Latest Articles about Middle East
A RADICAL MILITARY REFORM PLAN
After a meeting of Russia's top brass this week, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov disclosed drastic plans to reform and cut the Russian military. The executive decision to begin the reform was signed by President Dmitry Medvedev on September 15, but most details were kept secret... MORE
RUSSIAN CONSUMER PRICES STILL RISING DESPITE PLUNGING SHARE PRICES
Russia’s stock markets have recently been hammered along with those elsewhere in the world, and perhaps even more so, with Russian markets having lost two-thirds of their value (or about $1 trillion) since June. It is, however, rising prices, not falling share prices or teetering... MORE
RUSSIA COUNTS ITS BLESSINGS IN THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
A distinct note of triumph is entering the statements of Russian officials on the scale and possible consequences of the global economic crisis. It is President Dmitri Medvedev who was doing most of the talking last week, while his “senior partner” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin... MORE
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS MAY CURTAIL KREMLIN PLANS FOR MODERNIZING ARMED FORCES
On September 15 President Dmitry Medvedev announced ambitious plans to rearm and modernize Russia’s armed forces. Medvedev announced that by 2020 Russia had to guarantee continued nuclear deterrence as well as precision attack capability on land and sea (See EDM, October 3). Indeed, by 2020... MORE
DMITRY MURATOV: POLITKOVSKAYA MURDER CASE HAS BEEN DELIBERATELY UNDERMINED
October 7 marked the second anniversary of the murder of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. According to The Moscow Times, several hundred people, including Politkovskaya’s colleagues and children, human rights activists, and political opposition leaders, gathered on central Moscow’s Pushkin Square to remember her. In... MORE
MOSCOW PLEDGES PROACTIVE KOREAN POLICY
Russia and South Korea pledged to upgrade their relationship to a strategic partnership and to strengthen energy ties, but the latest spate of optimistic official pronouncements came as a reminder of similar earlier pledges. Following summit talks in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and... MORE
RUSSIAN GENERALS RAISE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GENERAL STAFF AT START OF THE WAR WITH GEORGIA
On October 1 an article appeared in the Russian newspaper Moskovskiy Komsomolets, which appeared to delineate a controversy within Russia’s General Staff about forthcoming cuts planned to reduce its overall size. Yet, for those with an understanding of the huge importance of the General Staff... MORE
JAILED YUKOS FOUNDER REJECTS POLICY OF NON-COOPERATION WITH POWERS THAT BE
With Russia’s sole major center-right liberal party, the Union of Right Forces (SPS), having announced that it will disband and merge with two pro-Kremlin parties, the man whose imprisonment has been a cause célèbre of Russia’s opposition liberals, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has given an interview in... MORE
RUSSIA AND GERMANY RESTART THEIR SPECIAL PARTNERSHIP
The two-headed Russian leadership is seeking to demonstrate that the “issues” in their relations with key European countries caused by the Georgian “episode” have come to an end in less than a month. Precisely that was achieved in the Russian-German summit in St. Petersburg last... MORE
Interpreting the Terrorist Threat against Lebanon’s Army in the North
On September 29, Lebanon’s northern port city of Tripoli witnessed its second bombing in a month against members of the Lebanese Army (LA). The attack, which targeted LA personnel traveling through the city towards Beirut, came after a similar bus bombing on August 13 in... MORE