Tag - russia

 
 

RUSSIA

COMMENTARY
Jan 16, 2014
Putin PR hides woes in 2014
The Kremlin's dismay at the scale and longevity of protests in Moscow and other cities, following the fraudulent election in December 2011, is forcing Putin to find new ways to shore up his presidency.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2014
Power without purpose in Moscow
By suppressing opposition in Moscow, Grozny and elsewhere, Putin has only put a lid on a boiling pot. Part of the Kremlin's difficulty stems from its remarkable lack of vision — a fundamental failure to understand what Russia is, will be, or can become.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 9, 2014
Russian road to mediocrity
Only a few economists in Russia seem to stress the importance of understanding the impact of the current mass outflow of capital and the sharp deterioration of the situation in world commodity markets.
Japan Times
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Dec 31, 2013
Bombings bode ill for Olympic security
President Vladimir Putin's daring bid to host the Winter Olympics in the politically dicey Caucasus Mountains may not pay off as he hopes.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2013
Putin plays games to salvage Sochi Olympics
Ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, President Vladimir Putin is playing his own game of trying to make his autocratic regime more palatable to world leaders wondering whether they should show up at all.
COMMENTARY
Dec 27, 2013
Putin outflanking the West
In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin made U.S. President Barack Obama look like a conman's stooge — a lame duck president so weak that he can barely waddle to the pond.
Japan Times
WORLD
Dec 25, 2013
Snowden declares his mission accomplished
In a candid interview, NSA leaker Edward Snowden breaks his silence on surveillance, democracy and the meaning of the top-secret documents he exposed, and says his mission is 'already accomplished.'
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 24, 2013
AK-47 inventor Kalashnikov dead at 94
Mikhail Kalashnikov, the former Red Army sergeant behind one of the world's most omnipresent weapons — the AK-47 and its variants and copies, used by national armies, terrorists, drug gangs, bank robbers, revolutionaries and jihadists — died Dec. 23 at a hospital in Izhevsk, Russia. He was 94.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2013
Help Ukrainians stand up for Western values
Make no mistake, Ukraine's so-called oligarchs still support President Viktor Yanukovych, and they will be prime beneficiaries of the $15 billion in bailout loans and lower natural gas prices that he secured from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
WORLD
Dec 22, 2013
Land grabs and melting ice: five misconceptions about the North Pole
Forget Santa Claus' ethnicity — what is his nationality? Canada's recent announcement that it may try to extend its territory to include the North Pole has led to a debate over who owns this Arctic area, about 1.3 times the size of the United States. Let us consider some of the biggest misconceptions...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 20, 2013
Putin to pardon tycoon Khodorkovsky ahead of Olympics
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he intends to pardon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, his country's most famous political prisoner, in a broad amnesty that comes just weeks before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 16, 2013
Putin's display of a Peronist persona
After nearly 14 years in power, perhaps the best comparative description of Russian President Vladimir Putin may be a transgender cross between the former Argentine leader Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Evita
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 16, 2013
Two U.S. senators vow support in Ukraine
A showdown between Russia on one side and the United States and the European Union on the other drew closer Sunday, as two American senators told a crowd of hundreds of thousands of protesters that Ukraine's future lies to the west, not east.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 13, 2013
In Ukraine, skepticism greets new vow on European Union
The European Union's top diplomat told reporters in Brussels on Thursday that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had "made it clear to me that he intends to sign" a trade agreement with the bloc. But protesters weren't buying it and spent the day bolstering the five formidable barricades of snow and...
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 11, 2013
Putin hand-picks loyalist to head new press agency
President Vladimir Putin tightened his grip on Russia's news media by abolishing the RIA Novosti wire service and handing control of its successor to a controversial television anchor.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Dec 9, 2013
Ukraine throngs now demand systemic change
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians filled the streets of Kiev on Sunday — no longer focused solely on a trade agreement with the European Union, but now also looking to recast their country's frayed and corrupt political system.
Japan Times
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 4, 2013
Russian deals handcuff U.S. on Ukraine
As Ukraine turns away from closer relations with the European Union and further into the embrace of Russia, the Obama administration is saying little about it or the resulting street protests for fear of provoking a fracture with the Kremlin.

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