Latest Articles about Middle East
THE RUSSIAN MARCH THAT WASN’T: MOSCOW AVOIDS A HOLIDAY POGROM
Political life in Russia, normally tightly controlled, last week focused on an event that was not ordered or sponsored by the authorities. The “Russian march,” a series of rallies planned for Saturday, November 4, by several nationalist organizations, motley extremist groupings, and a few State... MORE
SCRAMBLE FOR EURASIAN ENERGY RESOURCES INTENSIFIES
As their perspectives on energy security continue to diverge, the Kremlin and Western powers appear to be engaged in a fierce competition over Eurasia’s enormous hydrocarbon resources. At the heart of the great energy game lies Moscow’s intent to preserve its monopoly over fuel transit... MORE
GAZPROM TIGHTENS CONTROL OVER FAR EASTERN GAS RICHES
Gazprom has moved to expand its clout in Russia's Far East and Eastern Siberia. At a meeting with Exxon Neftegaz on October 24, Gazprom officials reportedly insisted on buying all gas from the Sakhalin-1 project instead of using it for joint exports to China. Gazprom... MORE
Al-Qaeda’s Caucasian Foot Soldiers
In the West, Islamic terrorism is a threat traditionally associated with Middle Eastern men whose faces are easily perceived as "alien" and who present a suitable profile around which to organize law enforcement monitoring. Recent events have again shown that this profile is outdated. The... MORE
MOSCOW SHOWING BELARUS THE ENERGY WHIP
Gazprom’s threat to quadruple the price of gas to Belarus after December 31 to $200 per 1,000 cubic meters was meant to force Minsk into ceding 50% ownership of the state gas transport company Beltransgas to Gazprom. However, the threat seems to have the opposite... MORE
Musharraf Contends with the Pashtun Element in the Pakistani Army
The recently concluded peace deal between the Pakistani army and pro-Taliban tribal elements in North Waziristan has led analysts to question why Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has backed down from military confrontation (Terrorism Monitor, October 5). The reason that the government made this decision is... MORE
PUTIN’S MILITARY NUMBERS JUST DON’T ADD UP
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin held a well-staged national televised phone-in to answer rehearsed questions from selected citizens. Such phone-ins are performed in Russia once a year and provide an opportunity to state the Kremlin's position on different aspects of Russian political and bureaucratic... MORE
Al-Qaeda Doctrine for International Political Warfare
Do Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and their al-Qaeda organization and its allies conduct diplomacy in the traditional sense of that activity? Given that al-Qaeda and its affiliated factions are not nation-states, have no capital cities and neither send nor receive representatives who can be... MORE
MOSCOW PRESSES FOR CFE TREATY RATIFICATION IN RUN-UP TO NATO AND OSCE SUMMITS
On his October 25-26 official visit to Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer successfully resisted demands by Russian officials for prompt ratification of the adapted Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) by NATO countries. Russia hopes to induce some governments in the alliance... MORE
PUTIN TAKES “LIFE-IS-GOOD” APPROACH WITH RUSSIAN PUBLIC
Last Wednesday, October 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin held his annual live call-in television show. For three hours he answered questions from 10 specially arranged locations, from Nakhodka, near Vladivostok in the Far East, to Baltiisk, near Kaliningrad. Public attention to this PR exercise was... MORE