Russia

The bloody Islamic insurgency in Russia’s backyard

by News Sources 06.09.2012

Anna Nemtsova writes: The officers nervously cocked their rifles as the crowd began to swell. The Kirovsky police station in the capital city of Russia’s Dagestan region was now under siege. But the angry cohort outside the station walls on May 27 wasn’t composed of the bearded, gun-toting militants one might expect in this insurgency-racked [...]

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Russian general threatens pre-emptive attacks on missile-defense sites

by News Sources 05.04.2012

The New York Times reports: A senior Russian general threatened on Wednesday pre-emptive attacks on missile-defense sites in Poland and elsewhere in Eastern Europe in the event of a crisis, underscoring the Kremlin’s opposition to the Obama administration’s plans and further undermining relations between the countries. While Russian officials have said previously that the antimissile [...]

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Video: Putin — Return of a tsar or reformer?

by News Sources 03.06.2012

Stephen Cohen interviewed on Democracy Now!

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Vladimir Putin’s world is falling apart

by News Sources 12.28.2011

Masha Gessen writes: Watching an authoritarian regime disintegrate is like watching an episode of the American television series House, MD. Someone who was enjoying an active lifestyle at the beginning of the series is experiencing multiple organ failure 15 minutes later, with the doctors frantically trying to figure out why, and which vital organ is [...]

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Russia’s protest movement: big, angry, and preparing for the worst

by News Sources 12.27.2011

Jeffrey Tayler writes: Perhaps only the police helicopters circling overhead could accurately estimate the number of demonstrators braving the fierce cold to protest on Sakharov Prospekt on 24 December against the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the apparently rigged elections to the State Duma held 20 days earlier. The state-owned news agency RIA [...]

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Robert Wright talks to Alexey Sidorenko about protests in Russia

by News Sources 12.12.2011
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Russia’s middle class rises up against Putin

by News Sources 12.12.2011

The Independent reports: “I’m not sure exactly how to explain why I’ll be at the protest,” says Alan Gatsunaev, sipping green tea in a Moscow cafe. “It just feels like I can’t not be there.” The 30-year-old Muscovite, wearing a grey cardigan and sporting carefully trimmed facial hair, does not look much like an angry [...]

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Thousands of Russians demand ‘evolution not revolution’

by News Sources 12.11.2011

The Guardian reports: Up to 50,000 people braved the cold and snow on Saturday to turn out for the largest ever protest against the rule of prime minister Vladimir Putin. Bolotnaya Square, across the river from the Kremlin in central Moscow, was filled to overflowing with thousands standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the bridges and along the [...]

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Russia promotes a “step by step” diplomatic initiative with Iran

by News Sources 11.15.2011

Zvi Bar’el reports: It appears that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can rest easy for now, as voices coming from the European Union suggest a military operation is not in the offing. Not only do Syria and China reject such an attack, but on Monday, Germany, France and Turkey added their voices to those objecting to [...]

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Nuclear powers plan weapons spending spree, report finds

by News Sources 10.31.2011

The Guardian reports: The world’s nuclear powers are planning to spend hundreds of billions of pounds modernising and upgrading weapons warheads and delivery systems over the next decade, according to an authoritative report [PDF] published on Monday. Despite government budget pressures and international rhetoric about disarmament, evidence points to a new and dangerous “era of [...]

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Syria unrest: Western anger at U.N. vetoes

by News Sources 10.05.2011

BBC News reports: Western nations have lamented China and Russia’s vetoes of a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s crackdown on anti-government protests. France said it was a “sad day” for Syria, while the US ambassador to the UN expressed “outrage”. The resolution had been watered down to try to avoid the vetoes, dropping a [...]

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Surprise turn against Gaddafi is Russia’s latest westward step

by News Sources 05.31.2011

Max Fisher writes: Russia, a quasi-democracy and an imperial power that never quite gave up all of its colonial holdings, has dedicated much of its post-Soviet foreign policy to resisting everything that the NATO intervention in Libya stands for. It shrugs at human rights violators, abhors military intervention, enshrines the sovereign right of states to [...]

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Russia agrees to try to talk Gaddafi into stepping down

by News Sources 05.28.2011

The New York Times reports: President Dmitri A. Medvedev on Friday offered to leverage Russia’s relationships in Libya to try to persuade Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to leave power, an act of long-shot diplomacy that for the first time casts Russia as a central player in events unfolding in North Africa. Mr. Medvedev’s announcement, which came [...]

