Russia: the unsustainable superpower - The Guardian | Lawmakers urge Obama to stop Russian missile system sale to Iran - The Hill
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"It’s been a world superpower for most of the past century, but Russia still faces enormous sustainable development challenges – challenges that are compounded by economic sanctions that are sending its economy into recession territory.
The country’s infrastructure, building and manufacturing stock all suffer from extreme energy inefficiency: a recent World Bank study found that efficiency improvements in Russia could cut its energy consumption by 45%, an amount equal to France’s total annual energy consumption.
Income inequality is a similarly profound obstacle to progress in Russia, with some reports suggesting that Russia’s wealth gap is the worst in the world. In particular, a report from Credit Suisse found that just 110 Russian citizens hold 35% of the nation’s household wealth."
Russia: the unsustainable superpower - The Guardian
 The Hill |
Lawmakers urge Obama to stop Russian missile system sale to Iran
The Hill The leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Friday released a letter to President Obama urging him to consider using sanctions to stop Russia from delivering missile systems to Iran. “If completed, the transfer of this sophisticated weapons ... and more » |
 U-T San Diego |
Ashes of ballerina Plisetskaya to be spread over Russia
U-T San Diego Maya Plisetskaya, 89, widely regarded as one of the greatest ballerinas of her time, died Saturday, May 2, 2015, from a heart attack in Germany, according to an announcement by famous ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry ... Russia mourns Jewish ballet rebel Maya PlisetskayaThe Times of Israel Russia mourns its ballet legend rebel PlisetskayaBusiness Insider Legendary Bolshoi ballerina Maya Plisetskaya dies at 89RT all 180 news articles » |
 Business Insider |
Russia is creating a $100 billion rival to the IMF
Business Insider Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin IMF Managing Director International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde Ramil Sitdikov/Host Photo Agency via Getty ImagesRussian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Managing Director of the International Monetary ... Russia , Brazil Mistakes Show How Inflation Can Still AriseWall Street Journal (blog) Russian Government Ratifies Huge China Gas Pipeline DealForbes |
Russia Gold InvestingWealth Daily
International Business Times AU-International Business Times UK-Business Spectator
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Russia has been accused of using its warships to deliberately disrupt the construction of undersea power cables that would reduce the energy reliance of Baltic states on Moscow.
Annexation of Crimea has magnified divisions inside Kazakhstan by Shaun Walker in Petropavlovsk
The Russian population in the north of the central Asian nation is dwindling, but some fear Moscow has reasons to bring the region back within its borders
Petropavlovsk is in many ways a normal Siberian town. Dotted with traditional log cottages and Khrushchev-era apartment blocks, the clocks at this sleepy settlement’s train station run on Moscow time. The majority of residents are ethnic Russians, and economic stagnation means many residents hanker for the days of the Soviet Union.
However, Petropavlovsk is actually in Kazakhstan. Much of the northern swath of Kazakhstan is predominantly ethnic Russian, and there are growing fears in the country that the north could become the “next Ukraine” – falling victim to ethnic unrest and Kremlin expansionism.
It’s a shame the USSR collapsed. That was a real country
Kazakhstan is militarily weak, only international law protects us
There is no rational reason for Russia to create chaos in the north, but you need to look for irrational reasons as well
Continue reading... The Independent |
Russian warships accused of 'chasing away' Swedish vessel to prevent Baltic ...
The Independent Lithuania has complained each time, and on this latest occasion summoned the Russianambassador in protest. But the ministry said it was provided with no explanation, while Lithuanian media reported that a Russian naval commander had called on the ... Sweden accuses Russian warships of disrupting power cable layingRT Russia accused of disrupting new energy link between Sweden and LithuaniaEurActiv Russia and Lithuania in Power Link TussleThe Maritime Executive |
Ukraine Today-Kyiv Post
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The Soviet role in the defeat of Nazism must never be forgotten
Russian oil and gas condensate production remained at a post-Soviet record level of 10.71 million barrels per day in April, underpinned by a recent recovery in oil prices, Energy Ministry data has shown.
 СЕГОДНЯ |
МИД Украины опровергает причастность военных страны к обстрелу Донецка
BFM.Ru Украинский МИД опровергает причастность украинских военных к обстрелу Донецка, сообщает ТАСС со ссылкой на заявление внешнеполитического ведомства. «Украинская сторона решительно отбрасывает эти обвинения и ответственно заявляет, что украинские военные не ... Председатель ОБСЕ осудил нарушение перемирия в ДонбассеНТВ.ru Председатель ОБСЕ обеспокоен использованием тяжелого оружия на ДонбассеРБК Украина Глава ОБСЕ обеспокоен использованием запрещенного оружия на ДонбассеКорреспондент.net СЕГОДНЯ -Украинское национальное информагентство -Вести.Ru Все похожие статьи: 382 » |
 Wall Street Journal (blog) |
Russia, Brazil Mistakes Show How Inflation Can Still Arise
Wall Street Journal (blog) Russia and Brazil's governments both must take action to inspire confidence among both local citizens and foreign investors if they are to sustain long-term economic progress. Getting short-term growth by allowing inflation to run rampant will kill ... Russia is creating a $100 billion rival to the IMFBusiness Insider Russian Government Ratifies Huge China Gas Pipeline DealForbes |
'We are victors': Russia fetes WWII win despite Western snubYahoo News
Financial Times-Business Spectator-ValueWalk
all 88 news articles »
Thousands have protested in the streets of the capital of Moldova over the disappearance of $1 billion -- about one-fifth of the country's gross domestic product -- from three banks.
