Free Republic

National PR-ity // Moscow drafts a plan to influence the United States The Kremlin has taken up the promotion of Russian interests in the United States head-on. The key role will be given to the Russian-U.S. Council for Business Cooperation (RUCBC) whose supervisory board will include high-ranking officials from the Russian president’s administration, ministers and prominent public figures. The Russian government asked the Finance Ministry to find sources to finance the NGO. However, it has already been suggested that big business contribute for the council’s activities. The first donation is expected to amount to $50 million. Work has in progress...

Mayors Deprived of Authority // The Vertical of Power The Kremlin has found a way to include mayors in the vertical of power without formally violating the constitutional requirement of the independence of local self-governance from organs of state authority. Today the State Duma council will examine amendments to the federal laws “On the General Principles of Organization of the Legislative and Executive Organs of State Authority in the Russian Federation” and “On the General Principles of Organization of Local Self-Governance in the Russian Federation.” The amendments, written by United Russia Party members Vladimir Mokry, Vladimir Zhidkikh and Alexey Ogonkov,...

Chavez gets Russian helicopters Chavez is looking to boost Venezuela's armed forces Venezuela has taken delivery of three Russian-built military helicopters - the first of a total of 15 it has so far ordered from Moscow. President Hugo Chavez said they would help to protect Venezuela if the US ever mounted an invasion. Mr Chavez also repeated that he was ready to buy Russian fighter jets. Washington has dismissed claims of a possible invasion as ridiculous and says Mr Chavez's military purchases pose a threat to regional stability. A crowd of Russian and Venezuelan generals and diplomats was treated to...

Russian generals and anti-American propagandists would like you to believe that George W. Bush was behind 9/11, or else it was “the Jews.” Anti-Semitism is alive and well today, from the “historical revisionists” who say the holocaust never happened to the obnoxious conspiracy nuts who believe that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are authentic. Anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda are of a piece. The one set of lies is related to the other, as the fate of the Jewish people in World War II foreshadows the fate of the American people in World War III. Extermination of the hated...

Commentary on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's visit to Washington this week has described his country as an "emerging power." That will certainly play really well back in Moscow and be music to the ears of President Vladimir Putin, whose ambition since taking power has been to restore Russia to its former seat on the international stage. Ambitions and rhetoric, however, don't necessarily make it so. Russia rather seems to be on a path toward becoming something like Saudi Arabia with nukes -- repressive internally and in overall economic decline, but wielding clout in the relationship with the West because...

U.S. Report Says Russia Is Not a Reliable Partner By George Gedda The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Russia's emergence as an increasingly authoritarian state could impair U.S.-Russian ability to cooperate on key international security issues, according to an analysis by a major U.S. foreign policy organization released on Sunday. Continuation of Russia's drift away from democratic norms under President Vladimir Putin "will make it harder for the two sides to find common ground and harder to cooperate even when they do," said the report, which was issued by the Council on Foreign Relations. It warned that some critical problems cannot...

Gorbachev, Who Turns 75 Thursday, Says End of Cold War Only Strengthened U.S. 'Arrogance' MOSCOW - Mikhail Gorbachev's magnetic brown eyes shine as brightly as ever, and he speaks with the same passion about the collapse of the Soviet Union as he prepares to mark his 75th birthday on Thursday. The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime continues to enjoy the limelight, globe-trotting on behalf of his political foundation and environmental group and taking part in charity projects. At a meeting with foreign reporters this week, Gorbachev blamed the United...

Venezuela has received the first three of at least 10 military helicopters purchased from Russia. Military officials say the three MI-17 helicopters arrived Tuesday in Caracas. Venezuela bought the helicopters as part of a $120 million deal signed last March. Caracas also agreed last year to buy 100,000 Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifles. U.S. officials have criticized the deals, saying they could trigger an arms race, destabilizing the region. MI-17s can be used in an assault role or as a transport craft. Venezuelan military officials say the helicopters will be used to patrol the border with neighboring Colombia. The remaining helicopters...

SUPERPOWERS Americas Foes Circle Wagons by Claude Salhani UPI International Editor Washington DC (UPI) Feb 14, 2006 America's enemies are circling their wagons, readying for what they perceive to be inevitable: a showdown with the United States. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted by the New York Times as having told a large crowd of demonstrators: "I ask our dear people to prepare themselves for a great struggle. Fasten your seat belts and pull up your sleeves." Fearing a potential attack, Ahmadinejad, now more than ever, will push ahead with his country's desire to acquire nuclear weapons, feeling it would...

MOSCOW, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Despite the ongoing controversy about Iran's nuclear program, Russia intends to sell Tehran up to 30 Tor M-1 surface-to-air missiles in a deal estimated to be worth up to $700 million. Tor M-1 missiles are short-range, surface-to-air missiles. The system is able to identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously at a height of up to 20,000 feet. They are already used by several other armed forces, including China. Analysts believe that the Tor M-1s will be deployed at Iran's Isfahan nuclear research center and around the Bushehr reactor that Russia...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spent over $2.17 billion in 2005 to acquire Russian assault rifles and helicopters, Spanish transport aircraft and missile-capable corvettes, and Brazilian turboprop light attack aircraft. In January 2006, however, the U.S. State Department denied Spain and Brazil permission to sell Venezuela military transport and light attack aircraft containing U.S.-owned engine and avionics technology. The U.S. government’s action killed deals worth over $600 million to Spanish firm CASA-EADS and Brazil’s Embraer. It also created a major hindrance, albeit not an insurmountable obstacle, for the president’s military expansion plans. The Bolivarian revolution’s military weapons buying spree will continue...

Date: Feb 5, 2006 3:08 PM From: Kenneth T. Tellis kenttellis@gmail.com To: Editor@VHeadline.com Subject: The time for Russia to act in defense of its own interests As long as the Russian nation sits back and accepts the world situation as a fait accompli Russia is doomed to medocrity ... but Russia can and must put its own interests before all. Perhaps the Russian families who lost their sons, fathers and youth in Afghanistan, might do well to remember who created that situation for them. It was the US that spent millions of dollars in a proxy war, fought by US-armed,...

I miss the Cold War. I know I ought not to, but I just can't help it. So I was naturally delighted by last week's spy story. Admittedly, as one of the papers here cruelly remarked, it was more Johnny English than James Bond. In a television documentary that had Kremlin fingerprints all over it, four British embassy staff were accused of being spooks. Blurred video footage purported to show them fiddling with a rock in a Moscow suburb. Now, the young men and women the Foreign Office traditionally recruits are the type of people who do enjoy fiddling with...