Portraits worth thousands of words

By Citizen M | Published: December 2, 2009

“A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he’s being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks. He’s implicated in what’s happening, and he has a certain real power over the result.” – Richard Avedon The […]

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Russian Views of the Obama Reset

By James Kimer | Published: December 1, 2009

I have read Ivan Krastev’s curious article in the Washington Post today, and although there were some parts that weren’t quite so persuasive (Russia is not “a declining power”), he does get it right about how Washington fails to understand that many people in Russia continue to view the United States as an enemy – […]

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Lula Feeling the Heat from the Ahmadinejad Visit

By Robert Amsterdam | Published: November 27, 2009

As many of you know, I am quite fascinated by Latin America’s sudden “brotherhood” with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Here a Washington Post editorial really hits home the fact that the Lula Administration really miscalculated the politics of playing their Iran angle. In general, multipolarity is a good thing, and I am all for Brazil […]

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Mr. Chávez’s Neighborhood

By James Kimer | Published: November 25, 2009

It may have all started with the bosom buddy relationship with Vladimir Putin, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has expanded his friendship franchise to the world’s pariahs, from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Omar al-Bashir to Robert Mugabe, and, even posthumously with former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.  Even Lula in Brazil saw it fit to copy Chávez […]

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Yurgens: A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is no picnic for Russia

By James Kimer | Published: November 20, 2009

Buried down at the bottom of this blog post attacking Obama’s Russia policy (mostly just picking on Joe Biden – it is the National Journal after all), are some interesting quotes from Igor Yurgens – a key advisor to Medvedev and one of those few remaining in the Kremlin who make quite a lot of […]

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Protest in Support of Khodorkovsky at the Russia National Exhibition in Chicago

By James Kimer | Published: November 17, 2009

Earlier today we were emailed regarding a small demonstration to be held tomorrow morning in front of the Drake Hotel in Chicago, IL in support of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, coinciding with the Russian National Exhibition (a business conference looking to drum up foreign investment, held from Nov. 18-Nov. 21 at McCormick Place).  It should be a […]

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Tracking the shifting power dynamic in the Eurasia landmass

By Citizen M | Published: November 12, 2009

Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, dissects Russia’s foreign policy in the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs in an article entitled, “Russia Reborn.” Following is the passage I think resonates the most. I’m going to keep my lead-in short here because the excerpt is long and not all of you are going to […]

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Obama’s Human Rights Opportunity in Singapore

By Citizen M | Published: November 11, 2009

Reprinted from Robert Amsterdam’s latest in the Huffington Post: The effusive praise President Barack Obama has for former Singaporean Prime Minister and now Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is another gesture that has led many to wonder where the present administration sits on human rights issues. The forthcoming APEC summit in Singapore presents an opportunity […]

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On Russia’s “charm offensive” toward foreign investors

By Citizen M | Published:

Translated from a Russian stock market report in yesterday’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Analysts from the investment bank Troika Dialog therefore consider the increasing strength of the American economy as a threat to above-average development of the Russian stock markets, which would lead to an increase in the prime rate within the USA. The prices for […]

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Open letter from Amnesty International to Prime Minister Stephen Harper

By Citizen M | Published: November 10, 2009

We have just received a copy of an open letter from Amnesty International Canada to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in advance of his upcoming trip to the forthcoming APEC meeting in Singapore, followed by a visit to India. The letter urges Prime Minister Harper to uphold Canada’s well-known reputation as a staunch human rights […]

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