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The story of a Russian startup company MeshNetics, that had a research project called Golden Box with a team of software programmers. It succumbed to the global financial crisis as it hit Russia and with it dreams of a new wireless technology that would help utilities keep track of energy conservation and other uses. No new investors could be found and the Russian investors cut the funding. Even western investors could not make the investments. Programmers like Bagrak, 27, from Berkeley, California, who worked at Google on an internship and came back to Russia to build its high tech sector. Luzhetsky, 26, from Obninsk, a city built by the Soviets for nuclear and military scientists, which fell into decay and poverty in the post soviet period, this was his first programming job after being educated in the Soviet Union. Mr Grinkug, 57, from a generation of the Soviet period that considered science a religion, he headed the 12 programmer team working on the Golden Box project. The project three ers in the making was expected to release in early 2010. Suvorov who headed MesNetics, who saw his work as part of the move by President Medvedev who came into power in the spring of 2008 to take Russia away from dependence on oil, with investment of $5 billion in a state corporation for nanotechnology. Anatoly Karachinsky, President of the Russian internet technology company IBS Group, who spun off MeshNetics using the brightest talent from his software development team and financed it with his venture fund Oradell Capital. First the optimism in the face of difficulty in the fall of 2008, as the global crisis began to hit Russia, then in October the message to Suvorov that he had to look for a new investor. Then the cuts, first 10% of jobs gone, nine days late a dozen more fired, then the shutdown phase. One person fired after coffee with Suvurov, as things moved quickly. Alexei Rybakov, director of the division that makes the ZigBit, calls 50 investors aday, makiung every kind of pitch, practical, global, patriotic. Grinkug packs up his things, 40 years of codes fit into a few CD's , a few programmers are retained if things change, but for Grinkug the Golden Project he says, will probably die in his head. Its mind boggling how mistakes and unethical behaviour in the banking systems in the west can wash ashore in emerging countries like Russia, and wash away what little stability to build anew life has been achieved in a few years after the 1998 collapse of the ruble and the Russian economy. Its also a contrast between the dreams, hopes and aspirations and the innocence of ordinary young Russian tech engineers and the swings of reality that surround them, of poverty and collapse in early post soviet Russia, then optimism , and now a new kind of reality trying to salvage what has been achieved, and the difficulties in forging a new future that goes beyond 120 million people collecting around a oil wellhead....

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This report in the NYT says US officials now say Russia was not involved in the attack on the Nordstream pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The pipeline was connecting Russian oil and gas undersea to Germany and generated revenue for Russia, cost $12 billion each to build for Nordstream 1 and 2, so that it would have no reason to sabotage its own pipeline, say US officials. Cost of repairing the pipeline would be over $500 million.  Nordstream I and 2 stretch across the Baltic sea from Russia to Lubmin, Germany for 760 miles under the sea. Nordstream 1 completed in 2011 cost $12 billion to make, with a similar amount for Nordstream 2 completed over American objections in 2021 by the Merkel government in Germany. American officials are still reviewing the intelligence to understand how it happened. Just as happened for the spy balloons over the US initial reports and speculation have turned out to be misleading. It shows the importance of getting all the facts right, more than ever.   ...

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President Medvedev of Russia talks with Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov for over an hour at the President's residence. The paper specializes in investigative journalism and has been critical of the control of media and politics under Putin. Four of Novaya Gazeta's reporters were killed or died mysteriously in the past 9 years, with the last Anna Politkovskaya. But Medvedev did not go beyond offering lawyerly answers according to the report. A Russian talkshow host says Medvedev can talk nicely, but can he act, and is there followup. Others see the move as a way to reduce tensions at a time of economic suffering of the people from the impact of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.

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As Russia expands its intervention in Ukraine in Feb. 2015, a former Deputy Treasury Secretary in the Clinton Administration, Roger Altman, points out the importance of the response of global financial markets. Financial markets have downgraded Russian debt, and the ruble continues to lose value. With $200 billion in foreign currency reserves available to tackle the financial crisis caused by $150 billion in capital flight and 50% loss in ruble value, and a business sector with large dollar debt, Russia, he says will have to take into account its weak financial situation. Arms aid to Ukraine to which Russia can respond is not a good option compared to stronger economic sanctions, says Altman. Altman points out- what president Obama has also pointed out- Russia has a GDP the size of Italy, a population of 140 million, with its budget and economy overly dependent on oil exports, and an economy connected to the global economy and dependent on global technologies. It lacks the economic strength to continue with its more aggressive policies, and cannot ignore world opinion indefinitely or isolate itself from the global economy. This is true of any country in the global economy, and especially for any emerging market dependent on foreign capital, foreign investment and foreign technologies, making it important for Russia to play by the rules of fairness in the international community in the postwar global order of peaceful cooperation. As Schemann points out in a NYT editorial observer Russia is losing credibility in the global community....

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This is Zelensky's second visit to Germany, after the first visit in February 2022 just days before the Russian invasion. Meeting German president Steinbrenner is important as the SPD leaders Steinbrenner and Scholz were seen as closer to Russia during the Merkel period. Scholz visited Ukraine in June to see first hand the damage to civilians with Macron and Italian prime minister Draghi. A settlement to the war in Ukraine could depend on Ukraine making gains with its counteroffensive with German, UK and American military assistance. Germany UK and US have expanded their assistance to Ukraine. Before the trip to Germany Zelensky visited Pope Francis. China has also sent its top diplomat to France, Germany and Russia to come up with a solution.