Free Republic

WASHINGTON--Politicians charged on Tuesday that peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat" because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers. At a hearing on the topic, Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said, without offering details, that he is considering new laws aimed at addressing the problem. He said he was troubled by the possibility that foreign governments, terrorists or organized crime could gain access to documents that reveal national secrets. Also at the hearing, Mark Gorton, the chairman of Lime Wire, which makes the peer-to-peer software LimeWire, was assailed for...

Anyone who has sat around a poker table knows the feeling. You have been dealt a strong hand but the steely eyed fellow opposite keeps raising the stakes. Eventually, your nerve breaks. Even as your adversary scoops the pot you know in your heart it was a bluff. Pride demands you pretend otherwise. Vladimir Putin is a leader who has been enjoying his winnings. For Mr Putin, the purpose of the St Petersburg summit was to reassert Russia's role as a global superpower. The task was made easy by the fact that his fellow leaders in the Group of Eight...

An "orange coalition" is still the most likely outcome of a Ukrainian election won by the revolution's opponent, says Taras Kuzio. ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY: By Taras Kuzio Open Democracy, London, UK, Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Ukraine held its fourth parliamentary elections on 26 March in an atmosphere totally different to earlier elections. President Viktor Yushchenko can be credited with ensuring that it has been Ukraine's first free and fair poll since the country became an independent state in January 1992. The democratic breakthrough initiated by the orange revolution of November 2004-January 2005 has been consolidated. This is in stark contrast...

Ignore the broad smiles, firm handshakes, cheerful backslapping and toasts raised to "everlasting friendship" between well-dressed, smiling Russians, intense Germans, glib Americans and deceptive Brits. The Second Cold War has already begun. If forced to be perfectly frank, every diplomat, spy or banker from Boston to Baku would acknowledge this. Anyone who reads the press or watches television must have noticed by now that the most dynamic, aggressive and self-assured force in the world today is Russia. Daily reports in the media announce that Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom is buying a pipeline network here or a European gas company...

Putin and Yushchenko met in Astana on January 11 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko is risking his political credibility by blindly defending the Russian-Ukrainian gas deal despite severe criticism of it by Western and Ukrainian experts and a majority of the Ukrainian parliament. Rather than addressing the agreement on its merits, Yushchenko ignores Western critics (some of the most prominent of whom are Orange sympathizers) and imputes political partisan motives to internal critics (whose affiliations range from the leftist opposition to the core pro-democracy community). Yushchenko's stance seems to reflect his quest for accommodation with a suddenly responsive Kremlin in the...

This ... long piece on Putin was not written for the Economist and is likely to stay unpublished. I am posting it here for people with a detailed interest in Russia. Comments are welcome, but I should stress that I am not the Economist's Moscow correspondent and this is not an official Economist article in any way shape or form. Vladimir Putin. Magician, Mouse or Monster I saw a lot of President Vladimir Putin when he became my neighbour. At least I saw him most days; I doubt he saw me, fuming at the side of the road as his...

Kremlin hopes Yekhanurov will tilt Ukraine eastward COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS: By Taras Kuzio Eurasia Daily Monitor, Volume 2, Issue 185 The Jamestown Foundation, Washington, D.C. Russian leaders were delighted, even gleeful, when Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was fired in early September. Their unabashed gloating confirms that Moscow still does not realize why its interference in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections failed so miserably (see EDM, September 23). Instead, Russian officials have continued to look wistfully toward Ukraine. Russian leaders believe that the ongoing political crisis could lead to Ukraine's disintegration or civil war between eastern and western Ukraine. If...

By Victor Bondaryuk for Ukrains'ka Pravda (UP) in Ukrainian Translated into English by Eugene Ivantsov Kyiv, Ukraine The shock that overwhelmed the entire Ukrainian society after scandal in Yushchenko's team seems to subside. The avalanche of rubbish, evoked by the scandal, was so muddy that Ukrainian people, as a rule, didn't give a damn about competent thoughts and analyses and made their own conclusions. Spin doctors' attempts to show their exceptional intellect can't stand competition with common sense of ordinary people. Old grandmas with three successful marriages turned out to make deeper analysis than those so called experts and corrupt...

A lengthy and exhaustive parliamentary investigation in the death of journalist Heorhiy Gongadze has ended with the head of the special investigative commission, MP Hryhory Omelchenko, accusing former Kuchma chief of staff and now parliamentary leader Volodymyr Lytvyn as having instigated the Gongadze slaying. KYIV, Sept. 21 (FirsTnews) -- In its final report, an interim parliamentary commission investigating the kidnapping and killing of Internet journalist Heorhiy Gongadze five years ago has accused the parliament's speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn of instigating the slaying. Hryhory Omelchenko, the head of the parliamentary commission said, quoting the findings in the report, that Lytvyn had "instigated...

Amateur radio networks help victims of the hurricane With telephones down and wireless service disrupted, at least one group of people did manage last week to use technology to come to the rescue of those in need. Often unsung, amateur radio operators regularly assist in emergency situations. Hurricane Katrina was no exception. For the past week, operators of amateur, or ham, radio have been instrumental in helping residents in the hardest hit areas, including saving stranded flood victims in Louisiana and Mississippi. Public service has always been a large part of being an amateur radio operator. All operators, who use...

