening titles quickly tell: it was Putin, in the Pine Bar, with the teacup.
Moreover, Panorama ‘reveals’ there were multiple attempts to kill Litvinenko. Hmmm. Did they keep making him cups of tea he didn’t drink? What happened to all the other ‘dirty’ teacups? Why do [...]

Time for another Steve Earle song:
Another time, another place
Another wind to blame
Cover every track and trace
I’ll find you just the same
And even if we made our peace
And went our separate ways
You’d go West and I’d go East
And we’d meet here in this place
(Chorus)
Why do we do this to each other?
Guess we were always poison lovers
Play: [...]

Does Russia Need A Pipeline Through Belarus?

The great Belarus energy shut down is over and . . . guess what. The lights did not ‘go out all over Europe’ and ‘thousands of Germans’ did not ‘freeze in their homes’. The chance of that happening was, and is, zero.

While the scaremongering, Russophobic reporting was expected, bad-mouthing [...]

Over at Siberian Light, Andy adds some needed perspective on the Russia-Belarus oil spat by adding some actual numbers.

As in the previous Ukraine gas row, the figures don’t support the media hype at all.
Since Andy has covered oil, let’s recap on the gas. Many European countries do not actually import gas from Russia, and [...]

Honestly. What is all this energy fuss about? What would a country like Belarus do with oil or gas, except to sell it on to its hateful Euro-neighbours at a vastly inflated profit?
You Western bloggers know nothing. Ever been to Belarus? Didn’t think so. Well let me tell you, it’s clockwork central. And the national [...]

2006 really put the skids under Anglo-Russian relations.
To be honest, the year didn’t start well. Last January saw the outing of the British spies in Moscow and the fabled transmitter under the rock incident. Crawling out from under the same rock was some British Embassy funding for NG0s which were not entirely apolitical.
At least the [...]

Martin Kelly notes that Russophobia is back, big time. (Scroll down to article, ‘Let’s All Start A War With Russia‘. ) Have the Telegraph people been reading too many comics?

Junior reporters at the Telegraph (count about a reading age of 9) could be forgiven since the GRU logo is indeed Batman inspired.
Interesting note from [...]

An interesting walk-on part in the Litvinenko drama is that of Andrei Sidelnikov.
So far, he has made few column inches. In the great murder mystery, he is only reported for having had a sandwich in Oxford Street with Litvinenko and later testing negative for Polonium.
But Andrei is one guy you could perhaps genuinely describe [...]

Who needs facts or evidence when you have a libellous rag like the UK Independent?
‘Putin Murdered My Son’ it screams, with another screed of speculative slander - this time from Litvinenko’s father, Valter.
Of course one should have sympathy for Valter. I suppose it can’t be much fun being the father of a traitor who [...]