 RT |
'Italy can't afford to close doors to Russia' – Italian Foreign Minister
RT Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni has said that “Italy can't afford to close the doors toRussia” and “can't cut ties” with Moscow. His statements come just days after Italian officials postulated that the sanctions against Russia may be lifted ... and more » |
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Mr. Cameron, the Conservative leader, and Mr. Miliband, Labour’s leader, have pulled their parties back to the past in a personal and often poisonous campaign.
No political party has done more for hedge funds and bankers recently than Britain’s Conservatives, and the party in turn has been well rewarded.
 Зеркало недели |
13 тысяч военнослужащих примут участие в учениях «Еж 2015» на территории Эстонии
Комсомольская правда В Эстонии начинаются военные учения Siil 2015 - "Еж 2015" - крупнейшие за всю историю страны. В них примут участие более 13 тысяч военнослужащих. Об этом сообщил Главный штаб Сил обороны страны. Они продлятся до 15 мая. «Еж 2015» заменят ежегодные маневры ... В Эстонии проходят самые масштабные за историю страны ученияМосковский комсомолец В Эстонии начинаются масштабные военные ученияКоммерсантъ Крупнейшие за всю историю страны военные учения начинаются в ЭстонииРИА Новости Татар-информ -Взгляд Все похожие статьи: 21 » |
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflictcan be found here. An archive of our liveblogs can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast.
Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs.
For links to individual updates click on the timestamps.
For the latest summary of evidence surrounding the shooting down of flight MH17 see our separate article:Evidence Review: Who Shot Down MH17?
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 The Daily Star |
Russian Economy May Be Stumbling Back To Its Feet
OilPrice.com The Bank of Russia has cut interest rates for the third time so far this year, reinforcing forecasts by some government ministers that the country's economic woes are beginning to stabilize. The central bank cut its key rate on April 30 to 12.5 percent ... Economic Growth And Russia's Currency (ERUS)Seeking Alpha all 4 news articles » |
Two Gunmen Killed Outside US Muhammad Cartoon Contestby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Police in the southern U.S. state of Texas killed two men they said began shooting at a school security officer late Sunday outside the site of a contest for cartoons depicting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The city of Garland, just outside Dallas, said the officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries, and that authorities were searching for possible bombs inside the car used by the shooters. Officials did not identify the two men. The officer was treated at a hospital and released. An organization called the American Freedom Defense Initiative sponsored the contest, offering a $10,000 prize for the winner. The group's website said more than 350 cartoons were submitted for the event that would "stand for free speech and show that Americans will not be cowed by violent Islamist intimidation." Dutch politician Geert Wilders, a critic of Islam who said last week the U.S. should ban Muslim immigrants, was the event's keynote speaker. He mentioned on Twitter the shots being fired and said he left the building after his address. Many Muslims find depictions of Prophet Muhammad to be insulting to Islam. The issue has sparked tensions with those who see the drawings as an issue of free speech. In January, two Islamist radicals attacked the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had featured multiple cartoons depicting the prophet. Last week, Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Renald Luzier said he would no longer draw the prophet, saying the subject no longer interests him.
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 Lenta.ru |
Украинские военные не намерены отводить войска из Широкино
Коммерсантъ Руководство спецоперации в Донбассе не собирается отводить войска из Широкино под Мариуполем. Об этом сообщил заместитель руководителя АТО на территории самопровозглашенных Донецкой и Луганской областей Сергей Галушко. «Мы ежедневно фиксируем 40, 50, ... Украинские силовики отказались выводить войска из ШирокиноРБК Украина не собирается выводить войска из ШирокиноРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ Украинские военные отказались выводить войска из ШирокиноLenta.ru УНИАН -Апостроф Все похожие статьи: 43 » |
 РБК |
ДНР объявила о встрече контактной группы в Минске 6 мая
РБК Очередные мирные переговоры по Украине пройдут в Минске 6 мая, сообщил представитель ДНР в контактной группе Денис Пушилин. Участники встречи обсудят запуск тематических подгрупп. Усадебный комплекс «Дипсервис Холл», где проходило заседание Контактной группы по ... и другие » |
Russia apparently refused request to sell 1970s-era weaponry to North Korean
regime
regime
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 Telegraph.co.uk |
Did Kim Jong-un snub Putin because Russia refused to sell him anti-aircraft ...
