MOSCOW — Premier Vladimir Putin’s three-hour-plus interaction with the Russian populace showed that the prime minister rather than President Dmitry Medvedev remains in charge of the national leadership. Putin answered questions dealing with the issues both falling directly within his purview as head of the Russian Cabinet and those concerning foreign and defense policies that is the president’s bailiwick under the Constitution. Clearly, the Premier’s chief objective was to convince the population that the government can control the economic crisis in the country and is doing its utmost to support …
MOSCOW — The drastic military reform plans articulated by Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in mid-October are meeting with a sweeping opposition in the armed forces. The planned cuts among officers more than twofold — from 315,000 to 150,000 — are a matter of grave concern among mid-ranking officers that are going to be the reform’s main victims. Unrest in the officer corps is translating into open protest here and there. What measures is the Russian military leadership taking to ease the situation? They are typical of the Soviet-era approach to …
MOSCOW — The financial turmoil in Russia might not be all-embracing yet, but some of its features suggest its gloomy prospects. Big business’ lack of confidence in national economy is what primarily strikes the eye. Speaking at a Cabinet meeting last week, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin unveiled scandalous information concerning the bank giants — government bailout money recipients stepping up their operations to move funds offshore in lieu of channeling the money to its intended recipients in industry that badly need it. There are some other reasons for capital outflow, …
MOSCOW — The Russian elite are clearly unenthusiastic about Barack Obama’s election to the presidency. Moscow believes Obama has adopted a stance similar to the incumbent administration’s on most of the thorny issues that are dividing the United States and Russia — missile defenses in Eastern Europe, NATO enlargement, Russia-Georgia conflict and Iran’s nuclear weapons program — and that, so far, he has no intention of making concessions to the Kremlin. Thus, the Moscow establishment is convinced it is too early to expect any progress in the U.S.-Russian relationship. In …
