Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
Nicholas Shaxson says almost everything I feel I’ve wanted to say, and much more, about the London-centered offshore network and its side effects. In the first section of his long, well-structured article, Shaxson surveys responses to Ben Judah’s recent NYT piece,…
The current Putin-Medvedev government wants Russian-owned businesses with a primary focus in Russia to be domiciled in Russia. At the same time, Putin’s latest Constitutional amendment is doing away with the most advanced segment of Russia’s otherwise pathetic legal system,…
Russia has announced that it will be replacing the original piracy charges against the Greenpeace 30 with hooliganism and, for some, resistance to lawful authorities. Hooliganism is becoming a one size fits all charge – unexpectedly linking Pussy Riot and…
Back to the 30 Greenpeace activists who have been or are going to be charged with piracy in Murmansk. Once again, the reasons why the charge is absurd under international law have been laid out by prof. Kontorovich (scroll down…
Offshore oil production is less than 3% of Russia’s total but Russia has grandiose plans for oil and gas production in the Arctic ocean as well as the Black Sea and the Far Eastern seas. ExxonMobil’s and Shell/s experience operating…
Russia produces over 10 million barrels per day – 500+ million tons per year – of crude and condensate, about as much as Saudi Arabia. Which of the two countries is No. 1 in total liquids output depends on how and…
Greenpeace vs Gazprom… It’s not piracy under Russian law. The platform is not a ship and the activists weren’t after Gazprom’s property. See the criminal code of the Russian Federation, Article 227, “Piracy”: “An attack on a sea or river…