Archive for the ‘European Union’ Category
Posted on January 8, 2009 - by Venik
Paying Ukraine’s Gas Bill
Bloomberg reports that Ukraine’s president is using the gas war with Russia as a way to endear himself to the West and to improve EU’s disposition toward his country. What dark twisted alleys of logic led Bloomberg analysts to this extraordinary conclusion we will probably never know. Luckily. “Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko may be calculating [...]
Posted on November 15, 2008 - by Venik
“Peter the Great” in Toulon
During November 5-8 missile cruiser “Peter the Great” and destroyer “Admiral Chabanenko” of Russia’s Northern Fleet visited the French naval base in Toulon. The Northern Fleet taskforce, consisting of four surface vessels and two nuclear-powered attack submarines, is conducting excersices in the Meditteranian before heading to Venezuela for joint maneuvers with the Mariscal Sucre-class “General [...]
Posted on November 7, 2008 - by Venik
Saakashvili’s Endgame
As waning wartime patriotism in Georgia gives way to realistic assessments of the facts, Saakashvili can now see the end of his political career rapidly approaching. As predicted, the situation in Tbilisi is developing rapidly and Saakashvili may be expected to make his endgame early next year, probably soon after Obama’s inaugural speech in Washington. [...]
Posted on September 18, 2008 - by Venik
The War in Georgia: Who Said What
The difficulties Russia encounters dealing with Saakashvili’s propaganda machine are caused primarily by the West’s desire to believe the Georgian side of the story. Why does the West want to believe Saakashvili? Probably because the alternative to believing Georgian propaganda is to admit that for the past five years the West has been propping up [...]
Posted on September 13, 2008 - by Venik
International Monitors in Georgia
According to AP, some Western (American) diplomats are accusing Russia of stalling negotiations over sending international observers to Georgia. “For three weeks now, we have been fighting on how to deploy these extra 80 monitors without delay,” the Western official said. “Everyone but Russia has said they should be able to get into all of [...]
Posted on September 1, 2008 - by Venik
The EU Gets the Pipe
As expected, the EU resolution on Russia was all gasconade and bravado. Russia’s unspoken threat to restrict energy supplies to the European Union did the trick. Gordon Brown found out that a “root-and-branch” review of relations with Russia may be difficult when you are covered head to toe in Russian oil. Today Russia is supplying [...]
Posted on August 31, 2008 - by Venik
Operation Coverass
On Monday the EU is expected to announce countermeasures to Russia’s recognition of independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Russian diplomatic sources hinted that any practical economic sanctions against Russia may lead to reduced oil supplies to the European Union. And so the question is: does the Brussels have the balls to take on Moscow [...]
Posted on August 20, 2008 - by Venik
BBC is not Paying Attention
In the Russia scales down Georgia toll BBC claims: Russia has issued new, reduced casualty figures for the Georgian conflict, with 133 civilians now listed as dead in the disputed region of South Ossetia. The figure is far lower than the 1,600 people Russia initially said had died. In reality, however, Russian prosecutors announced that [...]
Posted on July 19, 2008 - by Venik
BBC World Service and Its Masters
If you are still having doubts that BBC World Service is working for the British Foreign Office, here’s something to consider. In the weeks leading to the UN Security Council vote on sanctions against Zimbabwe every daily broadcast of BBC World News opened with a lengthy and blatantly biased report on the situation in Zimbabwe. [...]
Posted on July 19, 2008 - by Venik
Russia Punching Above Its Weight
I was reading the latest Newsweek (July 28, 2008) and came across the “Poisonous Relations” piece by Andrew Wilson and Mark Leonard. These two clowns are senior members of the “European Council on Foreign Relations” (ECFR) – a “think-tank” and an online propaganda outlet set up by billionaire George Soros (the guy who bankrolled Georgia’s [...]
Posted on July 8, 2008 - by Venik
Get Tougher with Russia?
British Conservatives are pushing for a tougher line against Russia in view of latter’s growing espionage efforts and new territorial claims. The Conservatives are apparently concerned with Russia’s $189 billion rearmament program and Russia’s claims on the piece of the Arctic (“Britain must get tougher with Russia, warn Conservatives”, by James Kirkup and Duncan Gardham, [...]
Posted on June 23, 2008 - by Venik
BBC’s Obsession with Zimbabwe
For the past several months almost every edition of the daily BBC World News opened with a lengthy report on the situation in Zimbabwe. It is really amazing how BBC manages to fill nearly ten minutes of its broadcast with information about a country where it doesn’t have a single journalist. BBC’s questionable journalistic standards [...]
Posted on June 14, 2008 - by Venik
Bush-Sarkozy News Conference
On the stage they looked like two brothers – American Bush and the French Bush. Bush looked tired and annoyed: same old questions from the journalists and the same old answers from Bush’s policy advisers that he memorized and could regurgitate almost without mistakes. Sarkozy, on the other hand, was clearly feeling napoleonic that day. [...]
Posted on May 19, 2008 - by Venik
Why Adrian Blomfield Hates Putin?
Adrian Blomfield – a reporter for the Telegraph tabloid – has a long history of passing his anti-Putin rants for serious journalistic work. I don’t know what the guy’s problem is with Putin but it seems to be personal. Maybe Putin didn’t answer Blomfield’s love letters or something. In his latest piece about the Kremlin’s [...]
