Latest Articles about Middle East
GENERAL DECLARES RUSSIAN NUKES SECURE
This month the secretive, nuclear 12th Main Directorate of the Defense Ministry celebrated its 60th birthday. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin created the directorate on September 6, 1947, to supervise nuclear tests. Today Russian nukes are produced by the Rosatom Federal Nuclear Energy Agency and then... MORE
STRATEGIC ISSUES FACING THE NABUCCO PROJECT
The Nabucco gas pipeline project is back on track (see EDM, September 19), preparing for an actual start. However, this project has a history of being derailed before even starting. In order to avoid any more derailments, this project needs to resolve a number of... MORE
ZUBKOV: THE TAX MAN COMETH?
Just one week after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s surprise dismissal of the government, experts and commentators in Moscow still remain in the dark about the real meaning of this development. It took only a few hours for the Kremlin to announce the name of the... MORE
Iran Moves Against PJAK in Northern Iraq
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard's most recent campaign of shelling Kurdish villages in northern Iraq, which allegedly targeted members of the outlawed Kurdish opposition group the Party for Freedom and Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), eventually culminated with Iranian troops entering Iraqi Kurdish territory on August 23.... MORE
SHELL OFFERS A BOUNTY IN GERMANY TO ROSNEFT
According to Russian and German media reports, Royal Dutch Shell offers its stake in Germany’s largest oil-industry complex, MIRO, to Russia’s Rosneft, in return for Shell “access” to a field development project in western Siberia. If consummated, the proposed deal would mark the Russian state’s... MORE
RUSSIA’S FAR EASTERN REGIONAL LEADERS HAIL ASIA-PACIFIC INTEGRATION
Regional leaders in the Russian Far East want to speed development of the country’s remotest regions in a bid to strengthen the Asia-Pacific dimension of Russia’s external economic ties. Notably, the Far Eastern Primor Region, bordering China and the Pacific, is supposed to become a... MORE
The Surge, the Shiites and Nation Building in Iraq
For some time, analysts have been suggesting that the Bush administration's "surge" strategy may have achieved a measure of success in certain parts of Iraq. Many highlight the tendency on the part of local tribes in the Sunni-dominated areas to stand up against al-Qaeda, in... MORE
PUTIN APPOINTS NEW PRIME MINISTER: HAS SUCCESSION RACE BEGUN?
Yesterday, September 12, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov resigned. His departure was hardly a surprise. Rumors of his impending resignation had been circulating all summer. However, most observers had anticipated that First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov -- an old friend of President Vladimir Putin... MORE
OLD RUSSIAN STRATEGIC BOMBERS CONTINUE TO MAKE NEWS
This summer Russian strategic bombers flew exercise missions to the North Pole, near Alaska, and down the coast of Norway toward Great Britain and other far-off destinations. During the Cold War, such flights were routine. Russian strategic bombers such as the older Tu-95 “Bear” and... MORE
SCHROEDER’S MESSAGE TO EUROPE FROM MOSCOW
On September 8 in Moscow, former German chancellor and current Gazprom official Gerhard Schroeder launched the Russian edition of his memoirs, courtesy again of Gazprom. Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Gazprom chairman Dmitry Medvedev contributed the preface to the memoirs’ Russian edition and acted... MORE