Morning Bell: Hot Dog Engagement
If one word can sum up the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, it’s “engagement.” From Cuba to Iran and the Middle East to Russia, engagement is… Read More
If one word can sum up the Obama Administration’s foreign policy, it’s “engagement.” From Cuba to Iran and the Middle East to Russia, engagement is… Read More
MOSCOW – The Kremlin has not had a good week with its putative allies. Russia’s ban on imports of Belarussian dairy products (under claims they… Read More
MOSCOW – The June 4-6 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum shed a spotlight on Russia’s economic situation, clearly indicating that the Russian leadership is uncertain… Read More
MOSCOW – In conjunction with the St Petersburg Economic International Forum, speculations over Russia’s accession to WTO have picked up steam. On the sidelines of… Read More
Although Congress continues to move rapidly to appropriate the final portion of its billion-dollar aid pledge to Georgia (made in the aftermath of its short,… Read More
Standing next to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in November 2008, then-president of the European Union, Nicolas Sarkozy called for a temporary moratorium on the planned… Read More
Moscow is viewing the EU’s new project – the Eastern Partnership – with suspicion. The Kremlin believes the decision to establish the group (made up… Read More
Russia’s increasingly authoritarian system, with the vast majority of the media under government-control, discourages the free flow of information. It partially bars reporting on corruption… Read More
This past April saw signs that Russian-NATO relations, frozen in the wake of the Russian-Georgian August 2008 conflict, might start looking up. A diplomatic meeting… Read More
Unemployment is increasingly raising its profile in Russia’s crisis-hit economy. Last March it was at a record 40-percent high. The official data show that its… Read More
On Thursday, April 30, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty held an event “Muzzled Media: Coverage in Russia of the Financial Crisis.” The panel focused on the… Read More
In the past year, Russia’s defense spending has risen 34 percent. China’s defense spending has risen 15 percent. Within the past four months, Iran and… Read More
The Russians are coming! – to Capitol Hill, led by propagandists and PR experts. What on earth is going on here? Today the 28th Annual… Read More
Last week the Kremlin formally announced its decade-long anti-terror operation in Chechnya over. In practical terms, it translates into puling out the federal forces and… Read More
The past week saw an unprecedented number of President Dmitry Medvedev’s public acts towards civil society institutions. He was interviewed by the opposition newspaper Novaya… Read More
Leading Russian officials are loudly protesting the forthcoming NATO staff exercise in Georgia. The exercises do not involve any armed troops and are essentially a… Read More
Amid a severe economic crisis Russia, along with many other nations, is facing grave difficulties in replenishing the federal budget. With the government continuing to… Read More
President Obama’s trip to Europe has been revealing. Many people had high hopes that Obama may turn out to be a closet moderate. After all,… Read More
The past week saw a specter of a gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine rising again, reviving fears of dramatic economic and political consequences for… Read More
The debates that took place last week within the government agencies, the State Duma and parliamentary party leaderships have proved that none of them has… Read More
The media and pundits alike have skewered the Clinton State Department for giving Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a prop “reset button” when Secretary Clinton… Read More
Last week President Dmitry Medvedev met with American foreign policy veterans including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who champion better U.S.-Russian relations, and… Read More
Earlier this week, Russia issued a radical call for the eventual replacement of the dollar as an international reserve currency, and its replacement by a… Read More
That’s a bit of an exaggeration. No serious person can deny the importance of the global financial crisis. We can only hope that the U.S…. Read More
We know what the EU’s leaders want out of April’s meeting of the G-20 in London: lots of regulations to tie down Britain and the… Read More
Are the Russians going to establish a bomber presence in Venezuela or Cuba? This past weekend a Russian air force commander spoke of potential basing… Read More
Unemployment and social and economic instability sparked by the ongoing crisis have caused a socio-political fallout in Russia. The share of guest workers is traditionally… Read More
The past few weeks saw a certain stabilization of the ruble against the key international currencies. The Russian national currency’s de facto devaluation has brought… Read More
The Geneva meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hardly attracted Russian spotlight. Moscow does not have much… Read More
Friday night, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a dinner in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss US-Russian relations. As… Read More
