MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – The West should not rush to impose further sanctions against Russia as they could have an extremely negative effect on the global financial system, Chair of the Government Department at Harvard University Timothy Colton told RIA Novosti. “The West should think twice, think very carefully about extending the sanctions, because it could end up […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Liam Halligan in London – May 19, 2014) Liam Halligan is Editor-at-Large of Business New Europe “That the Cold War ended in our lifetime without a general war and a nuclear exchange is the greatest shared boon, a true miracle of our own times. Nothing beats that – it is the thing that trumps […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 25, 2014) The Kremlin’s anti-Western mythology is now so widespread that many in Moscow and some in the West accept it as a given and fail to understand how it reflects a specific political program and how dangerous and self-destructive it is for those who are putting it about, according to […]
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Subject: Stirring up world conflict Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 From: Dmitry Mikheyev <dmitrymikheyev@gmail.com> I am again inviting this intellectual community to explore what from my point of view is a cardinal question of our time. Do democratic countries have legal and moral rights to instigate and perpetrate a Coup D’état against a legitimate government? Hypothetically, it seems only fair […]
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TUNIS. March 4 (Interfax) – Russia thinks that the European Union and the United States want to cancel agreements reached between Ukraine’s authorities and opposition on February 21. “They are trying to annul the February 21 agreement on settling the crisis in Ukraine that was signed by Ukraine’s president and opposition,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference […]
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NOVO-OGARYOVO. March 4 (Interfax) – Far from all moves of Western countries are legitimate, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the Western criticism of Russia. “We are often accused of taking illegitimate actions. And when I ask if they think [their actions] are totally legitimate, they say yes. They have to be reminded about the U.S. actions in Afghanistan, Iraq […]
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BAGHDAD. Feb 20 (Interfax) – Moscow is concerned by how the West has been trying to impact on the situation in Ukraine, and also notes that the situation in this country is being misrepresented, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “We are most deeply concerned by what is going on in Ukraine, and in particular by how Western capitals have […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – SOCHI – February 17, 2014) Russians tend to become reticent when approached by reporters at the Winter Olympics. In contrast, North Americans and many Europeans show no qualms at all. They go up to reporters on their own initiative and are not wary about giving their last names. They also volunteer details […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – February 11, 2014) International expansion is the new watchword for the Russian venture market’s movers and shakers. As the latest ranking of the country’s internet millionaires indicates, the winners are those who invest abroad. The magazine Sekret Firmy (meaning “company secret” in Russian) has conducted a study together with the BrandSpotter agency to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman, Moscow Times theater editor – February 10, 2014) I once wrote most of what I planned to be a book about Russia. I got as far as sending chapters out to publishers. One of the few editors who was kind enough to reject me personally explained why my proposal was not of interest. […]
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(Business New Europe – Moscow blog – bne.eu – Ben Aris – February 7, 2014) The Sochi Winter Olympics kick off today February 7, but they have already turned from being a trial of human endeavour into a celebration of the hatemongering that pervades the coverage of Russia. Radio Liberty has published a useful page on its website that simply […]
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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, January 7, Interfax – The Western model of society cannot cope with modern challenges, head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin has said. “To my mind, Western civilization still cannot realize that its model of social order is shared by the minority of people in the world and is typical of only that […]
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Moscow, January 7, Interfax – Ousting the true sense of Christmas from public space, including its substitution with other names, can have dangerous consequences, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has said. “This is a political action, a purposeful act to oust Christian values, including Christian holidays from the lives of people. This is spiritual disarmament of the masses. […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 6, 2013) Despite all the ups and downs in the relationship between the West and the Slavic world, changes that alternatively spark new hopes or new fears, the underlying reality, according to a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, is that “the anti-Slavic character of the policy of the […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) – Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs’ Committee Alexei Pushkov believes that Russia has many allies in West European countries in advocating traditional values. “Russia is not suggesting that Western societies live according to our patterns but advocates the right of all countries and societies to live the way they find necessary instead of becoming […]
