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Russian War Games in Black Sea
Newscom On March 28, Vladimir Putin, returning home from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) Durban summit, ordered Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu to mobilize the Black Sea...
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President Obama’s Half-Hearted Magnitsky List
PhotoXpress/ZumaPress/Newscom The Departments of State and Treasury have released their public version of the “Magnitsky List”—18 Russian nationals who have committed gross human rights violations and...
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Russia: Putin Uses Courts to Crush Opposition
Krasilnikov Stanislav Itar-Tass Photos/Newscom KYIV, UKRAINE—Russia’s leading anti-corruption blogger, attorney and political activist Alexei Navalny, appeared in court Wednesday accused of...
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North Caucasus: Islamist Threat Comes from a History of Violence
The Boston Marathon bombers have brought greater attention to Russia’s volatile North Caucasus, their ancestral home. As painful their heinous acts are, however, the bombers’ actions are just a...
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Boston Bombers Have Roots in the Ungovernable, Islamist North Caucasus
The North Caucasus has emerged as an ungovernable safe haven for terrorists, as the government of Russia is at the end of its wits as to how to stem the Islamist insurrection. The brothers who...
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Human Rights Watch Decries Russia Opposition Crackdown
SERGEI CHIRIKOV/EPA/Newscom Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently released a scathing new report focused on the crackdown on Russia’s civil society. Since December 2011, the Kremlin has committed to...
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Russia: Kerry’s Chilly Kremlin Reception
Alexandra Mudrats/ZUMA Press/Newscom This past Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met President Vladimir Putin of Russia in the Kremlin. Kerry was seeking to repair frayed ties with Russia and...
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Russian Arrest of U.S. Diplomat Undermines U.S.–Russian Ties
Newscom In a scene reminiscent of the spy thriller TV series “The Americans,” Russian FSB secret police Monday night detained and then released an alleged CIA operative, Ryan Christopher Fogle, who is...
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“Russian Reset”: Time to Listen to the Critics
Newscom In a well-reasoned broadside, The Washington Post’s editorial board blasted President Obama’s Russian policy and his Berlin speech this past Thursday. The editorial justly criticized the...
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Snowden Asylum Request: Another Blow to Obama’s Russia “Reset” Policy
Guardian/Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras/EPA/Newscom Last Sunday, a Russian consular official confirmed that former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden asked for political asylum in...
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Lithuania LNG Terminal a Big Step in the Right Direction
Storage tanks with the Liquefied Natural Gas (Zarembo Igor Itar-Tass Photos/Newscom) Lithuania is building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the port of Klaipeda. The project, which is expected...
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Snowden “on a Leash”: The High-Stakes Game in Russia
Guardian/Glenn Greenwald/Laura Poitras/EPA/Newscom President Obama is considering cancellation of his summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin at the September G-20 confab over Russia’s harboring...
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Snowden Asylum Is Burying Obama’s Russian “Reset”
Newscom The Kremlin delivered a diplomatic blow to U.S.–Russian relations when Moscow granted former NSA analyst Edward Snowden a temporary political asylum. Now, the White House may cancel a...
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Syrian Geopolitical Chess: Putin’s One-Two Punch
President of Russia Vladimir Putin (Valery Sharifulin/ZUMA Press/Newscom) Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in The New York Times is an attempt to talk to the American people over the heads of its elected...
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Russia Should Drop “You Are with Us or Against Us” Mantra
President of Russia Vladimir Putin (Valery Sharifulin/ZUMA Press/Newscom) Recently, several of Russia’s “younger siblings,” such as Ukraine and Moldova, finally got a chance to partially break from the...
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Q&A on the Crisis in Ukraine
GENYA SAVILOV/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom The brutal dispersal of demonstrators in Ukraine last week led to dozens wounded—and a public protest movement which now surpasses the Orange Revolution of 2004....
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Vladimir Putin Disbands RIA Novosti, Tightens His Grip on Russian Media
President of Russia Vladimir Putin (Valery Sharifulin/ZUMA Press/Newscom) This week, Russian President Vladimir Putin disbanded the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency. A new agency—Russia Segodnya...
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Volgograd Terror Wave Threatens Sochi Olympics, Russian Civic Peace
RIA Novosti/Xinhua/Photoshot/Newscom Russia’s holiday cheer was shattered by brutal suicide bombings on December 29 and 30 in the city of Volgograd that killed at least 31 people. Many experts believe...
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5 Things You Might Be Asking about the Sochi Terrorist Threats
Ryan Koopmans/Polaris/Newscom With two weeks to go before the opening of the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, terrorist threats have many questioning the security of the games. The Foundry asked...
View ArticleRussia's Reputation at Risk in Sochi
Next month, the Winter Olympics in Sochi will bring many of Russia’s systemic problems in focus. It won’t be a pretty picture. The terrorist threat, rampant corruption, a problematic human-rights...
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