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Russia's Delicate Asian Balance - Jamestown Foundation

Historically naval exercises have sometimes played a key role in diplomatic signaling. One can only look back at the Franco-Russian naval exercises in 1891-92, which portended the...

Rethink the Russian Reset - The Economist

America's missile-defence plans are aimed at Iran, not Russia. But they are also a token of transatlantic seriousness about Europe. Any suggestion of making them a bargaining chi...

A Closer Look at U.S.-Russia 'Summit-gate' - Nikolas Gvosdev, WPR

The narrative that U.S.-Russian relations are set on a downward path with the return of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin has received a major shot in the arm with th...

Putin Holds Key to Ending Syrian Bloodshed - Bloomberg

Russia's leaders have been disgracefully cynical throughout the Syrian uprising. They have armed and supported President Bashar Al-Assad's regime, and they provide diplomatic cover...

For Iran 'Breakthrough,' Coalition Must Survive - Vali Nasr, Bloomberg

To Iran, this is all welcome news: The international alliance against its nuclear program is losing focus and may unravel. Almost certainly, there will be no further sanctions, and...

Why Putin Skipped Out of the G-8 - Michael Bohm, Moscow Times

Putin wants to avoid uncomfortable and unpleasant questions that may be raised by journalists and some participants, such as electoral fraud in recent elections, Magnitsky blacklis...

Russia Lays Siege to Ukraine - Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia in Global Affairs

The presidents of Russia and Ukraine have met for the first time since Vladimir Putin’s re-election. This is a strange period in bilateral relations: nothing seems to be happ...

Why Putin Is Afraid of the People - Vladimir Ryzhkov, Moscow Times

After Moscow's large protests on May 6 and the following days, we can easily dispel two widely held opinions — that the protest movement had fizzled out and that Putin had overc...

China, Russia Grab Spheres of Influence - Mandel & Lin, National Review

In late February of 2002, the New York Times reported on the creation of the NATO-Russia Council, with officials heralding a new era of cooperation and trust between Putin’s ...

Don't Ignore Russia's Play for Asia - Richard Weitz, The Diplomat

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to skip both the G-8 and the NATO summits this month suggests he plans to delegate relations with the West as much as possible to his ...

Russia Should Be Invited to Join NATO - Kennette Benedict, CS Monitor

At first blush, the NATO summit to be held in Chicago this weekend has an ambitious and exhaustive agenda, which includes everything from the effects of government financial...

Romney's Russian Reset - Arthur Herman, National Review

Alexis de Tocqueville famously predicted that Russia and the United States would one day dominate the world. He didn’t predict we would become friends doing it. But anyone ...

Russia and Israel: The Unexpected Alliance - Adar Primor, Haaretz

Russia's basic Middle East policies won't change, nor will Israel exchange its alliance with the United States for one with Russia....

Obama's Foreign Policy Failures - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

President Barack Obama ran as the anti-George Bush candidate. So it is ironic that his signature achievement overseas - the killing of Osama bin Laden - is one Bush would have b...

Ukraine's Windfall Offers Freedom from Russia - Washington Post

Viktor Yanukovych deserves no reward for his heavy-handed rule as president of Ukraine. His term has brought increasing corruption, a concentration of power in the presidency and...

Grading Medvedev's Foreign Policy - Int'l Institute for Strategic Studies

The Duma's confirmation of Dmitry Medvedev as prime minister on 8 May, a day after Vladimir Putin's inauguration as president, marked the completion of their long-anticipated role ...

'Occupy' Tactics Won't Work in Russia - Andrew Ryvkin, The Guardian

American cuisine is becoming more and more popular in Moscow, with burgers, cupcakes and New York-style pizza taking over the cosmopolitan restaurant scene. A good example of thi...

Kick Russia Out of the G-8 - Anders Aslund, Foreign Policy

Russia's new president, Vladimir Putin, has recognized that he does not belong at the G-8 summit. The G-7 should take him at his word. U.S. President Barack Obama needs to face up ...

Obama Still Sweet on Putin - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post

It's becoming clear that President Obama regards Vladimir Putin as a prime partner for a second-term foreign policy. The problem is that Putin is refusing to play his part....

Is Russia Going the Way of Egypt? - Victor Davidoff, Moscow Times

Historians have long noted a characteristic feature of Russian history: Sometimes development seems to freeze for many years and almost comes to a standstill, only to suddenly surg...

New Faces of Putin's Opposition - Anna Nemtsova, Newsweek

The night after Vladimir Putin was inaugurated for his third term as president, a trio of brothers sat down in a smoky piano bar to discuss the politician’s return. Co-host...

Why America Shouldn't Panic over Putin - Daniel Larison, The Week

Russia's strong-willed leader is back for a third term as president. And as long as Mitt Romney cools the "number one geopolitical foe" talk, we'll be just fine...