Post-revolution staglution, a revolution stagnating By Peter Lavelle, Russia Profile's Weekly Experts Panel Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 22, 2005 Contributors: Vladimir Frolov, Janusz Bugajski, Patrick Armstrong, Ira Straus, Ethan S. Burger & Marc Greenfield, Gordon Hahn, and Dale Herspring Peter Lavelle: Western punditry can't accept that a so-called "colored revolution" in Russia is very unlikely. This is probably partly due to the fact there is a general built-in media bias against Russia and a very specific bias against Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, as well as the fact that local Russian spin-doctors and journalists weave the most incredible scenarios of gloom and...

TESTIMONY: By Taras Kuzio, Ph D, Visiting Professor Institute for European Russian and Eurasian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, HEARING: Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats United States House of Representatives Washington, D.C. , Wednesday, July 27, 2005 The Action Ukraine Report (AUR), Number 532, Article One Washington, D.C., Thursday, July 28, 2005 TESTIMONY ----- Viktor Yushchenko's election as Ukraine's third president was made possible by the Orange Revolution, the third democratic revolution that followed Serbia in 2000 and Georgia in 2003. Ukraine's democratic revolution has influenced successful revolutions in Kyrgyzstan and...

POLAND AND RUSSIA HAVE CONFLICTING STRATEGIC INTERESTS AND THE SOONER BRUSSELS UNDERSTANDS IT, THE BETTER (Ukraine) Russia wants to keep Ukraine in its exclusive zone of influence and Poland perceives Ukraine as a EU member in the near future. Those two strategies are irreconcilable. COMMENTARY: By Joanna Strzelczyk Chief of Staff of Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski Former Foreign Ministry Official (1990-1996) Article published in Rzeczpospolita Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Wed, Jul 13, 2005 Since 1989, with a short break in the late 1990s, the Russian question has been one of the most important ones in Poland's foreign policy, writes...

Last Friday night, July 8, around 8:14 p.m. I happened during the commercial break at WABC to turn the dial to WLIB 1190 kHz the Air Amerika flagship station and hear this fuming, screaching female voice ranting and spewing venom. I was curious who is it about. Didn't have to wait too long. Turned out that it was Jeanine Garogfalo taking off at Ben Stein, calling him names, among other things also "this pr1ck..." Wow! That was a new one on the radio for me. I was just wondering if this is FCC "allowed" expression and if they have a...

KYIV - The Ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs for Ukraine, deputy Serhiy Osyka, thinks the communists blocked the tribune during the WTO law debates at the order of Russia. "I consider them to work off a command from Moscow", said Osyka, commenting upon the latest events in the Parliament. He explained that "lately Russia is very actively moving up to the WTO and wants to enter this organization ahead of Ukraine this year". He cited as an example Russia's consent to set import duty of chicken meat to less than in Ukraine. Osyka estimates equal chances of Ukraine and Russia to...

"PROTECTING THE VOTE: JUDICIAL SUPERVISION OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS - THE UNITED STATES PERSPECTIVE" With comments on the 2004 presidential election in Ukraine Comments by Judge Bohdan A. Futey (1) 13th Annual International Judicial Conference Kyiv, Ukraine, May 25-27, 2005 It is an honor and privilege to participate in this extremely important conference dealing with election dispute resolution, judicial authority and independence. My comments will concentrate on the experience of my own country, the United States of America, its Constitution and statutes, the electoral process, and the adjudication of election disputes by its courts. I would like to comment on...

Judicial Supervision of the Election Process Yushchenko v. CEC: The Historic Decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Comments by Judge Bohdan A. Futey (1) Conference on the 2004 Presidential Election The Central Election Commission of Ukraine Kyiv, Ukraine, June 9-10 2005 I. Yushchenko v. CEC The most visible election dispute in Ukraine took place during the 2004 presidential elections. Despite the allegations of widespread fraud, (2) the Central Election Commission (CEC), on November 24, 2004, nevertheless voted to declare Mr. Viktor Yanukovych, the Prime Minister, the winner of the run-off election against Mr. Yushchenko, the opposition candidate. On November...

So the road West is long - but it is open for Ukraine. Stabilisation of investor confidence and inflows of new foreign direct investment (FDI) will hinge decisively on the EU's reaction to the new political era in Kiev. By Moritz Schularick, Current Issue Deutsche Bank Research, Deutsche Bank Frankfurt, Germany, 27 May 2005 o The "orange revolution" has put Ukraine back on the European map. The country's prospects for economic development have improved visibly. This report looks at Ukraine's economic outlook after its political rebirth and presentsscenarios for its medium-term growth prospects. o With a population of 50 million,...

Hers was the other face of Ukraine's 'Orange Revolution', and her impassioned public eloquence was crucial in helping Viktor Yushchenko - his features ravaged by assassins' poison - become the country's first freely elected President. Six months on from the euphoric scenes in Kiev's Independence Square, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's status as a national heroine still rivals that of Yushchenko in the former Soviet state. Street vendors in the square sell individual pictures of both President and Prime Minister - the former's once handsome features preserved. Among the novelties on sale is a matrioshka nesting doll where the head of...

Ukraine played an important role in life of the famous Viennese doctor and founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. As a matter of fact, the family roots bound him to Halychyna in Western Ukraine, while his professional contacts were mainly in Odesa Solomon Freud, grandfather of the renowned psychiatrist, was born in the western Ukrainian town of Buchach in the Ternopil oblast, where his family had been living for several generations. Dreaming of getting an education, he went to the town of Tysmenytsia, which was known for its Yeshiva, Jewish school for studying the Talmud. Having married a local girl, the...