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Search Results for "Putin Ukraine"

Georgia’s internal politics turn into a sad show of paranoid buffoonery (UPDATED!)

Civil Georgia reports: A 30-minute long fake report by Imedi television station on Saturday evening as if Russian troops were advancing to Tbilisi triggered panic and also wave of anger on the television station, which has a nationwide broadcasting. In a brief notice to viewers before the launch of the report, the television station told viewers it was “a simulation” of what might happen in case Russian plans materialize. But

Russia, Turkey and the Great Game: Changing teams

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to Turkish last month shows that Turkey and Russia are rapidly developing close economic and political ties, notes Eric Walberg For all intents and purposes, Turkey has given up on the European Union, recognising it as a bastion of Islamophobia and captive to US diktat. As Switzerland bans minarets and France moves to outlaw the niqab, the popular Islamist government in Istanbul moves in the

Yanukovich — Man for all seasons

Ukraine’s new president — unless there is another Orange Revolution — has fashioned a comeback worthy of Nixon, marvels Eric Walberg Ukraine’s presidential elections Sunday were remarkable in more ways than one. The winner of the first round and favourite to lead Ukraine at a crucial moment in its history is the one politician observers long ago dismissed as a has-been. Viktor Yanukovich is mocked by his opponents as an

Russia, China, Iran redraw energy map

By M K Bhadrakumar for The Asia Times: The inauguration of the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline on Wednesday connecting Iran’s northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan’s vast gas field may go unnoticed amid the Western media cacophony that it is “apocalypse now” for the Islamic regime in Tehran. The event sends strong messages for regional security. Within the space of three weeks, Turkmenistan has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and

Reflecting on Iran’s Presidential Election

by Ismael Hossein-Zadeh for Middle-East online 1. Questions that Beg to be Asked US and European corporate media, political pundits and “Iran experts” have spent countless hours discussing the June presidential election in Iran. Yet, they have utterly failed to ask a number of central questions that beg to be asked: Why did Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main rival of President Ahmadinejad, declare himself the winner while voting was still

Who is behind Moldova’s Twitter Revolution?

By José Miguel Alonso Trabanco for Global Research “A lot of what we [National Endowment for Democracy] do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.” -Allen Weinstein It seems that those who anticipated the end of color revolutions have been proven wrong. So far, color revolutions have succeeded in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. On the other hand, they have failed in Belarus, Uzbekistan and Myanmar. Their

20 years ago the last Soviet soldiers left Afghanistan

On February 15th, 1989 the last Soviet soldier crossed the (then) Soviet-Afghan border leaving behind over one million dead Afghans, several millions more wounded and displaced. This war cost the Soviet Union just under 14 thousand lives. This is, for sure, a disastrous tally and nobody in his right mind would attempt to qualify the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a “success”. Still, while unequivocally a failure and a tragedy,

Europe ’s winter of discontent: the Russian-Ukrainian gas war

This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.eg.org/ More tricks and hot air from across the Atlantic leave Europeans in the cold, notes Eric Walberg A hurried resolution to the Ukraine-Russia gas war was reached during a visit to Moscow by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko to meet with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin this week. Ukraine finally agreed to pay higher European prices for Russian gas

Three military analyses of the 4 day war between Russia and Georgia

The August War between Russia and Georgia http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2008/item3/article1/ Mikhail Barabanov Initially, Georgia’s attack on the capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia on August 8, 2008, seemed like it would lead to yet another bloody, drawn out Caucasus war. However, the quick, energetic, and sustained intervention of Russia (the guarantor of peace in South Ossetia since 1992) escalated by August 11 into a powerful blitzkrieg against Georgia proper. Commentators

The ghost of Stalingrad: can Russia prevent NATO expansion?

This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ The ghost of Stalingradby Eric Walbert NATO’s metamorphosis from Cold War Euro-policeman into the unabashed global military arm of the United States over the past 18 years has left a trail of debris from the Balkans to Afghanistan that will take decades to clear. It is a flagrant violation of the agreement James Baker III made with Soviet president

War in Ossetia: “Wag the Dog”

(This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/ Republished here by permission of the author to whom I am deeply grateful. VS) Was an independent Ossetia inevitable after Kosovo or is it an US election ruse gone wrong, asks Eric Walberg Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a gritty, straight-talking 30-minute interview with CNN this week in Russian. It was not translated or reported on widely in the

Using Georgia to Target Russia

by Stephen Lendman for Global Research (via The People’s Voice) After the Soviet Union’s 1991 dissolution, Georgia’s South Ossetia province broke away and declared its independence. So far it remains undiplomatically recognized by UN member states. It’s been traditionally allied with Russia and wishes to reunite with Northern Ossetes in the North Ossetia-Alania Russian republic. Nothing so far is in prospect, but Russia appears receptive to the idea. And for

The real meaning of the South Ossetian war: Russia strikes back

The amazing and tragic events in South Ossetia seem to baffle most Western experts. While a majority of them fall back on the ‘safe’ position of blaming Russia for everything others, in particularly on the Left, appear to be rather unsure of what to think of all this; many basically ignore the issue altogether. In contrast to the Leftist blogosphere or to the free and independent press, the corporate media

War in South Ossetia – summary of developments

Here are some of the developments which I have learned so far: 1) Russia did admit that two of its military aircraft had been lost yesterday. This is rather baffling since the Georgian air defense capabilities are, according to Wikipedia, officially rather minimal: * 15 SA-11 * 38 SA-3 * 18 SA-8 * 35 ZSU-23-4 * 15 S-60 * 40 MT-LB with towed ZU-23-2 2) Abkhazian authorities have declared that

Bad, bad start for 2008

I am finally back at my keyboard after some travels and already the first days of 2008 look so depressing that I don’t even know where to begin. In no particular order, here are some of the things which make me think that 2008 shall be an ugly and mean year. United Kingdom: the Brits are loosing it. I mean, they were never known for their kind and honorable foreign

How deeply has the Neocon Empire been hurt by the recent developments?

The Empire’s (provisional) scorecard: one win, two losses The past couple of days have seen several very important developments for the future of the Empire: the Russian elections, the Venezuelan referendum, and the publication of the NIE. Because an Administration can only deal with a finite number of simultaneous crises, these seemingly unrelated events are probably very much linked to each other in the minds of the Neocons and they

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