New Russia Debate Takes Shape
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posted by zaina19 on November, 2007 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/29/2007 4:04 PM Sunday, October 28, 2007 New Russia Debate Takes Shape By Brian Whitmore Russia -- Bear on the Neva River bank with Peter And Paul Fortress in background, St. Petersburg, undated (A.Belenky) October 28, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Top U.S. foreign policy officials appear determined to put talk of a new Cold War with Russia on ice. In an interview with RFE/RL on October 23, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stressed that Russia is still Washington's "strategic partner" and soft-pedaled fears about Moscow's newly assertive international posture. The defense secretary's conciliatory tone contrasted sharply with a controversial speech that Vice President Dick Cheney made last year in Vilnius, where he assailed Russian President Vladimir Putin for restricting citizens' rights and warned Russia about using its energy wealth as "tools of intimidation or blackmail." Gates made his comments during a visit to Prague in which he also announced key concessions to Moscow on U.S. plans to base components of a proposed missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech ... >> full
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Contributed by Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
rom: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/29/2007 4:35 PM OPINION: Looking for a stability mechanism Contributed by Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Prime-Tass) -- The momentum to persuade President Vladimir Putin to stay for a third consecutive term has intensified again. Putin remains firm that he will not allow the constitution to be altered, so it is difficult to see how the campaign will succeed. But the issue does highlight the fact that the ending of Putin’s presidency, an eight year period when the value of the economy grew five-fold and the stock market (RTS) rose by 1,150%, is a cause of concern for people in Russia just as it is for investors. Opinion polls, which are now emerging in deluge fashion, reflect that people will support any transition mechanism that ensures both a continuation of stability and of the policies and factors that have led to the improved environment existing in Russia today. For most people that means Putin staying in a high profile ... >> full
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PUTIN COMPARES MISSILE DEFENSE TO CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS...
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/29/2007 4:37 PM Monday, October 29, 2007 Volume 11 Number 200 PUTIN COMPARES MISSILE DEFENSE TO CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS... President Vladimir Putin said at the Russia-EU summit in Mafra, Portugal, on October 26 that the planned U.S. missile-defense system, which will include components in Poland and the Czech Republic, is comparable to the Soviets' installation of missiles in Cuba, which led to the crisis of 1962, international media reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 25 and 26, 2007). He argued that "analogous actions by the Soviet Union, when it deployed missiles on Cuba, caused the Caribbean [missile] crisis. For us, the [current] situation is technically very similar.... Threats to our country are now being created on our borders." Putin stressed nonetheless that "I fully agree with [U.S.] President [George W.] Bush when he says that the United States and [Russia] are no longer enemies. We are partners. My personal relationship of trust with President Bush certainly helps smooth such problems over. And just ... >> full
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It's The End Of The Putin Era As We Know It... By Mark Ames
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/29/2007 4:44 PM Mankind's only alternative 30 OCT. 0730 OCT. 07 Mankind's only alternative Feature Story , The Kremlin’s Clan Warfare: The Putin Era Ends It's The End Of The Putin Era As We Know It... By Mark Ames Scroll down for larger graphic 0 more photos Something big is happening in the world of Russian power. And it ain't pretty. Two weeks ago, Viktor Cherkesov, the don of one of the main siloviki clans, published an open letter in Kommersant. Browse Column Reports in the English-language press focused on how unusual it was for a silovik to take his problems public in the Putin Era--particularly a silovik of Cherkesov's stature. As head of the Federal Anti-Narcotics Agency, Cherkesov essentially runs a kind of FSB-2. And given the recent slew of high-profile arrests, along with Cherkesov's open letter, it looks as though FSB-2 is at war with FSB-1. It's fitting that this war comes exactly 10 years after the outbreak of the Banker's War under Yeltsin, ... >> full
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Worsening conflict between Russia and Georgia driven by Washington-Moscow rivalries
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posted by zaina19 on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng (Original Message) Sent: 10/30/2007 3:52 AM World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org Worsening conflict between Russia and Georgia driven by Washington-Moscow rivalries By Simon Whelan 30 October 2007 A series of recent incidents in Georgia’s two breakaway republics, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, have brought about a further deteroriation in relations between the Putin administration in Russia and the Georgian government of Mikhail Saakashvilli. Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia receive suppport from Moscow. Georgian authorities have complained to the United Nations about alleged repeated Russian incursions into Georgian airspace and have even claimed to have shot down a Russian fighter, which they say crashed in Abkhazia, within the strategically crucial and disputed Kodori Gorge. Georgian forces and a pro-Tbilisi government-in-exile control part of the Kodori Gorge, but areas under control by both sides are in constant flux. In the other breakaway republic, firefights have repeatedly broken out between South Ossetian forces and their Georgian counterparts. More seriously, in mid-September, what Moscow called “instructors” at an “anti-terrorist training center” were killed with knife ... >> full
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