Chechnya: A Troubled Land
News out of Boston today has focused attention on the increasing extremist violence in Russia’s North Caucasus region, as two suspects in the Boston Marathon… Read More
Russia: Putin Uses Courts to Crush Opposition
KYIV, UKRAINE—Russia’s leading anti-corruption blogger, attorney and political activist Alexei Navalny, appeared in court Wednesday accused of embezzlement. On Thursday, federal prosectuors slapped him with… Read More
Cutting the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Won’t Make Us Safer
President Obama is considering further unilateral cuts in the nuclear arsenal, but his disarmament policies will do nothing to make the world a safer place…. Read More
President Obama’s Half-Hearted Magnitsky List
The Departments of State and Treasury have released their public version of the “Magnitsky List”—18 Russian nationals who have committed gross human rights violations and… Read More
News
U.N. General Assembly Adopts the Arms Trade Treaty
This morning, by a vote of 154 nations in favor (including the United States), 23 abstentions, and three against (Syria, North Korea, and Iran), the… Read More
Cyprus Bank Bailout: Russia Partly to Blame
As Cypriots come to grips with this week’s agreement to bail out its banks, Russian policymakers need to think about why their citizens are involved… Read More
The Arms Trade Treaty, Week Two: The Ways It Might Fail
In New York, the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference is entering its final phase, and the ways in which the negotiations might fail are becoming… Read More
Russia Conducts Unannounced Searches of Human Rights Groups
Russian law enforcement agents have conducted hundreds of unannounced searches of Russian non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Authorities have searched 600 organizations across the country since last… Read More
SecurityNews
North Korea Ups the Ante with Cyber Attack
On Tuesday, several South Korean banks and television broadcasters were taken offline due to a “pretty massive” cyber attack. For the most part these attacks… Read More
How Not to Negotiate with Russia: The Missile Defense Fiasco
Russia’s objections to U.S. missile defense development and deployment have been on the agenda of consecutive American Administrations starting with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s…. Read More
Morning Bell: What Reagan Knew About Missile Defense
It would take only 33 minutes for a missile to reach the U.S. from anywhere in the world. That’s a sobering thought when North Korea… Read More
London Mayor Decries Posthumous Trial of Russian Whistleblower
London mayor Boris Johnson published an op-ed Monday in which he decried the posthumous trial of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky. Johnson called Magnitsky “a martyr trampled… Read More
60 Years After His Death, Stalin Haunts Russia
March 5 marks the 60th anniversary of Joseph Stalin’s death. One of the most infamous leaders of the 20thcentury, Stalin remains a controversial figure among… Read More
Mr. Xi Goes to Moscow: For China’s Leader, It’s Russia First
China’s new president, Xi Jinping, will make his first official foreign visit to Russia this month. Xi’s decision to make his first visit abroad to… Read More
The Hagel Nomination and the Dangerous Folly of “Global Zero”
North Korea’s third nuclear test and inflammatory YouTube threats against President Obama and American troops have placed the nuclear debate front and center in the… Read More
Missile Defense Tests Successful, but Future of Program in Doubt
In an area of the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii on February 12, 2013, the Navy and Missile Defense Agency conducted a successful intercept test of… Read More
Russia: Putin Loyalist Going Down in Flames
Vladimir Pekhtin, chairman of the Duma Ethics Committee, hid undisclosed luxury properties in Florida valued at nearly $2 million while proclaiming his anti-American credentials, according… Read More
Declining Economic Freedom and Growing Statism: The BRICs Are Hitting the Wall
Economist Nouriel Roubini warned late last month at the World Economic Forum that economic growth in the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China)… Read More
Russian “Grandma of Human Rights” Nominated for Nobel Prize
This week, Senator Benjamin Cardin (D–MD) nominated the “grandma” of the Russian human rights movement, Lyudmila Alekseeva, for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize. Cardin’s nomination… Read More
Russia’s Throwback Anti-Americanism
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating is at 62 percent, its “lowest in more than 12 years,” according to Russian survey group Levada. While 62… Read More
News
John Kerry at State Department: Good for Obama, Not America
The good news for the Obama Administration is that its next Secretary of State, Senator John Kerry (D–MA), had the smoothest of sailing during yesterday’s… Read More
Obama Inauguration Speech: Ignoring Problems Does Not Make Them Go Away
Not to rain on President Obama’s parade, but the world is a dangerous place. America cannot afford to place “hope” above reality when it comes… Read More
Senator Jim DeMint: Missile Defense Works
What do welfare reform and missile defense have in common? Both were gutted under the Obama Administration, says Senator Jim DeMint, who will become Heritage’s… Read More
Russian Orphan Adoption Ban Protests May Be Harbingers of Instability
On Sunday, the Russian New Year’s Eve (in the old-style Julian calendar), tens of thousands of Muscovites poured into the city center to protest the… Read More
Russia Sails New Nuclear Submarine While U.S. Continues Fleet Delays
Last week, after long delays, Russia made operational a new ballistic missile submarine (SSBN), or nuclear submarine, for the first time in over 20 years…. Read More
By Banning U.S. Adoption of Russian Orphans, Russia Shot Itself in the Foot
Last week, the U.S. Senate unanimously condemned Russia’s new draconian law—whose victims are Russian orphans and Russian democracy. Around Christmas last year, the Russian Duma… Read More
President Obama Should Not Unilaterally Reduce U.S. Nuclear Arsenal
Recently, the Obama Administration has come under fire for potentially making unilateral cuts to the United States nuclear arsenal. Such unilateral cuts were proposed in… Read More
Kerry in Spotlight; Hot Issues Remain for Next Secretary of State
Last week, embattled U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice took herself out of the running for Secretary of State as Hillary Clinton’s successor. It did not take… Read More
Pearl Harbor: Lessons for Missile Defense Today
On this day 71 years ago, the U.S. was attacked by the Empire of Japan. At the time, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared it… Read More
A Rare Showing of Bipartisanship
Yesterday, in a rare showing of bipartisanship, the lame-duck Senate passed the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal Act of 2012 by a vote of 92–4…. Read More
