Latest Articles about Middle East
MEDVEDEV’S ADDRESS IS RETURNED FOR REVISIONS
A major presidential performance had been scheduled for last week in the Kremlin, but it was postponed indefinitely at the last possible moment and without any convincing explanation. President Dmitry Medvedev was due to present his first annual address to the Federal Assembly on October... MORE
OFFICIALS OFFER REASSURANCES, BUT SOME FEAR A REPEAT OF 1998
In interviews over the weekend, top Russian economic officials sought to downplay fears that the global financial crisis would lead to a devaluation of the ruble and other dire consequences for Russia. Some observers, however, say Russian officials are playing down what lies ahead, and... MORE
Terrorism Comes to Damascus: Syria Faces its Own Islamist Threat
After a generation of internal stability Syria was struck by a terrorist attack in its capital of Damascus on September 27. According to an official Syrian source, 17 people were killed and 14 injured when a car bomb detonated in a crowded area on the... MORE
PKK Party Congress Sets Long-Term Strategy Based on Threat Perceptions
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan - PKK) was established in 1973 against the background of Cold War politics. In the formation of the PKK’s institutional culture and practices, the prevailing Marxist ideas and strategies adopted by other leftist movements of the time played... MORE
A Mujahideen Bleed-Through From Iraq? A Look at Syria
Al-Qaeda’s organizational goal in Iraq was to acquire contiguous territory from which to spread its influence and operatives, as well as those of its Islamist allies into the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Turkey. Having been weaned as an insurgent in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden... MORE
“Doctor’s Plot” Trial Examines Unexpected Source for UK Terrorist Attacks
Londoners were awakened once again to the very real terrorist threat they faced late on the evening of June 29, 2007. In a callous move aimed at targeting revellers in a central London nightclub, terrorists left two improvised explosive devices in old Mercedes cars outside... MORE
PKK Attacks Prompt Security Cooperation between Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government
The decades-long armed conflict between Turkey and the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan - PKK) has witnessed a number of major policy shifts by key participants in the past year. The greatest such shift thus far – one in the “sea-change”... MORE
RUSSIA SEES EASTERN PIPELINE AS A “MAJOR VICTORY”
The Kremlin has moved to expedite construction of the Eastern Siberia Pacific Oil Pipeline (ESPO), as a project considered of the utmost importance in terms of the domestic economy and foreign policy considerations. Russia's pipeline monopoly Transneft inaugurated the 660- mile (1,100-kilometer) completed section of... MORE
WILL RUSSIA’S FINANCIAL CRISIS UNDERMINE POLITICAL STABILITY?
First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov has said that while the Russian state could end up owning a significant share of private companies as the result of bail-out measures currently being implemented, the government had no plans to “nationalize” their stakes and would put them... MORE
PUTIN’S CONSENSUS AMONG THE ELITE TESTED BY THE DEEPENING CRISIS
For the vast majority of Russians the idea of a global financial crisis remains entirely foreign and the shocking figures about the meltdown on the domestic stock exchange are meaningless. The legendary Klim Petrovich—the Russian cousin of Joe the Plumber created 40 years ago by... MORE