Latest Articles about Middle East
MOSCOW MAKES FURIOUS BUT EMPTY THREATS TO GEORGIA AND UKRAINE
In the wake of NATO’s summit, top Russian officials are threatening Georgia and Ukraine directly and NATO indirectly with retaliation, if the alliance approves membership action plans for these countries. During the run-up to NATO’s Bucharest summit, from such threats were commonplace Kremlin political consultants... MORE
FORMER DUMA DEPUTY CALLS LIBERAL PROMISES A COVER FOR GROWING AUTHORITARIANISM
Former independent State Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov was one of the last liberals to remain in the State Duma, but the fate of his career as a parliamentary deputy was sealed in March 2007, when Russia’s Supreme Court liquidated his small Republican Party of Russia,... MORE
NATO SUMMIT SENDS AMBIGUOUS MESSAGE ON RUSSIAN TROOPS IN MOLDOVA AND GEORGIA
At its summit in Bucharest on April 2 to 4, NATO seems to have dropped its long-standing demand for full withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia. The NATO alliance had reiterated that demand at its preceding two summits, in Istanbul in 2004 and... MORE
VENEZUELA BUYS RUSSIAN ARMS
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Washington’s favorite Latin American bete noir after Fidel Castro, unsettled Washington again last year by negotiating a $1 billion deal with Moscow to purchase a number of 636-model Varshavianka-class (NATO designation “Kilo”) diesel electric submarines (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostei, April 4). Various... MORE
KREMLIN USES NATO-RUSSIA COUNCIL AS A PLATFORM FOR ANTI-NATO POLEMICS
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a session of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) at the level of heads of state and governments on April 4 in Bucharest, as an epilogue to the NATO summit. NATO had initiated the invitation, while Putin played hard to get in... MORE
PUTIN’S “NEAR ABROAD” IS “NATO’S EAST” AS DISAGREEMENTS CONTINUE
At his press conference following his address to the session of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), Russian President Vladimir Putin engaged in a lengthy indictment of NATO policies across the board (www.kremlin.ru, Interfax, April 4, 5). Predictably criticizing the alliance’s open door to former Soviet-controlled countries,... MORE
PUTIN AND BUSH IRON OUT DIFFERENCES OVER MISSILE DEFENSE
Last week Russia's foreign policy transformed, at least in tone and spirit. The atmosphere of confrontation that has dominated official Russian statements and the state-controlled propaganda machine has been diluted by offers of friendship and cooperation. Vladimir Putin did not act as a lame-duck president... MORE
Improved Intelligence Behind Turkish Success in Latest Anti-PKK Operations
The latest operations by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against the facilities and personnel of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and in southeastern Turkey have displayed a growing competence on the part of the TSK in the use of real-time information in... MORE
Iran Charged with Infiltration and Sabotage of Iraq’s Awakening Councils
General Muhammad Abdullah al-Shahwani, head of Iraq’s intelligence service, released a statement on February 27 accusing the Iranian intelligence services of planning to sabotage the largely Sunni tribal-based Awakening Councils that have formed in Iraq to combat al-Qaeda. The statement was placed on the formal... MORE
ANALYSTS EXPECT A POWERFUL PRIME MINISTER AND A WEAK PRESIDENT IN RUSSIA
State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, who also heads United Russia, has confirmed rumors that outgoing President Vladimir Putin will be picked as the party’s new leader during a party congress scheduled for April 14 and 15 (see EDM, March 28). “If Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin heads... MORE