MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) – Attempts to explain all of Syria’s current problems by President Bashar al Assad’s tenure hold no water and only reflect Washington’s obsession with the idea of Syrian president’s overthrow, chairman of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee Alexei Pushkov said in remarks about U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech at the Davos international economic […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Michael Bohm, Opinion Page Editor – January 24, 2014) Kremlin propagandists have good reason to be happy with the results of a recently released annual Win/Gallup International poll in which more than 67,000 residents in 65 countries were asked, “Who is the greatest threat to world peace?” Given Russia’s results, it is clear that the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Yekaterina Kravtsova – January 23, 2014) As the U.S. expressed concern over the safety of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and offered to send its own warships to assist in case of a terrorist threat, observers said that cooperation between U.S. and Russian security agencies on the matter is not much more than […]
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DAVOS. Jan 23 (Interfax) – Russia and the U.S. plan to conclude a number of agreements concerning trade, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev told journalists following their meeting with a U.S. trade representative on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. “There can be no talk of a project for a trade […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nikolay Surkov, RBTH – January 22, 2014) Russian minister describes the 2013 year in Russian foreign policy successes and challenges. In a January 21 press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov summarize the results of 2013’s major foreign policy issues, including the crisis in Syria, the relationship with Washington, and Ukraine’s volatile […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 22 (Interfax) – Members of the Pussy Riot punk band Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina intend to visit U.S. prisons. “We are going to visit several U.S. prisons (including a maximum security prison for women) in the state of New York with a team in early February. As local political activists told us, the prisons are most severe […]
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MOSCOW, January 21 (RIA Novosti) American military assets have been offered to bolster security for the upcoming Sochi Olympic Games scheduled to open in less than three weeks, the Pentagon said Monday. “Air and naval assets, to include two Navy ships in the Black Sea, will be available if requested,” press secretary Rear Admiral John F. Kirby said in […]
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(Business New Europe MOSCOW BLOG – bne.eu – Ben Aris – January 15, 2014) The international press threw up a hue and cry on January 14 after it emerged a US journalist David Satter had been barred from re-entering Russia. Superficially, it appears the Kremlin has banned a western journalist because he was critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. […]
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MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) The United States on Thursday condemned the parliament of Ukraine’s decision to pass wide-ranging laws severely restricting the right to protest as undemocratic. The measures were stiffly resisted by outraged opposition deputies in a testy, and sometimes violent, session in the Rada, but were nonetheless pushed through by the ruling pro-presidential Party of Regions. […]
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(Institute of Modern Russia – imrussia.org – Donald N. Jensen – January 15, 2014) The year 2013 was not an easy one for the United States, and Russian President Vladimir Putin used the situation to strengthen his position both on the world stage and in the post-Soviet space. Donald N. Jensen, Resident Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – January 16, 2014) As pundits speculated about possible political repercussions of Russia’s decision to bar U.S. journalist David Satter, the country’s often cumbersome and conflicting visa application process came into the spotlight on Wednesday. While for some observers the visa bureaucracy was seen as a tool to cushion the state’s political decisions, […]
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(U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul – http://m-mcfaul.livejournal.com/ – January 15, 2014) [excerpt; complete text here http://m-mcfaul.livejournal.com/17235.html] January is always a good month to assess the accomplishments of the previous year and look forward to progress in the new year. This month marks not only the end of my second year as the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation but also the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – January 14, 2014) Russia has barred a U.S. journalist for five years in a move that has triggered a frenzy between Russian authorities and Western media on Tuesday, signaling possible heightened tensions ahead of upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. It was not clear whether David Satter, 66, was banned entry into […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 13, 2014) A record total of about 250,000 U.S. nonimmigrant visas were issued to Russians last year, a jump of 15 percent compared to the previous record year, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said Monday. In 2013, more than 30 percent of Russians obtained U.S. visas without going through an interview due to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Natalya Krainova – January 13, 2014) The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert for Americans traveling to Sochi for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics as security threats continue to emerge in southern Russia, which is set to host the Games next month. Over the weekend, police defused two handmade bombs in the North […]
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MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) Russian TV celebrity and socialite Ksenia Sobchak has said she was strip-searched at Miami Airport after a security check wrongly detected explosives on her fingers, a claim the US authorities have denied. Sobchak, 32, formerly the host of a long-running reality show and now an anchor at an independent TV channel, claimed on Twitter […]
