Latest Articles about Middle East
RUSSIA STRUGGLES TO SUPPLY POWER TO DOMESTIC CONSUMERS
Distracted by the country's longest festive season, Russia has faced a series of power outages in early January, including in areas where temperatures plummet to extreme lows. The accidents came as an ominous reminder that Russia needs to improve and redevelop its basic infrastructure, specifically... MORE
Bin Laden Identifies Saudi Arabia as the Enemy of Mujahideen Unity
Osama bin Laden’s latest message is one of the richest, most comprehensive and starkly realistic he has issued since the start of the Iraq war. The following essay is the first of two that will analyze the message and offer an assessment of its importance.... MORE
Diyarbakr Bombing Marks New Stage in PKK Campaign
The January 4 detonation of a large, vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED) in the city of Diyarbakır in southeastern Turkey appears to mark a new phase in the 23 year-old insurgency of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Shortly before 5 PM local time on the... MORE
PUTIN PRAISES SUCCESSFUL ICBM LAUNCHES
On December 25, Christmas Day, the Russian military test-fired two intercontinental ballistic missiles – one from land and the other from the sea. The Tula, a Delta-4 nuclear submarine, launched the RSM-54 Sineva from the Barents Sea. The Sineva is a modification of the Soviet-made... MORE
GAZPROM SET TO POUNCE ON SERBIA AS PUTIN MOVES INTO THE BALKANS
Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to visit Bulgaria on January 18 for the signing of a Russian-Greek-Bulgarian agreement to build the South Stream gas pipeline. A joint project of Gazprom and Italy’s ENI, the line would run from Russia across the seabed of the Black... MORE
MOSCOW RAISES STAKES IN IRAN GAME
In the last days of 2007, Moscow made several purposeful steps that barely registered in the West, where the Christmas break was already well underway. The first step was the delivery of fuel elements to the nearly completed nuclear power station in Bushehr, which could... MORE
BELKOVSKY PREDICTS MEDVEDEV WILL TIGHTEN THE SCREWS
Just before New Year’s, Stanislav Belkovsky, head of the National Strategy Institute, gave an interview in which he repeated for a third time his claim that Vladimir Putin is a multi-billionaire and said that Dmitry Medvedev was chosen to succeed Putin in order to complete... MORE
Is the “Politicization” of the Kurdish Struggle in Turkey a Security Threat?
For almost three decades, Turkish governments and the military establishment have had to fight back a violent armed struggle for an independent Kurdish state. Despite increased attacks in recent months by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), what Ankara has invariably tagged as its “top security... MORE
Al-Qaeda Adapts its Methods in Iraq as Part of a Global Strategy
For the last few months, reports from Iraq have been indicating a tangible decline in insurgency and terrorist operations. For the first time since 2003, the Iraqi people are enjoying a sense of security in the streets of Iraq, although skeptics claim it is the... MORE
WHAT ROLE FOR SILOVIKI IN THE PUTIN-MEDVEDEV MARRIAGE?
The resolution of the protracted intrigue around the transfer of supreme political power in Russia appears to leave everybody happy. Dmitry Medvedev, the president-to-be, appeals to the electorate as someone attentive to social needs, to the business elite as a man familiar with managing large... MORE