Telegraph.co.uk It is not clear what North Korea was offering in return for the missile launchers, but talks have previously taken place between the two governments on the sale of mineral resources to Russia. Pyongyang may also have proposed increased access to the ... North Korea Officially Squelches Speculation of Kim TripABC News N. Korea's nominal head of state to visit Russia this monthKSL.com |
all 242
North Korea to send head of parliament to Russia in Kim Jong Un's placeCP24 Toronto's Breaking News
all 228 news articles »
Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here. An archive of our liveblogs can be found here. For an overview and analysis of this developing story see our latest podcast.
Please help The Interpreter to continue providing this valuable information service by making a donation towards our costs.
For links to individual updates click on the timestamps.
For the latest summary of evidence surrounding the shooting down of flight MH17 see our separate article: Evidence Review: Who Shot Down MH17?
Read the whole story
· ·
An advocacy group wants to manufacture psychedelic drugs to prove they are safe and beneficial, part of a global movement to revise drug policies set decades ago.
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 Ведомости |
Возле территориальных вод Латвии зафиксирована российская эскадра
Ведомости Вооруженные силы Латвии в ночь на воскресенье идентифицировали у границ страны российские военные корабли, сообщается в микроблоге латвийских ВС. Как уточняет "Интерфакс", в пяти морских милях от территориальных вод замечены малый противолодочный корабль проекта ... и другие » |
Proposed changes to Moldova's broadcast regulations are creating a free-speech conundrum.
Voters want neither the old two-party system nor another coalition. We’re entering a time of radical uncertainty.
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 РИА Новости |
Киев считает парламентские выборы в Нагорном Карабахе нелегитимными
РИА Новости В сообщении украинского МИД указывается, что Киев выступает за мирное урегулирование нагорно-карабахского конфликта на принципах уважения суверенитета и территориальной целостности Азербайджанской Республики в ее международно признанных границах. Нагорный ... Украина не признает так называемые "выборы" а территории Нагорного КарабахаСЕГОДНЯ В Нагорном Карабахе на парламентских выборах объявили о победе партии "Свободная Родина"NEWSru.com Украина не признает выборы в Нагорном Карабахе, - МИДРБК Украина Зеркало недели -Обозреватель -ИА REGNUM Все похожие статьи: 260 » |
 РБК |
Россиянина задержали в Литве по подозрению в шпионаже
Газета.Ru Россиянина задержали в Литве по подозрению в шпионаже. Об этом сообщает пресс-служба генпрокуратуры Литвы. Согласно данным правоохранительных органов Литвы, задержанный является сотрудником ФСБ и его задачей было проникновение в литовские исполнительные ... В Литве гражданина России заподозрили в шпионажеРадиостанция ЭХО МОСКВЫ В Литве за шпионаж арестовали гражданина РоссииМосковский комсомолец Гражданина России задержали в Литве по подозрению в шпионажеРИА Новости Mail.Ru -Новая газета -Новый Калининград.Ru Все похожие статьи: 34 » |
Jewish Emigration From Ukraine And Russia Is Surging
Forbes Well quickly consulting the Jewish Federation of North America's Berman Jewish DataBank and the most recently available survey of the world Jewish population, we learn that Russia's Jewish population in 2013 was roughly 190,000 while Ukraine's was ... and more » |
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 Reuters |
NATO starts anti submarine exercise in North Sea as tension with Russia rise
Reuters ABOARD THE USS VICKSBURG, North Sea (Reuters) - NATO launched one of its biggest-ever anti-submarine exercises in the North Sea on Monday, inviting non-member Sweden for the first time, amid increasing tensions between Russia and its northern ... NATO Starts Anti Submarine Exercise in North Sea as Russia Tensions RiseThe Moscow Times NATO holds anti-submarine exercises in Norway amid tension with RussiaUkraine Today Reuters: NATO starts anti-submarine drills in North Sea as Russia tensions riseKyiv Post all 44 news articles » |
Turkey Opposition Puts $16B Price Tag on Neighborhood Warsby webdesk@voanews.com (Jamie Dettmer)
Turkey’s main opposition party says the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Iraq have cost the country more than $16 billion in the past four years in refugee costs, lost import and export opportunities, and reduced tourism revenue, and it blames President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for having worsened the economic fallout for Turkey from the neighboring conflicts by pursuing what it calls “wrong policies.” In a 72-page report released over the weekend, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) claims financial losses to Turkey from the two wars engulfing the country’s neighbors could have been reduced, if the government had pursued different policies, although it is vague on what the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) should have done differently to solve the war in Syria except to argue a “peace policy” is