(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) Ukraine’s counteroffensive needs to show demonstrable success for U.S. Congress to approve additional aid as the money American lawmakers set aside to fund military supplies to Kyiv is set to run out in July, according to U.S. officials interviewed by FT and Politico. Meanwhile, there is a debate underway in Washington over whether substantial gains in […]
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(Oilprice.com – Simon Watkins – Aug. 10, 2021) There was always something that did not look quite right about Lukoil’s recent announcement that it was going to withdraw from Iraq’s huge West Qurna 2 oil field, located 65 kilometers northwest of the southern port of Basra and with roughly 14 billion barrels of reserves in place. So it has proven, […]
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“Trouble between Turkey and the Kurds led oil prices to rise to $59 per barrel on September 26, their highest level in more than two years. Kurds held a referendum in … Iraq calling for … an independent Kurdish homeland for the ethnic group, who spill over the borders of neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan […]
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While the United States government was secretly preparing to bomb Syria, I was in my Siberian university classroom. It was the first day for a new group of third-year linguistics students. … After the class all told me something about themselves, I asked the stranger where he was from, as he was clearly not Russian. His name was Ali (the shortened version […]
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The Wall Street Journal covers concerns that Russian government policies will fuel more terrorist recruits for the so-called Islamic State. President Vladimir Putin justifies his military action in Syria in part as a way to head off the terrorist threat at home, especially here in the mostly Muslim north Caucasus. But residents say the government’s often heavy-handed measures are instead […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, February 9, 2016) There are self-styled groups of young people from Chechnya fighting the Islamic State terrorist group [ISIS] (which is banned in the Russian Federation) in Syria and Iraq, a source within the leadership of the Chechen Republic told Interfax. “There have been people from the Chechen Republic in the area of armed conflict in Syria […]
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RBTH presents its weekly analytical program TROIKA REPORT, featuring a look at three of the most high-profile recent developments in international affairs. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – TROIKA REPORT: Sergey Strokan, Vladimir Mikheev – August 20, 2015) 1. Engaging the West U.S. sanctions on Gazprom: Washington ups the ante The recent move by the U.S. administration to restrict […]
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People in both Russian diplomatic circles and the security forces have been describing Islamic State (ISIS) as a “real threat” for a long time now. On Aug. 1 a hotline will start working in Russia for those whose friends or family members have joined ISIS. With experts warning that ISIS cannot be defeated with force alone, RBTH found out what […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 9 (Interfax) – Only 13% of Russians are aware of the existence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and 54% learned about it during a poll held by the Public Opinion Foundation. Another 26% of 1,500 respondents polled in 43 regions on September 28 had heard something about the ISIL, and 7% failed to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Michael Winfrey – October 9, 2014) When the Islamic State commander known as “Omar the Chechen” called to tell his father they’d routed the Iraqi army and taken the city of Mosul, he added a stark message: Russia would be next. “He said ‘don’t worry dad, I’ll come home and show the Russians,’” Temur Batirashvili said […]
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MOSCOW. June 20 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama will have a phone conversation on issues related to the situation in Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria in the next few days, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told reporters. “Putin and Obama plan to have a phone conversation in the next few days. It will focus […]
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[Russia’s Syria Support Said to be a Losing Proposition – Vedomosti – Vladislav Inozemtsev, doctor of economic sciences, director of the Center for Study of the Post-Industrial Society – December 24, 2012 – no accessible link] Vladislav Inozemtsev writes in Vedomosti on Russia’s Syria policy, also focusing strongly on economic factors such as oil, gas and Syrian debt. At the […]
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“Russian Journalist Reports on Putin’s Meeting with Iraq’s Al-Maliki” – “Wing-span of 4.5 Billion Dollars — Meeting between Russian President and Iraqi Prime Minister Opened Deal to Supply Aircraft” – Kommersant – Andrey Kolesnikov – October 11, 2012 – no link available to English-language version Andrey Kolesnikov writes about a dinner meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamil Mohammed Hasan […]
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MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti)-Russia will deliver attack helicopters and mobile air-defense systems to Iraq in arms deals worth $4.2 billion signed earlier this year, it was disclosed today during a visit to Moscow by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in which he met his counterpart Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. Moscow will supply 30 Mil Mi-28NE night/all-weather capable attack helicopters, […]
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