Russia

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation paid a state visit to Cairo on Tuesday, consulting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on a range of economic and foreign policy issues. The meeting was seen by many observers as underlining the desire of Egypt to become less dependent […]

Eastern Europe

Putin, Blocked by Europe, turns to Turkey for Gas Pipeline

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — The Russian annexation of Crimea and heavy interference in the Ukraine has had a significant consequence for its hydrocarbon industry. President Vladimir Putin has been forced to cancel a planned natural gas pipeline that would bring the fuel to southern Europe, because of European Union pressure for boycotting Russia. Moscow […]

Featured

Oil Price Fall: Saudi Arabia targets US Shale Oil, Iran, Iraq, Russia

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole It is clear that among the major losers in the fall in the price of Brent crude petroleum from $115 a barrel last summer to about $75 a barrel today are Russia, Iraq and Iran. Petroleum sales are 50% of Russia’s income, and are also central for Iran and Iraq. But the […]

Economy

Saudi Arabia at the G20: Is it waging Econ War on Iran, Russia and N. Dakota?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole The G20 is a conference of the world’s top 20 economies as measured by Gross Domestic Product. Some observers have slammed it as an unelected and arbitrary body that is doing some of the work the United Nations was intended to do– only in a much less egalitarian way. The official web […]

Central Asia

Does Bear + Dragon Trump Eagle? How Russia & China may block the US in Asia

contributors

By Pepe Escobar via Tomdispatch.com A specter haunts the fast-aging “New American Century”: the possibility of a future Beijing-Moscow-Berlin strategic trade and commercial alliance. Let’s call it the BMB. Its likelihood is being seriously discussed at the highest levels in Beijing and Moscow, and viewed with interest in Berlin, New Delhi, and Tehran. But don’t […]

Barack Obama

Russia denounces Obama Plan for Syria Air Strikes as Violation of Int’l Law

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole Russia on Thursday pushed back against President Obama’s state plans for taking on the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) in Syria. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich remarked on television: “The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces […]

Eastern Europe

Natural Gas Battle: Ukraine vs Russia – An Animated History

contributors

AJ+ “While the West threatens further crippling sanctions on Moscow for invading and supporting Ukrainian rebels, Russia controls the nozzle that supplies Europe and Ukraine with natural gas. And they’ve already cut off Ukraine as winter looms. Russia also depends on gas sales for its governments revenue, so sanctions could cut both ways. AJ+ animates […]

Chechnya

Chechens Now Fighting On Both Sides In Ukraine

contributors

By Liz Fuller via RFE/ RL Eighteen years after the signing of the Khasavyurt Accord that ended the 1994-96 Chechen war, a veteran Chechen field commander has issued a timely reminder that there are still three sides to the ongoing struggle for the hearts and minds of the Chechen people. In a statement dated August […]

Eastern Europe

Ukraine: What is the word for What is Happening There?

contributors

By Daisy Sindelar via RFE/RL Oleksandr Chernov, a doctor and journalist from eastern Ukraine, spent 10 days as a captive of pro-Russian separatists based in Slovyansk. During that time he was blindfolded, brutally beaten, and interrogated by separatist leader Igor Strelkov. He watched a hardened militant break down in tears after accidentally shooting a stray […]