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
Amilyen páratlan gyorsasággal létrejött, olyan hamar léphet le a porondról az alig egy évtized alatt kialakult orosz középosztály. Oroszország ugyanis az egyik legnagyobb vesztese a pénzügyi válságnak.
Vous avez dit «stabilité russe» ? Depuis leur arrivée aux affaires, Vladimir Poutine et ses ministres n'ont cessé d'invoquer cet acquis supposé de l'ère poutinienne pour justifier l'écrasement des libertés et la reprise en main de l'économie par l'État. Ils ont pu avoir quelque temps le bénéfice du doute, grâce à la propagande de médias largement verrouillés, qui taisent presque tous les mauvaises nouvelles intérieures. La hausse du prix du pétrole, en dotant le pouvoir d'une manne financière inespérée, avait conforté l'idée d'une économie stabilisée, masquant le problème central de la bureaucratisation galopante, de la fragilité des biens de propriété, de l'absence d'investissements productifs et de l'envolée de la corruption.
A few weeks ago, the leaders of Russia, Iran and Venezuela were gloating gleefully that the financial crisis would depose the United States as the world's leading power. Yet as the price of oil dropped below $65 last week -- or less than half its peak price last summer -- it was looking more likely that global economic turmoil would produce a quite different result: the substantial weakening of those countries' challenge to U.S. interests in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America.
Russia's currency fell to a new two-year low despite billions being spent by Moscow to prop it up, and the country's fast-shrinking mountains of reserves and oil revenues threatened to reduce its credit rating, a key marker of its recent resurgence.
C'est une enquête aussi implacable qu'un de ces « hommes à épaulettes » qui dirigent l'Etat russe « arbitraire, paranoïaque, corrompu et spoliateur ». Un livre passionnant et glaçant à la fois, utile pour tous ceux, nombreux depuis l'intervention militaire en Géorgie cet été, qui cherchent à comprendre le fonctionnement du Kremlin. Laure Mandeville, correspondante du « Figaro » à Moscou pendant vingt ans, livre ici une somme documentée, nourrie d'interviews du haut en bas de l'échelle sociale, sur la « criminalisation de l'Etat russe ».
PARIS - The world shook this August, overturning the equilibrium not just of forces on the ground, but of people's ideas and prejudices. The gigantic Olympic Games in Beijing displayed China's will to power, a major challenge for the 21st century. The invasion of Georgia brusquely alerted the world to the return of an imperial Russia without frontiers. But neither event should have surprised the West.
Few countries have been as hard-hit by the global financial crisis as Russia. The Russian stock exchange has lost 70 per cent of its value since May. But the effect on Russia's main companies has been dramatically magnified by the huge borrowings of the oligarchs, the men who bought controlling shares in Russia's industries during the flawed post-communist privatisations of the 1990s. Many of these moguls borrowed heavily against the rising value of their shares, and have lost billions in paper fortunes. As a result they are facing huge margin calls, and have to repay or refinance $120 billion before the end of next year. There is only one source rich enough to save them - the State. Could Russia's lurch into the wilder shores of capitalism end as suddenly as it began, with the reintegration of key industries under state control?
No disrespect to the people of Iceland (pop 302,000), but if Ukraine and its population of 46 million on the borders of Europe goes belly up as a result of financial and political turmoil it would be a most serious matter for all of us. Any instability in Ukraine would have implications for our energy supplies, because Russian gas transits through the former Soviet state on its way to western Europe.
On September 1, the leaders of the European Union, having already warned Moscow several times of its obligation to meet the terms of the cease-fire agreement with Georgia, held an emergency meeting in Brussels and decided to-issue another warning. If Russia continues its non-compliance, the leaders threatened, another warning may yet follow.
Miközben "vigyázó szemünket" Nyugat-Európára és Amerikára vetjük, biztonságpolitikai szempontból rendkívül fontos észak-keleti szomszédunk, a 47 millió lakosú Ukrajna súlyos politikai válság csapdájában vergődik. A nyugatos orientációjú, többek között éppen ezért egyre magányosabb Viktor Juscsenko államfő a napokban feloszlatta a törvényhozást, és így három év alatt már harmadszor készül választásokra az ország.
