U.S. Attack on Syria Cements Kremlin’s Embrace of Assad

THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOSCOW — If Russia once maintained at least a semblance of distance from President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, it rushed to his defense after the American missile strike ordered by President Trump on Thursday. The attack cemented Moscow more closely than ever to the notorious Syrian autocrat.

Even as the United States condemned Mr. Assad for gassing his own citizens and held Russia partly responsible, given its 2013 promise to rid Syria of chemical weapons, the Kremlin kept denying that Syria had any such capability.

By championing Mr. Assad and condemning American “aggression,” President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia seemed to be burying the idea that he could somehow cooperate with the Trump administration to end the conflict on his terms. » | Neil MacFarquhar | Saturday, April 8, 2017

Do Russians Care? Kremlin Cracks Down after Anti-corruption Protests

Kremlin Cooling Its Enthusiasm For President Donald Trump | Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC

Katy Tur and guests discuss the Kremlin's cooling in enthusiasm for President Trump, and Trump's admonition of what he calls "criminal leaks" in his administration.

Why Putin’s Anti-gay Crusaders Have a Soft Spot for Polygamy

THE SPECTATOR: The Kremlin is tying itself in ideological knots as it tries to make new friends in the Muslim world

Homosexuality may not be tolerated in today’s Russia, nor political dissent. Polygamy, though, is a different matter. Ever since news broke this summer of a 57-year-old police chief in Chechnya bullying a 17-year-old local girl into becoming his second wife, Russian nationalists and Islamic leaders alike have been lining up to call for a man’s right to take more than one wife.

Most vocal has been Ramzan Kadyrov, the flamboyant 38-year-old president of Chechnya (part of the Russian Federation), who advocates polygamy as part of ‘traditional Muslim culture’. Veteran ultranationalist politician Vladimir Zhironovsky has long held that polygamy is the solution for ‘Russia’s 10 million unmarried women’. And even Senator Yelena Mizulina, one of the architects of Russia’s anti-gay laws, is sympathetic to the idea. ‘There are not enough men, the kind with whom women would want to start a family and have children,’ Mizulina told the Duma, calling a fellow lawmaker’s plans to make polygamy a criminal offence ‘absurd’. Read on and comment » | Owen Matthews | Saturday, August 8, 2015

Ukraine Crisis: Obama Warns Putin That Moscow Faces Further Action

THE GUARDIAN: Presidents clash in tense telephone call as armed separatists seize more buildings in eastern Ukraine

Barack Obama has told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a tense phone call that Moscow would face further costs for its actions in Ukraine and should use its influence to get separatists in the country to stand down.

Armed pro-Russian separatists seized more buildings in eastern Ukraine earlier in the day, expanding their control after the government failed to follow through on a threatened military crackdown.

In a call on Monday night that the White House said Moscow requested, the US president told Putin that those forces were threatening to undermine and destabilise the government in Kiev.

"The president emphasised that all irregular forces in the country need to lay down their arms, and he urged president Putin to use his influence with these armed, pro-Russian groups to convince them to depart the buildings they have seized," the White House said in a statement. » | Reuters | Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Ukraine : Obama crie au loup mais manque d'options et de vision

LE FIGARO: Les Russes se sont gaussés des sanctions économiques décidées à Washington et à Bruxelles contre des personnalités de l'équipe Poutine

Tandis que Poutine poursuit «son plan» de déstabilisation rampante de l'Ukraine, l'Amérique en est réduite à crier au loup et à appeler vainement à la «désescalade». Le contraste entre la résolution du dirigeant du Kremlin et le désarroi qui plane dans les capitales occidentales, comme tétanisées par l'enchaînement des événements, est flagrant. Après avoir annexé la Crimée, le patron du Kremlin est passé à la phase «provocations» dans l'est du pays, tandis que des dizaines de milliers de soldats russes sont massés aux frontières, prêts à entrer. … » | Par Laure Mandeville | dimanche 13 avril 2014

Ukraine Mobilises Its Army as Kremlin Ups the Ante with Warning to America: 'We Can Reduce You to Radioactive Ash'

MAIL ONLINE: Ukraine has a national guard of 20,000 troops and another 20,000 reserves / Russia, meanwhile, has an army of 700,000 battle-ready frontline soldiers / Yesterday, Russian state news agency chief warns US to stay out of crisis / Dmitry Kiselyov tells TV viewers Russia could turn US to 'radioactive ash'

The Crimean crisis moved a step closer to all-out war today as Ukraine mobilised its armed forces and a firebrand Kremlin mouthpiece warned America to stay out of its business, declaring: 'We could turn you to radioactive ash.'

