Thursday Video: Back in the USSR
Yesterday, President Putin used a wide-ranging and lengthy press conference to forcefully rebut growing criticism of his country's energy policies. Supply cut-offs and price increases, he argued, aren't an attempt to batter states in the near-abroad into toeing Russia's line; they're merely the rational application of market principles. It's actually a little more complicated than ...
Yesterday, President Putin used a wide-ranging and lengthy press conference to forcefully rebut growing criticism of his country's energy policies. Supply cut-offs and price increases, he argued, aren't an attempt to batter states in the near-abroad into toeing Russia's line; they're merely the rational application of market principles. It's actually a little more complicated than that, writes French energy banker Jérôme Guillet in a new Web exclusive for FP, but the big picture is that Europeans are unfairly blaming Putin for their own mistakes.
Yesterday, President Putin used a wide-ranging and lengthy press conference to forcefully rebut growing criticism of his country's energy policies. Supply cut-offs and price increases, he argued, aren't an attempt to batter states in the near-abroad into toeing Russia's line; they're merely the rational application of market principles. It's actually a little more complicated than that, writes French energy banker Jérôme Guillet in a new Web exclusive for FP, but the big picture is that Europeans are unfairly blaming Putin for their own mistakes.
Energy isn't the only area in which Russia is causing concern. The Bond-esque intrigue surrounding the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko got a little deeper this week when word leaked that the British government might point the finger at a former KGB officer. But during the press conference, Putin dismissed concerns about possible Russian state involvement in the affair:
He was not privy to any secrets, he had been convicted in the Russian Federation for abuse of office, specifically, for beating people when arresting them when he was a security man and for stealing explosives," Mr Putin said. "All the negative things he could have said about his previous employer, he had already said a long time ago."
Which makes our Thursday Video this week all the more intriguing. In it, Litvinenko makes an appearance from beyond the grave—as a shooting target for Russian special forces:
If he was so insignificant, why did someone feel strongly enough to use his face for target practice?
Maybe the war on terrorism is just provoking nostalgia for the clear-cut lines of the Cold War. But, with journalists turning up dead in Moscow, KGB hands running everything, and Red Army surplus missiles making their way to a certain U.S. adversary, it certainly seems like a resurgent Russia is getting back its old swagger:
(Video hat tip: Russia Blog)
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