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(Secrecy News – blogs.fas.org/secrecy – Steven Aftergood – January 8, 2014) Beginning in 1974, the U.S. intelligence community provided the public with a broad selection of foreign news reports, updated daily. These were collected and translated by the Central Intelligence Agency’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), which was reconstituted in 2004 as the Open Source Center (OSC). But the CIA […]
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(Secrecy News – blogs.fas.org/secrecy – Steven Aftergood – December 23, 2013) More than a dozen professional societies and public interest groups wrote to the Director of National Intelligence last week to ask him to preserve public access to foreign news reports gathered, translated and published by the Open Source Center and marketed to subscribers through the NTIS World News Connection. […]
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WASHINGTON, January 8 (RIA Novosti) The US Senate has called for possible sanctions against individuals responsible for state violence against Ukrainian demonstrators protesting Kiev’s decision to abandon long-awaited trade and political deals with the European Union. “In the event of further state violence against peaceful protestors, the President and Congress should consider whether to apply targeted sanctions, including visa […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 9, 2014) A U.S. crisis-response firm will have five aircraft on standby during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in the event that an emergency requires an evacuation. The private Global Rescue firm, which had announced in November that it would assist the U.S. ski and snowboard teams during the Olympics, will stand by […]
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Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2014 From: Kirk Bennett <kirkbennett7@yahoo.com> Subject: In Praise of the Transactional — the Case Against a Strategic Russian-Western Partnership In Praise of the Transactional — the Case Against a Strategic Russian-Western Partnership By Kirk Bennett, U.S. Department of State, retired. The opinions expressed are his own and do not reflect the views of the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 8, 2014) Moscow’s unseasonably warm weather is expected to continue over the next few days, creating the potential for setting temperature records that are a far cry from those being caused by the polar vortex in the United States and Canada. Fobos weather center said that temperatures in Moscow were expected to reach three […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Margot Light – January 5, 2014) Margot Light is Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the Department of International Relations of the London School of Economics and Political Science. 2013 produced several foreign policy successes for President Putin, increasing Russia’s prominence on the international stage. At home, the Volgograd suicide attacks brought the year to a sad and […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Stephen Bierman – January 2, 2014) As Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin argue over human rights in Russia and the fate of fugitive U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden, the countries’ biggest oil companies are preparing to drill for giant discoveries together in the Arctic Ocean. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM:US) and OAO Rosneft (ROSN) are set to […]
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(Interfax – January 2, 2014) It is possible to make progress on Russia-U.S. relations in 2014 only if there is a will of both leaderships, a Russian policy expert said. “For now I do not see any serious prerequisites for improving the relations in the upcoming year. On the other hand, everything depends on the presidents; if Barack Obama and/or […]
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(PONARS. Eurasia – ponarseurasia.org – Polina Sinovets, Associate Professor. Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University – December 20, 2013) [Footnotes here http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/why-russia-undermines-norm-nuclear-disarmament] Russia is one of the founding fathers of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and continues to play a major role in its framework today. Together with the United States, Moscow plays an important role in keeping the regime intact, […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 30 (Interfax) – The Russian-American program to retrieve spent nuclear fuel of Russian production from other countries has been prolonged until 2024. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom told Interfax that Russia and the United States exchanged their notes on this agreement. Rosatom was previously planning to round off the program in 2016. The Russian-American program is being carried […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, December 25, 2013) Now is the least opportune moment in the past 15 years for Russia to discuss further reductions of strategic offensive weapons, Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s security and disarmament department, has said in a RIA Novosti interview. “Now is the most inauspicious moment in the past 10-15 years to talk […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – December 26, 2013) U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul plans to ring in the New Year in Moscow for the first time in his life, combining Russian and U.S. traditions, he said in an interview published Wednesday. McFaul, who’s been in Russia since early 2012, also said that the reports of his resignation were greatly […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Washington’s attempts to expand the so-called Magnitsky List are an extra irritant in relations between Russia and the United States, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said referring to the list of Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses and subject to U.S. financial and visa sanctions under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Nathan Gray – December 18, 2013) It was more than business that pulled banker Alexis Rodzianko to Russia in 1995. Eight decades earlier, his great-grandfather had chaired two sessions of the pre-Revolutionary Duma and conducted abdication negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II. Now Rodzianko had competing job offers between New York, London and Moscow. “The call […]
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Ambassador Michael McFaul, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, addresses U.S.-Russian Relations, Ukraine, the Sochi Olympics, adoptions and other matters, in this video by RFE/RL’s Russian Service. McFaul is interviewed in Russian, with English subtitles. The video was dated December 17, 2013.