In a sign of rising tensions following yesterday's referendum that called for Crimea's annexation to Russia, the Ukrainian parliament approved the deployment of up to 20,000 soldiers and declared all Ukrainian state property on the territory to be nationalized.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are now on stand by, including another 20,000 battle-ready reservists, prepared to fight should their government fail to find a solution to the standoff with Russia over the future of the Black Sea peninsular. Read on and comment » | Matt Blake and Associated Press | Monday, March 17, 2014

Russia Today Host Who Criticised Kremlin Sent to Crimea

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Russian state-funded TV presenter in anti-Kremlin tirade sent to Crimea to get a 'better understanding' of situation on the ground


A TV presenter working for a Kremlin-funded channel who spoke out against Russia's military invasion in Ukraine live on air has been sent by the broadcaster to Crimea to "better her knowledge" of the situation.

In an off-message tirade, Abby Martin, a Washington-based American news anchor for Russia Today, shocked mostly pro-Russian viewers by announcing she "cannot stress enough" how strongly she felt about presence of its troops in Crimea, saying "Russia was wrong".

The host addressed the camera in unscripted remarks at the end of the station's Breaking the Set segment, saying: "Just because I work here, for RT, doesn't mean I don't have editorial independence and I can't stress enough how strongly I am against any military intervention in sovereign nations' affairs.

"I will not sit here and apologise or defend military aggression," she went on.

The English-language Russia Today is widely perceived as the voice of the Kremlin, with Reporters Without Borders describing it as a "step of the state to control information." » | Josie Ensor | Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Edward Snowden Asylum Case Is a Gift for Vladimir Putin

THE GUARDIAN: Decision to grant whistleblower asylum is a humiliating rebuff that exposes the impotence of 21st-century US power

For the past four years the Obama administration has tried hard to "reset" relations with Russia. The idea wasn't a bad one. A more co-operative Kremlin might help the White House with its pressing international problems – the war in Syria, the US military draw-down in Afghanistan, Iran's nuclear programme.

On Thursday, however, bilateral relations appeared anything but reset as Edward Snowden – dressed in his trademark grey shirt and carrying a dark backpack – strolled out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. He had been holed up there for five and a half weeks, ever since he slipped out of Hong Kong. Now he was free.

Vladimir Putin's decision to grant Snowden asylum – and make no mistake, Putin called this one – is a humiliating, wounding rebuff to the US. In theory Snowden has been allowed to stay for one year. In reality he is learning Russian and ploughing his way through Doystoyevsky. Snowden's stay in Russia could be indefinite. » | Luke Harding | Thursday, August 01, 2013

Russie : atmosphère glaciale au Kremlin pour la rencontre entre Hollande et Poutine
LE POINT: En visite à Moscou, le président français a insisté sur le fait qu'une solution au conflit syrien dépendait "beaucoup" de la position de son homologue russe.


