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Latest Articles about Middle East
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MOSCOW QUIETLY RAISES ITS GAME IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Three weeks after the eruption of hostilities in Lebanon, Russia has remained uncharacteristically cautious and reserved. President Vladimir Putin took a very active stance in the debates on the conflict at the July 15-17 G-8 summit in St. Petersburg and claimed credit for “softening” the... MORE
CARACAS GETS RECYCLED RUSSIAN WEAPONS TO REPEL ALLEGED U.S. PLAN TO ATTACK VENEZUELA
Hugo Chavez, the flamboyant leftist president of Venezuela, visited Russia last week as part of a tour of European and Asian countries that included Belarus and Iran. In Minsk and Tehran Chavez joined his hosts in issuing anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric. In Russia, Chavez's rhetoric... MORE
RUSSO-CHINESE FORESTRY JOINT VENTURE PLANS SPARK CONCERNS
As Russian and Chinese officials indicated plans to launch a major forestry joint venture in Siberia, environmentalists decried the idea as an ominous sign for Russia’s taiga forests. Russia and China discussed a long-term lease of one million hectares of Siberian forests as "a pilot... MORE
RUSSIAN ENERGY MONOPOLIES MARCH TOWARD HYDROCARBONS EMPIRE
The latest moves by Russia’s major state-controlled energy companies have clearly demonstrated that “expansion” and “control” are still the words that best describe the Kremlin’s preferred “mode of operation.” On the Western front Gazprom, Russia’s natural energy behemoth, appears ready to strike a deal with... MORE
RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES DOUBT REBELS WILL ACCEPT AMNESTY OFFER
Russian authorities are continuing their attempts to get maximum benefit from the July 10 death of Shamil Basaev, military commander of North Caucasian rebels. On July 15 Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev put forward an offer of amnesty to Chechnya’s separatist rebels (see Chechnya... MORE
RUSSIA UPS OIL EXPORTS TO CHINA BY RAIL
Russian boosted its oil exports to China by rail this year, but crude shipments are yet to match earlier expectations. In the first six months of 2006, Russian crude shipments to China by rail reached some 100,000 barrels per day (nearly 5 million tons) or... MORE
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The New York Plot: The Impact of Bin Laden’s Campaign to Inspire Jihad
The recent disruption of a developing terrorist plot to destroy an underwater tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City and inundate lower Manhattan offers an opportunity to assess the impact of Osama bin Laden's decade-plus effort to inspire others to undertake operations against the... MORE
AN INFORMAL FAREWELL TO THE DYSFUNCTIONAL COMMONWEALTH
There were plenty of good reasons to organize an informal top-level meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Moscow last weekend. Old conflicts and new tensions dividing its 12 member-states, from the deadlocked antagonism between Armenia and Azerbaijan to the ongoing spy scandal... MORE
SUMMIT PRESCRIBES CIS LITE; PUTIN BLINKS BEFORE SAAKASHVILI; VORONIN STANDS UP TO PUTIN
Devalued by an unusually low attendance -- only eight out of twelve presidents -- the CIS informal summit in Moscow on July 21-22 marks the official transition of this organization to a “lite” version of its former self. With Russian President Vladimir Putin’s acquiescence, Kazakh... MORE
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CIS SUMMIT: GATHERING WILL LIKELY FLOP BUT MOSCOW IS INTENT TO CONTINUE THROWING ITS WEIGHT AROUND
The Kremlin appears determined to prove that Russia is back as a world-class superpower. Immediately after the pomp and fanfare of the St. Petersburg G-8 summit on July 15-17 -- the event that has allegedly seen Russia’s return to the first league of global heavyweights... MORE