Russia & Central Asia

-The age of the train: myth or reality?
-Buffett gambles £27bn on rail to get back on track
-Buffett’s Bet on Trains
-Is Warren Buffett's Railway Buy a Billion Dollar Bet on Big Coal?
-It's Time to Rebuild Our Passenger Railroad System
-India jumps on gold bandwagon but Warren Buffett rides the growth train

-The heart of India is under attack
-Shale gas blasts open world energy market
-Shale gas numbers may not add up
-It’s a dirty business — the new gold rush that is blackening Canada’s name

-Push for Afghanistan troop increase continues on deadly day
-Success elusive for U.S. policy in Afghanistan
-Former Marine captain resigns in protest of Afghanistan war
-The great gamble
-A Crash Course in Democracy

Through September 2009, the government of India has issued a variety of statements designed to quell India's long-lived China bogey. It has done so to contain what it calls panic and scare-mongering about alleged incursions over the India-China border by units of the People's Liberation Army. The 'incidents' (as the Indian media like to call the events) have all occurred over India's north-western border with China, in the mountainous Jammu and Kashmir state.

John Bumgarner, a former cyber-security expert for the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies, is attracting much attention for his report concluding that Russia's military offensive in Georgia last year was coordinated with a pre-arranged civilian cyber-attack on the country. What appears to have gone unreported is Bumgarner's conclusion that the region's oil apparatus was a strategic target of the overall conventional-and-cyber offensive.

-Turkey Plays Both Sides on Gas Pipelines
-Dmitry Medvedev attacks 'anti-Russian' Ukraine
-Natural gas, not so sustainable

Russian move raises supply crunch fears
Reject Russia’s Energy ‘Blackmail’, Vaclav Havel Urges Europe
EU executive demands new powers in gas crises

Report: Climate change will bring big problems for small number of countries
Moscow warns of future energy wars
King Abdullah of Jordan's ultimatum: peace now or it’s war next year
Pipelineistan goes Af-Pak

In the unfolding global financial collapse, it is not just our accounts and balance sheets that come up short, but our language as well. What do you call a bunch of liar loans packaged into toxic assets and placed on the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve as collateral for rescue loans? ... The Russians actually have a word for precisely the thing that has bewitched us, first accounting for an ever-increasing share of our gross domestic product, and is now responsible for our ever-larger financial black hole.

Russia to cut oil exports, raise domestic consumption - Sechin
Saudi warns of 'catastrophic' energy crunch
Mass. conference on health care and peak oil (April 14)

Russian household plots produced about 90% of all the potatoes in Russia, 80% of all the vegetables, 50% of the meat and milk, etc.

Congratulations, everyone, we have a new president: a fresh new face, a capable, optimistic, inspiring figure, ushering in a new era of responsibility, ready to confront the many serious challenges that face the nation; in short, we have us a Gorbachev.

Eastern Europe braced for a violent 'spring of discontent'
Study looks at mortality in post-Soviet era (importance of community)
Military report raises concerns about social unrest fueled by globalization, urbanization
The new ecology of war (Mike Davis interview)

Heinberg: Opportunity for FUNDAMENTAL change
Friedman: If China and America each give birth to a pig — a big, energy-devouring, climate-spoiling stimulus hog ...
A Crossroad for Russia and America
Upgrading the electric grid - many pluses but some minuses too
RMI's oil imports map

Gas emergency declared across Europe
Ukraine and Russia: the role of a middleman
The Russian bear?