Archive for the ‘Russia’ Category
Posted on September 13, 2008 - by Venik
Russian Separatists and Ivan the Terrible
Just ran into a funny article in The New York Times. Obviously, the article’s author did not try at all to be funny, which made it even funnier. In her Russia’s Recognition of Georgian Areas Raises Hopes of Its Own Separatists, Ellen Barry suggests, as you can see from the article’s title, that by recognizing [...]
Posted on September 12, 2008 - by Venik
Good Things about Palin
If back in 2000 you told me that getting Junior into the White House would help Russia’s economic and political recovery, I would have asked you to stop smoking crack. Bush and Cheney were aggressively anti-Russian in their election campaign. They criticized Clinton for being soft on Russia in view of Moscow’s military campaign in [...]
Posted on September 12, 2008 - by Venik
CNN to Leave Russia?
I few days ago I heard an interesting rumor from a journalist friend in Moscow. It seems that Putin is pissed off at CNN for refusing to air his 30-minute exclusive interview in its entirely, instead choosing to concentrate on a few disconnected remarks. Now it seems I am not the only one who heard [...]
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 28, 2008 - by Venik
The War in Georgia
For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to collect as much information as possible about the situation in Georgia. I talked to more than a dozen Russian and US military experts, got in touch with my contacts in Tbilisi and North Ossetia, and exchanged information with dozens of journalists in Moscow and here in [...]
Posted on August 14, 2008 - by Venik
Russians in Georgia: Goals and Consequences
The Christian Science Monitor – of all newspapers – published perhaps the most relevant and concise description of what Moscow has achieved so far with its blitzkrieg response to Georgia’s sneak-attack on South Ossetia. “If the Russians stop hostilities now, they will have redrawn the whole strategic situation in the Caucasus, to the detriment of [...]
Posted on July 26, 2008 - by Venik
The Story of Cuba and Russian Bombers
The news of Russia’s plan to station its nuclear bombers in Cuba has aroused much interest in the US and even drew an official response from a high-ranking USAF general. The only problem with this story was that Russia never had any plans for a bomber base in Cuba. Izvestia – the Russian daily that [...]
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 18, 2008 - by Venik
Chicken or the Egg?
The Asia Times daily never fails to impress me with the quality of their analysis of international relations. The Washington Post and The New York Times look like school newspapers in comparison. The recent piece by Ambassador Bhadrakumar – Russia’s energy drive leaves US reeling (Asia Times, July 19, 2008) – is one of the [...]
Posted on July 17, 2008 - by Venik
Who’s Guarding the Nukes?
“Wrong on Russia”, by Stephen Cohen, professor of Russian Studies at New York University (International Herald Tribune, July 1, 2008), is almost a balanced look at the current problems with Russo-American relations. Ten years of systematically ignoring Russia’s interests following the Soviet collapse have ruined America’s relations with the only country that can destroy it [...]
Posted on July 14, 2008 - by Venik
Practice What You Preach
For years there has been a continuous stream of criticism about Russia using its energy companies to advance the state’s political goals. Every time Gazprom tried to get Ukraine to pay a fair price for the gas, the US and the EU exploded with allegations of “energy blackmail”. How is it blackmail when all Russia [...]
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 [...]