needed. According to the report prepared by a group of 24 CHP lawmakers, all either with academic or business backgrounds, more than $5 billion has been spent on the more than two million refugees in Turkey who have fled from Syria and Iraq. And the group of lawmakers, who cite field research in the border towns of Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Mardin and Hatay, say that while exports to Syria in 2011-14 were forecast to reach $10.5 billion, they only hit $4.5 billion. The target figure for 2014 exports to Iraq was $14.2 billion, but it totaled only $10.7 billion. Tourism revenue was down by a total of $1.6 billion the past four years. Parliamentary poll next month The report was released as opposition parties started to turn up the heat on the ruling AKP ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections. President Erdogan hopes election results will give his party a large majority, enabling him to pass constitutional reforms to switch Turkey’s mainly parliamentary system to a presidential one that would strengthen his own power. Turkey’s main nationalist opposition party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), joined in the squabbling about the economy over the weekend between campaigners. Its leader Devlet Bahceli criticized the AKP government for not doing enough to help the poor, workers and farmers. His economy-focused promises include raising the minimum wage. “I emphasize that we will raise the net minimum wage to $516. We will provide a $36 urban travel grant for minimum wage workers working in metropolitan cities every month,” he announced at an election rally unveiling the party’s election manifesto. President remains main target of criticism Some analysts question the CHP blaming of the government for the costs of the war and warn the party’s figures are exaggerated. Earlier this year, the influential Turkish economist Süleyman Yasar estimated the overall economic cost to Turkey from the Syrian civil war and the advance of the Islamic State in northern Iraq at $12.5 billion. The World Bank issued a report last year that estimated the cost of the Syrian war to all five countries of the Levant - Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon - at $35 billion. AKP politicians reacted angrily to the CHP faulting the government for the economic consequences from neighboring wars and scorned arguments leveled Sunday by CHP Deputy Chairman Faik Oztrak, that President Erdogan worsened the conflict in Syria by pursuing a vendetta against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and encouraging the rebellion against him. Oztrak said the Turkish people now understand the mistakes of President Erdogan. “Initially people ignored the mistakes in foreign policy by saying they are busy with their work and by making a living,” he said. “But now they all began to understand that the mistakes in foreign policy can hurt the people living in the country. A mistaken foreign policy has backfired…. When we were [once] saying, ‘zero problems with neighbors,’ today we have zero neighbors,” said Oztrak. Refugee costs seen biggest financial burden Fears are mounting in Turkey that the cost of conflicts in Syria and Iraq will impact the country for a long time. A series of analyst reports have warned of the social and economic ramifications from the presence of more than two million refugees, who are straining the resources of local governments, impacting local labor markets and forcing up rent while wages fall. The Department of Disaster and Emergency Management (AFAD) says the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey is 1,600,000 but the actual figure is estimated by NGOs to be more than two million. According to Amnesty International, the financial aid provided by Turkey and international institutions covers just 15 percent of the needs of the unregistered refugees. Nearly 325,000 Syrian children are not attending school at all. The CHP warns in its report this is “creating a lost Syrian generation in Turkey.” While agreeing with much of the CHP recommendations on what needs to be done – for instance, introducing agricultural subsidies in border towns, investing more in health and education services, and building more low-cost housing in the border areas - an editorial in the influential daily Hürriyet newspaper poses the “... $50 million question. Who is going to pay for it?”
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 Yahoo News |
NATO starts anti submarine exercise in North Sea as tension with Russia rise
Yahoo News ABOARD THE USS VICKSBURG, North Sea (Reuters) - NATO launched one of its biggest-ever anti-submarine exercises in the North Sea on Monday, inviting non-member Sweden for the first time, amid increasing tensions between Russia and its northern ... |
Latvia Detects Russian Military Ships Near Border As NATO Conducts Naval ...International Business Times
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NATO launched one of its biggest-ever anti-submarine exercises in the North Sea on Monday, inviting non-member Sweden for the first time, amid increasing tensions between Russia and its northern neighbors.