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Iran reports a major setback at Bushehr nuclear power plant

by News Sources 02.26.2011

The New York Times reports: Iran told atomic inspectors this week that it had run into a serious problem at a newly completed nuclear reactor that was supposed to start feeding electricity into the national grid this month, raising questions about whether the trouble was sabotage, a startup problem, or possibly the beginning of the [...]

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Israel’s central role in ‘the new Cold War’

by Paul Woodward 12.27.2010

Even if Britain has yet to enact promised changes to the law in order to protect Israeli war criminals from facing the risk of arrest while visiting the UK, it would appear that some form of understanding is already in place so that Tamir Pardo, the new head of Mossad, will be able to visit [...]

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Moscow’s bid to blow up WikiLeaks

by News Sources 12.03.2010

Philip Shenon writes: American intelligence and law-enforcement agencies, outraged by their inability to stop WikiLeaks and its release this week of hundreds of thousands of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables, are convinced that the whistleblowing website is about to come up against an adversary that will stop at nothing to shut it down: the Russian government. [...]

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Washington stuck on the sanctions track

by Paul Woodward 05.18.2010

As if to demonstrate that Washington refuses to be upstaged by lesser powers, Hillary Clinton blazed away in the campaign to impose not-quite crippling sanctions on Iran, after winning Russia and China’s agreement today on a draft resolution that will go to the Security Council. The Wall Street Journal reports: Washington called the proposed sanctions [...]

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Russia’s Middle East moves

by Paul Woodward 05.13.2010

While Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan are like lead weights that limit the flexibility of the United States in the Middle East, other powers are now taking advantage of Washington’s inability to function as an agent of change. After Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Turkey this week, commentator Semih Idiz wrote: [I]f U.S. President Barack Obama’s [...]

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Turkey and Russia move closer to building strategic partnership

by Paul Woodward 01.18.2010

Turkey and Russia move closer to building strategic partnership By Faruk Akkan, Today’s Zaman, January 15, 2010 Turkey and Russia have come closer to building a strategic partnership by agreeing to deepen cooperation in the area of energy and work on a plan to lift visa requirements for their citizens. The two countries also have [...]

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Was Russian secret service behind leak of climate-change emails?

by Paul Woodward 12.08.2009

Was Russian secret service behind leak of climate-change emails? By Shaun Walker, The Independent, December 7, 2009 The leaked emails, Professor van Ypersele said, will fuel scepticism about climate change and may make agreement harder at Copenhagen. So the mutterings have prompted the question: why would Russia have an interest in scuppering the Copenhagen talks? [...]

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Iran ‘doubts’ over nuclear deal

by Paul Woodward 10.19.2009

Iran ‘doubts’ over nuclear deal BBC, October 19, 2009 Iran appears to be backing away from a proposed deal to resolve the crisis over its nuclear programme, Iranian media reports suggest. A state TV channel said Iran wanted to import fuel for its research reactor, without sending its own enriched uranium out of the country. [...]

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Russia: We’ll nuke ‘aggressors’ first

by Paul Woodward 10.15.2009

Russia: We’ll nuke ‘aggressors’ first By Nathan Hodge, Danger Room, October 14, 2009 Russia is weighing changes to its military doctrine that would allow for a “preventive” nuclear strike against its enemies — even those armed only with conventional weapons. The news comes just as American diplomats are trying to get Russia to cut down [...]

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Russia resists U.S. position on sanctions for Iran

by Paul Woodward 10.14.2009

Russia resists U.S. position on sanctions for Iran By Mark Landler and Clifford J Levy, New York Times, October 14, 2009 Denting President Obama’s hopes for a powerful ally in his campaign to press Iran on its nuclear program, Russia’s foreign minister said Tuesday that threatening Tehran now with harsh new sanctions would be “counterproductive.” [...]

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Russian FM: Threats of Iran sanctions won’t work

by Paul Woodward 10.13.2009

Russian FM: Threats of Iran sanctions won’t work By Mathew Lee, AP, October 13, 2009 Russia pushed back Tuesday at U.S. efforts to threaten tough new sanctions if Iran fails to prove its nuclear program is peaceful, a setback to the Obama administration’s desire to present a united front with Moscow. After meeting with U.S. [...]

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