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SEPTEMBER 2009

PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo: New Challenges To Russian Federalism

posted by eagle on September, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION

PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 75

New Challenges to Russian Federalism

PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 75

Andrey Makarychev
Nizhny Novgorod Civil Service Academy
September 2009

The alleged success of former president (and current prime minister) Vladimir Putin in recentralizing the Russian Federation requires critical appraisal. A number of limitations to the reunification project, as Putin initially conceived it almost a decade ago, are emerging. A growing number of Russian and international scholars assert that center–regional relations did not change all that much during Putin’s presidency and that the mono-polar system of power within most regions remains intact, which not only impedes democratic accountability in the federation but also makes the federal center’s supervision over regional elites problematic. Publicly, those elites express almost ritual loyalty to the Kremlin, yet informal room for bargaining between Moscow and the provinces still exists, as does financial asymmetry within the federation, just as in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, a growing trend of regional self-assertiveness is becoming an important issue on the policy agenda of President Dmitri Medvedev. ...

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PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo: Russian Naval Deployments...

posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION

PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 57

Russian Naval Deployments

A Return to Global Power Projection or a Temporary Blip?

PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 57

Dmitry Gorenburg
Harvard University
May 2009

In the last six months, the Russian Navy has undertaken several high profile deployments. The number and geographic scope of these deployments is unprecedented in the history of the Russian Navy after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In late January 2009 ships from all four Russian fleets were engaged in long distance deployments, and the Russian media reported that the number of Russian ships simultaneously at sea was greater than at any time since 1991. Is this the first step in a return to global power projection by the Russian military? Or is it a one-time event spurred by the financial windfall generated by the unprecedented rise in oil prices in 2007 and the first half of 2008? This memo assesses the significance of Russia’s recent naval deployments. Despite some increase in Russian naval capabilities in the last few years, ...

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RFE/RL: New Yorker's Hertzberg Blogs About RFE/RL Experience

posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION

New Yorker's Hertzberg Blogs About RFE/RL Experience

September 08, 2009

Hendrik Hertzberg, a senior editor and staff writer for the New Yorker, recently visited RFE/RL headquarters in Prague. Upon "beaming" back to the U.S., he posted this to the New Yorker's blog.

A U.S. Enterprise

Hendrick Hertzberg | The New Yorker

Space…the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.—“Star Trek” (2009)

After a few days of hanging around the Prague headquarters* of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, I realized what the place reminded me of.

Start with the building. It’s like a giant hovering spaceship, sleek and metallic and futuristic, especially in contrast to the venerable city it is both part of and apart from. Its defenses are formidable and vaguely naval. There’s an outer perimeter wall (“Shields up!”) with an airlock-like security post, a fifty-foot grass moat, and another airlock at the entrance to the ...
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Today's Zaman: Turkey And Russia: Stronger Partners In Regional Energy Security, Business

posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION

Turkey and Russia: stronger partners in regional energy security, business (1)

MEHMET ÖĞÜTÇÜ & DANILA BOCHKAREV*

How can an eight-hour prime ministerial visit possibly transform the basic tenets of the relationship between Turkey and Russia? This is what happened during the short visit to Ankara on Aug. 6, 2009, by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

and counterparts Vladimir Putin (R) of Russia

and Silvio Berlusconi (L) of Italy shake hands

following a signing ceremony in Ankara on Aug. 6.

The crystal-clear message from Russia to Turkey was, “We will make it worth your while to do business with Russia.” Hence, this visit has generated a series of unprecedented commercial and energy contracts worth $40 billion that will support Turkey's drive to become a regional hub for fuel transshipments while helping Moscow maintain its monopoly on natural gas shipments from Asia to Europe. Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, also joined Putin and Turkish Prime ...

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The Man Who Changed The World: An Interview With Mikhail Gorbachev

posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION

Posted: September 6, 2009 11:42 PM

The Man Who Changed the World: An Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev is still a man who strides the global stage -- and maintains a keen interest in domestic politics. He talks to Ginny Dougary about power, presidents, Putin and life after Raisa.

Photo: Graham Wood

Mikhail Gorbachev may be pushing 80, but when he talks, people still listen, particularly (or, perhaps, exclusively) outside his own country, and that includes the 44th president of the United States. The first and last President of the former Soviet Union is telling me about his meeting with Barack Obama, during the latter's extended honeymoon period, not so long ago, when Gorbachev said: "'I congratulate you because two months after the election your popularity was growing and your popularity is still growing.' He looked at me and said, 'Just you wait, it'll go down.'" A gusty blast of a laugh. "And I liked him saying that."

The man who was determined to modernize ...

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