Putin a Threat to Russian Stability - Globe and Mail

In the lead-up to his inauguration for a third term as Russia’s President, riot police raided cafés, and grabbed people off the streets – even merely for sportin...

Russia's Training Wheels - Julia Ioffe, The New Yorker

Over the past couple of days, I've been asked many times, by people from around the world, how I came to take a photo of the boy on a bike with training wheels, facing a row of R...

'Missile Shield' a Sad Joke - Kennette Benedict, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists

The dream of a shield against nuclear bombs has been around since the earliest days of the nuclear age. The idea has always been deceptively simple: Build missiles that can shoot d...

The Coming Arms Race for Oil in the Arctic - Bob Reiss, Fortune

The race for oil in the Arctic is on. As the polar ice cap retreats, energy companies are looking north for a potentially huge new source of crude supply. In April, Exxon Mobil (...

Hollande and Putin: More Headaches for Obama - Nikolas Gvosdev, TNI

The election of François Hollande as president of France on Sunday and the inauguration of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s “new-old” president on Monday present the Obama admini...

Putin's Brutality Makes Him Illegitimate - Yulia Latynina, Moscow Times

The brutality used by police to detain protesters at Sunday's rally — sealing off Bolotnaya Ploshchad where protesters had a right to gather before beating women with batons and...

Putin Must Put Democracy Vow to Action - Moscow Times

Yes, Putin and Medvedev can talk big when it comes to democracy. But for the sake of democracy, Russia and their own legacies, they must walk the talk. Actions must follow their wo...

Phony Medvedev Is No Reformer - L. Shevtsova & D. Kramer, Foreign Policy

The Russian political circus has extended its tour. Four years ago, Dmitry Medvedev was chosen to keep warm the seat of Vladimir Putin, and now as Putin returns to the presidency,...

Old Putin Won't Work in New Russia - Jon Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun

The president is yesterday's man to the country's young people who are disillusioned with the political corruption and mismanaged economy....

Oil Continues to Prop Up Autocrats Like Putin - Michael Ross, Bloomberg

Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a third term as Russia’s president today, after a first-round victory in March elections, shows he is both shrewd and skillful. He is also ver...

Putin Return Spells Tough Times for Russia - Matthias Schepp, Der Spiegel

One of Vladimir Putin's predecessors is so close to his heart that he compelled his squad of ministers to donate a month's pay for a memorial in his honor. The monument to Pyotr S...

Russia's Last Warnings to Washington - Moscow Times

Few in Washington take Makarov's or Medvedev's 'last Chinese warnings' seriously, if for no other reason than everyone - including among Russia's leaders and top brass - understa...

Putin's Evolving Strategy in Europe - George Friedman, Stratfor

Russia's main goal regarding Europe is to keep European powers divided while extracting what Moscow wants financially and technologically. The days have passed when Putin could c...

Exploring Russia's Opposition (PDF) - Henry Jackson Society

An examination of Russia's opposition....

Is Russia's Opposition Out of Moves? - Masha Gessen, Newsweek

Russia's former world chess champion was supposed to defeat Putin--but now the former prime minister has slithered his way into office again. Does Kasparov have a move left to play...

Putin's Rule Is Unstable - Julia Ioffe, Foreign Policy

On Monday, just before noon, Vladimir Putin will get into a black limousine with black windows, and, flanked by a flock of cops on motorcycles -- his cavalry -- sweep into the city...

Putin's Gazprom Problem - Ahmed Mehdi, Foreign Affairs

Just four years ago, the Western press commonly touted Russia's state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom as Vladimir Putin's premier instrument of power. Indeed, the $160 billion firm...

Dear Putin, Here's How to Fix Russia - Ruchir Sharma, Financial Times

Our research on the successful economies of the past 30 years shows that high growth is not dependent on whether a political system is democratic or authoritarian. What matters are...

Putin's Third Term: Fresh Start? - Chatham House

On the face of it, he is well placed to make one. The new Duma is structured for subservience, the Russian economy is doing pretty well, and the protest movement has lost the momen...

A Kremlin Made of Sand - Leon Aron, Foreign Policy

In the short term, Russia's most serious risk stems from a near-fatal dependence on the price of oil. Twelve years of Putinism have moved Russia perilously close to being a petrost...

Ready to See Putin's Warm & Fuzzy Side? - Igor Torbakov, EurasiaNet

In the post-Soviet age, Russia has relied on military muscle and energy dominance to help it achieve its foreign policy goals. Soft power, meanwhile, is something that has a...

Will There Be a Moscow-Beijing Axis? - M K Bhadrakumar, Asia Times

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated last Friday that the crisis in Syria was impossible to settle if the international community ignored the positions of Russia and China...

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