Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
Posted on July 12, 2008 - by Venik
Russia is Pushing Back
The unexpected turn of events during today’s UNSC vote on Zimbabwe stunned even the most seasoned UN diplomats. Senior British and US diplomats at the UN were talking about a “U-turn” in Russia’s position on the sanctions against Zimbabwe. They said that in the G-8 statement Russia was critical of Robert Mugabe and appeared to [...]
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 28, 2008 - by Venik
The Makings of a Successful Foreign Policy
I just finished reading Jim Hoagland’s “Enough Rope for Russia” in the Washington Post. From time to time the mouthpiece of Republican neocons publishes nonsense about Russia and this piece by Hoagland is a particularly entertaining example. Hoagland mentions Russia’s intention to form a cartel of natural gas-exporting nations, similar to the OPEC. He also [...]
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 June 9, 2008 - by Venik
Russia as Global Economy Leader
Russia’s International Economic Forum this year netted a rather impressive collection of the world’s top energy executives. Chairmen and CEOs of BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Total, Schlumberger and Dow Chemical flew to Russia’s former imperial capital of St. Petersburg to listen to the country’s new president, as well as to keep [...]
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 [...]
Posted on April 4, 2008 - by Venik
Putin and NATO expansion
A little bit of history first. In 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed by the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom to protect themselves from unspecified evildoers (the Soviets). All parties involved clearly realized that the combined military might of post-war France and Luxembourg was probably not enough to counter hundreds of Soviet [...]
Posted on March 29, 2008 - by Venik
Russia and the US heading toward a confrontation
It seems that Russia and the US are moving toward some major headbutting in April. First, there’s the issue of Kosovo and the announcement by the US that it intends to provide weapons to the breakaway province. Russia opposes the move, saying that this would be a violation of the UN SC Resolution 1244 (which [...]
Posted on March 24, 2008 - by Venik
US Navy: 4000 dead US soldiers in Iraq is a milestone
Four US soldiers were killed in Iraq on March 23, 2008 by a roadside bomb, bringing the number of officially acknowledged US military casualties in Iraq to 4,000. It is important to underscore the “officially acknowledged” part: the Department of Defense chooses not to count all US casualties in Iraq the same way. Basically, if [...]
Posted on March 22, 2008 - by Venik
Curiosity in Training
Just a quick tidbit from today’s press digest: San Francisco Gate’s “Passport peeping – more than just curiosity?” by Zachary Coile unearthed an interesting piece of information: New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s files also were accessed last summer during a training session for an employee. The worker, a full-time State Department employee, had [...]
Posted on March 9, 2008 - by Venik
Finer Points of Russian Democracy
Many in the West are genuinely intrigued by Russia’s approach to democracy and capitalism. They honestly want to understand why the Russians seem to be at peace with their presidential election, where the government-backed candidate picked up nearly three-quarters of the votes; the Westerners want to know why the Russians so patiently tolerate their Byzantine [...]
Posted on February 29, 2008 - by Venik
Western Journalists in Russia: Dazed and Confused
I just finished reading AP’s “Putin is leaving presidency, but Putinism is now Russia’s political orthodoxy” (Associated Press, 2008-Feb-29). It is truly amazing how little Western journalists know about Russia’s politics, economy and history. It is equally surprising how perverted the concept of democracy has become in its American interpretation. Apparently, when a government leader [...]
Posted on February 25, 2008 - by Venik
BBC Looking for Kosovo Compromise
In its latest news report on Kosovo – Russia weighs options on Kosovo – BBC is wondering how Russia may respond to Kosovo’s declaration of independence. Russia is clearly weighing up its options. It must balance its desire to maintain reasonably cordial relations with its business partners in Europe with its new assertiveness abroad… In [...]