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KYIV. Dec 6 (Interfax) – Ukrainian opposition leaders – Vitali Klitschko of the UDAR party, Arseny Yatsenyuk of Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), and Oleh Tyahnybok of Svoboda (Freedom) – have met with the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Victoria Nuland. “We call upon the leaders of the European Union and the United States to resolutely condemn violent […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 5 (Interfax) – The Russian civil rights organizations that have won in a tender for government grants are not going to abandon foreign financing. “These are our projects. We are pursuing them regardless of financing sources. We are not carrying out projects ordered by Russian or foreign funds,” Memorial historical and civil rights society head Arseny Roginsky told […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Daniil Kotsyubinsky – November 25, 2013) Daniil Kotsyubinsky is a Russian historian and journalist based in St. Petersburg Today’s Russia is like a huge ice floe broken off from contemporary life and drifting further and further from Europe into a dank and gloomy past. St Petersburg, or ‘Peter’, epitomises this duality most of all. The Kremlin’s recent […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) – The actions of the Greenpeace environmentalists who tried to climb an oil platform in the Arctic posed a threat to the lives of the people who are working there, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “When they climb the platform and create an emergency situation, there could be not just one mistake of an operator but […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) – The Western form of juvenile justice will not work in Russia, Russian children’s rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said. “My principled stance is that the Western style, a virtually bankrupt form of juvenile justice is not viable,” Astakhov told reporters on Tuesday. “It is not viable in Russia because the equality between parents and a child […]
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(Pravda.ru – Anton Kulikov – November 12, 2013) The Russian State Duma deputies proposed an introduction of the “Separatist Propaganda” article in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and establishing a prison sentence of three to six years for said propaganda. So far this is only a draft bill, and its future is unclear. The document was proposed for […]
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(Interfax – Ufa, October 22, 2013) The voice of Russian Muslim figures should be heard better both on the international arena and in the international Islamic community, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. “Tensions between the West and the Islamic world are increasing today. And someone is trying to gamble on this theme by adding firewood to this fire. We are […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Dmitri Trenin, Director, Carnegie Moscow Center – September 13, 2013) U.S. reactions to President Vladimir Putin’s op-ed article in the New York Times this week, from outrage to ridicule, show just how badly much of the Western policy elite are misinterpreting Russia. This is largely the product of dashed and unrealistic expectations that many in the […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 16, 2013) Today, beginning at 9:15 a.m. Moscow time (5:15 a.m. GMT), RIA Novosti is broadcasting live from the opening of the 10th annual meeting of the Valdai Club, a discussion forum where high-level Russian officials have been meeting with foreign political scientists since 2004. A recording of the event will be posted after the broadcast […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Yaroslava Kiryukhina, RBTH – September 10, 2013) In response to Russia’s recently adopted “anti-gay law,” people in cities all over the world are boycotting Russian vodka and talking of severing sister-city ties. Despite this criticism, which comes mainly from Western audiences, Russian lawmakers insist that the new legislation was created only to protect […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Ben Aris – September 11, 2013) How much does the rest of the world hate Russia? Answer: a lot. This excerpt below is part of an internal memo by a major US bank, which will remain nameless, to clients on the results of the Moscow mayoral elections at the weekend. What is supposed to […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, August 21, 2013) Most Russians tend to expect that Russia will develop according to the Western, not Asian pattern, sociologists from Levada Center have told Interfax. According to a poll conducted in July in 130 towns and cities in 45 territories of Russia, over a quarter (27%) of the interviewed assume that in 50 years science, technology […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 7, 2013) A senior Russian Foreign Ministry official on Wednesday deflected Western criticism of the so-called anti-gay law, saying the recently adopted legislation did not violate the rights of sexual minorities in the country but was aimed at protecting minors. “As to the criticism of our law banning homosexual propaganda we have to reiterate […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW – July 29, 2013) Western lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists are ratcheting up the pressure on Russia over laws outlawing “gay propaganda.” Among the tactics: an online campaign to “dump Russian vodka” calls for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, while another campaign urges a visa ban […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Sam Greene – July 23, 2013) Samuel A. Greene is Senior Lecturer in Russian Politics and Director of the King’s Russia Institute at King’s College London. Can manipulating the democratic process ever play out in the interest of progressive politics? Samuel A. Greene suggests not: we’ve been in this situation before, in post-Soviet Russia, with largely calamitous results. […]
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[Putin’s Decay – Gordon Hahn – Moscow Times – July 12, 2013 – http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/putins-decay/483044.html – Gordon Hahn, senior associate of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, is author of “Russia’s Revolution From Above” and “Russia’s Islamic Threat] In his Moscow Times Op-Ed, “Putin’s Decay,” Gordon Hahn of CSIS raises concern over what […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 8, 2013) Moscow has again slammed the West for a policy on the Syrian conflict based on “double standards.” “We deplore the position of our Western partners in the UN Security Council – in debating the Syria issue, they continue to observe double standards. Moreover, this is far from the first instance of such non-objective and […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, April 30, 2013) Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to consider by June 15 the expediency of restoring a contemporary Western art museum in Moscow. “To consider the expediency of restoring a new (contemporary) Western art museum in Moscow,” say Putin’s instructions given after the Direct Line with Russians. The government’s report on the subject […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Winning – March 21, 2013) Health officials are complaining that Russia is becoming increasingly dependent on the West for medical supplies and top-flight treatment, as a growing number of Russians choose overseas clinics over state medical care. Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova told regional health authorities on Wednesday that instead of traveling either abroad or […]
