Latest Articles about Russia
Moscow Objects to Patriots in Poland
Last week US-Russian relations were dominated by the arrival and deployment of US soldiers with Patriot missiles in Poland near the Russian border. The Patriot deployment was agreed between Warsaw and Washington to offset possible Russian threats to station Iskander ballistic missiles in Kaliningrad in... MORE
Russian Military Prepares for Vostok 2010
Preparations are intensifying ahead of the Russian operational-strategic military exercise, Vostok 2010, scheduled for June 29 to July 8 in the Siberian and Far East military districts involving more than 10,000 servicemen under the command of Army-General, Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff.... MORE
Dark But Short: Russia’s Shadow on Georgia’s Elections
Russia is casting its dark shadow on Georgia’s electoral campaign, but it is not the proverbial long shadow. Rather, it affects Georgia’s internal politics at its outer fringe, far short of beclouding the political system or any significant voter constituency. Russia’s recently acquired allies in... MORE
Multiple Problems Plague Kremlin Plans for 2014 Sochi Olympic Games
On May 21, protest actions and tributes to the war victims of the Russia-Circassian war took place worldwide. Marking 146 years since the end of the war in 1864, Circassian activists took to the streets in Turkey, the United States, Europe and Israel, where there... MORE
Plans for Defense Industry Westernization Meet Resistance
A meeting this week in the Kremlin to discuss defense spending and procurement plans, chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev and attended by key ministers, defense, security chiefs and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, is reported to have decided that if the national GDP grows by 3-6... MORE
The FSB Returns to Ukraine
After the second round of Ukraine’s 2010 elections, Russia demanded that President, Viktor Yanukovych, undertake measures to improve relations between both countries. Moscow demanded that Yanukovych re-admit the Federal Security Service (FSB) to the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) and “end all cooperation with the Central... MORE
The Iranian Trap for Medvedev’s Opportunistic Foreign Policy
The draft resolution on new sanctions against Iran introduced by the US at the UN Security Council last Tuesday has caught Moscow in a trap set primarily by its own unprincipled diplomatic maneuvering. On previous occasions, Moscow tried to reconcile the pragmatic bargaining with the... MORE
Yanukovych Rejects Putin’s Gazprom-Naftohaz Ukrainy Merger Proposal
Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, for the seventh time this year, in Kyiv on May 17-18, but contrary to general expectations no new gas agreements were reached. Ukraine rejected Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin’s, April 30 offer to merge... MORE
Non-Bloc Status Covers Ukraine’s Shift to Russian-Vector Orientation
Opening, alongside Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, the Interstate Commission’s session, Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych, turned the clock back to 1990. Invoking that year’s declaration of Ukraine’s sovereignty (still within the USSR), Yanukovych selectively underscored the document’s stipulation of “non-bloc status” for Ukraine. The country can... MORE
Medvedev’s Second Visit Pulls Ukraine Closer to Russia
Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev’s, May 17-18 visit to Kyiv capped a ten-week campaign to lay the basis for “reintegrating” Ukraine with Russia. It was Medvedev’s seventh meeting with Ukraine’s new leaders since early March, not counting Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin’s, similar number of meetings... MORE