François Hollande, en visite de travail jeudi à Moscou, espère avancer vers une solution politique au conflit syrien avec son homologue russe Vladimir Poutine, avec lequel il entend aussi parler droits de l'homme. La relation entre la France et la Russie est "majeure parce que nous sommes deux grands pays membres du Conseil de sécurité (de l'ONU) et qui ont des responsabilités pour régler des conflits planétaires", a déclaré le président français au début de ses entretiens avec Vladimir Poutine au Kremlin. Le président russe a indiqué pour sa part que la France restait un "partenaire privilégié" de Moscou, que les relations étaient "très bonnes" et le dialogue politique "très bon". Mais l'ambiance sous les ors du Kremlin était glaciale entre les deux hommes qui ont à peine croisé le regard pendant leurs deux interventions de près d'une dizaine de minutes devant les journalistes. » | Source AFP | jeudi 28 février 2013

Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Poster Boy of Russia's Opposition
In the run-up to Vladimir Putin's inauguration, Al Jazeera asked Mikhail Khodorkovsky what he thought of the return to the Kremlin. The former oil magnate, who was Russia's richest man before being sent down on charges of embezzlement and tax evasion, has been locked up for nine years. But as the protest movement has grown so has Khodorkovsky's influence on the political stage. His image appears on protest placards. His continued imprisonment is, according to the opposition and human rights' groups across the globe, an example of the judiciary being controlled by the state. Sue Turton reports from Moscow.

US Elections 2012: Why Barack Obama's 'Open Mic' Slip-up Shows He Is a Man without a Plan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama might be riding high in the polls at the moment, writes John Avlon. But his unguarded conversation with his Russian counterpart shows a failure to make a clear case for what a second term might bring.

It sounded like the dialogue from a bad spy film.

"This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility."

"I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir."

But in fact it was a exchange between President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, accidentally caught on an open microphone as they discussed apparently deadlocked talks on a missile shield - and it quickly lodged itself in the American presidential campaign debate.

Paranoid hyper-partisans on the Right hailed it as a confirmation of Obama's deviousness, the latest sign that he is intent on selling out America's interests to its enemies in an unaccountable second term - when he'll have no further election to think about.

They are, as I said, paranoid and riffing off the "enemy within" narrative they've been playing since the days of Joe McCarthy, when Communists ruled the Kremlin.

But just because you're crazy doesn't mean you're stupid. This particular Obama slip will leave a mark – and just not for the reasons the wingnuts on the far-Right might think.

Yes, President Obama is riding high in the polls right now, buoyed by an improving economy – leading the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney by double digits in some polls.

His job approval ratings are above 50 per cent for the first time since the killing of Osama bin Laden, while Romney's unfavourability ratings are already above 50 per cent - a bad sign for a non-incumbent nominee heading into the general election.

Nonetheless, this open mike slip will resonate, and probably appear in a Romney campaign ad this fall, because it highlights a core weakness of the Obama campaign – namely, his failure to make a clear case for what a second term might bring. "More of the same" isn't a satisfactory answer in US campaigns. Read on and comment » | John Avlon* | Saturday, March 31, 2012

* John Avlon is senior columnist for ‘Newsweek’ and ‘The Daily Beast’

Russian Ski Resort Plan Faces Islamist Terror Threat

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Russia's grand plan to revitalise its poverty-stricken southern flank by building a series of ski resorts there is one that has already attracted the wrath of Islamist terrorists.

In February, a group of masked gunmen stopped a minibus carrying skiers in the internal republic of Kabardino-Balkaria and shot dead three tourists from Moscow in cold blood. A ski lift was bombed soon afterwards and police later defused a series of car bombs in the area.

The terrorists, who are fighting to establish an Islamist Caliphate across southern Russia, openly said they viewed tourists as a legitimate target. For them, the entire North Caucasus area is a war zone and ethnic Russians are an occupying force that they hope to drive out.

The Kremlin's response to the murders was typically robust. Special Forces were sent into the mountainous region to hunt the gunmen and were reported to have shot dead at least some of the group. » | Andrew Osborn, Moscow | Friday, May 27, 2011

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: France to help Russia build ski resorts in North Caucases: France will help Russia with its ambitious plan to create a constellation of ski resorts in the North Caucasus, a poor region plagued by insurgent violence. » | Friday, May 27, 2011

Russia Plans Ski Resorts on Slopes of Caucasus
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: For any Russian worth his caviar there is only one place to be seen in winter.

Alpine resorts such as Courchevel are a magnet for fur-hatted men and women in Chanel ski suits, its pistes signposted in Cyrillic script and its boutiques offering wealthy oligarchs must-have diamond-encrusted skis.