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – December 17, 2013) U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has spoken of the current state of bilateral relations, the upcoming Sochi Olympics, and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service. McFaul, speaking at RFE/RL’s Moscow Bureau, quashed rumors of a possible U.S. boycott of the Winter Olympics. He confirmed […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – December 18, 2013) U.S. Senator John McCain has accused Russia of trying to block Ukraine’s efforts to join the European Union. Fresh upon his return from witnessing the pro-European Union demonstrations taking place in Kyiv, McCain spoke to RFE/RL’s Golnaz Esfandiari about what may lie ahead for the country. RFE/RL: Senator McCain, You just returned from […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/RIA Novosti – rbth.ru – Konstantin Bogdanov, RIA Novosti – December 16, 2013) Russian officials have expressed their sharp criticism towards the U.S. plans for the so-called “Prompt Global Strike” initiative. Are they justified? What does this “Prompt Global Strike” represent, how can it interfere with the Russian plans and how can it be opposed? Around the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Russia will answer symmetrically if the United States expands the so-called Magnitsky List, i.e. the list of Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses and subject to U.S. financial and visa sanctions under the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “Decisions on putting more Russian […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 16 (Interfax) – Moscow is already taking disciplinary measures in relation to the Russian diplomats accused in the U.S. of unlawfully receiving Medicaid benefits to cover the pregnancy and childbirth costs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “This is a disciplinary offence, because, by being insincere in filing applications and citing inaccurate figures to receive some benefits, they […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 12, 2013) Russian experts interviewed by the RIA Novosti news agency believe that by speaking about possible sanctions against Ukraine, the USA is trying to make Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych more compliant, the agency reported on 12 December. Spokesperson for the US Department of State Jen Psaki has said that the US authorities are considering possible […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax) – Americans continue to conceive of Russia in the context of the Cold War and communism, and Russians mostly associate the United States with aggression and the dollar, specialists from the Romir Holding, which held a joint poll with the U.S. Leger Market Research in the fall, told Interfax on Wednesday. A thousand city residents older […]
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WASHINGTON, December 9 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) The United States and Russia face a potential renewed blacklist war as a deadline looms this week for Washington to report on controversial sanctions against alleged Russian rights abusers. The US administration has until Saturday to submit to Congress its inaugural annual report on any additions to the so-called “Magnitsky […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Delphine d’Amora – December 9, 2013) The Russian diplomats and their spouses charged with fraudulently claiming a total of $1.5 million from a U.S. government health care program are all to return to Russia, a news report said Monday. Only 11 of the 49 defendants are still on American soil, and they too will soon […]
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MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) The US government will have to consider sanctions against Ukraine’s leadership after a petition to the cause gathered 100,000 signatures on White House’s website. The petition asks to ban US and EU entry for and freeze assets of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and members of the his government, as well as their families. The […]
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(Interfax – November 29, 2013) Missile defence is the main irritant in relations between the defence ministries of Russia and NATO member states, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoliy Antonov has said, privately-owned Russian military news agency Interfax-AVN reported on 29 November. “The prospects for cooperation between Russia and NATO are very great. If there was the political will from the […]
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(Ambassador Michael McFaul – November 29, 2013 – Valdai Discussion Club/Izvestia) Michael McFaul is U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. November 17, 2013, marked the 80th anniversary of the U.S. recognition of the Soviet Union, when then-Soviet Foreign Minister Maksim Litvinov traveled to the U.S. to sign an agreement establishing diplomatic relations. While this is a milestone in our relationship […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 26 (Interfax) – Most Russian orphans whose adoption by American families was prohibited by the Dima Yakovlev law have already been adopted by Russian citizens or have been returned to their biological mothers, Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights envoy, told Interfax on Tuesday. “Most of these children have already been transferred to their new Russian […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) – The percentage of Russians who have savings has hit its highest point in the past few years. The ruble remains the most popular currency of savings, but Russians do not want to abandon the dollar or euro either, sociologists said. Some 22% of the respondents said they had savings in fall 2008. The percentage grew […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nora FitzGerald, Xenia Grubstein, RBTH – November 28, 2013) In their celebrations of America’s most traditional holiday, émigrés find a way to embrace an American identity while paying tribute to their roots. For many Russians who have emigrated to the United States, Thanksgiving is their favorite American holiday a window to a […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Mark H. Teeter – November 28, 2013) Sometimes Russians get American history so muddled (так путаются в американской истории) that it can only be un-muddled by authentic Yankee ingenuity (аутентичной хитростью америкоса типа меня). Last week, my grandson Valerka displayed lecture-worthy prejudice regarding the origins of Thanksgiving (День благодарения): “Isn’t that the holiday,” chided the […]
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From: Scott Bittle <SB@carnegie.org> Subject: Adding Russian voices to Carnegie Corp. US-Russia relations site Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 I just wanted to follow up — we have added our Russian commentators to the site, in collaboration with the Carnegie Moscow Center, to provide a counterpoint to the American experts from the first round. These posts are available to you […]
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Subject: 6th Annual Conference Doing Business with Russia From: eurasiamail@aol.com Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 6th Annual Conference Doing Business with Russia The Eurasia Center & The Eurasian Business Coalition December 4, 2013 At The Russian Trade Representation & The Embassy of the Russian Federation Washington, DC To Register please visit www.eurasiacenter.org and see Agenda. This event will allow participants […]
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