Once sympathetic French finance minister joins chorus of criticism directed at Varoufakis
Chinese Tech Companies Chart Growth Abroadby webdesk@voanews.com (Saibal Dasgupta, William Ide)
China's aspirations to become a far bigger player in the world of technology were on display last week when Beijing hosted the three-day Global Mobile Internet Conference. The country is already the world's biggest smartphone consumer market and the world's leading high-tech manufacturer. Local companies are now eager to sell Chinese-designed products to consumers abroad. A big part of that effort is focused on mobile, Internet-connected devices, which are expected to number 25 billion by 2020. At top political meetings in March, the Chinese government announced what it calls its "Internet Plus" program, aimed at boosting online commerce and helping traditional companies raise profits through innovations in mobile technology. Last week’s Global Mobile Internet Conference arrived in Beijing as Chinese companies introduced innovations in operating systems, low-cost smartphones and advanced robotics. Smartphone operating system Chinese Internet company Tencent Holdings launched an operating system for smartphones and smartwatches. The system aims to target nearly a half-billion mobile Internet users in China and many more in other countries. Like Internet giant Google, the company said it wants to primarily focus on designing the software. "We will not get involved in manufacturing smart hardware. Rather, we only want to build an open platform by teaming up with different manufacturers on the basis of TencentOS," company CEO Reb Yuxin said. Huawei Technologies unveiled a new low-cost smartphone, Honor 4C, to compete with Chinese rival phone maker, Xiaomi. Huawei is offering the five-inch display phone for $129, which is nearly half the price of Xiaomi’s Mi4, which costs $250, and far removed from the iPhone6 price of $750. The Honor 4C will be sold exclusively over the Internet in order to cut marketing costs, said George Zhao, president of Huawei's Honor brand. Visitors to the conference were also given a chance to meet Yangyang, a robot that can talk, move its head and even give hugs, albeit with the help a human behind the scenes. The robot is modeled on Chinese researcher Song Yang, who works with Shanghai Shenqing Industry. Some also felt she had a striking resemblance to former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. SSI worked together with Japanese robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro to create Yangyang. Although the commercial applications for the use of humanoid robots is still a long way off, China is already the world’s biggest market for robots. Robotics industry analysts say that the global average for industrial robots is about 60 robots for every 10,000 workers. Advanced economies have more than 300 robots per 10,000 workers. “Although China is the biggest market for robots, the number of robots used in manufacturing industries is still lower, about 30 per 10,000 workers,” said Xu Fang, director of the research institute at Siasun Robot and Automation Co. “And because of this, the Chinese market will see rapid growth in the number of robots over the next five to 10 years,” Xu said. Despite China's huge anticipated growth as a technology consumer market and as a manufacturer, the country still struggles with the speed of its Internet, in part because of the “Great Firewall.” Recent surveys indicate the country's average speed for broadband Internet ranks 40th in the world, just ahead of Indonesia, but behind Malaysia, Mexico and Turkey. Censorship technology Senior Chinese leaders have spoken up about the problem but have not addressed what many believe is its main cause: the country’s vast, government-run censorship technology known as the “Great Firewall.” By comparison, China-controlled Hong Kong, which does not have the same Internet controls as the mainland, has the fourth-fastest Internet speeds in the world. “Censorship is obviously not helping China’s Internet business. It is not a killer, but it has a deep impact on the business,” Jacob Cooke, director of consulting firm, Web Presence in China, told VOA. Chinese smartphone-makers may find is more difficult to sell their products compared to their foreign competitors because of the implicit control on the distribution of apps, Cooke said. The government controls also mean that websites and app publishers earn much less in China because of tight restrictions over content involving political issues, or sites that may carry obscenities. "This is reducing the advertising revenue and hence the money that can be spent on development," Cooke said.
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Bill Clinton: Foundation Has Done Nothing Wrongby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
Former president Bill Clinton defended his family's charitable foundation, saying there's nothing “sinister” about getting wealthy people to spend their money to help poor people in developing countries. “There's been a very deliberate attempt to take the foundation down,” Clinton said in an interview aired Monday on NBC's “Today” show. “And there's almost no new fact that's known now that wasn't known when she ran for president the first time.'' Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, are on a nine-day tour of Clinton Foundation projects in Africa. The global charitable effort was set up by the former president after he left office. Critics have raised questions about possible connections between donations made by foreign governments and policies his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, pursued while serving as secretary of state. And now that Hillary Clinton is running for president, critics have questioned whether long-term political donors are trying to win favor with the politically powerful Clinton family by supporting its charitable arm. Bill Clinton said 90 percent of donors give $100 or less. But over half of the donors giving $5 million or more are foreign, including foreign governments. Under pressure, the foundation recently announced it will only take money from six Western countries. “It's an acknowledgment that we're going to come as close as we can during her presidential campaign to following the rules we followed when she became secretary of state,” he said. “I don't think that I did anything that was against the interest of the United States," he added. Clinton also said he will continue to speak at events if asked. Some people have questioned his paid speaking engagements, which can command as much as $500,000 or more . “I've got to pay our bills,” he said. When asked whether he would step down as the foundation's president if his wife is elected president, Clinton said he would consider it if asked.
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 Wall Street Journal |
"America has a simple ideology": how one of Russia's top US experts tries to ...
Vox In the US, the common view is that Russians feel aggrieved by the loss of the Soviet Union and all the respect that came with being a global superpower. Russia's acts of aggression in Europe, in this telling, are all about challenging the American-led ... Islamist Terrorism Is a Greater Threat to Europe than Russia, Says Czech ...Wall Street Journal VE-Day tarnished by new war of words between Russia, the WestCBC.ca 'We are victors': Russia fetes WWII win despite Western snubYahoo News |
Forbes-
Financial Times- The Independent
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The current House defense authorization bill is targeting Russia’s aggressive information
warfare operations in Ukraine, along with propaganda activities by Islamist terrorists.
warfare operations in Ukraine, along with propaganda activities by Islamist terrorists.