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[Sergei Magnitsky: The enemy within: A saga that has been a parable of the self-mutilating way Russia is governed – The Economist – Editorial – March 9, 2013 – http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573119-saga-has-been-parable-self-mutilating-way-russia-governed-enemy-within] The Economist issues an editorial on the Magnitsky saga and its aftermath, and what it shows about brutal, deadly elitism in Russia: Martyred human rights activists; fatally brave journalists: Russia, […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 28, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-from-upper-volta-with.html) Twenty-five years ago, German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt characterized the Soviet Union as being an “Upper Volta with missiles.” Now, Russian analysts, in response to findings of a Swiss firm, have suggested that a better analogy might be between the Russian Federation and a “Nigeria with snow.” The […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, 18 February 2013) The West’s capabilities to dominate global politics continue to dwindle, the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, whose text was posted on the website of the Foreign Ministry today, reads. [http://www.mid.ru/bdomp/ns-osndoc.nsf/e2f289bea62097f9c325787a0034c255/c32577ca0017434944257b160051bf7f] “The capabilities of the historically established West to dominate the global economy and politics continue to decline. The global potential of […]
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(www.opendemocracy.net – Ivan Krastev – February 7, 2013) Ivan Krastev is chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, and permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM). The incompatibility of an anachronistic and arbitrary regime with the modern world is leading many to consider that democratic change is possible likely even in Russia. But […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Jason Corcoran – February 4, 2013) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (G) has been hired by the Russian government to burnish the nation’s image overseas and attract more institutional investors. The bank has signed a three-year agreement with the Economy Ministry and the Russian Direct Investment Fund to advise on issues such as communicating government decisions and […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 1, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/02/window-on-eurasia-putins-anti-western.html) Vladimir Putin’s support for “the conservative wave in contemporary Russia” is not just part of his broader effort to set the country’s “silent majority” against the opposition, Aleksey Makarkin says. It is also a reflection of the Russian president’s disappointment in the foreign policy course he pursued […]
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(Interfax – January 31, 2013) The Russians like the European Union more than the USA and believe that in its foreign policy Moscow should gravitate towards Western Europe and the CIS countries, Russian Interfax news agency reported, quoting an opinion poll carried out by the Levada Centre in January. In the poll, 64 per cent of the participants said they […]
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MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) – Presently, Russians think better of the European Union than of the United States and believe it would be best for Russia to follow foreign policy objectives in Western Europe and CIS, a poll indicates. During a poll in January, 64% of the respondents said they held a positive attitude to the EU, and 22% a […]
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WASHINGTON, January 30 (RIA Novosti) The United States and Europe should work to persuade Russia’s leadership to let their country become more “integrated” with the West despite challenges in relations with Moscow, outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview published Tuesday. “It’s going to have to be a mutual effort, Europe and the United States both […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Jonas Parello-Plesner – January 24, 2013) Jonas is Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He served as Denmark’s Senior Advisor on China and North East Asia from 2005-2009. Russia-watchers have long been interested in her place on the international arena. Now, with China at the centre of the growing power game, the question […]
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(A revolution in space but calmer streets at home; Pundits predict a loss of momentum for the protest movement at home and see little scope for improvement in relations with the West – Russia Beyond the Headlines – Artem Zagorodnov – January 4, 2013 – click here for google cache version of article) Russia Beyond the Headlines takes a look […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Patrick Reevell – December 26, 2012) A policeman says in Russian: “I work a lot, sometimes even too much. … Winter or summer, rain or shine, I go from a bank to a store, from a store to a restaurant, from a restaurant to a market, looking for where to take money.” What’s wrong with […]
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(Dmitri Trenin – www.opendemocracy.net – Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center; Counselor of the Commission on Euro-Atlantic Security – December 24, 2012) A year is a very long time in politics. Over the past year Russia’s relations with the West have deteriorated, not helped by events in Syria and the Magnitsky Act. A new beginning and a desire […]
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MOSCOW. Dec 18 (Interfax) – Anti-western rhetoric has stopped the establishment of an International Financial Center (IFC) in Russia, former finance minister and now chairman of the Civil Initiatives Committee, Alexei Kudrin, said. Instead of dialogue between the authorities and the public, legislation is being passed that is hitting protestors. One myth is the assertion that almost all civil activity […]
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(Interfax – November 19, 2012) Leading Russian NGOs intend to ignore the legislative amendments which require the registration as “agents of foreign influence” of non-governmental organizations with Western backing. The law will enter into force on Nov. 20, Tuesday. “I do not know a single human rights organization, which has appealed for being registered as a “foreign agent,” said Lyudmila […]
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