NewsTrust - Russia - Most Recent Stories: Opinion (Mainstream)

Europe's Verdict on the Georgia War

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - Oct. 03 (Opinion) - Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed.

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How to Press the Advantage With Iran

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Flynt Leverett, Hillary Mann Leverett - Sep. 29 (Opinion) - Instead of relying on sanctions, the Obama administration should seek a strategic realignment with Iran, as President Nixon did with China.

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Remember Afghanistan, Comrade?

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Anna Matveeva - Aug. 18 (Opinion) - Twenty years ago, massive casualties forced Gorbachev into a troop withdrawal. The parallels with today are haunting Do you remember Afghanistan, Comrade? This was a Soviet Afghan war song of the 1980s. "Do you, comrade, remember Afghanistan? Glows of fires, Muslim cries?" I am sure British soldiers have their own songs, it?s just I don?t know them. God bless them anyhow. The (1979-1989) is something nobody in Russia likes to recall now unless they have to. The 10-year intervention cost around 15,000 Soviet lives, a huge number compared with the 204 . What were the attitudes towards casualties in the society then? First, the war was seen as senseless. Nobody could comprehend what Soviet troops were doing in Afghanistan. The official ...

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The fog of war

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Aug. 13 (Opinion) - ONE year after the Georgian war, its outcome is as debatable as the cause. Depending on where you stand, the war can be seen as the sinister culmination of a systematic provocation by a neo-imperialist Russia or as a murderously aggressive gambit by a

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Editorial - Slain for Daring to Report - NYTimes.com

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - Jul. 17 (Editorial) - New York TimesSlain for Daring to ReportNew York TimesThe murder of Natalya Estemirova, an investigator into the brutality of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed regime, has the grisly signature of a long string of murder with impunity in Vladimir Putin's Russia. Ms. Estemirova was kidnapped by gunmen Wednesday in ...Lawless Atmosphere Cited in Death of Russian JournalistVoice of AmericaAnother Death in RussiaWall Street JournalDimitry Medvedev rejects claim Chechen leader ordered killingguardian.co.ukBBC News?-Reuters?-The Associated Pressall 467 news articles??

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Welcome to Moscow

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Jul. 02 (Opinion) - Over the past ten years, under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, Russia has become more nationalistic, corrupt and corporatist. Its economy, although much bigger than a decade ago, is even more dependent on oil and gas, an industry now controlled by a small group of kleptocratic courtiers and former spies. The decision by Ikea, a well-known Swedish furniture supplier once bullish about Russia, to suspend investment because of graft is an indictment of the dire commercial climate (see article). Its non-energy exports are smaller than Sweden’s.

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North Korea, the Next Iraq?

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Atlantic Monthly - By Robert D. Kaplan - May. 28 (Opinion) - If he doesn’t hit North Korea hard with sanctions, he risks demonstrating to Iran that America is a pushover. Indeed, Obama’s Iran policy – which requires the stick of tough action in addition to the carrot of talks and recognition – is on the line in North Korea. On the other hand, vigorous sanctions against North Korea could lead to the collapse of the regime. And anyone who talks breezily about “helping” North Korea to collapse has simply not learned the lesson of Iraq: The only thing worse than a totalitarian state is no state at all.

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Provoking Russia - The Boston Globe

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Globe - By Muammar Gaddafi - Dec. 29 (Opinion) - ONCE AGAIN, the West's policy toward Russia and its addiction to interfering in the affairs of other countries is having dangerous effects on the rest of the world. The seeds for the current danger were sown by NATO's expansion to Russia's borders after the fall of the Soviet Union. That deliberate, provocative, and continuing process echoes in Russia's long memory the painful experience of the Napoleonic and German armies storming across Europe into their motherland, hell-bent on conquest.

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General offers lessons learned by Soviet Union in Afghanistan

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Boston Globe - By Megan K Stack - Dec. 05 (Interview) - Q. In its invasion of Afghanistan, do you believe the United States benefited from the Soviet experience? Do you see any evidence of your lessons from the Soviet defeat? A. I can tell you which mistakes you made and which mistakes we made. They are the same mistakes. We set up a very weak leader, Babrak Karmal. He didn't have prestige with the people. Today the leadership of Afghanistan does not enjoy popularity with the people.

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Russia Out of Rehab

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Opinion Journal (WSJ) - Nov. 18 (Editorial) - Russia needed only a few days this August to drive Georgia's army into retreat. In the aftermath, Europe has held out only a bit longer than Tbilisi's troops.

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Dirty tricks in Ukraine

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By James Marson - Oct. 17 (Opinion) - You couldn't make this stuff up. Or actually, you probably could. The scans of the document that the website provides have no signatures and no stamps. When Izvestiya alleged that Yushchenko had sold weapons directly to Georgia from the Ukrainian armed forces during the recent war, it came up with some evidence that at the very least looked convincing.

