Mikhail b khodorkovsky

WASHINGTON — The last time he was here, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky was an oil tycoon and Russia’s richest man in the midst of a political fight with the Kremlin. He had been warned to leave his country and stay away. But when he was done with his business in Washington, he defiantly headed home. Eleven years later, Mr. Khodorkovsky returned here this week for his first public visit since then, now Russia’s most famous political dissident after a decade in President Vladimir V. Putin’s prison camps. He was a little older, a little grayer but no less defiant as he vowed to lead a political movement to counter Putinism in Russia. “Russia has been wasting time these past 10 years,” Mr. Khodorkovsky told an audience of American admirers at a dinner sponsored by the advocacy organization Freedom House on Wednesday night, in his first speech in the United States since being released from prison last year. “Now is when we must begin to make up this lost time.” Mr. Khodorkovsky’s visit … [Read more...] about Russian Dissident Opens New Chapter in His Anti-Putin Movement

When Russian troops poured into Ukraine over a year ago, many experts foresaw a strategic windfall for China, with the United States distracted again by a war far from Asia. Now, Beijing is increasingly alarmed that the Western bloc backing Ukraine is entrenching itself in China’s neighborhood. The leaders of the Group of 7 nations last weekend pledged more support for Kyiv and angered Beijing by challenging its claims to the South China Sea, vowing to resist economic coercion, and pressing China on human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Days after, Moscow and Beijing are reinforcing their relationship by holding security and trade talks, with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin of Russia leading a delegation of business tycoons on a visit to China. The contrast between President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine receiving more arms guarantees from President Biden at the G7 and Mr. Mishustin seeking more economic support for Russia from China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, … [Read more...] about China and Russia, Targets at G7 Summit, Draw Closer to Fend Off West

MOSCOW — Meeting behind closed doors, a Moscow court on Tuesday extended the arrest of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent accused of espionage, for more than three months, until Aug. 30. The refusal of bail and the extension of Mr. Gershkovich’s detention were widely expected, although Russia has presented no evidence to back the espionage accusation. The United States government and The Wall Street Journal have vehemently rejected the charges, saying that “reporting is not a crime.” Mr. Gershkovich’s parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, waited for more than an hour outside the courtroom before being allowed into the hearing. It was their first sighting of their son since his arrest on March 29. The couple, who live in New Jersey, arrived in Moscow on Saturday. State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday that the United States did not arrange travel for Gershkovich’s parents to attend their son’s hearing. He added … [Read more...] about A Russian judge extends the detention of the American journalist Evan Gershkovich to Aug. 30.

Russia’s prime minister signed a set of agreements with China on Wednesday during a trip to Beijing, describing bilateral ties at an unprecedented high, despite disapproval from the West of their relationship as the war in Ukraine dragged on. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin — the highest-ranking Russian official to visit Beijing since Moscow sent thousands of its troops to Ukraine in Feb. 2022 — held talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and met with President Xi Jinping. With the war in Ukraine in its second year and Russia increasingly feeling the weight of Western sanctions, Moscow is leaning on Beijing for support, far more than China on Russia, feeding on Chinese demand for oil and gas. The pressure from the West has shown no sign of easing, with the Group of Seven nations’ weekend declarations singling both countries out on a plethora of issues including Ukraine. “Today, relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level,” Mishustin told Li in … [Read more...] about Russia and China seal economic pacts despite Western disapproval

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and a delegation of his colleagues went to China this week with the hopes of further enhancing economic ties with Beijing . But Mishustin’s counterpart, the Chairman of the State Council Li Qiang, who invited him on the visit, reportedly refused to meet with him at the China-Russia Business Forum on Tuesday, according to Russian newspaper Vedomosti . Other top officials and managers of major Chinese companies also declined to meet with him and his colleagues, many of whom are sanctioned in the West due to Russia’s war in Ukraine , Vedomosti reported. Instead, Li sent a letter to the forum expressing interest in building cooperation with Russia and bolstering Russia-China trade, according to Global Times. Mishustin is the highest-ranking Russian official to visit Beijing since Russia launched its invasion in 2022. “Even those big businessmen who wanted and were ready to speak publicly were not allowed to meet … [Read more...] about Russian Prime Minister Gets an Awkward Reception on Trip to China

Sant’Elpidio a Mare, Italy SOMETHING wasn’t right about the black sport shoes that Diego Della Valle wore on a recent stroll around the sleek campus and factory that form the heart of the Tod’s luxury shoe empire here. “I don’t like the way they feel,” declares Mr. Della Valle, the chairman of Tod’s, stopping mid-stride to study his feet more closely. “It’s the part around the toes,” he says. “It needs to be rounder.” Mr. Della Valle does things the old-fashioned way: by instinct. To find out if a new style of shoes will work in the marketplace, he doesn’t need focus groups or poll testing — he wears them. After a few days, if they’re not to his liking, he renders his verdict: “These won’t go into production.” Despite running Tod’s like a traditional, Old World family business, Mr. Della Valle has turned it into a successful multinational, multibillion-dollar company, whose buttery leather moccasins adorn the feet of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, Gwyneth Paltrow and thousands … [Read more...] about A Shoemaker That Walks but Never Runs