Posts Tagged ‘Russian diplomacy’
Posted by seumasach on July 22, 2009
Eric Wallberg
Global Research
21st July, 2009
Obama’s geopolitical demarche in Russia’s backyard is moving ahead nicely… First there was the election in Bulgaria 5 July which brought a new party to power — Boyko Borisov’s Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria. Borisov, or Batman, as he is affectionately called, was a Communist-era policeman who subsequently established a prosperous private security business and has been the mayor of Sofia since 2005. He campaigned on the usual — to fight corruption and secure a better economic future. The Batman bragged in an interview with Der Spiegel of receiving “letters of accolade” from the CIA and FBI, presumably for his battle with the dark forces. One of the first things he did as PM, however, was to suspend the existing energy contracts with Moscow, both the South Stream and a nuclear power plant project.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Boyko Borisov, Gazprom, georgia, Georgia, missile defence system, Nabucco pipeline, Obama agenda, orange revolution, Russia Ukraine, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 21, 2009
M.K.Bhadrakumar
Asia Times
18th July, 2009
The Central Asian question is no more the same as it was in the 1990s. No one speculates anymore that it was inevitable that the region would descend into anarchy. However, the problems endemic to a critical period of state formation linger. The transition economies were just about switching gear when the global economic crisis struck. Growth slackened. Foreign investment dwindled. Commodity prices crashed.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Afghanistan, Chinese soft power, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), New Cold War, Russian diplomacy, SCO | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 20, 2009
F.Wlliam Engdahl rense.com
19th July, 2009
One of his first foreign visits as new President took Barack Obama to Ankara for a high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and other leading Turkish officials. Obama engaged in classical “horse trading” wheeling and dealing. “I give you support for Turkey’s EU membership; you open the diplomatic door to Armenia,” appears to have been the core of the deal. What other inducements the US President gave in the case of Turkish influence within NATO and such is secondary. Obama’s goal was to break a political deadlock in Turkey to construction of a major gas pipeline to Germany and other EU countries in direct opposition to Russian Gazprom’s South Stream pipeline. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: georgia, Iran, Multipolar world, Nabucco pipeline, New Cold War, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 15, 2009
Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: New Cold War, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 14, 2009
PressTV
14th July, 2009
Russia will not back tougher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities in exchange for a new arms cuts deal with the US, a foreign ministry official says.
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Posted in Iran, New Cold War | Tagged: Iran, missile defence system, New Cold War, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 10, 2009
Arguably, a new element of tension appeared by a conscious strategy by the Obama administration to insert a wedge between Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and create a rift within the Kremlin. To quote noted Russia-watcher Peter Lavelle, “Either Obama believes he has already mastered Russian politics … or he is being given some very bad advice … In Russia today, it is simply impossible to play Medvedev off against Putin. Both represent the same policy approaches, including foreign policies, but in different ways.”
“Biden’s remarks didn’t actually warrant a Russian rebuttal. But Moscow probably decided to put Obama’s hawkish deputy on the mat while the boss was in town to balance to some extent the mischievous briefings given by White House officials, touting a growing US-Russia convergence over Iran, which of course was exaggerated hype.”
So Obama tried to put a wedge between Putin and Medvedev and between Russia and Iran: both failed miserably as anyone with any grasp of Russia diplomacy at all could have predicted. As with the interventions in Iran and Honduras, the old box of tricks is still being used, but they just don’t work anymore.
M.K.Bhadrakumar
Asia Times
11th July, 2009
The Cold War may or may not be lurking in the shade, but the mystique of Russian-American summitry lingers. In an event packed with animated passions in the run-up to it, and loaded with history, as the summit in Moscow on July 6-7 indeed was, what ultimately matters is the morning after.
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Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: Afghanistan, georgia, Iran, New Cold War, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 5, 2009
“If Putin has “one foot in the new,” he is ahead of Obama who has both feet in the past.”
Paul Craig Roberts
VDare
2nd July, 2009
As Americans celebrate July 4th, they can contemplate that the union of “free and independent states,” like the former British colonial power, has evolved into its final manifestation–a complete whore house. While Members of Parliament in London charge their expense accounts with every personal expenditure, including the rental of adult xxx-rated films, an American newspaper put the reporting of public policy out to bids until politico.com blew the whistle.
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Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: missile defence system, New Cold War, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on July 3, 2009
M K Bhadrakumar
Asia Times
4th July, 2009
In the annals of Russian-American summitry, Moscow has never before choreographed a welcoming ceremony for the visiting United States president in this fashion. The dramatic run-up to the arrival of US President Barack Obama in Moscow on Monday underscores the complexities of the context in which the two countries are going through at the summit.
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Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: Afghanistan, Iran, missile defence system, Obama agenda, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 16, 2009
W.Joseph Stroupe
Asia Times
17th June, 2009
Russia announced on June 10 that it will purchase US$10 billion of the new SDR-denominated International Monetary Fund bonds. It also announced that it will further diversify its $140 billion of US dollar holdings. Brazil will also buy $10 billion worth of the new bonds, and China will buy $50 billion of the new bonds. India will likely announce its own purchases very soon.
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Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: BRIC alliance, China, End of empire, Financial crisis, panda bonds, Russian diplomacy, SCO | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 16, 2009
PressTV
15th June, 2009
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over his re-election in the June 12 presidential vote.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: Iran, Russian diplomacy, SCO | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on June 12, 2009
PressTV
11th June, 2009
Russia says that the US must halt its plans to deploy a missile shield in Eastern Europe before the two countries can start a dialogue on missile defense.
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Posted in New Cold War | Tagged: missile defence system, New Cold War, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 