Latest Articles about Middle East
“CALL ME JAVIER”?
For the second time in the space of one week, the Kremlin has embarrassed an unsuspecting European Union by holding parallel meetings on the settlement of frozen conflicts. While EU leaders came through the front door, Russian-installed secessionist leaders entered through the back door. The... MORE
MEDVEDEV INTERVIEW CONTINUES TO MAKE WAVES
The interview with Kremlin administration chief Dmitry Medvedev published in the magazine Ekspert on April 4 has drawn wide commentary from Russia's media and political elite (see EDM, April 7). While the interview was wide-ranging and touched on a number of issues, Medvedev's warning about... MORE
OPPOSITION IN BASHKORTOSTAN AND INGUSHETIA VOW TO NOT RETREAT
At 1:21 pm local time (3:21 am in Washington DC), a charter plane loaded with citizens opposed to the rule of Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov left Ufa airport for Moscow. Two days ago (April 5), Bashkir opposition leaders announced that 150 of its members were... MORE
ARE MOSCOW AND TOKYO DOUBTING WISDOM OF NAKHODKA PROJECT?
Dmitry Medvedev's recent interview in the Russian journal Ekspert (April 4) raised eyebrows for a variety of reasons. The fact that he even consented to give an interview is news in itself. The Kremlin Chief of Staff has been largely invisible to the public eye... MORE
RUSSIAN ARMY REMAINS IN DECLINE
Russia's military manning system continues to struggle with unwilling conscripts forced to serve in deplorable conditions and with inadequate training. Health problems among young conscripts arriving in the barracks are compounded by the widespread persistence of draft dodging and the rising numbers of men seeking... MORE
SECESSIONIST LEADERS HOLD “MINISTERIAL” TALKS, PREPARE “SUMMIT”
The self-styled "ministers of foreign affairs" of Transnistria and Abkhazia, Valery Litskay and Sergei Shamba, along with South Ossetia's "permanent representative" to Russia, Dmitry Medoev, held a tripartite meeting and talks with Russian officials on April 3-4 in Moscow. On March 30, Transnistria's "president" Igor... MORE
RUSSIA’S POLITICAL CLASS IS SPLIT OVER HOW TO PROCEED WITH INTEGRATION OF POST-SOVIET SPACE
Contradictory Kremlin statements on the possible fate of the Commonwealth of Independent States (see EDM, March 31) reflect the strategic confusion among Russian policymakers and pundits about the country's policy toward its neighbors in the post-Soviet lands. As the waves of "colored revolutions" sweep across... MORE
MOSCOW EYES ENERGY DELIVERIES TO NORTH KOREA BY RAIL
Moscow has revealed possible plans to supply crude oil to Pyongyang, although expanded cooperation and trade ties between Russia and North Korea remain a distant vision. In March, Gennady Fadeyev, head of the state-run Russian Railways company (RZD) mentioned that Russia is considering oil deliveries... MORE
PUTIN OBITUARY FOR CIS
Russian officials are performing some dialectical acrobatics in reinterpreting President Vladimir Putin's recent remarks in Yerevan, where Putin in essence pronounced the Commonwealth of Independent States to be defunct as a mechanism for integration (Kremlin.ru, March 25). Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov wasted... MORE
Putin Obituary for CIS
Russian officials are performing some dialectical acrobatics in reinterpreting President Vladimir Putin's recent remarks in Yerevan, where Putin in essence pronounced the Commonwealth of Independent States to be defunct as a mechanism for integration (Kremlin.ru, March 25). Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov wasted... MORE