ABC, CBS, and NBC apparently have closed their bureaus in Moscow, or greatly reduced them. CNN has shrunk to one reporter, and Western print media also have reduced staff lately. The big exception among the international media is Bloomberg News. Speaking recently to fellow expats on Bloomberg's elegant terrace overlooking the Kremlin two blocks away, James Brooke, Enterprise Reporter, said that the Moscow bureau has doubled in the past year to 22 reporters and editors. There is a new Bloomberg bureau in St. Petersburg and another coming in Kazakhstan. There is even a stringer now for Georgia-Armenia and there may be another soon for Azerbaijan. Bloomberg also boasts Russian speakers and writers, a small but up-to-date TV studio in Moscow and excellent connections in London.
The Moscow bureau alone is Bloomberg's fourth largest overseas unit (among 50)--after London, Frankfurt, and Paris. "We are investing in the personnel to make Bloomberg the premier source of business news for Russia," Brooke states.
Brooke himself is a premier addition for Bloomberg. With twenty four years as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times before he joined Bloomberg, he is not only an able reporter and commentator, but also an ambitious promoter of his company's product and team. And why not? Those who think that Russia is no longer a big story on political and military issues may or may not be wrong, but they definitely are wrong to ignore the dynamic business scene in the Russian Federation and the former East Bloc.
Comments
Chemodan, Vokzal, Amerika!
Posted by: Pietari | May 30, 2007 5:21 AM
Well, its just typical of the US media to try to ignore Russia and hope that it might just go away as far as all of those pesky little upstart facts are concerned, that go into the making of "news".
After all when the news does not fit the propaganda,what else can you do except just close down the "news" bureaus? Let's just call it "agit prop" folks and get it over with! Such is life in the "free world". (Yawn.)
Posted by: Lois DuPey | May 30, 2007 5:35 AM
Putin wrapped it up pretty well the other day… He stated that while Russia ratified and honors the CFE, reduced armed forces personnel by 300,000, it’s the US that deploys new weapon systems in the EU, and specifically in Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic. So I ask, why? Are the Nazis coming?
Later in another article the Russian government states that energy and politics are not related in Russia’s arsenal. Well, I believe it. But, I think Russia needs to use every means possible. America would, and America does. America and the EU want a new cold war, so let it be… and the winner will be he who has the energy and is debt free.
Poland can now send its decaying and rotting meat over to all these new bases in Eastern Europe, feed American personnel and soldiers this sub standard food that Germany will not eat... Based on how the Bush admin treats our troops, I would expect sending Polish rotting meat should fit just fine for US standards...
All this, a new cold war, because America is obsessed with a free ride in acquiring more world resources so she can enjoy more debt, more subsidy and more opportunity to express it’s delusional fairy tales.
All this is pointless… Russia has time on her side. Arguing with America is like trying to negotiate with someone in a hospital death bed. The diplomacy gets a little stretch while the patient (US) rattles on about hallucinations.
This world stage is getting comical with America jumping up and down saying “look at me, look at me”… meanwhile 60 trillion in debt, exploding mortgages, lost manufacturing, a US induced civil war in Iraq when not one gram of wmd were found, no Bin Laden, 50 million without health care in US, finally chimp Bush now talks about Global Warming (like he just discovered it), and America’s choice of moving all feed stocks from the mouth’s of our cows, chickens, and pigs to make energy for our SUVs… jsut friggen DANDY !
All this is silly… meanwhile someone changes the piss bag for this dieing patient (US) lying in his hospice death bed, while we listen to what good America wants to do and how bad old Russia is.
excuse me while I change the channel...
Posted by: Luther G. Quick | May 31, 2007 10:46 AM
It is now clear to me why the Poles (and the "unified" EU) are so intent on feeding Russia with contaminated, half-putrefied zombie meat.
See, Putin is trying to remedy the demographic problem of dying out Russia. Well, the covetous Poles and their EU cohorts simply MUST see to it that the dying trend continues and intensifies.
So they want to poison Russians with zombie meat.
Oh, you don't want to eat it? Why, that's equivalent to declaring a war! Your refusal is politically motivated! You use economic levers to wage war on poor, disgruntled, if somewhat less than bright, Poles.
Creating EU was one big mistake. It benefits the underdogs like Poland and other former members of Eastern bloc, but really screws Germany, France and other developed Western European nations.
Oh, well, let them enjoy their new-found comradeship. Maybe celebrate it with a barbeque from excellent Polish meat. Drink lots of German beer to cover the taste of decomposing animal flesh in their mouths.
Posted by: Al Goroh | May 31, 2007 11:36 PM
It's unfortunate that Bruce Chapman didn't do his homework before launching into print. Bloomberg News is certainly an effective self-promoter but the truth is that it remains engaged on a quest to catch up with the long-standing largest and premier Western news source in Russia - Reuters. It still has quite a long way to go.
With 64 full-time editorial staff in Russia alone (4 extra reporters added this year alone), plus an extensive bureau network covering all CIS countries, Reuters is well over double Bloomberg's current size and has been reporting Russia to the world since before the 1917 Revolution. Uniquely among Western media in Russia, Reuters also offers local clients a real-time news service in Russian containing original reporting from Russia as well as the best of Reuters' world file in English.
Posted by: Michael Stott | June 1, 2007 7:32 AM
Dear Michael Scott,
Please feel free to submit your short article about Reuters' work in Russia, and we will be happy to post it here, on Russia Blog.
Thank you for reading us!
Yuri
yuri@discovery.org
Posted by: Yuri Mamchur | June 2, 2007 9:44 PM
Yeah russia is the big bad communist arming all the terroists ,but if they pick the usa ,they will regret it ,yes they have firepower, but when the stealth bombers get through with them they wont know what hit them ,and when they do it will be too late ,they will be decamated.dont ever underestimate the usa ,to do so and you will be crushed.
Posted by: melanie | August 31, 2008 1:46 PM