Putin's Return to Kremlin Could Boost Eurasian Union Project
A meeting of the prime ministers of CIS member states at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg in October, where Putin triumphantly announced an agreement to form a free-trade zone after years of fruitless negotiations. READ MORE
Putin wins Russian presidency amid vote-fraud claims
Vladimir Putin has claimed victory in presidential elections after appearing before tens of thousands of chanting supporters in the capital, Moscow. Election monitors say the polls were tainted by widespread violations. READ MORE
Eurasian Union 'not dependent on Russian elections'
The project of the creation of the Eurasian Union does not depend on the outcome of the upcoming presidential elections in Russia to be held on 4 March, Russian experts said during discussions within the framework of the video link Astana – Moscow on the topic 'The Future of the Eurasian project through the perspective of Russian elections'. READ MORE
Russia changes tack, signals open to Syrian intervention
As the carnage in Syria worsened, Russia signaled a new-found willingness Monday to consider international intervention while the world’s nations planned a United Nations vote aimed at exposing the inaction of the great powers. READ MORE
Ukrainian Vector of Vladimir Putin
In Russia foreign policy course is defined by the President – that is why a political decision that Putin returns to this post in spring 2012 has become a significant event affecting the development of Russian-Ukrainian relations. At first sight these relations should get worse considering traditionally more rigid foreign political line of Putin and political stakes of Yanukovych to establish contacts first of all with Medvedev, who becomes Prime-Minister in the new system of power. “Yanukovych, who is evidently more prone to communicate with liberal Medvedev, was made clear that now he’ll have to deal with rough Putin. If someone had illusions, that one can come to an agreement with one of the Kremlin leaders individually, playing on contradictions, then now there are no such”, - considers political analyst Vladimir Fesenko. READ MORE
Why Russia Matters to China
As the regime of Vladimir Putin faces the most serious challenge of its 12 years in power, Chinese leaders will be watching apprehensively. Instability in Russia, which shares a 2,600 mile-long border with China, would be a major strategic problem for China. The obvious resemblance to the Arab Spring is still more threatening for a ruling party that lives in fear of repeating the fate of the Soviet Union. If uprisings in Egypt and Libya created a strategic headache for China, Russia has the potential to be a migraine. READ MORE
Uzbekistan’s Karimov Lashes Out at Putin’s Union
In October, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared his goal of establishing a Eurasian Union, scorned by some as a “Soviet Union-lite,” the more sycophantic among post-Soviet leaders jumped over each other to sign up. READ MORE
Russia: Rebuilding an Empire While It Can
U.S.-Russian relations seem to have been relatively quiet recently, as there are numerous contradictory views in Washington about the true nature of Russia’s current foreign policy. Doubts remain about the sincerity of the U.S. State Department’s so-called “reset” of relations with Russia — the term used in 2009 when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton handed a reset button to her Russian counterpart as a symbol of a freeze on escalating tensions between Moscow and Washington. The concern is whether the “reset” is truly a shift in relations between the two former adversaries or simply a respite before relations deteriorate again. READ MORE
Putin trip to Beijing signals troubled partnership
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to Beijing followed disclosure of a crackdown on Chinese spying and produced signs that Russia is now becoming the junior partner in its relationship with China, with fewer areas of agreement or cooperation, according to analysts in Moscow and Beijing. READ MORE
