Russia

March 5, 2009

The Tattered Sweater

“What doesn’t seem to be much appreciated is that the main problem isn’t really Georgia. It’s that Georgia is the thread hanging off the tattered sweater; you pull it, and the sweater falls apart.” This quote, from St...
March 5, 2009

En Route to Brussels

Hillary Clinton’s trip to Brussels today–where NATO foreign ministers have pledged to discuss improving relations with Russia–and then to Geneva on Friday to meet with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, has been all over the...
March 5, 2009

RA’s Daily Russia News Blast – March 5th, 2009

TODAY: Medvedev emphasizes need for new personnel.  NATO to resolve differences with Russia soon, Clinton wants Russia dialogue in light of Iranian threat; Russian scholar predicts US demise…again and again.  Khodorkovsky judge wil...
March 4, 2009

Russians Carry Out Putin’s Plan in Their Own Way

This macabre news, which has come from the birthplace of my grandfather, made me think about the question of just what exactly is “Putin’s Plan”? I never did find an answer. On the official website of United Russia – the pa...
March 4, 2009

A Worker’s Shooting Spree for “Putin’s Plan”

The following is an exclusive English translation of a recent article from NewsRu.com.  Apparently the United States isn’t the only country where someone can “go postal” with a machine gun, but in this case, the poor guy see...
March 4, 2009

Bam’s Russia Letter a Piñata for the Republicans

…and it didn’t take long for them to come out swinging.  The funny part is to imagine how much flak he would be getting if the letter/offer to Medvedev were actually successful.  From the incomparably moderate and measured mi...
March 4, 2009

Propaganda on Parade

Not a bad observation from Stratfor about the use of the Iskanders in Kaliningrad as a fake bargaining chip – and an excuse to reject Obama’s missile overture: Remember Cold War propaganda? It was certainly on parade in Spain, not just...
March 4, 2009

Return to Sender

The New York Times has finally started a conversation on Obama’s secret letter, on its Opinionator blog. It’s pretty amazing how diversified the reactions are. The Huffington Post sees it as an example of improved diplomacy; some liber...
March 4, 2009

“Points for Cooperation”

On the heels of a Bloomberg story about how certain European countries fear losing security initiatives secured under the Bush administration, Der Spiegel reprints an engaging article on EU/Russia relations by Russia scholar Alexander Rahr, origin...
March 4, 2009

Cyber Crime in Russia

This interesting article on Security Fix, a Washington Post technology blog, finds that of all the cyber crime coming out of Russia, it is actually Russian victims that top the list for hackers (this apparently contradicts the widespread myth that...