But now an ambitious consortium of developers is hoping to lure Russian and European skiers to a new winter playground – far from the softly twinkling lights of traditional Alpine villages.

They are to construct a cluster of five ski resorts in the war-torn North Caucasus, stretching across southern Russia from the Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east, and challenging the widely-held belief that the area is dangerous and out of bounds. The planners also want to upgrade Mineralnye Vody airport for international flights, putting it within four hours' flying time of Britain.

The five resorts – Lagonaki, Arkhyz, Mount Elbrus, Mamison and Matlas – will be strung out across a mountain range which has seen fierce fighting with Georgia, given refuge to Islamic militants, and been plagued by regular kidnappings, bombings and murders.

Yet this week in the picture-postcard Swiss ski resort of Davos, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will formally unveil the plan for the network of ski resorts, named Peak 5642 after Mt Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Caucasus at 18,442ft (5,642 metres) – some 2,660 higher than Alps' Mont Blanc. » | Harriet Alexander | Sunday, January 23, 2011

Gorbachev Warns of Egypt-Style Russian Revolt
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: MOSCOW—Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said he is "ashamed" with the way Russia is run today and warned the Kremlin could face an Egypt-style uprising.

Nearly two decades after his reforms led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Gorbachev denounced Russia's "ruling class" as "rich and dissolute," in an interview published Wednesday in Novaya Gazeta, the opposition newspaper of which he is part-owner. "I'm ashamed for us and for the country," he said.

He lambasted the Kremlin for eroding the free media and elections that he introduced in the 1980s, and warned that its grip on power could be threatened.

"If things continue the way they are, I think the probability of the Egyptian scenario will grow," he said in a separate radio interview released Tuesday, referring to the popular rebellion that ousted longtime President Hosni Mubarak last week. "Here it could end even more staggeringly," he said.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Tuesday, warned the West against supporting the popular uprisings in the Middle East in what some analysts saw as a sign of the Kremlin's concern.

At present, public support for the Kremlin appears strong. Opposition parties, many of which have been banned by authorities, are small and weak. Police regularly disperse antigovernment demonstrations.

Mr. Gorbachev, who gets limited attention in the state media in Russia, has been speaking publicly in recent weeks ahead of his 80th birthday on March 2.

Still reviled by many Russians for bringing about the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Gorbachev is probably more popular in the West, where he is credited with bringing an end to Soviet totalitarianism and the Cold War. Read on and comment >>> Gregory L. White | Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Related >>>

Medvedev, le meilleur ami d'Obama
Les deux présidents ont fait une tribune commune lors d'un colloque jeudi soir. Photo : leJDD.fr
leJDD.fr: Avant le double sommet G8/G20, Dmitri Medvedev était en visite aux Etats-Unis, où il s'est entretenu avec Barack Obama, pour la septième fois en privé. La Maison blanche évoque un rapprochement décisif.

Après un "Salut tout le monde" très neutre, "San Francisco est une très belle ville" fut le deuxième tweet envoyé par Dmitri Medvedev mercredi soir, lors de sa visite en Californie. Nouvel inscrit sur la plate-forme américaine de micro-blogging, sous le nom "KermelinRussia", le président russe a profité de son voyage officiel aux États-Unis pour afficher son entente cordiale avec Washington. Vingt-quatre heures avant la tenue du G8, puis du G20, à Toronto (Canada), Medvedev et Obama semblent en effet sur la même longueur d'ondes. Ils ont mangé un burger ensemble dans un fast-food, se sont fait des blagues sur le téléphone rouge devant une armée de photographes, ont tenu des discours quasi-identiques sur l'Iran ou la Corée du Nord.

