VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh problem between Azerbaijan and Armenia in weekend talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as Ankara seeks to normalize its ties with Yerevan without alienating Azerbaijan.
“Turkey and Russia have responsibilities in the region. We have to take steps for the peace and wellbeing of the region,” Erdoğan said at a joint news conference with Putin in Sochi on Saturday. “This includes the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, the Middle East dispute, the Cyprus problem,” he added.
MOSCOW — As energy markets shrink, the same tactics that the Kremlin used to build Gazprom, the giant energy company, into a fearsome economic and political power that could restore Russian influence in the world are now backfiring, slashing both its profits and its influence.
It is not generally appreciated that Russia and Japan are still technically at war and have been for the last 64 years. Moscow declared war on Japan in the closing days of World War II in 1945, seeking to benefit from any gains in the peace. The prospect of a Japanese invasion in the East had haunted Soviet generals after the German attack in 1941. However, a year later, a remarkable espionage coup by Victor Sorge, a KGB spy working in the German Embassy in Tokyo, confirmed to Stalin that the Japanese had refused a request from Hitler that they also attack Russia. Thus the Soviet Army was able crucially to release substantial forces in the East to reinforce their Western front.
In meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Tokyo on Tuesday, Prime Minister Taro Aso apparently wanted to achieve some progress in the Northern Territories issue. But Mr. Putin apparently gave priority to strengthening bilateral economic ties. Thus the two leaders mostly talked past each other. Mr. Aso only managed to have the Russian side agree to continue efforts to solve the territorial dispute over the four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido.
Dmitry Medvedev, who marked his first year as Russian president last week, is often said to be in office but not in power. Many observers believe that the former president and current prime minister Vladimir Putin is the country’s real ruler. But Mr Medvedev’s growing stature is raising the prospect that he will stand for re-election in 2012, despite widespread assumptions that Mr Putin, constitutionally barred from seeking a third presidential term in 2008, wants the top job back.
It has become fashionable to speak of change and liberalization in Russia under President Dmitry Medvedev. May 7 marked his one-year anniversary in office. He has recently granted an interview with an opposition newspaper, allowed a few human-rights activists to criticize Russia's regime, and even started a blog. There is also a new administration in Washington that wants a fresh start with foreign powers.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's political legacy is inextricably linked to that of his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, in ways that go beyond mere political lineage.
Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, tonight gave his strongest hint yet that he is pondering a comeback that would see him return to the Kremlin as president in 2012.
MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said Sunday that the planned “reset” in relations between Russia and the United States had been hampered by NATO exercises in Georgia, and that he hoped the United States would “step on the brake hard” to prevent the relationship from deteriorating.
A May 2nd analysis piece from New York Times Russia correspondent Clifford Levy highlighted the paper's hopeless inability to offer readers real insights about Vladimir Putin's neo-Soviet regime.