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Russia's Strategy: 'What's Looming in Ukraine Is more Threatening than Georgia'

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Der Spiegel - By Uwe Klussmann, Matthias Schepp - Oct. 16 (Interview) - In an interview, Kremlin-aligned political strategist Vyacheslav Nikonov argues that the recent war in South Ossetia and bickering over Ukraine doesn't mean Moscow is steering into a confrontation course. But if Kiev entered NATO, he says it would spell the end of Russian cooperation with the West.

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Russia and Europe's testy relationship - Too soon to kiss and make up

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Oct. 16 (Opinion) - The West needs to keep talking to Russia about many things, notably efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and further reductions in Russia’s and America’s own nuclear arsenals. Yet it would be wrong to heed calls from the likes of Germany, Italy and their allies to start talks now on a new partnership agreement, as if the Georgian war had never happened. The main reason for this is that the troop withdrawal is largely bogus.

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Letter from Moscow: Russian Patriotism Unleashed by Georgian War

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Der Spiegel - By Fred Weir - Oct. 15 (Opinion) - Russia’s national psyche has turned around, and it’s not just the well-known tonic that a small, victorious war can often deliver. This change has been evolving for years, ever since Vladimir Putin came to power and began restoring central power and order in a country devastated by a decade of economic implosion and social collapse. Russia’s nine-year-old economic boom, fuelled by oil and gas exports, has silently transformed the entire social landscape.

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The west cannot impose its 'unite and rule' principle in Georgia and South Ossetia

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Anna Matveeva - Oct. 14 (Opinion) - Why do we fail to notice that the three groups have mutually exclusive and irreconcilable visions of what the country should be, and force them to co-habit with one another? Why do we refuse to see that considerable international engagement failed to bring them closer to our desired notion of their affairs? Could it be that the policy really says more about us than "them" on the ground?

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Palin's Words Raise Red Flags

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Bob Herbert - Sep. 27 (Opinion) - The alarm bells should be clanging and warning lights flashing. You wouldn't put an unqualified pilot in the cockpit of a jetliner. The potential for catastrophe is far, far greater with an unqualified president.

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The price of Putin

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Financial Times - Sep. 11 (Editorial) - Perhaps Russia's Vladimir Putin, the prime minister who still seems to be calling the shots in Moscow, ought to pay a bit more attention to such sentiments. In a matter of weeks, the markets in Russia have turned on a combination of economic doubts, business fears and a sudden change in the assessment of political risk. An exodus of foreign capital, a dearth of credit from Russian banks and a loss of confidence among Russian as well as foreign shareholders have transformed the mood in Moscow from over-confidence to gloom.

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European Union right to avoid gamble on risky Ukraine accession

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Times - By Bronwen Maddox - Sep. 10 (Opinion) - The EU and Nato have both bracketed Ukraine with Georgia in mulling over whether to extend their borders again. The EU did the same with Romania and Bulgaria, treating them almost as a joint application. It would do itself a favour by treating all these countries separately. Ukraine and Georgia are completely different, and so would be the problems of letting them in.

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After Georgia - Europe stands up to Russia

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Sep. 04 (Opinion) - the limits of Russia's August "victory" are becoming clear. Its erstwhile friend China, struggling to keep a grip on its restive regions, has expressed "concern". None of Russia's other friends--bar, belatedly, Belarus and Venezuela--has volunteered support. And while the Georgia adventure may have scared the neighbours, Russia's support for separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia risks emboldening its own would-be breakaway regions, notably in the north Caucasus.

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Russia: Zakaria Roundtable

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By Fareed Zakaria - Sep. 04 (Interview) - Fareed Zakaria and his panel of experts discuss the Russia-Georgia conflict and the 2008 U.S. elections.

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Russia and a new democratic realism

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Financial Times - By Francis Fukuyama - Sep. 03 (Opinion) - One idea that you will never hear expressed by either Barack Obama or John McCain in this presidential race is the notion that a chief task of US foreign policy in the next administration will be to gracefully manage an adversely shifting global power balance and significantly diminished US influence. This is not a hypothetical issue, but one that stares us in the face today.

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Is the Soviet Union back?

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Andrew Meier, Michael C. Moynihan - Aug. 30 (Opinion) - Andrew Meier says that the Putin government's abuses resemble those of the U.S.S.R. Michael C. Moynihan finds echoes of the former empire, but says today's Russia doesn't pose the same level of threat

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South Ossetia is not Kosovo

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Economist - Aug. 28 (Opinion) - the West is right to respond firmly to Russia's new belligerence by refusing to recognise the new states. Never mind that Russia is itself being incoherent in continuing to insist that Kosovo's independence from Serbia is still illegal (a stance driven in part by its wish to avoid setting a precedent for Chechnya or other restive republics within Russia). Mr Medvedev's assertion of a parallel between Kosovo and South Ossetia is almost entirely bogus.

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Russian president speaks to BBC

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

BBC News - Aug. 27 (Interview) - In an exclusive interview with the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (speaking through a translator) explained why Russia had moved to protect what he described as the independent states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

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Russia's Aggression Is a Challenge to World Order

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Wall Street Journal - By Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman - Aug. 27 (Opinion) - Russia's aggression is not just a threat to a tiny democracy on the edge of Europe. It is a challenge to the political order and values at the heart of the continent.

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