Everyone is distracted by the Olympics. The squabbling here on the campaign trail consumes the media. Two presidential candidates and a lame-duck president all are weighing in on foreign policy. No wonder Vladimir Putin thought it was a good time to invade Georgia.
Apparently the Russian prime minister knew exactly what he was doing but [...]

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As NATO ministers gather in Brussels to discuss how tough to get with Russia after the Georgian crisis, an opinion poll shows one in two Poles fear an attack by Russia. Eastern European countries are unhappy with the response of the West. more…

The Dangerous Neighbor: Vladimir Putin Takes on a Powerless West
SPIEGEL Interview with Gerhard [...]

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The often repeated refrain “we don’t want to be in another cold war” is nonsense - we are in one. And Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is a much more dangerous opponent than dozy old former head of state Leonid Brezhnev. However, the latest demonstration of this truth in Georgia is only a week old, [...]

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In an extraordinary outburst a senior general in the Kremlin declared that the move ‘could not go unpunished’, that Poland was making itself ‘a legitimate target’.
General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a staunch supporter of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, pointed out that Russian doctrine permitted the use of nuclear weapons ‘against the allies of countries having nuclear [...]

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The Military
Army remains poorly trained, malnourished and demoralized. Alcoholism, suicide and corruption are rife. Weaponry is aging and newer models arrive at a trickle: India has bought more Russian tanks since 2001 than the Russian Army.
The Economy
What happens when–not if–oil and gas prices begin to retreat?
Human Capital
Russia’s human capital is being ravaged. The population is [...]

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Russia’s use of companies such as OAO Gazprom, the world’s largest natural gas producer, to buy energy assets in Africa may thwart U.S. efforts to limit the role of oil and gas as political weapons wielded from Moscow.

Getty Images Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left) and Gazprom chief Alexei Miller visit the Sevmash shipyard in [...]

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Vladimir Putin’s appointment this spring as prime minister of the symbolic “union” of Russia and Belarus was yet another example of the troubling similarities between today’s Russia and the other most stable and prosperous Russian regime of the past 80 years: Leonid Brezhnev’s Soviet Union in the 1970s. That economy, too, was fueled by then-record [...]

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This article is by the MoscowTimes.Com. The signals coming out of Washington are alarming to Russians.
From the article:
For the past eight years, Washington has tried to impose its will to other nations. It has been a failure, reducing, not enhancing, U.S. influence and alarming not only former foes but even close allies. In the process, [...]

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WHEN the other G8 leaders met their new Russian counterpart in Japan this week, they may all have had a similar question on their minds: are we talking to the right man? Is Dmitry Medvedev, described by George Bush as a “smart guy”, a real president? Or is he merely Vladimir Putin’s puppet and stand-in? [...]

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Half of Russia’s emerging middle class do not believe in the stability delivered by former President Vladimir Putin, fear a crisis may loom and would like to emigrate, according to independent pollsters Levada.
“Those who should be grateful are not very grateful, but the situation is very fragile, very unstable and they fear it could end [...]

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An inside look at the Russian leader’s autocratic regime and his turn away from the West
In 1999, Russian President Boris Yeltsin named Vladimir Putin, an all-but-unknown former KGB officer, as his successor. Putin imposed a discipline on Russia that had been absent since the Soviet Union’s collapse, and he ushered in the beginnings of prosperity [...]

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Russia’s record oil output is slipping, and major tax cuts are on the way. But massive investment is needed.
After climbing for years, Russia’s output has begun to drop: It was down by 0.7 percent in April. The problem is so serious that the new Prime Minister, former President Vladimir Putin, has said the issue is [...]

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Companies are paying public officials to raid the offices of business rivals and subject them to criminal investigations
It seemed like any other workday at Togliatti Azot, a giant chemical factory in Russia’s Samara region, on the Volga River 600 miles east of Moscow. Engineers were on their morning rounds, and union representatives had just finished [...]

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BRIC shows signs of emerging as an alliance in an exercise seen as a challenge to the U.S.-dominated unipolar world order.
BRIC, an acronym coined by Goldman Sachs a few years ago to define a group of large emerging economies with fast growth rates, was born in May this year as a formalised grouping aspiring to [...]

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin compared the U.S. to a “frightening monster” and urged France to distance itself from its American ally.
“How can one be such a shining example of democracy at home and a frightening monster abroad?” Putin said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde transmitted live to journalists in Paris yesterday. [...]

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Vladimir Putin hails stability among his greatest achievements as president of Russia. But stability in Russia exists in appearance only, supported by enormous oil revenue and massive propaganda from the government-controlled mass media. Behind the facade lies an unprecedented increase in corruption, a population largely mired in poverty, and a bureaucracy and domestic intelligence apparatus [...]

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In their concise and eloquent report, Nemtsov and Milov present a devastating picture of Putin’s eight years in the Kremlin. Indeed, the report’s appraisal of Putin and his administration is so damning that the Kremlin attempted, with considerable success, to block its distribution. Originally, the publisher, Novaya Gazeta (which produces the newspaper of the same [...]

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I don’t know about you, but the sight of Russian missiles rolling across Red Square made me a little nervous. It’s the Russian way of subtle intimidation.
From the article:
If anyone was having trouble grasping the fact that Russia has an image problem, the sight of intercontinental ballistic missiles rolling across Red Square on Victory Day [...]

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Russia’s new President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have surveyed a massive military parade in Moscow’s Red Square a day after the State Duma confirmed Putin in the premiership.
Flag-carriers from a military honour guard led the parade to mark the 63rd anniversary of Russia’s victory over Germany in World war II.
The cadets carried [...]

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When Boris Yeltsin left the Kremlin eight years ago, he gave Vladimir Putin the pen he had used to sign important documents and decrees, a gesture symbolizing the transfer of power to Russia’s new president. When Putin left the Kremlin, he took the pen with him. Putin, who became prime minister Thursday, has signaled that [...]

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, have promised a harmonious dual leadership. But as Medvedev prepares to be inaugurated as Russia’s new president, the two leaders’ supporters are already gearing up for a power struggle. By Uwe Klussmann in Moscow more…

Photo Gallery: The ‘Putvedev’ Era Begins
EU Condemns Saber Rattling: Russia and Georgia [...]

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