Latest Articles about Middle East
RUSSIA’S MILITARY PR PART OF KREMLIN INTRIGUES
After one month as Russia’s second first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov is enjoying ample, uniformly positive media attention that will secure him higher numbers in opinion polls and expert ratings. He receives exactly the same amount of TV coverage as Dmitry Medvedev, the other... MORE
FRADKOV SUGGESTS ADDING PARALLEL GAS LINE FROM SIBERIA TO PACIFIC
On March 13, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov voiced support for the idea to build a gas pipeline alongside the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline. "I regard it positively," Fradkov told reporters at a meeting in the Sakha-Yakutiya Republic. He suggested plan has provisions for... MORE
Internal Divisions Threaten Kurdish Unity
After years of infighting and repression by Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq's Kurds were finally able to seize the opportunity for autonomy and influence presented by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Since then, they have solidified the de facto autonomy that was established under the No Fly... MORE
AGREEMENT SIGNED ON TRANS-BALKAN OIL PIPELINE, RIVAL TO TRANS-CASPIAN PROJECT
Yesterday, March 15, Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece signed an intergovernmental agreement to build the Trans-Balkan Oil Pipeline, Burgas-Alexandropolis. Russian President Vladimir Putin, in full command of the signing ceremonies, took it upon himself to define the project’s significance and the interests of other participants in... MORE
MOSCOW AND ROME INTENSIFY ECONOMIC RELATIONS
On March 13 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi began two days of talks in the Chigi Palace in the Italian Adriatic port of Bari. According to both sides, the two leaders concentrated on economic agreements while largely sidestepping more troublesome... MORE
RUSSIA RETURNING TO AFGHANISTAN WITH NOT-SO-SOFT POWER
Russian power is returning to Afghanistan in military and security terms, albeit without a military presence on the ground, at least for now. Moscow is using the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) as a thin cover. On March 9 through 13, a CSTO Working... MORE
BUSHEHR REACTOR FURTHER STRAINS RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND IRAN
Last fall Sergei Kiriyenko, chief of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), announced that September 2007 is the final deadline for Iran to launch the Bushehr nuclear reactor (see EDM, September 20, 2006). Bushehr was partially constructed in the 1970s by Germany's Siemens, but it... MORE
Internet Mujahideen Face-Off Over Sunni-Shiite Divide
The ongoing sectarian strife in Iraq remains a subject of intense debate on Arabic-language radical Islamist online chat forums in the context of the perceived emergence of a Sunni-Shiite divide in the Middle East. More recently, tensions between the United States and Iran over Tehran's... MORE
PROBLEMS WITH TREATY MAY TURN INTO STANDOFF BETWEEN KREMLIN AND TATAR AUTHORITIES
The fate of the power-sharing treaty between the Russian federal authorities and the Republic of Tatarstan demonstrates how unpredictable political life in Russia has become. On February 21 the Federation Council (upper house of parliament) rejected the power-sharing treaty, even though it had been ratified... MORE
THE SHADOW OF FEBRUARY 1917 HANGS OVER PUTIN’S FINAL YEAR
Yesterday’s legislative elections in 14 regions of the Russian Federation have not been the focus of political debates in Moscow during the last few weeks. Rather, it was an historic event that was typically downplayed by Soviet historiography – the Revolution of February 1917. Indeed,... MORE