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  • Vladimir Putin

    START Negotiations Restart Next Week

    Washington and Moscow will restart talks with Washington on a new arms control treaty this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. “We hope it will happen somewhere in the second half of January,” Lavrov said in televised remarks. However, as I’ve written a few days ago in the … More

    Why Putin Fears U.S. Missile Defense

    Because it works. Military.com’s Jamie McIntyre reports: Skeptics of missile defense should take note of Russia’s paranoia about the U.S. missile defense in Europe. There’s a reason for Russia’s unreasonable stand: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin believes something many in the U.S. scoff at, namely that the anti-??missile system probably … More

    On Nukes, Obama is Playing Right into Putin’s Hands

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he plans for Russia to respond to the fielding of missile defense systems by the United States by modernizing Russia’s nuclear force in order to overcome the defense. This is not surprising because Russian officials have been stating for some … More

    “Reset” on START Needs Another Reset

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent rant regarding missile defense and arms control shows that U.S. and Russian negotiators failed to meet the December 5th deadline to sign a new arms control treaty to replace the now-expired START Treaty, not because of technical difficulties, but because of a fundamental question: … More

    Putin Puts U.S. on Notice that Iran Sanctions Would be “Premature”

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin further undermined U.S. efforts to present a united front against Iran’s nuclear program by ruling out talking about sanctions, which he said would be “premature.” Putin told reporters in Beijing, where he was attending a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, that “There is no … More

    Why the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty Won’t Work

    The U.N. wants to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty. The Heritage Foundation recently published a lengthy study of this proposal. It found that the Treaty, if brought into being as currently projected, will be used not to restrict the access that dictators and terrorists have to conventional arms, but to … More

    Obama’s Rookie Blunder on Missile Defense Concessions

    MOSCOW – President Barak Obama’s decision to abandon ballistic missile defense in Central Europe will encourage Iranian truculence and will not generate Russian good will or support for the US on Iran sanctions. This is the main take-home lesson from my meetings with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey … More

    Unrequited Concessions In Chess Is Bad Policy

    MOSCOW – In meetings with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the leading Russian foreign policy experts one thing becomes blatantly clear: the Obama Administration did not receive any quid-pro-quo for significant concessions it provided to Russia as a part of its “reset button” policy. Since January … More

    Medvedev Essay Misfires

    MOSCOW – Last week a number of Russian democratic-leaning online publications posted a Dmitry Medvedev  essay titled Forward, Russia! It is an unprecedented and open criticism of Russia’s backward economy, its humiliating raw material orientation, corruption and other woes. Medvedev also offered a critical analysis of the political factors that … More

    In Moscow, The Fix Is In

    MOSCOW – The upcoming October 11th Moscow city council elections go beyond routine local politics. They are turning into a primary of sorts for the balance of political forces nationwide. Moscow, the Russian Federation’s largest constituent territory and seat of the federal government, has also has accumulated about 85% of … More