Very interesting documentary. Check out part one. For most years since 1991, abortions have outnumbered births in Russia.

This has to be one of the biggest historical ironies of all time. 

Somehow we missed this, but back in October, officials from Putin's United Russia Party met behind closed doors with senior officials from the Chinese Communist Party. The goal? To learn from China how to construct a one-party state that combines political control with strong economic growth. 

Communist China transitioned fairly smoothly to a market economy, while Russia lost an entire decade to economic chaos. Since then, China has become the world's supplier of manufactured goods. Russia's economy looks third-worldish in comparison, mostly dependent on resources. 

Russia turning to China for guidance also marks a change in the times. In the 1990s, Russia went to America for advice. But Russia's economic failure during that decade eroded faith in the American system, not to mention the current crisis. In 2010, Russia still doesn't have a plan to solve the country's many problems, only a personality. For a sustainable solution, Russia is now looking to China for inspiration. 

Perhaps Russia is finally proving that Marx was correct. History repeats itself: the first time as a tragedy, and the second time as a farce.

New year, same story in Russia's near abroad. On the first anniversary of the 2009 Ukraine-Russian gas crisis, Russia is once again embroiled in a conflict over fuel with a former Soviet state, this time Belarus.

The row began when the two sides failed to sign a new oil delivery agreement before the old one ran out on December 31st, 2009. At issue is the potential reduction of Russian subsidies that allowed Belarus to purchase oil for domestic consumption duty-free and for export at 35.6% of the standard tarrif rate. Overall, the price hike would cost Belarus $2.5 billion or 5% of its GPD in 2010.

Over the weekend, it became apparent that a quick solution wouldn't be forthcoming when Belenergo, the Belarusian state electric company, announced that it was planning to cut the transfer of electricity to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

If you haven't checked in on Russian-Belarusian relations for a while this rancor may come as a bit of a shock. The two countries remained extremely close after the disintegration of the Soviet Union; current president Aleksandr G. Lukashenko was all but installed by the Kremlin in 1994 and a big part of his policy has been cooperation with Russia under the framework of the Union State.

Relations began to slip in 2007 when Lukashenko protested an increase in the price of Russian gas. Since that initial tiff, the Belarusian president has attempted to gain leverage against Russia by pursuing better relations with the West while giving Moscow the finger any chance he gets. 

The issue is that the West has little to gain by dealing with Mr. Lukashenko (see political pariah in the dictionary for picture) and more to loose from angering Russia unnecessarily. Unless Lukashenko comes back to heel, it will likely be a very cold winter in Minsk.

Citing ever dubious "technical issues," Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko announced that work on the Bushehr nuclear plant in Southern Iran will not be completed this year as expected. This isn't the first time Russia has balked at finishing the Bushehr project. The date has been pushed back multiple times since the Russia officially agreed to begin work in 1995.

Analyzing the timing of events like this always has the quality of a tea leaf reading. With that in mind, the most obvious explanation is that the Russians are actually committed to working with the West to impede Iran's nuclear progress and are using Bushehr (which isn't directly involved in Iran's nuclear weapons program) to generate leverage.

Last year while interning for the Hudson Institute I wrote a piece on the history of contemporary Russian-Iranian relations. Anyone interested in  50 pages of background on Bushehr, Russian-Iranian arms trade, etc. can download the whole paper below.

-Evan

He's done it again. I didn't think anything could top the Putin Outdoors photo set the Kremlin released back in August. But Putin's awkward visit to Muz TV's studios to present an award to the winner of a freestyle rap battle is certainly much funnier.

Mikhail Kalashnikov is responsible for designing the one Soviet product that is more ubiquitous than Coca Cola or McDonalds: The AK-47. On this his 90th birthday, Russia felt the need recognize him for his contribution to death by giving him the "Hero of the Russian Federation" award. Lovely.

Sometimes you just have to cut your loses and start over. Apparently this is what the Obama administration has decided to do with the long awaited European missile defense shield. I can't say that I'm sad to see it go.

The Bush era missile defense scheme for Europe had as much credibility as Gaddafi's son's thesis on the democratization. The system, which to date has cost the US close to a billion dollars, wouldn't have been able to effectively defend against an attack of more than two missiles, distinguish between a simple decoy and real missile, or identify a missile as such if its nose cone was covered with a shiny, metallic shell. And that is just a short list of its failings.

For more details, check out the East-West Institute's report on Iran's ballistic missile program and America's response; section 4 is particularly informative.

While I'm happy to see thisineffective cash-cow go the way of the dinosaur, I can't help but find the timing of the move particularly interesting.  Anyone else think this is an attempt to curry favor with Russia in advance of what will surely be tough negotiations on sanction for Iran?

-Evan

More after the jump -->