Rumbling Russia: danger zone

On the day Putin has his booing election loss "Medvedev ‘drops a bomb’ on missile defense"- Russia’s 'squeezed middle’ is disenchanted with Mr Putin, as his election humiliation shows – even his allies are getting nervous about his plans -

Russia Today: "Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party suffers poll blow"

Dec. 5, 2011
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Ukraine betrayed by Russia gazocracy -

Kyiv Post: "Critics pounce on deal to let Russian Black Sea Fleet stay in Crimea until 2042"

In a rare show of unity, Ukraine’s fractured opposition forces are decrying the April 21 deal by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Some are calling for his impeachment. Under the pact, Russia could keep its Black Sea naval fleet in Crimea until 2042, in exchange for the Kremlin granting a 30 percent discount to Ukraine for natural gas imports this decade.

“A president who has violated the norms of the Ukrainian Constitution [that forbids] foreign military bases on Ukrainian territory should be impeached,” Our Ukraine, the political party which ex-President Viktor Yushchenko heads, said in a statement. “Yanukovych’s command is evidently preparing to give the Russians Ukraine’s last strategic resources: aviation production, atomic energy and underground gas depositories.” (...) >>>

Apr 24, 2010
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Asian chess - Commentator Flashoverride has an informed opinion here and here -

HotAir: "Adieu, Kyrgyzstan"

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has a good article today on the – shock, shock – “Russia connection” to this week’s uprising in Kyrgyzstan. An icky aspect of this tale is that the US is widely perceived to have been bolstering the cartoonishly corrupt regime of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiev, by paying him big bucks to lease the air base at Manas for support to NATO operations in Afghanistan.

Bakiev, who was approved by Moscow when he seized power in 2005, has been steadily disappointing Russians ever since. Moscow gave him a long leash when it came to Kyrgyz debt and the inflow of much-needed natural gas, electric power, and infrastructure investment; but everyone has known Bakiev was pocketing pretty much anything in Kyrgyzstan that walked and talked like a commercial profit, and skinning the country’s people and independent businesses to service debt. (...) >>>

Related articles by Zemanta

• Profile: Roza Otunbayeva, the head of Kyrgyzstan's interim government (telegraph.co.uk)
• Polish president, 95 others die in Russian plane crash (ctv.ca)
• Russia stands to reap benefits of Kyrgyz unrest (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Apr 10, 2010
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Martial arts expert vs. metrosexual relativist (hedge bets) - Do scroll down to the comments, some are priceless ...

Ace of Spades HQ: "Putin Knows How To Deal With Terrorists And Obama"

First, Vlady on terrorists...cut their balls off.

Unfortunately, this is related to another story. Putin is rolling Obama in nuclear talks. Earlier this year Obama and Medvedev agreed that missile defense wouldn't be linked to the attempt to reach a new nuclear weapons reduction treaty. Suddenly Putin the puppet master has come out from behind the curtain and says the two will have to be linked. Josh Rogin writing at The Cable (Foreign Policy's blog) says it could be the result of a split between Medvedev and Putin or a game the two are playing against Obama. (...) >>>

Dec. 31, 2009
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Jerusalem Post: "Russia, Iran to hold naval maneuver"

For the first time, Russia and Iran will hold a joint naval maneuver in the Caspian Sea, The Iranian Mehr News Agency reported Wednesday. According to the report, the maneuver will include 30 Russian and Iranian ships, as well as helicopters. A senior official in the Iranian ports authority was quoted by the report as saying that the maneuver would increase the coordination between the two countries, and focus on search and rescue operations and the prevention of pollution. The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the report.

Russia enjoys extensive trade ties with Teheran and has been opposed to imposing further sanctions on Iran over its uranium enrichment program. Moscow is building Iran's first nuclear power plant in Bushehr, has provided Teheran with weapons and needs Iranian assistance on the Caspian Sea and other regional issues. In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained that Iran is "our neighbor (...) >>>

Aug. 1, 2009
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WSJ: "Medvedev Creates History Commission"

President Dmitry Medvedev has created a special commission to counter what he says are increasingly aggressive attempts to rewrite history to Russia's disadvantage. Supporters said the commission is needed to tackle anti-Russian propaganda in the former Soviet Union, an area Moscow regards as its backyard, but liberal historians called the initiative a return to Soviet-era controls.In a signal that the Kremlin is continuing its assertive foreign policy despite Russia's weakening economy, Mr. Medvedev, in a decree made public Tuesday, ordered the commission to investigate and counter falsified versions of history that damage Russia's "international prestige." (...) >>>

May 20, 2009
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Front Page: “Kremlin's Obama Gambit”, by Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy

My guest today for this Frontpage Interview is Vladimir Bukovsky, a former leading Soviet dissident who spent twelve years in Soviet prisons, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals for his fight for freedom. His works include To Build a Castle and Judgement in Moscow.

Will Putin be able to do the same with Obama as he did with Bush?

Vladimir Bukovsky: It will be much easier for Putin to do it with Obama, because the leftist politicians love Russia and immediately yield to it. I am sure that now the Kremlin psychologists are creating a psychological portrait of Obama in order to find the key to him. The Americans have forgotten that KGB officers are ruling today’s Russia. And the KGB officers do not accept relations of partnership. They recognize you only either as a collaborator or as an enemy. Let us see what kind of key they will find for Obama. (...) >>>

Apr 24, 2009
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Yahoo!News: "Reports: Russia confirms Iran missile contract"

Russian news agencies say a top defense official has confirmed that Russia has signed a contract to sell S-300 air-defense missiles to Iran but that none of the weapons have been delivered. Russian officials have consistently denied claims that it already has provided some of the powerful missiles to Iran and had not clarified whether a contract existed. The state-run ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news a gencies and the independent Interfax quoted an unnamed top official in the Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service as saying Wednesday the contract had been signed two years ago. Service spokesman Andrei Tarabrin told The Associated Press he could not immediately comment. Supplying the S-300s to Iran would markedly change the military balance in the Middle East. >>>
Mar 18, 2009
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Kill reality if it catches up with you!

CNN: "Human rights lawyer, journalist killed in Russia"

A masked man shot and killed on Monday a Russian human rights lawyer known for his work on abuses by the Russian military in the breakaway region of Chechnya, Russian media reported. The gunman also shot Anastasia Baburova, a journalist from Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, when she tried to intervene. Baburova died later in a hospital. (...) >>>
Jan 20, 2009
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IHT: "Gas conflict unresolved after Russia-Ukraine talk"

The top executive of Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, met Thursday with his Ukrainian counterpart in an effort to resolve a conflict that has halted all Russian gas exports through Ukraine, but the meeting ended without agreement. The Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Oleh Dubyna, chief executive of the Ukrainian gas company Naftogaz, as saying that the talks in Moscow with Aleksei Miller, the Gazprom chief executive, had not broken the logjam, but that they would continue. (...) >>>

Jan 8, 2009
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