Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the June 2005 election of the staunchly anti-American Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran. Ahmadinejad, though, has proven to be a difficult partner for Putin -- especially regarding the Iranian nuclear issue. At the end of Sept. 2005, Putin and Ahmadinejad (who had just taken office the previous month) met in New York where they both had come to attend the annual opening of the U.N. General Assembly. According to a Russian press account, the meeting did not go well: Putin "tried to persuade him to back away from the...

World briefing Irresistible rise of the dictators' club Simon Tisdall Tuesday June 6, 2006 Guardian Tony Blair's promotion of shared global values and inclusive institutions in his Georgetown speech last month took little account of the rise and rise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Few may yet have heard of it. But out of the east comes a radically different paradigm for 21st-century international organisation, short on idealism and long on hard-headed self-interest. The "universal" principles of "liberty, democracy and justice" lauded by Mr Blair are hardly its driving force. Founded by China, the five-year-old SCO groups together like-minded authoritarian...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that Russia had helped his country break a U.S.-imposed "blockade" by agreeing to sell Caracas fighter planes and helicopters worth billions of dollars. Neither Chavez nor Russian leader Vladimir Putin gave details about any new deals signed Thursday, but Russia's defense minister said last week that Moscow had agreed to sell the oil-rich South American nation about 30 Su-30 fighter jets and some 30 military helicopters. Putin said Thursday that Moscow and Caracas would prove "reliable partners" and - in comments clearly aimed at Washington - said their cooperation should not be viewed as...

Moscow's $1 billion sale of top-flight military aircraft to Venezuela's erratic dictator isn't just business. It's unfriendly to the U.S. and a sign of a revived Cold War. ... His latest recruit was Belarus, where he signed an "anti-U.S. pact" Monday with this Russian satellite, praising Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who admits to having a soft spot for Stalin. "Our countries must keep their hands at the ready on the sword," Chavez said. ... There isn't any doubt Russia's $1 billion contract to sell Venezuela 30 Sukhoi jet aircraft and 33 helicopters will be trouble. ... All are perfect for...

Mr Chavez said he wanted to conclude "a unity pact" in Minsk Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has praised Belarus "as a model social state" like the one he and his government are building. During a visit to Belarus, he called for joint efforts to counter what he described as "hegemonic" capitalism. Mr Chavez later met Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, accused in the West of crushing fundamental rights. Mr Chavez is on a world tour, partly to win support for a Venezuelan seat on the UN Security Council. From Belarus, he will travel to Russia, Qatar, Iran, Vietnam and Mali....

Oracle Commentaries 7/22/2006 Urgent Intelligence Update UNCOVERED: RUSSIAN-SYRIAN-IRANIAN AXIS For students of Bible prophecy, even the title of this communiqué should set off alarm sirens. I just received some electrifying intelligence data. First, from the Debka-Net-Weekly’s briefing. And second, from some personal intelligence sources (I carefully guard) that confirm Debka’s report. Russia, Iran and Syria have entered a defense pact that is in the process of altered the balance of power in the entire Middle East. Russia’s part in the pact has been kept relatively secret for a long time. But the facts reveal a long steady Russian commitment...

MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) - Russia said on Thursday that the Israeli offensive on Lebanon had gone "far beyond" the anti-terrorist operation Israel says it is conducting against the Hizbollah militia. "The unprecedented scale of victims and destruction bear witness to the fact that the actions that were announced to (free captured Israeli servicemen) have gone far beyond the bounds of an anti-terrorist operation," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Israeli warplanes and artillery have been pounding Lebanon for more than a week. Israel says it is retaliating for the capture of two of its soldiers in a...

London: The head of state-owned Sukhoi aircraft manufacturing holding said Tuesday he hoped the talks on the possible sales of Su aircraft to Venezuela would yield positive results. "We will be speaking later about any concrete results but I believe that they [the results] will be positive," Mikhail Pogosyan said at the 2006 Farnborough International Airshow. A source in the talks said the two countries had been negotiating the sales of 24 Su-30MK Flanker C air superiority fighters to replace Venezuelan contingent of U.S. F-16 multi-role fighters after Washington imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country. Venezuelan President...

15 Years After Being Deposed From Power, Former Leader Discusses Russia, U.S. Mikhail Gorbachev is generally regarded as the man who broke down the "iron curtain" that separated the communist world from the West and thawed the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Now, 15 years after a coup removed him from power and the Soviet Union dissolved, he has some stern words for the United States, whose relationship with Russia has soured lately. "We have made some mistakes," he said, referring to recent attacks on Russia's democracy. "So what? Please don't put even more obstacles...

the People’s Republic of China won’t help the U.S. rein in the rogue regime of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il -- which this week conducted a failed test of a missile designed to reach American cities -- then the U.S. should stop helping China with its own economic and technological development. China must support the U.S. position on North Korea in the U.N. Security Council or pay a price for not doing so. In response to North Korea’s missile tests, Japan has sponsored a resolution in the Security Council that would bar nations from giving North Korea money, material...

