Free Republic

What will it take for the Obama administration to realise that their treasured "Reset" is the foreign policy equivalent of Monty's Python's dead parrot? The insults and harassment heaped upon Michel McFaul, the American Ambassador to Russia, apparently aren't enough. Ever since his appointment in December, Michael McFaul has been subjected to a steady stream of overall hostility from Kremlin-sponsored front groups and the media. Now, the Foreign Ministry itself has joined in. Their latest salvo has taken the form of a twitter war. Russian officials have issued a barrage of tweets berating McFaul for remarks he made to an...

U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, apparently agitated that Russian TV cameras greet him at every turn in Moscow, posted several tweets Wednesday, including one in which he asserted, “Everywhere I go NTV is there.” A few hours later, Mr. McFaul tweeted: “I respect the press right to go anywhere & ask any question. But do they have a right to read my email and listen to my phone?

The luxury plane was exported to Havana from Russia Cuba is buying one of Russia's most up-to-date airliners, carefully crafted for President Fidel Castro's personal comfort. The purchase is part of an initial Cuban order for two brand new Ilyushin planes worth $110 million (£63 million) which Russian officials say is a shot in the arm for their struggling airline industry. To head off criticism that a new presidential jet is an expensive luxury in austere times, Cuba says one of its new planes is being used to ferry workers to and from Venezuela. To finance the deal, Cuba has...

BOSTON. Headlines in the Western press are pessimistic about Russia's commitment to democracy. The arrest and conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the takeover of NTV, constitutional reforms that replace elected regional officials with appointed governors, vague assurances from Vladmir Putin that while he would not run for a third term in 2008, he would not disappear from Russian politics - all paint a portrait of sharp retreat from the Yeltsin era. But the picture in Russia is more complex. Leaders in higher education and civil society have a more nuanced story to tell. Changes underway in higher education are a...

N. Korea: First-ever Video of Public Execution Smuggled Out time: 03/01/05(two prisoners), 03/02/05(one prisoner) location: Obong-ri and Yuson Worker's District, Hoiryong City, N. Hamkyong Province charge: Helping people with escaping N. Korea brief description: In front of thousands of people, including children, public trials were conducted and the execution were carried out. Shows prisoners falling down after being shot. More description of video: 11 prisoners are led out in front of large crowd. Public trials follow. After prisoners were sentenced, a voice says, "Carry it out, immediately!" Each prisoner is tied to a pole. firing squad(police/security personnel) is 10-15 meter...

...After NTV fell to the Kremlin, many journalists censored themselves. Regional governors hailed Monday's constitutional overhaul, well aware that their welfare (financial as much as political) depends on Mr. Putin now.... The passive response to Mr. Putin's restoration makes many people pessimistic about Russian civil society.... A rise in capital flight suggests anxiety about the direction of Kremlin policy. Exchange kiosks reported heavy buying of dollars, the safe currency, after Mr. Putin's speech Monday. Repealing the Yeltsin-era decentralization, which managed to keep Russia unified after 1991, will certainly invite problems in months to come from frustrated regions far from Moscow...

Putin blamed for gagging Chechen By Lawrence Smallman Wednesday 02 June 2004, 15:04 Makka Time, 12:04 GMT The widow of assassinated ex-Chechen president Salim Khan Yandarbiyev has spoken out after a Russian TV channel killed an interview with her and sacked the reporter. Leonid Parfyonov, one of the few Russian journalists prepared to criticise President Vladimir Putin's government, was fired by NTV on Tuesday after condemning the company's decision not to air an interview with Malika Yandarbiyev. Salim Khan Yandarbiyev was president of Chechnya for a brief period after it won de-facto independence from Russia in 1996, later losing out...