A l'heure où, sous l'impulsion des puissances émergentes (Chine, Inde, Brésil, Afrique du Sud et Mexique), les grandes décisions se prennent au G20 et non plus au G8, les Etats-Unis cherchent à maintenir leur pouvoir d'influence. Mais, après la crise, leurs partenaires européens s'opposent à Washington sur la reprise et la régulation financière. Entre autres sujets de discordes, le couple franco-allemand défend fermement une taxe bancaire que refuse la Maison blanche. D'autant que Londres s'est rallié sur ce point à Paris et Berlin. Au sein de cette communauté internationale en pleine évolution, la Russie veut se poser en puissance tranquille. Vers une coopération plus étroite >>> G.V. - leJDD.fr | Vendredi 25 Juin 2010

After Attacks in Russia, Fears of Xenophobia
Lilya Paizulayeva, a Chechen in Moscow, worries about profiling and said, “This whole week I have felt like a stranger in this city.” Photo: The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: MOSCOW — Lilya Paizulayeva descended into the subway anxiously, trying to keep her distance from the crowds and the newly deployed and heavily armed police officers. She cringed at the train’s loud metallic shriek, pressing herself to the wall.

She was not scared of suicide bombers — she feared being taken for one herself.

With her jet-black hair and large dark eyes, Ms. Paizulayeva, a 26-year-old native of Chechnya, looks very much the daughter of Russia’s fiery North Caucasus region, from where, investigators say, two young women traveled to Moscow to blow themselves up last week in the rush-hour throngs, killing at least 40 people.

While for many the attacks are an unsettling reminder of the female suicide bombers who have terrorized this city for years, women from the Caucasus, particularly from Chechnya, say they worry about the return of the arbitrary arrests, xenophobic attacks and open hostility that many experienced after similar terrorist attacks in the past.

“Psychologically, I feel a kind of alarm inside,” said Ms. Paizulayeva, who was born in Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, and fled to Moscow in 1995 with her family when the war there started. “Though I’m dressed like a local, I think that perhaps someone could attack me in the metro,” she said. “This whole week I have felt like a stranger in this city.”

Though Russian citizens, Chechens and others from the North Caucasus are often seen as foreigners in Russia, especially here in the capital, and are frequently associated with immigrants from the countries of Central Asia that were former Soviet republics. More than 1,000 miles from Moscow, Chechnya has its own language, religion and customs, as well as a history of violent separatism that many in the rest of the country find alien in the best of times and threatening in the worst.

There have already been several reports of revenge attacks against people from the Caucasus in the wake of the bombings. Last week a brawl broke out on a subway train when a group of passengers insisted on inspecting the bags of several people who appeared to be from the Caucasus, according to the Sova Center, an organization that tracks xenophobic violence.

Attacks against people with darker skin and hair typical of those from the Caucasus are not uncommon in Russia. >>> Michael Schwirtz | Easter Monday, April 05, 2010

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The Kremlin's Helplessness – Discontent Grows over Moscow's Impotency in Dealing with Terror: Following last week's terrorist attacks on the Moscow metro, Russians are now fearing a fresh wave of violence. Many feel the Kremlin has been hopeless in dealing with Caucasus terror and that the government does more to protect its own power than the people. >>> Matthias Schepp in Moscow | Easter Monday, April 05, 2010

Unnötiger Triumph für den Kreml
NZZ ONLINE: Kommentar zu Obamas Verzicht auf die Raketenabwehr in Ostmitteleuropa

Noch bleibt undurchsichtig, was genau zur Schubladisierung der amerikanischen Pläne für eine Raketenabwehr in Ostmitteleuropa geführt hat und ob Präsident Obama im Gegenzug etwas dafür in Russland herausgeholt hat. Sicher aber ist, dass diese Entscheidung eine markanten Änderung des amerikanischen Kurses bedeutet.

In der Regierungszeit von Obamas Vorgänger Bush hatten die Vereinigten Staaten die Entwicklung der Technologie zur Zerstörung gegnerischer Interkontinentalraketen ausserhalb der Erdatmosphäre noch mit aller Kraft vorangetrieben. Was in den achtziger Jahren als Idee à la «Star Wars» belächelt worden war, ist in der Zwischenzeit der technischen Reife recht nahe gekommen. 2004 nahmen die USA in Alaska ihre erste Abfangraketen-Basis in Betrieb; sie war Amerikas Antwort auf die Entwicklung nordkoreanischer Raketen mit immer längeren Reichweiten.

