Russia’s Only Way to Stay Relevant: Play the Pest – Newsweek.com

Posted by Matt in March 12th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Russia, Bearing, Boris Yeltsin, Eastern Europe, Fall Of The Soviet Union, Gambit, Good Faith, Intolerable Breach, Iran Plans, kremlin, Missile-Defense, moscow, Newsweek, Nuclear Arms Reductions, Nyet, Operatives, Relevance, Sanctions On Iran, Satellite Nations, Sovereignty, Vocabulary

Is there any word in the Kremlin’s vocabulary besides nyet? It seems to be the only phrase heard by U.S. officials negotiating with Russia on sanctions on Iran, plans for missile defense in Eastern Europe, and nuclear-arms reductions—even when the American plan has little or no bearing on Russian interests. Once upon a time, the [...]

Vladmir Putin forging ahead with vision of Eurasian empire – Times Online

Posted by Matt in March 10th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Europe, Russia, Ahead, Catastrophe, Collapse, Communist State, Empire Online, Empire Times, Empire Vision, EurasianEmpire, kremlin, New Empire, Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin

The Soviet Union is gradually being rebuilt as Vladimir Putin eyes a return to the Kremlin. The man who declared the collapse of the Communist state to be the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” appears determined to forge a new empire.
Vladmir Putin forging ahead with vision of Eurasian empire – Times Online

Russian Anti-Americanism: A Priority Target for U.S. Public Diplomacy

Posted by Matt in February 25th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Anti-Americanism, Russia, Anti-Americanism, Central Europe, Cold-War, Decline, democracy, Foreign Policy, Freedom, Information Warfare, kremlin, Partial Success, Policy Goals, Priority Target, Propaganda, Public Diplomacy, Radio Broadcasting, Russia, Russian Government, Soviet Satellites, Soviet States, Traditional Tv

The Kremlin is using anti-Americanism as a strategic tool for pursuing domestic and foreign policy goals. Through media controlled or owned by the state, the Russian government is deliberately spreading poisonous anti-U.S. propaganda at home and abroad, blaming many of Russia’s problems on the West, particularly the United States. The partial success of this policy [...]

BERMAN: Russia’s real threat? Failure – Washington Times

Posted by Matt in January 29th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Demographics, Russia, Bluster, Death Spiral, Decline, Estimates, Failure, kremlin, Midcentury, Muslim, Russia, Soviet Union, Successor State, Washington Times

Decline breeds new and perplexing dangers
… But behind all of the Kremlin’s contemporary geopolitical bluster, the successor state of the once-mighty Soviet Union is caught in a demographic and socioeconomic death spiral.
… Russia, in other words, is dying.
… By midcentury, according to official estimates, Russia will be more than 50 percent Muslim – and the [...]

Energy Wars: Russia’s Neighbors Get Even – TIME

Posted by Matt in January 25th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Energy, Belarus, blackmail, Current, Face, kremlin, moscow, Neighbors, Oil Prices, Quarrel, Risk, Russia, Soviet Republic, standoff

This January, all eyes are trained on Belarus, which has been having its own quarrel with Moscow over oil prices, threatening European energy supplies once again. But three weeks into the current standoff, there’s been a twist: Kazakhstan, another ex-Soviet republic, stepped in last week to offer Belarus its own oil. Now the Kremlin’s most [...]

Russia’s Reversal of Fortune | Foreign Policy

Posted by Matt in January 16th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Russia, Contempt, Economic Crisis, Economic Hardship, Incomes, Kgb Agents, kremlin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Minded Society, Nationalism, Policy Reversal, Repression, Reversal Of Fortune, Russian State, Social Contract, Soviet Empire, Soviet Leaders, Uncomfortable Truth, Vladimir Putin, Yegor Gaidar, Yukos Oil Company

Vladimir Putin’s social contract has been premised on an authoritarian state delivering rising incomes and resurgent power. But the economic crisis is unraveling all that. And what comes next in Russia might be even worse.
…
But the chances of a liberal renaissance as a result of Putin’s social contract unraveling are highly unlikely. There is nothing [...]

Ukraine Sliding Backwards

Posted by Matt in January 15th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Geopolitical, American Spectator, Former Soviet Union, kremlin, Leverage, Maneuver, Medvedev, Military-Threat, moscow, NATO, Neighbor, Orbit, putin, Regime, Russia, Russian Federation, Ukraine

Word has long made the rounds in Moscow that the Kremlin would consider expansion of NATO that includes Ukraine to be an outright military threat to the Russian Federation.
This threat of a threat plays well with the current effort by the Medvedev/Putin regime to nudge Ukraine back into Russia’s orbit. In more direct [...]

Corporate Raiding: The Danger of Doing Business in Russia – TIME

Posted by Matt in December 20th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, Array, Bribery, Bureaucratic Incompetence, Business In Russia, Corporate Business, Corrupt Policemen, Dmitry Medvedev, Doing Business In Russia, Financiers, Forgery, Identity Theft, Illegal Tactics, Jails, kremlin, Lawyers, Nihilism, Physical Intimidation, Russia Time, Squalid Conditions, Tax Officials

Magnitsky’s death has triggered a wave of public discussion in Russia — reaching as high as the Kremlin — about the squalid conditions in the country’s jails and bureaucratic incompetence. But it has also renewed focus on an odious criminal practice that embodies what President Dmitry Medvedev describes as the “legal nihilism” pervading the country. [...]

Russian Nuclear Missile Test Fails, Visible In Norway – NYTimes.com

Posted by Matt in December 10th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Missiles, Russia, Border, Embarrassment, Failed Test, kremlin, Launch, Mace, Missile Test, Norway, Nuclear Deterrent, Nytimes, Russia, Russian Nuclear Missile, Submarine, Technological Breakthrough, Test Failures

Russia admitted on Thursday another failed test of its much-touted Bulava intercontinental missile, after unusual lights were spotted in Norway across the border from the launch site.
The submarine-based Bulava (Mace) missile has been billed as Russia’s newest technological breakthrough to support its nuclear deterrent, but the repeated test failures are an embarrassment for the Kremlin.
Russian [...]

Don’t Hold Your Breath for a Modern Russia | The Moscow Times

Posted by Matt in December 8th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Russia, democracy, Innovations, Intention, kremlin, Long Time, Moscow Times, Political Modernization, Power Structure, Russia Moscow, Russian People, Russians, Time Don

In the end, Putin confirmed that everything in Russia will remain the same for a very long time. “Don’t hold your breath” should be the catchall answer to Russians expecting any kind of economic and political modernization or reform under Putin’s rule. Putin will return to the Kremlin in 2012 with the clear intention of [...]