- 10:22 03/09/2010
Local political experts in Azerbaijan say the current visit of the Russian president is also aimed at soothing the effect of the recent Russian-Armenian military agreement. The Armenian interpretation of its agreement with Russia was that Russia guaranteed to protect Armenia and the Armenian occupied territories in Garabagh if Azerbaijan opted for a military solution of the problem.
- 10:20 03/09/2010
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin announced Thursday that Russia’s ban on grain exports, which was adopted last month after a severe drought and heat wave depressed the harvest, would be extended well into next year because of continued uncertainty over production.
- 11:40 02/09/2010
Let us just examine, for the sake of argument, the benefits of Russia regaining former territories in the Baltics. From an economic standpoint, the ports and industry would be a large gain, an expansion of Kaliningrad so to speak, bringing the Russian border into wider contact with the European Union as well.
- 11:37 02/09/2010
With so many of their media sources controlled by the state or government-friendly oligarchs, Russians have turned to their bloggers to keep informed and give voice to their grievances and concerns. But many of those in power are now seeking to impose rigid limits on online freedom.
- 11:33 02/09/2010
The conventional image of Russia is a country of a few super-rich oil barons and over a hundred million paupers. However, despite having more billionaires than any other country, Russia has seen inequality fall during the last decade of strong economic growth: not only is the gap between Russia's rich and poor the smallest of all the four "Bric" countries, incomes are more evenly distributed than in the US.
- 09:38 01/09/2010
Put aside serious political issues like the disputed northern territories off Hokkaido for now. The Japanese Embassy in Russia has published the first issue of a Russian-language magazine featuring Japanese pop culture, hoping to broaden pro-Japanese sentiment in the country.
- 09:35 01/09/2010
Taking a look at the map of the Arctic Circle it becomes evident Russia controls more than 60% of the territory while Canada and Denmark share in about 15% each while the U.S. lags behind with less than 10%.
- 09:33 01/09/2010
An expert witness for the prosecution testified Tuesday that Islamic charities based in Saudi Arabia, including the one an Iranian-born tree surgeon is accused of smuggling money for, were regular conduits of funding to Muslim fighters in the volatile Caucasus region.
- 09:31 01/09/2010
Beset by mounting casualties on the battlefield and deepening disquiet at home over the United States' longest war, President Obama's Afghan policy now faces another big headache: the unraveling of central authority in Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian nation that hosts a U.S. air base critical to the battle against the Taliban
- 13:01 31/08/2010
Fitting in to what appears to be a growing PR campaign to boost his image ahead of a potential return to the Kremlin in 2012, the powerful Russian Prime Minister set off on the journey late last week, sporting a pair of dark glasses and a cream polo shirt.
- 12:58 31/08/2010
For 500 years, commodity traders have been trying to conquer the treacherous waters of the Russian Arctic passage – aware of its potential as a lucrative short-cut shipping route. This week, the first commercial supertanker has succeeded in traversing the strait. Carrying 70,000 tonnes of gas from Murmansk in Russia destined for Ningbo in China, the feat has moved the difficult Northern Sea Route a step closer to rivalling the dominant Suez Canal in the south.
- 09:45 30/08/2010
Russian Embassy spokesman Sergey Khudyakov reaffirmed that his country respects Canada’s “territorial integrity, including the vast Arctic territories under Canadian sovereignty.”
- 09:40 30/08/2010
Russia has practically conceded that Iran is a nuclear state and this will bring Moscow closer to Tehran in its effort to reap future rewards by means of bilateral nuclear cooperation. This will create a new political atmosphere which gives Iran greater bargaining power in future nuclear talks.
- 09:38 30/08/2010
As Iran gains membership to the world's nuclear club, the direction and nature of negotiations will change. In the past, the West's prime aim was for the most part based on bringing Iran's nuclear activities to an overall halt. This time around, however, the focus of the talks will be on the preservation of the domestic fuel cycle capability, insisting upon independent enrichment on Iranian soil. In this respect, the role of Russia will be significant in future talks.
- 09:34 30/08/2010
Has Russia fallen victim to the Greatest Grain Robbery? The heist of more than 10m tonnes of grain from under officials' noses? That's one interpretation of the array of inventory estimates emerging from the drought-afflicted agricultural powerhouse.
- 10:42 27/08/2010
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is trying to repair damaged relations with the Kremlin after Moscow's foreign minister condemned a decision to extradite a suspected Russian weapons smuggler, Viktor Bout, from Bangkok to New York. Russia has emerged in recent years as a growing business partner by attempting to sell warplanes, helicopters, petroleum and other strategic items to Thailand, and sending thousands of Russian tourists to Thailand's tropical beaches.
- 10:38 27/08/2010
Washington Russophobia usually emerges as a US-built Iron Curtain in reverse, which according to the Pentagon's full spectrum dominance doctrine rules that US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military bases will encircle Russia from the Baltic to the Caucasus and Central Asia.
- 10:35 27/08/2010
For years, environmentalists have risked arrests and sometimes beatings by the police and masked plainclothes thugs in their efforts to halt the construction of a highway linking Moscow to St. Petersburg that they say would destroy the Khimki Forest, one of the few remaining in the Moscow region.
- 10:30 27/08/2010
As prices for buckwheat and other basic foodstuffs rise sharply in Russia after one of the worst droughts in the country's history, the government has warned that it will clamp down on any merchants trying to capitalise on shortages. The authorities, wary of potential social discontent if prices rise too high, have already banned grain exports to protect domestic supplies.
