Marketwatch is reporting that scientist and firebrand Kremlin critic/author Andrei Piontkovsky faces trial in Russia December 5th for allegedly breaking Russia's "extremist activities" law, which has been expanded recently to include "abasement of national dignity" and "slander of a public official." Last year, a Russian judge ordered Piontkovsky's book, Another Look into Putin's Soul, sent to a panel of experts to determine whether the material was, in fact, extremist. According to the Hudson Institute, a nonprofit conservative think tank where Piontkovsky is a visiting scholar, the soon-to-be-released sequel to that volume, Russian Identity, "...analyzes the events from early 2006 through the fall of 2008, including the rise of systemic corruption, the cultivation of xenophobia, and a growing assault on independent media, and shows how they reflect the failure of Russia's attempt to enact reforms." 

Bloomberg reports that Brazilian oil production could top Russia's by 2014, due in part to Petrobras's massive offshore find earlier this year. The report comes amid a claim by Petrobras that it can develop the region and still turn a profit with oil prices below $50 a barrel, which must seem freakishly optimistic to the company's Russian counterpart. Also, Reuters is reporting that Petrobras will raise more than $1 billion in the international capital market in December, suggesting a healthier economic outlook than in October, when the company borrowed $877 million from a state-owned Brazilian bank.

There's an interesting piece in The Economist this week on the falling price of oil, which warns against cheering the news.  Despite the obvious advantages for governments struggling to deal with inflation and relief for the world's poorest consumers from the knock-on effects on food prices, falling prices mean bad news for global markets.

"[N]ot everything about a low oil price is a cause for cheer--nor is the dramatic volatility in the price a boon for consumers or producers. Most worrying is that the rapid recent decline is a symptom of a sharply worsening world economy: demand is dropping as economic activity stagnates, or slows, everywhere. More grim news about America's economy sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average down by 7.7% on Monday with Japanese markets following suit."

Read the full piece here.

So NATO has finally found a way to navigate the 'bureaucratic trench-warfare' of negotiations and agreed to resume relations with Russia.  But how long will this attempt at civility last? 

Russian NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin's initial statements following yesterday's meeting suggest that Russia is still keen to demonstrate that it has the upper hand, implying that NATO's decision on membership for Georgia and Ukraine was a result of 'surrendering to pressure from Moscow'.

The BBC notes that NATO is 'deeply divided on a range of issues', but beyond that, it has to contend with Russia's ongoing bolshiness.  Nato has already issued a statement calling on Russia 'to refrain from confrontational statements, including assertions of a sphere of influence, and from threats to the security of Allies and Partners, such as the one concerning the possible deployment of short-range missiles in the Kaliningrad region'. 

At this rate, there won't be anything left to talk about...

You don't have to go very far to find an instance of dubious Russian justice.  Only recently a senior judge admitted that she had been pressured by the Kremlin. 

And President Dmitry Medvedev is the first to admit that his country's justice system is in crisis.  Speaking at a congress of judges last night, Medvedev honed in on the 'embarrassing' fact that one fifth of the cases that have made it to the European Court of Human Rights since 1998 were filed by Russians.  The reason for this?  An abysmally low level of public confidence in the domestic judicial system.

The falling price of oil is worrying because it 'is a symptom of a sharply worsening world economy', says The Economist.  A consultant for Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro is speculating that Brazil's oil production could exceed that of Russia in 2014.  Equipment breakdowns, reduced gas supplies and delays in new projects in Russia, Qatar and Yemen, could severely halt the global output of liquefied natural gas.  Oil firm Sibir Energy is to buy real estate assets worth $340 million, including the Russia Tower project, from a Russian entrepreneur.  The move will almost double its losses.  Gazprom may ask the state to co-fund its investments in 2009 in order to be able to fulfill expansion plans.  Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state oil firm, wants Gazprom to postpone the deadline for repayment of its natural gas debts.  

The State is intervening to help engine maker Saturn survive the financial crisis, with a state buyout of shares and a personal visit from Vladimir Putin, who reportedly offered the company advice on nanotechnology.  Moscow's football fans are lacking a team to support as the financial crisis forces existing teams to merge.  Norilsk Nickel's Russia spending will fall by almost a quarter next year.  Rusal wants the government to create a metals reserve to protect metals producers from the crisis.  Oleg Deripaska says Russia needs a US-style 'New Deal' - 'a new partnership between the state and the business community'.  Putin wants the government to draw up an entirely new anti-crisis program before Christmas.  Half a million people lost their jobs last month, and levels could reach 7% by the end of the year, says the Health Ministry.  State bank VEB, a major agent in distributing the government's crisis rescue package, has itself asked the government for a loan of $34 billion to rescue its balance sheet from the damaging effects of assisting other companies.  The MDM and Ursa banks have merged, creating the second-largest non-state bank.  Will the crisis result in 'a redistribution of property comparable in scale to what happened in the early 1990s'? 

TODAY: NATO resumes relations with Russia - US position under scrutiny, Russia triumphant; Ukraine to set up special group to improve Russian relations; Bahrain and Russia to cooperate; Russia refuses to ban cluster bombs; Politkovskaya lawyer says the accused offered to turn himself in; Medvedev to crack down on unjust courts.

NATO ministers have agreed on a 'conditional and graduated' resumption of contact with Russia after a punitive break following the Georgian war.  Georgia and Ukraine will be given assistance with building up their weapons supplies, but NATO membership is now so far off 'that Moscow must be wondering what all the fuss was about'.  This report sees the news as a 'snub' to the US, another sees the US as 'softening its stance'.  Condoleezza Rice insisted that it was 'not business as usual', but Dmitry Rogozin hailed NATO's supposed prioritizing of its relationship with Russia.

In late September, we reported how a school classmate of imprisoned ex-YUKOS lawyer Svetlana Bakhmina had written a letter to president Dmitry Medvedev asking him to show mercy and grant a pardon to her friend, who had recently been denied parole even though she was eligible for it under Russian law, and who was at that time seven months pregnant. After this letter had become public, a remarkable grassroots internet petition campaign started up in Russia, which has so far collected nearly 90,000 signatures in support of Bakhmina's release. And Bakhmina herself, who remains behind bars, has recently given birth to a baby girl. But what happened to the original letter from the classmate? In Russia's sometimes stifling bureaucratic system, all letters officially sent to a government official require an official response. Well, the wait is over, but the response was quite unusual to say the least. Here is our exclusive translation of a piece that has just appeared on the website «Izbrannoye», which purports to present "The logic of the main events in Russia and the world". Unfortunately, there's not much logic here...

izbrannoye
2 December
D. A. Medvedev, it turns out, is called A.A.Malkov
To one letter in support of Svetlana Bakhmina an answer has been received. To the rest - no
01.12.2008 19:08

Svetlana Bakhmina's classmate Olga Kalashnikova (Bogdanova), who had written to president Medvedev a letter with a request to pardon the former YUKOS lawyer, has received an official reply. The reply has mystified Bakhmina's classmate. She explained, why.