The House Armed Services Committee bill added $30 million to special operations forces funding to counter Russian disinformation and Islamic State social media recruitment efforts. The added funds followed a recent visit to Ukraine by committee Chairman Mac Thornberry who is concerned the U.S. military is not equipped to counter this new form of informational warfare.
“Our adversaries around the world are using propaganda to shape the battlefield, drive up their support and inspire imitators,” the Texas Republican told Inside the Ring. “We’ve seen [the Islamic State] and al Qaeda use this tool in the Middle East, and Russia use it in Eastern Europe.”
Such propaganda in the wrong hands can be an effective weapon, and “it is something America does not always do a good job [of] countering,” he said.
The bill “acknowledges this serious communications gap, and takes steps to correct it,” Mr. Thornberry said.
The boost in funds for the U.S. Special Operations Command (Socom) to $54.7 million is aimed at expanding “global inform and influence activities” against Russia and terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
The committee bill states that Moscow’s tactics are not new, but adds that “Russia has combined them in new, effective, and troubling ways. It has fomented and taken advantage of ethnic disputes to train, build and equip a separatist army in Ukraine under Russian direction.”
“It has combined this line of effort with propaganda, diplomatic and economic measures to try to reduce the effectiveness of Ukraine’s response, as well as the response of the United States and Europe, and to preserve and extend its perceived sphere of influence,” the bill states.
The committee also said the Russian information operations “pose a challenge to the NATO system” and that NATO collective self-defense has been undermined by Russian political and covert warfare in Ukraine.
Additionally, differing views among NATO members will make it difficult for the alliance to reach a consensus on Russian involvement and thus Moscow’s tactics could undermine NATO’s ability to deter Russia.
“The committee believes that the Department of Defense and NATO should fully explore how the United States, NATO and member-states can, as necessary, establish deterrence mechanisms against activities such as those undertaken by the Russian government in Ukraine,” the bill says.
Moscow’s tactics include media propaganda, economic warfare, cyberwarfare, criminal acts and intelligence operations.
Philip A. Karber, a Georgetown professor and specialist on Ukraine with the Potomac Foundation, said after speaking to Ukrainian field commanders during 13 visits, “the most important military battle they lost was the information one.”
Russian information warfare in Ukraine includes political subversion, the use of proxy forces, the movement of forces to threaten an invasion, public threats and large-scale nuclear exercises, as well as negotiations designed to inhibit Western intervention.
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The U.S. has admitted that it is lagging behind Russia when it comes to information and propaganda war. As a remedy to it, the U.S. law makers have now introduced a new bill seeking $30 million to target “Russia’s propaganda, which is posing a challenge to the NATO system.” This new information offensive will also address the social media offensives by Islamic State.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Forces Mac Thornberry said, “our adversaries are using propaganda to shape the battlefield, drive up their support and inspire imitators. Islamic State and al Qaeda have been using this tool in the Middle East and Russia is using it deftly in Eastern Europe,” reported Washington Times.
Moscow’s Tactics
According to the U.S., Moscow has an array of tactics that include media propaganda, economic warfare, cyber warfare and covert intelligence operations to maintain its edge over adversaries. In Ukraine, Russia is using political subversion, use of proxy forces, movement of forces threatening invasion, large-scale nuclear exercises and tactical negotiations to inhibit Western intervention.
Explaining the rationale of spending at least $30 million to counter Russian and Islamic State propaganda, Thornberry said “America does not always do a good job in countering it.” He recently came from a visit to the crisis-torn Ukraine and did a study on the Russian tactics. The law maker said he is sure that that the bill “acknowledges this serious communications gap, and takes steps to correct it.”
Challenge To NATO
The bill refers to the Russian propaganda and the way it has taken advantage of ethnic disputes in building and equipping a separatist army in Ukraine under its direction. The panel feels that Russian information outlets do pose a direct challenge to the NATO system. The committee believes it is time, the Department of Defense and NATO explored how the U.S., NATO member-states together can establish deterrence mechanisms against activities such as those undertaken by the Russian government in Ukraine.
The new boost in funds for the U.S. Special Operations Command will be to expand “global inform and influence activities” against Russia and terrorist groups like al Qaeda and the Islamic State. The committee has asked SOCOM to brief the panel before July on its counter-influence program. The Committee is of the view that Russia uses propaganda, diplomatic and economic measures to play down the impact of Ukraine’s own response to its aggression and succeeded in taming the response from the U.S. and Europe in its domain of influence. The bill also said Russian information operations are undermining NATO’s collective self-defense.
John Kerry’s Advice
The panel’s view is also in sync with Secretary of State John Kerry’s thoughts on the matter. He is of the opinion that the U.S. lawmakers should release more funds to manage propaganda and “democracy promotion” programs of the U.S. across the world. Kerry told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that “Russia Today can be heard in English, do we have an equivalent that can be heard in Russian? It’s a pretty expensive proposition. They are spending huge amounts of money,” But the fact is Voice of America still has a broadcast service in Russian language that it started in 1947.
