NEWSLINK Australian Financial Review: How Russia proved to be the best BRICS bet in 2015

Russia’s surge in fortunes presents a contrast with the events of December, when stocks tumbled almost 9 percent and the ruble sank to a record, prompting the central bank to raise interest rates to the highest in more than a decade. That marked the peak of turmoil that had begun with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March and crude oil’s […]

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NEWSLINK Christian Science Monitor: Back-to-back Russia-hosted summits put Putin in coveted starring role.

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

Images of a Putin alongside leaders of other large countries, signing economic deals, will reinforce Russia’s argument that it doesn’t need the West. It’s a seductive view, but a superficial one, say analysts

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NEWSLINK Wall Street Journal: Eastern Ukraine Refugees Worry They Came Home Too Soon. Some who came back to after cease-fire now live in fear of renewed fighting

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Almost 1,000 people—combatants and civilians—have been killed since the cease-fire was agreed to in mid-February, about half in the days of heavy fighting immediately afterward. That has brought the death toll to more than 6,400 since the conflict began in April 2014, according to United Nations figures.

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NEWSLINK Christian Science Monitor: Anti-Americanism provides big boost to Russia’s small IT businesses

Putin and Obama with U.S. and Russian Flags

Russia’s economic conditions seem like they couldn’t be less hospitable to starting a new company. But small software firms are starting to thrive, in part because of Western sanctions

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NEWSLINK Euromaidan Press: Putin regime can’t be reformed, only replaced, like its Soviet predecessor, Yakovenko says

Vladimir Putin file photo with VOA logo; screen shot from video still

“Having unleashed the imperial self-consciousness of the population, Yakovenko continues, ‘Putin not only does not want but cannot stop this insanity. He already lacks the powers to stop the war he began in Ukraine, even if he wanted to. He lacks the power to stop the hysteria of hatred in the media.’

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