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.
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.
