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
Dabiski, viss nebūs tieši tāpat, kā tas kaimiņvalstī notika pēc 1998.gada 17.augusta, kad tika pasludināta valsts maksātnespēja jeb defolts. Dolāra vērtība pret rubli uzlēca turpat seškārt. Zīmīgi, ka toreiz, tāpat kā tagad, valdība apgalvoja, ka viss ir kārtībā un nav jāļaujas paniskiem noskaņojumiem. Krievijas ekonomikai bija vajadzīgi pāris gadi, lai atkoptos. Skan mazliet paradoksāli, taču to veicināja arī fakts, ka par premjeru pēc defolta kļuva Jevgeņijs Primakovs, uz ārpolitisko darbību orientēts cilvēks, kas par ekonomiku īpaši nelikās zinis.
American democracy is malfunctioning to the detriment of our foreign-policy decision making. The hysterical and one-sided U.S. media coverage of the August war between Russia and Georgia is just the most recent example. Watching the way the American political class sometimes discusses international affairs, it is hard not to wonder to what extent we are capable of responsible judgments, or for that matter, even rational dialogue. In this particular case it could lead to the further disintegration of U.S.-Russia ties; in the longer term, our foreign-policy malfunctions could have far more catastrophic consequences.
Russia no longer disguises the fact that it wants to recover its sphere of influence. The paradox is that Russia can only achieve this through the use of force, as the model of development it proposes is unattractive to east European societies. And the more Russia resorts to force, the less the chances that it will achieve its sphere of influence.
On a chill Friday night in October with seconds left to play in the most anticipated hockey game of a young season, tied three goals apiece, Avangard Omsk, the pride of southwestern Siberia, and Atlant Mytishchi, an upstart from the Moscow suburbs, have players from seven countries on the ice - young men whose hometowns stretch from Canada to Kazakhstan. This is professional hockey in Russia now, at its best.
The nations with the world's three biggest reserves of natural gas - Russia, Iran, and Qatar - are quietly moving ahead to form a "gas OPEC," an organization modeled after the oil cartel.
The global economic crisis has brought Britain and Russia closer, Lord Mandelson said yesterday as he talked of a new era of partnership only weeks after Gordon Brown ruled out "business as usual" with the Kremlin.
This past summer's war in Georgia -- and its aftermath -- delivered a higher-voltage shock to U.S.-Russian relations than any event since the end of the Cold War. It made Russia an unexpected flashpoint in the U.S. presidential campaign and probably won Russia a place at the top of the next administration's agenda. Yet this is hardly the first time in the last two decades that Washington has buzzed with discussion of ominous events in Russia. Before long, the buzzing has usually subsided. Will this crisis prove different? Has Washington's thinking about Russia really changed, and how much?
Die ganze Welt grämt sich wegen der Finanzkrise. Fast. Denn auf einem Achtel der Weltoberfläche leisten die Menschen hartnäckig Widerstand und nehmen die Schockwellen aus der Welt des Gelds und der Wirtschaft statt mit Stirnrunzeln und Schlafstörungen mit Humor: die Russen. Als nach den ersten Bankenpleiten auch an den Moskauer Börsen die Kurse fielen, stieg antiproportional die Zahl der Krisen-Witze. „Es gibt eben nur wenige Aktienbesitzer in Russland", redeten westliche Spaßverderber den russischen Sinn fürs Lachen schlecht. Doch die Russen straften die Nörgler lügen: Je stärker ihnen die Krise im Alltag zu schaffen macht, um so mehr machen sie sich über sie lustig.
Call it the coalition of the unwilling. Battered by the financial crisis, countries from Iceland to Hungary to Pakistan are turning to the International Monetary Fund for a loan. Rich countries have banks in need of support; in poor (and even not-so-poor) countries it is the governments that risk going under. Yet even in these desperate straits, few have approached the fund willingly. Its Washington headquarters are often the last port of call; Iceland went to Moscow first, while Pakistan's leaders tried their luck with Beijing, declaring the IMF to be "Plan C". Whoever said that beggars cannot be choosers should have stuck around for the financial crisis of 2008.
The aftermath of the Russia-Georgia war presents the next U.S. president with an early test of American resolve to continue NATO's eastward expansion, a bipartisan policy that dates back to the Clinton administration.
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.
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."
Krievijas valdības vadītājs, kurš līdz šim ar skarbu valodiņu sev tik centīgi kultivēja "cietā rieksta" tēlu, vienreiz jūtas pagalam neērti. Turklāt ar sava preses sekretāra palīdzību to neslēpj no pasaules publikas.
It is amazing how swiftly a new crisis can knock into perspective one which dominated discussion only a short time before. Just a few weeks ago we were debating whether the west was heading for a new cold war with Russia, or a new Crimean war over Ukraine, or a new Great Game in central Asia. Then the markets began their decline, and Georgia and its possible consequences were swept aside.
Some of the many victims of Vladimir Putin's foreign and domestic policy will be curious to know which aspects of judo's philosophy the former President finds so meaningful. Well, Vlad? Is it the disavowal of aggression and the disqualification of anyone indulging in such? Is it the bit about repudiating tactics that rely on brute strength? Or is it the emphasis on gentleness, from which the term judo is derived?
Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, has let it be known that he would prefer it if streets were not named after him or statues erected to him. The immediate occasion for this expression of modesty was a proposal by the pro-Moscow Chechen leader to rename Grozny's main street in his honour.
As sports go, judo is an invigorating way to combine muscle-honing exercise with the opportunity to break several important bones in your body. Which is why judo can appeal so strongly to the sort of politician who already has demonstrated his virility by flaunting his toned naked torso on a fishing trip, perching at the wheel of a giant racing truck, tracking a tiger through the Siberian forest, and sending his tanks into neighbouring territories. Politicians such as Vladimir Putin.
Now that the Republic of Georgia has been moved off the front pages, it is time to assess what was really behind Russia's heavy-handed invasion of that pro-Western fledgling democratic country.
In the first presidential debate, Barack Obama said that he and John McCain "agree for the most part" on issues regarding Russia. But while both were tough on Russia, their consensus, such as it is, is hardly the result of shared clarity on U.S. policy toward Russia. In fact, neither candidate has outlined a policy that would overcome the current confrontations with Moscow and make the world more secure. The big question is how they expect to change Russia's behavior.
When I tell people that Russia is not only the largest country in the world but that Siberia alone is bigger than the United States (including Alaska) and Western Europe combined, they gasp. They wonder at the scale and diversity of Russia's landscape. They are entranced by reports of witches who communicate with forest sprites, shamans who worship their ancestors, and at mountain horsemen who believe that the campfire over which they heat a kettle of tea is sacred and who therefore rebuked me for kicking at a stray log. It all seems so very unRussian.
The formal rehabilitation of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, might seem a curious turn of events under the watch of Vladimir Putin, the man who mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century. But might it be just the latest move by Mr Putin to harness the power of the monarchy and the Orthodox Church to a post-Soviet nationalism?
