Germany, Russia, and natural gas

Valdis Krebs has an illuminating post about the network of natural gas pipelines in Europe and how it confers power upon Russia.

Germany is a leader in the development of renewable energy and Krebs' map makes it very clear as to why that is so.

The situation in the Caucuses

Saakashvili says Moscow wants to oust him

President Mikheil Saakashvili on Monday accused the Russian government of invading undisputed Georgian territory and of seeking to depose his government as foreign ministers from the Group of Seven urged Russia to agree an immediate ceasefire with Tbilisi.

Blow to hopes of oil pipeline security

The so-called east-west energy corridor across Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey established with strong political backing from the US, has eroded Russia’s stranglehold over energy exports from one of the world’s few remaining untapped oil provinces.

Dubbed the “pipeline for peace” by its western promoters in the 1990s, the 1m-barrels-a-day Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline commissioned in 2006 has brought a new source of high-quality oil into the Mediterranean to compete with Russian supplies.

Ivan Safronov

Russian Military Reporter Dies In Fall

(AP) A military correspondent for Russia's top business daily has died after falling out of a window, and some media alleged Monday that he might have been killed for his critical reporting.

Ivan Safronov, the military affairs writer for Kommersant, died Friday after falling from a fifth-story window in the stairwell of his apartment building in Moscow, officials said. His body was found by neighbors shortly after the fall.

He will be missed.

Sssh!!

Russia's oldest theater hushes cell phones