Die falschen Signale

Die Abwehrbasis in Polen und die dazugehörige Radarstation in Tschechien wurden analog dazu als Vorkehrungen gegen das islamistische Regime in Teheran projektiert. Angesichts der Fortschritte, die Iran beim Raketenbau und auf dem Weg zur Atombombe gemacht hat, erscheint die damalige Entscheidung auch heute noch als korrekt. Obama hat sich denn auch nicht völlig davon losgesagt, sondern nur eine Warteschlaufe angeordnet. Falls die iranische Bedrohung im nächsten Jahrzehnt akut wird, wie manche Geheimdienste annehmen, so wird kein amerikanischer Präsident – ob Demokrat oder Republikaner – zögern, die Raketenabwehrpläne wieder hervorzuholen. >>> Von Andreas Rüesch | Donnerstag, 17. September 2009

Russia Warns of War within a Decade over Arctic Oil and Gas Riches
Photo credit: TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: Russia raised the prospect of war in the Arctic yesterday as nations struggle for control of the world’s dwindling energy reserves.

The country’s new national security strategy identified the intensifying battle for ownership of vast untapped oil and gas fields around its borders as a source of potential military conflict within a decade.

“The presence and potential escalation of armed conflicts near Russia’s national borders, pending border agreements between Russia and several neighbouring nations, are the major threats to Russia’s interests and border security,” stated the document, which analysed security threats up to 2020.

“In a competition for resources it cannot be ruled out that military force could be used to resolve emerging problems that would destroy the balance of forces near the borders of Russia and her allies.”

The Kremlin has insisted that it is not “militarising the Arctic” but its warnings of armed conflict suggest that it is willing to defend its interests by force if necessary as global warming makes exploitation of the region’s energy riches more feasible.

The United States, Norway, Canada and Denmark are challenging Russia’s claim to a section of the Arctic shelf, the size of Western Europe, which is believed to contain billions of tonnes of oil and gas. >>> Tony Halpin in Moscow | Thursday, May 14, 2009

TIMESONLINE:
The very cold war >>>

NZZ Online: Neue Sicherheitsdoktrin Russlands: Die USA und die Nato als potenzielle Bedrohungen

Nach einem zähen Entstehungsprozess hat der russische Präsident Medwedew eine neue Sicherheitsdoktrin in Kraft gesetzt. Die nationale Sicherheit wird darin sehr weit gefasst. Besonders die USA und die Nato erscheinen als potenzielle Bedrohung.

Russland hat in diesen Tagen sicherheitspolitisch mit den neunziger Jahren abgeschlossen. Präsident Medwedew setzte am Dienstagabend mit seiner Unterschrift die Strategie über nationale Sicherheit bis 2020 in Kraft, nachdem deren Fertigstellung mehrmals ins Stocken geraten war.

Das Dokument, das auf der Internetseite des russischen Sicherheitsrates eingesehen werden kann, beginnt mit dem Satz, Russland habe die Folgen der systembedingten politischen und sozioökonomischen Krise des ausgehenden 20. Jahrhunderts überwunden. Die Wendung steht für das neue Selbstbewusstsein und die Abkehr von der in der heutigen politischen Elite mit Niedergang und aussenpolitischer Demütigung gleichgesetzten Ära Präsident Jelzins. Aus jener Zeit stammte die nun abgelöste bisherige Sicherheitskonzeption.

Das Grundlagenpapier, um das anscheinend hart gerungen worden war, versteht nationale Sicherheit in einem sehr umfassenden Sinn und leitet diese wesentlich von ökonomischen und sozialen Verhältnissen im Land ab. Die Ausrichtung auf das Jahr 2020 entspricht der vor einem Jahr vorgestellten «Strategie 2020», die einen Schwerpunkt auf wirtschaftliche, gesellschaftliche und infrastrukturelle Entwicklungen legt. >>> mac. Moskau | Mittwoch, 13. Mai 2009