(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)
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 International Business Times AU |
Finnish military reaches out to reservists, denies Russia link
Yahoo News But the move also comes at a time when Russian air force sorties, spy accusations and military border exercises have prompted a debate within non-aligned Finland about how to boost its security arrangements and whether it should even join NATO. US To Blunt Russia's Edge In Propaganda War: Introduces $30 Million Bill To ...International Business Times AU all 17 news articles » |
Suicide Bomber Dies in Attack on Syria Military Siteby webdesk@voanews.com (Associated Press)
A small group of insurgents, including a suicide bomber, carried out an attack in Damascus on Monday targeting a Syrian military logistics and supply facility, militants and activists said. Syrian state media said the bombing took place in the Rokn al-Deen neighborhood, and said the militants were killed. It provided no further details or information on casualties. Rami Abdurrahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the bombing appeared to target a general who is responsible for army logistics and supplies. He said the general and two of his guards were wounded in the blast, and one guard was killed. The Observatory relies on a network of activists inside Syria for its information. The al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front posted a claim of responsibility on a Twitter account associated with the group. It said three of the group's fighters carried out the attack. Syrian state television later broadcast video of what it said was the scene of the attack. It showed the bodies of two men dressed in camouflage sprawled out on the street. The legs of the suicide bomber were on the pavement nearby. Several cars near the bodies had their windows shattered by the blast.
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Diplomats at a UN review of Belarus's rights record have urged authorities in Minsk to ensure free and fair elections and decried an "atmosphere of intimidation."
Wars' Legacy Endures for Belarus Cityby By CELESTINE BOHLEN
Politics again weighs on the memory of armed conflict in Europe.
Beginning Sunday – World Press Freedom Day – the Committee to Protect Journalists, a private U.S. group, is launching a campaign to bring attention to their plight and encourage efforts to free them.
One of my colleagues once remarked that Russia is what the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss called a frozen culture. This does not mean that Russian history merely repeats itself. But it does signify the recurrence of many patterns confirming Mark Twain’s observation that while history does not repeat itself it does rhyme. Vladimir Putin’s current ideological crusade, a project going back at least five years if not more, exemplifies this process. We have already argued elsewhere that Putin has restored the main elements of the Muscovite patrimonial service state and his ideological project deliberately invokes the officially sanctioned process first codified under Nicholas I and known as “official nationality.”
This formulation, brilliantly depicted in English years ago by Nicholas Riasanovsky, was a systematic ideological campaign against the revolutions of 1848 and their potential influence in Russia. It also represented a determined effort to scotch the snake of reform, in those days reform or even termination of serfdom. Official nationality entailed the systematic glorification of the autocrat or Tsar, the Russian Orthodox Church and religion, and Russian (state) nationalism. It comprised an effort to fabricate a Russian national consciousness through state auspices rather than from society itself — a pattern that is starkly visible in Putin’s Russia and attests to the historical stunting of an authentic ethnic or societal based nationalism in Russia rather than a state or imperial national consciousness. This system involved harsh repression of all dissent and among its other attributes was intended to tell the Russian people that any reform was not only unthinkable but dangerous to the survival of the state and somehow “anti-Russian”. In effect it represented the authorities’ admission that they had no domestic program at all other than clinging to power through this ideologized form of “bread and circuses”. Unfortunately today bread might become scarce but there is no shortage of imperial circuses, spectacles, and repressions.
Official nationality always involved as well the stimulation of great power Russian chauvinism, an explosive political tendency in a multi-national empire. We can see that this is already reoccurring in Putin’s Russia with the systematic repression of numerically smaller nationalities’ cultures, languages, and political freedoms. The growth of ethnic chauvinism among the Russian population, at least partly due to this official stimulation, also reflects the pattern. Thus this framework is intrinsically hostile to the claims of ethno-religious minorities.
But Nicholas I and his officials were not the only ones to institute this system. Indeed, his heirs constantly revived it when challenged by pressures for reform. Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II also sought to restore this ideological-political combination, Stalin attempted a Marxist-Leninist version of this in the late 1940s and 1950s and Brezhnev’s stasis of the late 1970s ad early 1980s represented a somewhat paler reflection of this formula. As Maurice Friedberg wrote then, Vichy France’s slogan of Travail, Famille, and Patrie easily applied to Brezhnev’s Russia and could be equally appropriate to Putin’s Russia.
