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 …
Sometime today a missile will be fired from Kodiak, Alaska. As it sails over the Pacific, it will be followed by four target-tracking sensors that will help guide a long-range interceptor fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The missile from Kodiak will be representative of the type we would expect from a country such as North Korea or Iran. It will be similar in terms of distance involved, trajectory, speed and flight time (33 minutes). A successful test today would join a growing body of evidence that missile …
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 …
?he upper house of the Russian parliament will most likely pass constitutional amendments tomorrow, November 26, (article in Russian) paving the way for Vladimir Putin to return to supreme power in the Kremlin President Dmitry Medvedev’s announcement last week that he may change the Russian Constitution to extend the presidential term to six years indicates that the process was orchestrated well in advance. The proposal gained immediate approval in the nation’s parliament and regional legislatures. If this happens, Putin would be in control of the country for up to 24 years: …
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, …
European Union ministers are pressuring Poland and Lithuania to endorse the EU’s business-as-usual approach toward Russia, despite the fact that Russia remains in violation of the EU-negotiated truce over the Russian-Georgian war. The EU apparently wants to have Poland and Lithuania on board for this scurrilous betrayal, so that it is seen to “speak with one voice” on foreign policy. Poland and Lithuania are right to stick to their guns on this one and put their principles above political expediency, not to mention their own security. Russia recently announced that …
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 …
It will come as no surprise that Barack Obama’s emphatic victory has been warmly greeted in the United Kingdom and across Europe. Newspapers are covered with proclamations of a history-changing moment for the United States. The record turnout, particularly among groups that previously felt they belonged only on the margins of society, is surely something to be impressed by — and a trend all Western parties will hope to learn from. The so-called “Bradley effect” never materialized. And there stands a good chance that race may now be laid to rest …
The ultimate motivation is still unclear, but it appears as though Russia test-fired as many as four intercontinental ballistic missiles this weekend. First on Saturday, President Dmitri Medvedev watched the launch of a Sineva intercontinental missile from a submarine in the Arctic Barents Sea that hit a virtual target near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean. The Kremlin claimed this test set an all-time distance record. Then on Sunday, Medvedev oversaw the firing of a truck-mounted intercontinental Topol missile that landed somewhere in northern Russia’s taiga forests. Although no details …
TBILISI — Speaking on a special panel this morning, jointly hosted by AmCham Georgia and the think tank New Economic School, former Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar described Georgia as “a victim of success.” Tbilisi’s rapid economic liberalization and determination to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community through NATO and the EU is too much for an increasingly autocratic Russia to take, especially in its near abroad. Former Russian government adviser Andrei Illarionov argued a powerful case that Russia’s brutal invasion of Georgia on Aug. 7 was in fact premeditated over …
