The Dilettante abides
The Dilettante abides
During a televised Q&A session in April 2013, Vladimir Putin responded to a journalist’s claim that Gazprom had mistakenly written off the shale gas revolution as a short-term fluke: So it’s hard to say whether Gazprom missed the ‘shale-gas revolution’…
In the previous post, I said I couldn’t recall anything like the recent contamination incident at Transneft in the past twenty-plus years. I wasn’t exaggerating, it turns out – according to Vitaly Yermakov of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies…
Last Sunday, Forbes wrote about Russian oil producers being forced to cut production, not because of the OPEC+ deal but due to an unforeseen disruption: After buyers in Europe discovered that $2.7 billion worth of oil they had purchased from…
Two teasers for a start. A new hotel on the outskirts of Moscow: It is even further out of town and stands next to an enormous strip club. Several of my fellow guests are wearing T-shirts with a picture of…
Bloomberg reported from Moscow yesterday: Rising oil prices have been a relief for Russia’s finances, but they’ve given the Kremlin a headache in the form of higher gasoline prices, hitting already-struggling consumers and fueling inflation. Struggling to control the increases,…
Germany’s export-import regulator BAFA used to break down natural gas imports by supplying country. For 2016 and 2017, BAFA provided no breakdown to avoid disclosing commercially sensitive information. For 1H2018, unexpectedly, the breakdown is back. Russia accounted for 39% of Germany’s natural gas…
President Trump claimed this at yesterday’s NATO summit: Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they will be getting from 60% to 70% of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline. I’m going to focus on the subordinate clause…
According to Bloomberg, President Trump tweeted this statement early Monday morning: Russia and China are playing the Currency Devaluation game as the U.S. keeps raising interest rates. Not acceptable! For decades, China has been intermittently accused of keeping the yuan…
This past Thursday, the US Department of the Treasury announced that John E. Smith will be leaving his position as Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in early May. Mr. Smith has served as OFAC’s Director/Acting Director…
This post is about William “Bill” Browder’s recent Senate testimony on the enforcement of the Foreign Agent Registration Act. While you don’t have to trust Browder on other issues, his testimony makes it rather likely that Fusion GPS tried to…
Good to hear about Russian entrepreneurs doing something cutting-edge and producing something immediately marketable: Amid the satellites, virtual reality headsets, 3D printers and other hi-tech products on show at Skolkovo’s recent Startup Bazaar, the stand housing a cage of buzzing…
Ronald Smith, also known as Ron Smith, Citigroup’s oil and gas analyst covering Russia and the CIS, argues in the Financial Times (if you cannot access it, try googling the title and reading Google’s cache) that Russia is likely to…