Today, and equally alarmingly apart from its resemblances to past Russian autocracies, Putin’s Russia increasingly resembles a Fascist system like those of Mediterranean Fascist regimes from Mussolini, Vichy France, Franco Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, and the Colonels’ Greece of 1967-74, all regimes that were notoriously hostile to minorities. Already several years ago Pierre Hassner observed that Putin “had led Russia into a harsh brand of authoritarianism with Fascist features.” Hassner discerned the advent of Fascism in the elimination of rival power centers, the cult of Putin, the creation of official youth groups in support of the regime to conduct among other things a bullying of ethnic minorities, xenophobia, and the cult of Stalin. Now the Putin cult may be added to those phenomena and is certainly intrinsic to the revival of official nationality. Neither is Hassner alone in his observations as these phenomena have, if anything, become stronger over time. Indeed to the extent that the current regime increasingly resembles those of the past, not least Stalin’s it clearly partakes of the attributes of official nationality e.g. the glorification of Russian culture and of the autocrat. Indeed, insightful observers like Joseph Schumpeter already realized that the USSR was converging on Fascism already in the 1940s.
But this pathological attempt to block all reform and extol Russia beyond all reason also carries with it inherent dangers. Whenever this program became policy, and surely not coincidentally, Russia embarked upon a war that it lost, the first Crimean War (Ukraine might fairly be called the second Crimean war), the Russo-Turkish war, the Russo-Japanese war, Korea under Stalin (which he incited and which was a loss for the USSR), and Afghanistan. All these wars confirm that this ideological or domestic project is inherently bound up with a militarism that leads to wars that Russia cannot sustain. Moreover, the combination of such wars, a sclerotic political system, and economic stagnation exposed the regime to crises that shook it to the core forcing the next Tsar or in Nicholas II ‘s case a post-revolutionary Czar in 2005, to launch or tolerate major reforms. And in the Soviet case Gorbachev’s reforms could not either rescue or be sustained by the system and led to its collapse.
Putin’s invocation of the trinity of autocracy, orthodoxy, and nationality, rhymes with its predecessors. And if our logic is correct Putin is ineluctably leading Russia into another catastrophe, or at least the maelstrom of fundamental and destabilizing reforms. They may well likely come about after he leaves the scene. But Putin is already engaged in a two front war in the North Caucasus and Ukraine that Russia’s economy cannot sustain if it is to move forward and support his great power ambitions and the Russian people’s demands for a better life.
Is it too much to suspect that history may continue to rhyme in Russia? And — as in some previous cases given the connection between Russian crises, this ideological project, and war — can the rest of the world escape the fallout?
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Victory Day helps unite a nation struggling to define its identity since fall of the Soviet Union
Belarusian Opposition Figure Faces More Hard Timeby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Belarus Service)
Alleged rules violations at a penal colony have jailed Belarusian opposition politician Mikalay Statkevich facing a return to maximum-security prison.
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Russia: the unsustainable superpower by Matthew Wheeland
As Russia’s economy shrinks, will sustainability end up even further on the backburner?
- Brazil struggles with drought and pollution as the Olympics loom large
- China makes strides with environmental reform, but has a long way to go on labor
It’s been a world superpower for most of the past century, but Russia still faces enormous sustainable development challenges – challenges that are compounded by economic sanctions that are sending its economy into recession territory.
The country’s infrastructure, building and manufacturing stock all suffer from extreme energy inefficiency: a recent World Bank study found that efficiency improvements in Russia could cut its energy consumption by 45%, an amount equal to France’s total annual energy consumption.
Continue reading... The Guardian |
Russia: the unsustainable superpower
The Guardian The country's infrastructure, building and manufacturing stock all suffer from extreme energy inefficiency: a recent World Bank study found that efficiency improvements in Russia could cut its energy consumption by 45%, an amount equal to France's ... |
While Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif believes Iran does not jail people for their opinions, many disagree with his assessment.
Slickly edited footage shows the teenager, of Western appearance, loading a handgun then appearing to shoot the victim, who is accused of spying for the Iraqi army.
Victory Day helps unite a nation struggling to define its identity since fall of the Soviet Union
Researchers from the Hopital du Sacre-Coeur de Montreal analysed sleep data from a group of 1,940 children. Sleep terrors and sleepwalking were assessed through questionnaires.
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The Latest on Texas attack: FBI searches 2nd Phoenix vehicleby By The Associated Press
11:45 a.m. CDT...
Police planned security for months before a Texas exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad, where two men who fired at a police car were shot dead by police, police said on Monday.
The two men carrying assault rifles began shooting at a police car at the event in Garland, a Dallas suburb, on Sunday. They were shot dead by an off-duty traffic officer with a pistol, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said at a news conference. Continue reading...
The two men carrying assault rifles began shooting at a police car at the event in Garland, a Dallas suburb, on Sunday. They were shot dead by an off-duty traffic officer with a pistol, Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said at a news conference. Continue reading...
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Skelos surrenders to face corruption charges
The Daily Gazette New York Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos arrives at FBI offices, Monday, May 4, 2015, in New York. FACEBOOK · TWITTER · GOOGLE+ · LINKEDIN; $VAR1 = 'mailLink'; $VAR2 = '/mailfriend/72/96755/cb12eee117/'; $VAR3 = 'title'; $VAR4 = 'Skelos ... and more » |
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