There were two hours to go Wednesday afternoon at the international conference “The Arctic – Territory of Dialogue” when the organizers, The Russian Geographical Society, announced that all foreign correspondents had to get out of the Russian Arctic by sundown. With the internet shutting down and four buses lined up to ferry all foreign journalists […]
Russia’s Potemkin Arctic Conference?
Posted September 26th, 2013 at 7:17 pm (UTC+0)
Comments are closed
Russia’s Future in Central Asia: Mall Cop in A Chinese Shopping Center?
Posted September 23rd, 2013 at 6:37 pm (UTC+0)
Comments are closed
Looking back 10 years from now, the most important news of Sept. 2013 may not be Moscow and Washington jousting over Syria’s civil war. It may well be China quietly locking down massive quantities of Central Asian oil and gas. While the world worried about Syria, China’s President Xi Jinping deftly moved through Russia’s old […]
With Syria, Can Russia’s President Move from Vlad the Impaler to Putin the Peacemaker?
Posted September 17th, 2013 at 8:25 pm (UTC+0)
Vladimir Putin seems to enjoy being demonized by the West. In recent months, he has earned his share: bullying gay people, cracking down on democrats, throwing girl rockers in jail, and emerging as number one friend to Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. In Syria, Putin just performed the old Soviet trick — helping to create a […]
Russia is Best Positioned to Control Syria’s Chemical Frankenstein
Posted September 9th, 2013 at 10:16 am (UTC+0)
Comments are closed
Western experts are right to be wary of Moscow’s sudden offer to bring Syria’s chemical warfare program under international controls, leading to its destruction. Throughout Syria’s civil war, Moscow kept its head in the sand on the issue. On Monday, just as Russia’s offer was taking embryonic shape in Moscow, National Security Adviser Susan Rice […]
