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
Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, said yesterday that the irresponsibility of America's financial system was to blame for the global economic crisis, in what marks the latest episode in increasingly hostile relations between the two superpowers.
Our gaze might be on the markets melting down, but the upheaval we are experiencing is more than a financial crisis, however large. Here is a historic geopolitical shift, in which the balance of power in the world is being altered irrevocably. The era of American global leadership, reaching back to the Second World War, is over.
Russia is suffering its own bitter version of financial turmoil, partly because of the summer of antagonism led by Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister. Yesterday Russia suspended its stock market for the fourth day in a fortnight, to try to stem falling share prices. The move headed off a rout, although investors have been fleeing for four months and the market is down by more than half since May.
Il n'est bruit en Europe que d'une nouvelle guerre froide. Au raidissement moscovite répond le raidissement des chancelleries occidentales. Au-delà des discours exaltés et approximatifs sur la nouvelle puissance impériale russe, la question posée par les développements russo-géorgiens demeure pourtant celle de l'intégration - inachevée - du monde ex-soviétisé dans ce que Mikhaïl Gorbatchev nommait la "communauté des nations civilisées".
By rights, this year's Sochi Economic Forum should have been a victory lap for Vladimir Putin. Russia's president turned prime minister had just, in his own words, "punched the face" of upstart Georgia, and a year of record oil prices had boosted Russia's currency reserves to $700 billion.
Stock markets the world over have experienced a crush of losses and all-around volatility in recent days. Here we look at two of the most dramatic markets - those in the United States and Russia - where views of business and government could not be more different. While the U.S. Federal Reserve doesn't even pretend to think it could manage the entire economy by itself, the Russian system is predicated on government control born out of political and economic necessity.
Is Vladimir Putin a savior, a man whose eight-year reign has elevated Russia to new economic heights? Or is he a bully, a strongman who uses violence to maintain a hold on power? The likely answer is both.
The Russian government's $100bn-plus financial rescue plan has won a better reception from investors than Washington's $700bn proposal. Inter-bank lending rates have dropped sharply from last week's crisis levels and the rouble has recovered some lost ground. But, as Tuesday's Moscow stock market decline shows, the mood remains nervous with investors worried about financial stability in both Russia and the US.
"Da poco più d' un anno, la Tv russa manda in onda il pomeriggio e la sera un telegiornale in lingua inglese. Il telegiornale si chiama Russia today, ed è fatto, formalmente, piuttosto bene. Ariosa la scenografia, moderno il montaggio, e carine - anzi belle, una più bella dell' altra - le giornaliste che s' avvicendano nell' esposizione delle notizie. Confesso che le prime due sere a Mosca, la bellezza ed eleganza delle conduttrici di Russia today mi avevano così avvinto, distratto, da non farmi cogliere la sostanza giornalistica del programma."
In the course of the Valdai conference in Russia from September 7-14 we met with President Dmitri Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn. There was no significant difference between them in what they said about Russian policy and Russian views. Nor have such differences appeared outside the conference.
