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
This month marks five years since Mikhail Khodorkovsky - once one of Russia's richest men - was seized in his private plane at the Novosibirsk airport. He was subsequently convicted of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced to eight years in a labor camp. His huge oil company, Yukos, was dismantled and sold off piecemeal to Kremlin loyalists.
La guerre de Géorgie a changé la donne entre les Occidentaux et la Russie. Jusque-là, dans les années Poutine, la Russie était perçue comme un partenaire difficile mais gérable. La rhétorique parfois fracassante du Kremlin était censée relever d'une recherche maladroite de prestige international. Derrière, ne se nichait qu'un souci de reconstituer l'Etat. Mais à l'été, un autre visage a surgi : une Russie militairement interventionniste, tentée de renverser par les armes le pouvoir dans un Etat voisin, prompte à redessiner la carte des frontières. De partenaire irascible, la Russie est devenue un problème de sécurité. Les Occidentaux cherchent depuis à reformuler leur politique. Mais "ni les Etats-Unis ni l'Europe n'ont encore trouvé la réponse", observe Stephen Sestanovich, ancien conseiller pour l'ex-URSS de la secrétaire d'Etat Madeleine Albright dans les années 1990.
IT'S BEEN more than two months since a cease-fire ended fighting between Russia and Georgia and 11 days since Russian troops withdrew into two breakaway provinces that have declared themselves independent states. But the battle over whether Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev will ultimately gain or lose from their aggression goes on. By now it appears fairly clear that one of the Kremlin's principal objectives -- the overthrow of Georgia's democratically elected president, Mikheil Saakashvili -- will not be realized. Nor has Georgia's previously flourishing economy been irretrievably damaged; arguably, Russia has suffered even more from the flight of foreign investors spooked by the war.
The war in Georgia has provoked unprecedented levels of patriosm in Russia. The majority of the population supported their army's actions in the Caucasus. And even the fiercest critics of the Kremlin have now become proud Russians.
La crise géorgienne a confirmé clairement que la Russie ne souhaite pas être intégrée dans un bloc européen élargi, «normalisé», et a réveillé les vieilles tensions sur l'élargissement de l'OTAN, le Kosovo ou le bouclier antimissile.
Nous sommes d'abord un pays européen et pas un quelconque satellite américain.
Russia President Dmitri Medvedev's recent speech in France has been portrayed as a broadside against the United States. Indeed, much of the speech amounted to a gratuitous rant reminiscent of his predecessor, Vladimir Putin.
„Nemojte samo vi (Zapad) da nam držite lekcije, nemate na to nikakvo pravo", izjavio je u nedeljnom intervjuu italijanskom listu „Republika" Mihail Gorbačov, poslednji predsednik SSSR-a. „Rusija gazi sopstvenim stazama ka demokratiji, i tek je na polovini tog puta. Lekcije Zapada nam u tome ni na koji način neće pomoći. Naprotiv, one mogu samo da budu kontraproduktivne", smatra čovek koji je svojom politikom s kraja osamdesetih godina prošlog veka, praktično preko noći, izmenio naš svet. Interesantno je da je Gorbačov navedenu izjavu dao uoči međunarodnog seminara koji se u Veneciji održava sa temom: „Da li će jednopolarni svet opstati do 2020".
On Sunday, en route to Astana, Kazakhstan, after a "very nice trip to India", US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters accompanying her, "I just wish I could have stayed longer in India". New Delhi must be one of a handful of capitals where officials from the George W Bush administration receive an expectant welcome, and the doomsday warnings emitted from New York and Washington do not seem to matter.
Over at Commentary, Abe Greenwald is incensed by a Newsweek article by Christopher Dickey, John Barry and Owen Matthews, "The Realist Resurgence", that claims "Russia is weaker than it looks, which is why NATO's soft power strategy can still work."
Rusko začalo další studenou válku proti Západu. V pořadu Interview ČT24 to řekl ruský novinář a bojovník za lidská práva Alexandr Podrabinek. "Západ zatím tuhle rukavici nechce zvednout, doufá, že vše ještě přejde, ale to se nestane," dodává někdejší disident Podrabinek. V zahraniční politice podle něj Rusko stále více připomíná Sovětský svaz, ať už jde o expanzi do sousedních států nebo o pokusy podřídit svému politickému vlivu ty, kteří by podle Kremlu měli kráčet po jedné cestě s Ruskem.
It's a truism that stable and friendly relations between two countries require each to look at a situation from the other's point of view. The recent tussle between Russia and the West over Georgia is a stark reminder of how the United States has fundamentally never understood Russia's point of view.
When European Union leaders meet in Brussels tomorrow and Thursday, an important action item on their agenda is Russia -- specifically how to react to its continuing occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Moscow has more troops in those breakaway regions than before the August war with Georgia.
Europe faces the risk of another major war. In 1939, Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland triggered the Second World War. Today the possible trip wire is not Poland, but Ukraine. And the aggressor will not be Adolf Hitler, but Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
MOSCOW: The stock market here has swooned so often in recent weeks that regulators have repeatedly shut it down, as if Russia, which aspires to be a financial powerhouse, has become just another bumbling backwater. The oligarchs, those Kremlin-connected magnates who once dazzled the world with their riches, are reeling. And Vladimir Putin is facing a threat to his legacy of bringing growth, stability and a renewed swagger to this nation.
Vladimir Putin relinquished the Russian presidency six months ago but to watch state TV you could be forgiven for thinking that the former KGB officer remains the master of the Kremlin.
Intimidation works. This is the lesson the Russian government has derived from its August military action against Georgia. President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have made it clear that neighboring states will remain in Russia's sphere of influence rather than that of the West.
The drop of more than 50 per cent in Russia's stock market since May is hard to explain when one considers the fundamental strength of the country's economy.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dumped a truckload of vitriol on the United States yesterday in Evian, France (so much for the water). Mr. Medvedev said that after 9/11 the U.S. missed a chance to build a "truly democratic world order" and instead chose to "consolidate its global domination." He urged Europe to work instead with Russia to "unite the whole Euro-Atlantic region on the basis of common rules of the game."