The United States' global energy-control strategy, it's now clear to most, was the actual reason for the highly costly regime change in Iraq, euphemistically dubbed "democracy" by Washington. But while it is preoccupied with implanting democracy in the Middle East, the United States is quietly being outflanked in the rush to secure and control major energy sources of the Persian Gulf, the Central Asian Caspian Basin, Africa and beyond. The quest for energy control has informed Washington's support for high-risk "color revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan in recent months. It lies behind US activity in West Africa,...

Today’s Russia is a strange political animal. It emerged from decades-long Soviet isolation in 1991 with the prospect of beginning a new era. Many hoped that Russia would finally join the ranks of the G8 as a Western-style democracy. The yoke of authoritarianism, however, is not easily broken. Democracies are not created overnight, and the Russian Federation is no exception. Over the past fifteen years, both Boris Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin have made a great show of some democratic reforms, and the world has seen Russia undergo considerable changes. But the Russia that is emerging is not a...

When Russian prosecutors opened a criminal case against journalist Vladimir Rakhmanov for writing a satirical Internet article calling President Vladimir Putin the nation's "phallic symbol," it raised eyebrows. But a case that began as an odd curiosity in Russia's Ivanovo Oblast is quickly becoming an international cause. Reporters Without Borders has taken up Rakhmankov's case as part of what it calls a campaign to preserve Internet press freedom in Russia and elsewhere in the former Soviet Union. With print and broadcast journalism already subject to heavy-handed state control, free-press advocates are increasingly looking to save the Internet as the region's...

The Kremlin chief of staff puts a positive spin on disagreements with the WestTHE Kremlin has launched a diplomatic offensive to repair frayed relations between Russia and the West and rescue preparations for a key summit that President Putin will host in St Petersburg this summer. Amid fears of a return to Cold War suspicion, the Russian presidential chief of staff made an unprecedented visit to Downing Street this week to defuse tensions that could undermine the annual G8 meeting of the world’s most powerful leaders. Sergei Sobyanin, who held talks with Jonathan Powell, his British counterpart, said that he...

Mismatch of the Century by Justin Burke 11 May 2006 As the United States enters a potential Cold War II with Russia, it has one hand tied behind its back. From EurasiaNet. It was just about five years ago when President George W. Bush said he looked into the soul of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, and pronounced that their meeting was “the beginning of a very constructive relationship.” Now, amid sharp geopolitical maneuvering in the Caucasus and Central Asia, the United States and Russia seem to be girding for Cold War II. Unlike the epic conflict during the last...

President Vladimir Putin gave his annual address to the Federal Assembly on Wednesday, and there are several things that make this year’s presidential address notable. One is that it comes very close to outlining the contours of Putin’s desired political legacy, which could be described as the New Deal and the Great Society mixed together in one strategy for securing a more just and effective distribution of Russia’s new wealth among its people. It is no coincidence that Putin opened his speech with a strongly worded quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt: “We have stepped on toes, and we will continue...

President Vladimir Putin took a swipe at the hungry "wolf" of America today in a strident state-of-the-nation address in which he said that post-Soviet Russia should build up its economic and military might. In his seventh annual address as president, Mr Putin also promised to tackle Russia's falling birthrate, saying that falling population levels were Russia's "most pressing problem". But the main thrust of his speech was on the need to bolster security. Mr Putin said that Russia needed a strong military not only to guard against potential attackers but also to resist foreign political pressure. His comments betray increased...

Vladimir Putin has pledged to build up Russia's military to rival "fortress" America, and insisted the Cold War arms race is far from over. In an unexpectedly belligerent state of the nation address on Russian TV, the Russian president accused the US of putting its own interests before its democratic ideals, and compared the country to a voracious wolf. "We are aware what is going on in the world," he said. "Comrade wolf knows whom to eat, he eats without listening, and he's clearly not going to listen to anyone." He added: "It is premature to speak of the end...

If Willy Sutton were alive today, he’d be eyeing the oil industry. Sutton, you’ll remember, was once asked why he robbed banks. “‘Cause that’s where the money is,” he replied. According to our sources, Evo Morales may be doing a Willy Sutton number. As candidate for President, he promised the Bolivian peasants a big pay increase. Then, when he got into office, the mean people at the national treasury had a little talk with him. “Where was the money going to come from?” they wanted to know. Evo looked around. He was losing popularity fast. What did the country have...

MOSCOW - For the Soviet Union, Chernobyl was a catalyst that forced the government into an unprecedented show of openness that paved the way for reforms leading to the Soviet collapse. But 20 years after the nuclear disaster, many fear Russia is slipping back into its old, secretive ways. The Kremlin didn't publicly admit the accident until two days after the April 26, 1986, explosion and then only in vague terms and after officials in Sweden, some 700 miles away, raised worldwide alarm about sharply increased levels of radiation apparently coming from the Soviet Union. Soviet authorities long had failed...