http://www.bne.eu en 180 http://www.bne.eu/story3209 Overall Aura http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3209_thumbnail_Navalny.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3209 http://www.bne.eu/story3203 The Chinese celebrated the start of the "Year of the Water Dragon" on January 23, which suitably suggests we are in for a year of fiery courage or a bit of a damp squib, depending on which element prevails. As Russians drift back to work after the long holidays, the story is marked by a deep chasm of misunderstanding at the moment between the Russia-hands who live here and the rest of the world looking in from the outside. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3203_thumbnail_waterdragon.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3203 http://www.bne.eu/story3191 With shale gas a controversial topic in and beyond Europe, Bulgaria has made up its mind rather abruptly which side of the argument it's on — at least for now. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3191_thumbnail_stop_fracking.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3191 http://www.bne.eu/story3178 2011 was, without question, a difficult year. The headlines continued to document the twists and turns in what is one of the most challenging periods in the Western world’s economic history. The picture for many countries in Europe remains extremely challenging, and as a result businesses are having to navigate choppy waters. But the first Global Trade Forecast from HSBC provides cause for optimism for the role that trade could play in driving growth in 2012 and beyond. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3178_thumbnail_The_insiders.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3178 http://www.bne.eu/story3148 There are four burning questions to be answered in 2012. The first and most important is: will Prime Minister Vladimir Putin allow a second round in the March presidential election? http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3148_thumbnail_Moscowblog.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3148 http://www.bne.eu/story3147 2012 is shaping up to be a year of change in Russia. Both the economic and the political models that have underpinned the country for a decade have stopped working. The economy seems incapable of delivering the rate of improvement in living standards that can justify the political sacrifices. A new generation of Russians used to the relative efficiency of the private sector are fed up with bureaucratic incompetence and a self-serving government. There might be an attempt to fix the existing models; more likely they will need to be replaced. Perhaps the biggest question facing Russia in 2012 is whether Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is capable of delivering Russia from the failures of Putinism. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3147_thumbnail_putinthumb.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3147 http://www.bne.eu/story3144 We hope you enjoy this special edition of Renaissance Asset Manager's "Friday RAM" report, which peers, tongue-in-cheek, into some unexpected occurrences in 2012. It mixes the wacky with the serious, the probable with the impossible, leaving it to you, the Reader, to spot which one is which. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3144_thumbnail_framthumb.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3144 http://www.bne.eu/story3120 Yevgenia Chirikova caught the mood of this weekend's protestors at a press conference on December 11. She sprang to prominence for organising the protests against the destruction of a forest in the Moscow region suburb of Khimki last summer and successfully prevented the building of a highway, and is an unlikely radical. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3120_thumbnail_800_moscow_protest.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3120 http://www.bne.eu/story3115 Much like travelling westwards on the rundown railway network in much of the former Yugoslavia (FYU), the political journey of the region towards the EU is proving to be a long, frustrating and exhausting one. But at least the Croatian passengers have finally made it all the way to Bruxelles-Central/Brussel-Centraal. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3115_thumbnail_balkanblog.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3115 http://www.bne.eu/story3095 Exit polls following parliamentary elections held in Russia this weekend shows the ruling United Russia (UR) party of Vladimir Putin has suffered a humiliating defeat, with the party seeing its share of the vote drop from over 64% in the 2007 election to between 46% and 48%. This would see the party of power lose close to 100 seats in the State Duma, losing both a constitutional two thirds majority and also possibly its absolute majority. http://www.bne.eu/pics/1/3095_thumbnail_Putin.jpg http://www.bne.eu/story3095