(Ambassador Michael McFaul – Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – February 8, 2013 – Michael Mcfaul is the U.S. Ambassador in Russia) A year ago, I arrived in Moscow to represent my country as the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. This is a good moment to reflect on the state of U.S.-Russian relations and my role in developing […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – Alaa Omar, special to RBTH – February 8, 2013) In response to Russia’s support of Bashar Assad in Syria, Russia has been condemned in Arab media and press as hostile to Islam, exporting only “immoral values” to the region. Independent journalist and political analyst Alaa Omar takes a look at the other side […]
» Read more
(Interfax – Moscow, 1 February) The events in Syria, Algeria and Mali are interrelated and demonstrate the multi-faceted nature of the modern terrorist threat, Aleksandr Zmeyevskiy, the Russian president’s special representative on international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime, has said. “Al-Qa’idah and its partners in this unsavoury business seriously intend to take power in states. […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 28, 2013 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-will-moscows-use-of.html) Moscow’s new effort to use “soft power” in the North Caucasus instead of the “hard power” it has used in the past may reduce the number of young people joining the militants and thus buy the center some time — but only at the price of opening […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, January 17 – http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2013/01/window-on-eurasia-radical-muslims.html) Last year was a “successful” one for radical Muslims in the Russian Federation and hence “a failure for their opponents,” Roman Silantyev says. As a result, the upcoming twelve months promise to be “still more unfavorable for [Moscow’s] policies in the Islamic direction” both at home and abroad. […]
» Read more
[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 […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) – The West’s policy of dividing Syrian terrorists into “the bad” and “the not so bad” is dangerous, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday. “Our colleagues at the UN Security Council refuse to condemn terrorist attacks,” he said in an interview with the RT television network. “They say terrorism is bad but at […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, December 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russia ranks highest in the world among upper-middle-income countries affected by terrorism and ninth overall, according to a new report by an Australian think-tank. Other former Soviet republics ranked considerably lower in the Global Terrorism Index*, a new measure of the impact of terrorism, released last week by the Institute for Economics & Peace […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) – The share of Russians fearing they may fall victim to terror attacks has declined from 70% to 59% since 2010, the Public Opinion Foundation said. Fears are the biggest in small towns (70%) and the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts (75%). The sociologists held the poll in 43 regions of Russia. Some 36% rule […]
» Read more
(RFE/RL – Uma Isakova – Nov. 28, 2012) An uneasy peace holds between Ruslan and Rustam Shapiyev in the Daghestani village of Komsomolskoye. Younger brother Rustam, who has taken the name Abubakar, says he loves and respects his older brother, who has adopted the name Magomed. “Of course, a brother is a brother. We are obligated to maintain kinship ties,” […]
» Read more
(The Caucasus Emirate Goes Global – Stratfor.com – Gordon Hahn – Dr. Gordon M. Hahn is Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. – www.stratfor.com/other-voices/caucasus-emirate-goes-global) Gordon Hahn writes on the influences of international Islamic terrorism upon unrest in the Caucasus: For a decade almost all observers ignored, downplayed, and obfuscated an ugly truth about […]
» Read more
(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – November 05, 2012) MOSCOW — Suicide bombings in police stations. Muslim clerics gunned down in broad daylight. Shoot-outs between insurgents and security forces. These have become run-of-the-mill headlines in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus region of Daghestan. Last week, unidentified gunmen shot dead an imam and two of his male relatives as they drove to morning […]
» Read more
(Interfax – October 3, 2012) Russian environmentalists have poured cold water on claims by the head of the country’s main security service that Al-Qa’idah was responsible for forest fires in a number of countries across the European Union over the summer. In remarks reported by the privately-owned Interfax news agency on 3 October, Aleksandr Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, October 4 (Dan Peleschuk, RIA Novosti) – A prominent human rights worker in Moscow has reported receiving anonymous threats on her cell phone. Tanya Lokshina, a senior Russia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said she received direct and severe threats via text messages mentioning specific details of her life, including her pregnancy. She also said the contents of the […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax) – Sixty-two percent of Russians are aware of the Innocence of Muslims scandalous film released in the United States. Thirty-three percent of them have heard a lot about the film, and 6% are monitoring the situation closely, the Levada Center told Interfax. Thirty-nine percent of the respondents learned about the film in the poll of 1,601 […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti)-The Prosecutor General’s Office has declared the film “Innocence of Muslims” extremist and will seek a court ruling to ban the controversial video in Russia, its spokeswoman said on Monday. Before a court ruling the Prosecutor General’s Office has instructed the federal mass communications watchdog “to take measures to prevent media distribution of the information contained […]
» Read more
In desecration of crosses, Russia’s Orthodox church sees dark warning; The Russian Orthodox Church said an antireligious campaign in sympathy with Pussy Riot punk band was under way after four large wooden crosses were destroyed over the weekend. – Christian Science Monitor – August 27, 2012 – by Fred Weir, Correspondent click here to read the original article […]
» Read more