28.04.09: Russia’s Admiral Panteleyev anti-submarine ship captured a suspected pirate vessel with 29 people on board 15 miles off the coast of Somalia. Kalashnikov rifles, several pistols, ammunition, an aluminum ladder, and satellite navigation equipment were seized. Russia is among several naval powers with warships in the area to protect one of the world’s busiest [...]

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin laid out aggressive measures to encourage more lending to companies and shore up the troubled Russian banking sector. Putin urged the Central Bank to lower interest rates now that the threat of inflation has receded. He has also called on officials to make it easier for banks to recover money [...]

The Sakhalin regional government announced that a group led by U.S. ExxonMobil will invest about $2 billion into Russia’s Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project this year. Gazprom has long said it needs the gas produced at Sakahlin-1 to cover domestic needs, while Exxon plans to export the fuel to China. Exxon operates the $12 billion [...]

Happy Pascha 2009! Your friends at RADA

ASHGABAT: Turkmenistan’s president blamed Russia’s state gas monopoly, Gazprom, for a pipeline blast that shut off the Central Asian country’s exports. President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov accused Russia’s Gazprom of “technological errors” causing Wednesday’s blast, and demanded payment repairs and compensate Turkmenistan for damages. The Foreign Ministry said last week the explosion occurred after the Russian gas [...]

The Centre of Firefighting Robotechnics in Petrozavodsk, a city in northern Russia, has modified device for extinguishing fires on seagoing vessels and in ports. The new device still fights fires, but is also useful for repelling pirate attacks. This is a response to the alarming number of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden off [...]

Azerbaijan may be the oldest petroleum producing region in the world, going back to the third and fourth centuries. Many Arabic and Persian authors refer to the production of oil on the Apsheron Peninsula. Marco Polo also saw the oil. He commented that it was not good to eat, but understood that it could be [...]