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
Stalinist show trials ended a long time ago in Russia but the modern-day Putinist variety continues to lock away political opponents in Siberia.
And as Dmitry Medvedev marked his first year as president on Thursday the West, led by new American president Barack Obama and his «reset» button, seems programmed to pounce on any signs of liberalization or reform emanating from the Kremlin.
Ein Jahr lang ist Medwedew jetzt Präsident. Auf ein Tauwetter warten die Russen bisher vergeblich
After a first-round draw in the high-stakes energy poker game between Russia, Ukraine and the EU, Vladimir Putin has the highest hand. The Russian premier avoided two energy conferences in Bulgaria and Turkmenistan knowing all too well that the key energy issues would be discussed in Russia’s bilateral talks with Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenkoand EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs last week in Moscow.
Western attitudes toward Russia tend to shift much like a swinging pendulum: euphoria quickly turns to dismay, or, alternatively, despair in no time morphs into hope. The reason that perceptions of Russia are so volatile is that the West tends to harbor all sorts of extravagant expectations about its proverbially enigmatic eastern neighbor. More often than not, these notions are based not on hard knowledge, but on wishful thinking.
On Thursday, Dmitri Medvedev marks his first year as president of Russia. There is little cause for celebration as the Russian economy is facing its worst crisis for more than a decade. Unemployment is approaching 10 percent, inflation 15 percent, and the credit squeeze is hurting all Russians from the factory floor to the oligarchs.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - After a year in office, President Dmitry Medvedev is showing a different Kremlin style to that of predecessor Vladimir Putin, though analysts can only guess if this might herald major change or not.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s growing political stature is increasing the possibility that he will stand for re-election in 2012 in spite of widespread assumptions that Vladimir Putin will return, according to a Kremlin adviser.
In an attempt to explain the Russian Revolution to Lady Ottoline Morrell, British philosopher Bertrand Russell once remarked that Bolshevik despotism, appalling though it was, seemed the right sort of government for Russia. “If you ask yourself how Fyodor Dostoevsky’s characters should be governed, you will understand,” was his not-sosubtle point. In explaining the recent resurgence of authoritarianism in Russia, most political theorists have abstained from referring to Dostoevsky’s novels or Russia’s authoritarian political culture.
Most educated people understand two simple facts about central banks. They can increase or decrease the national money supply by raising or lowering the «discount rate» they charge banks to borrow from the treasury, and they need to be independent so that decisions about the money supply are based on economics, not politics.
