Russia

Video from China/Japan Presentation and DC Trip

I gave a presentation on China/Japan at the “Rethinking Seminar” at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.  My presentation was ...

Randoms: Invitation to Presentation; Vodafone; Russia

Randoms: Invitation to Presentation; Vodafone; Russia

I’ll cover a lot of random subjects, but let me start with an invitation. I was invited to give a talk about China and Japan at my alma mater, the University of Colorado at Denver.

Dear Mr. Ex-KGB

Dear Mr. Ex-KGB

Dear Mr. Ex-KGB, desperate times call for desperate measures. No kidding. I understand why you took the collapse of the Soviet Union model added some wishful thinking and applied it to the United States.

Russia Wrestles With Ruble Collapse

Russia Wrestles With Ruble Collapse

Bad decisions when times were fat spell a rough road ahead for those who hold their savings in Russian currency.  It is amazing how things change in a few months.

Fly, Don’t Buy Airlines or Why Big Banks Make Dumb Loans

Why would somebody ever give a loan or buy airline bonds of any country?  I can understand buying distressed bonds or maybe a stock as a trade.

Russia We Dont Need the West Anymore

Russia: We Don’t Need the West Anymore

Royal Dutch Shell's $7.5 billion sale to Gazprom may have been coerced by the Russian government. Vitaliy Katsenelson looks at the Sakhalin-2 sale and examines the long-term implications if Russia disregards Western investment.

Russian Thievery

Russian Thievery

The Russian government's threat to suspend licenses for two giga-billion projects by TNK-BP, in part owned by BP (BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-A), is not uncharacteristic of Russia and its very short term thinking.