Eastern Europe

(By Marianna Charountaki) “While Iran’s importance for regional politics was always there, it has only now become apparent, especially for the foreign policies of international players, writes Dr. Marianna Charountaki.” In the aftermath of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s unsuccessful ‘zero problems’ policy with his neighbours followed by the rapprochement between the KRG and Ankara, […]

Egypt

Is the Arab World turning back to Russia? Egyptian Delegation heads for Moscow

Juan Cole

An Egyptian delegation heading to Moscow just after the United States cut $300 million out of its aid package to Cairo to punish the July 3 military coup there has raised speculation that Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s military junta is shopping for a new superpower patron. In the 1960s at the height of the Cold […]

Russia

Arguing with President Putin

Juan Cole

Russian President Vladimir Putin published an opinion piece in the New York Times on Wednesday. Here is my attempt at refutation of some of the things he said. Putin begins by emphasizing that the US in the period after 1945 acquiesced in the idea that the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council would […]

Afghanistan

Has Military Suppression of Political Islam ever Worked?

Juan Cole

The Egyptian military’s obvious determination to crush the Muslim Brotherhood involves serious human rights violations, apparent in the appalling scenes of the siege of members in a mosque on Saturday. A separate question, which any political pragmatist would ask, is, can it work? If we look at long term attempts to limit political expressions of […]

Russia

And another thing! Russia denies Visas to US Officials involved in Torture, including Yoo, Addington

Juan Cole

The food fight between the United States and the Russian Federation has revolved around relatively minor issues in the two countries’ relationship like whether Obama will have a summit with Putin in September (no), whether Russia would grant Edward Snowden asylum (yes), whether Americans can adopt Russian babies (no), whether the US would sanction Russian […]

Domestic Surveillance

Putin as America’s Frenemy: The Snowden Paradox

Juan Cole

Russia’s decision on Thursday to grant NSA leaker Edward Snowden asylum for one year and allow him freely to live and work in the Russian Federation hit Washington like a hydrogen bomb. Angry politicians called on President Obama to cancel talks in Moscow with Putin scheduled in September. Russia Today covered the decision rather breathlessly: […]

Energy

Pussy Riot Protests Russian Oil Oligarchs and Putin

Juan Cole

The Russian Punk Rock band “Pussy Riot” has released a new video, Rolling Stone reports, entitled “Like a Red Prison,” in which they attack Russia’s oil magnates and their ties to President Vladimir Putin. The song likens Putin to Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei because of his favoritism toward the Russian Orthodox Church, and complains that […]

Government surveillance

Snowden Fall-out: European Denial of Overflight to Bolivian President Angers South America

Juan Cole

As Bolivian President Evo Morales was returning from Moscow in a private jet after consultations on energy, his pilot was suddenly informed that France and Portugal had revoked overflight permissions, along with Spain and Italy. Spain ultimately relented, and Morales’s plane refueled there, before heading to Vienna to overnight. The Bolivian government is furious at […]

Russia

Baikonur, Kazakhstan: Unmanned Russian rocket crashes (spectacular video)

Juan Cole

At the Baikonur Space Station in Kazakhstan, an unmanned Russian Proton M rocket booster went sideways and crashed this morning. Here’s the video from Russian t.v.: