Latest Articles about Middle East
SOUTH STREAM, NORTH STREAM INCREASINGLY SEEN AS EXCEEDING GAZPROM’S SUPPLY CAPACITY
One of Gazprom’s goals with South Stream is to circumvent the Ukrainian transit system, which traditionally carries some three-quarters of Russian gas exports to Europe. The South Stream pipeline would run from the Russian Black Sea coast across the seabed to Bulgaria, there to bifurcate... MORE
MEDVEDEV TRIES TO GAIN TRUST IN EUROPE AND RESPECT IN THE CIS
President Dmitri Medvedev’s much-anticipated European debut was held in Berlin last week and was immediately followed by his presiding over a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in St. Petersburg. He succeeded in presenting himself as a Westernized liberal in Germany and as a... MORE
MEDVEDEV PROMISES TO PROTECT THE MEDIA, HINTS AT KHODORKOVSKY PARDON
Those who predicted that Dmitry Medvedev’s arrival in the Kremlin would be followed by a relative liberalization or “thaw,” with real moves toward respecting press freedom and other rights and instituting the rule of law, have been given some cause for optimism in recent days.... MORE
MEDVEDEV PROPOSES ALL-EUROPEAN SECURITY PACT DURING BERLIN VISIT
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev used his visit to Berlin on June 5 for proposing an all-European security pact with Russia’s participation, inherently in opposition to NATO (Interfax, Itar-Tass, June 5, 6). The Kremlin apparently hopes that the evolving Russo-German “special relationship” could turn Germany into... MORE
GERMANY, RUSSIA BYPASSING OTHERS WITH NORD STREAM PROJECT
The Council of Baltic Sea Countries, which met at the prime-ministerial level on June 3 and 4 in Riga, failed to hold a multilateral discussion about Nord Stream, the Russo-German gas pipeline project on the Baltic seabed. The Council is mandated to deal with environmental... MORE
SERDYUKOV ASSUMES FULL CONTROL OF THE DEFENSE MINISTRY
Russia's top general, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Yuri Baluyevsky, has been moved to the Security Council, a body that in recent years has been a backwater stopover for ousted high-ranking Russian bureaucrats before final retirement.... MORE
Rumors of al-Qaeda’s Death May Be Highly Exaggerated
Whether said about the aging process or the implacable approach of writing deadlines, the old saw about “time flying” is certainly true. But seldom has it been truer than in the three weeks since this author last wrote for Terrorism Focus. At dawn on May... MORE
Freeing Jerusalem: Turkey and the Lebanese Hizbullah
Newly launched peace talks between Syria and Israel mediated by Turkey have focused the international community’s attention on Turkey’s role in the Middle East. Political observers have been cautiously awaiting whether the attempt would bring any hope for Middle East peace. The head of the... MORE
POLL SHOWS RUSSIANS CONFIDENT ABOUT PRESENT, LESS SO ABOUT FUTURE
A survey conducted by Allianz SE, the giant financial service provider with headquarters in Munich, found Russians fairly confident about their country’s present and future as well as their current personal situations, but they are less confident about their personal future. The “confidence study” was... MORE
THE PUTIN-MEDVEDEV DUO GETS BACK TO ENERGY BUSINESS
It might have appeared in the trying period of power-reformatting in Moscow, that political priorities were all over the place, from strategic bombers to nanotechnologies, and from small business to NATO enlargement. By the end of the first month of President Medvedev’s “era,” the newly-reappointed... MORE