Putin's Warlords Slip Out of Control - New York Times: "Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine has brought death and mayhem to Ukraine, and sanctions, political isolation and an economic downturn to Russia. It has also brought instability to the vast swath of territory that runs from the Donetsk and Luhansk statelets of Ukraine to Russia’s Rostov and Krasnodar regions, linking up with the Caucasus. Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine, in other words, is slipping out of his control." | How to Defeat Putin’s Internet Trolls: "According to a recent account by reporter Adrian Chen in The New York Times, the Internet Research Agency may be behind several larger hoaxes throughout the United States. The first engineered a fake chemical spill in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, through a coordinated social media campaign and text message alerts. This “airborne toxic event” of sorts had media coverage and eyewitness testimony. None of it, investigators soon realized, was real." | Putin is caught in a classic trap: "Russia’s military advantage is fading and certain to decrease further. He needs to exploit that advantage sooner rather later. Putin likely views the pause in the Ukraine conflict as a losing proposition, and the big guns that have resumed cannonade recently in the suburbs of Donetsk very probably spell the end of the Minsk ceasefire." | How To Take Down Putin - WSJ: "Boycotting the 2018 Cup, or showing that it was gained by corrupt means (and thereby lost), would be one hard lesson for Russians of the consequences of being led by disreputable men. A policy of arming Ukraine so that it can inflict heavier—and undeniable—losses on its invaders is another." | G-7 Leaders Affirm Russia Sanctions: "As to the issue of military aid to Ukraine, James Nixey, head of the Russia Eurasia Program at Chatham House in London, said the choice is complex. “I think, in truth, it’s a very difficult decision no matter what decision you make," he said. "There are very good arguments for and against supplying Kiev with weapons. "The argument for...is that one needs to level the playing field for insurrection and aggression, that Ukrainian soldiers are dying and need our protection," he said. "You can only give them protection by giving them both defensive and offensive weapons, which would actually limit the deaths of Ukraine’s forces. "There is, however, a counter-argument – I’m not necessarily saying I maintain it myself but If we flood Ukraine with weapons, we risk ramping up the war to an uncontrollable scale,” he said."

» Putin's Warlords Slip Out of Control - New York Times
09/06/15 09:54 from Putin - Google News
Putin's Warlords Slip Out of Control New York Times KIEV — In waging a clandestine war in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has made a bargain with the devil. He has farmed out much of the fighting to warlords, mercenaries and criminal...

Putin’s Warlords Slip Out of Control

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 11:03 AM

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KIEV — In waging a clandestine war in eastern Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has made a bargain with the devil. He has farmed out much of the fighting to warlords, mercenaries and criminals, partly in an attempt to simulate a broad-based indigenous resistance to Ukrainian rule. But Mr. Putin’s strategy of using such proxies has resulted in the establishment of a warlord kleptocracy in eastern Ukraine that threatens even Moscow’s control of events.

Surrogate fighters were recruited from four sources: local criminal gangs; jobless males who live on the fringes of eastern Ukraine’s society; political extremists from Russia’s far right, including Cossacks; and itinerant Russian mercenaries who fought in Chechnya, North Ossetia, Transnistria and other regional conflicts in the post-Soviet Union. They have been trained and equipped with modern weapons, and are often supported by Russian regular and special troops.

These irregular forces now form the backbone of the armies of Donetsk and Luhansk, two mostly Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine along the border with Russia. Those separatist enclaves are dominated by well-armed criminal networks whose leaders play key roles in local politics, both formally, as government leaders, and informally, as chieftains of gangs with their own turf. These men and women have supplanted the pro-Russian elite that had held sway in the area since Ukraine’s independence in 1991.

By striking a bargain with what are, in effect, local warlords, Mr. Putin is recreating a model Russia first tried in Chechnya more than a decade ago. There, the Russian government made common cause with Ramzan Kadyrov, the son of a prominent Chechen mullah turned separatist president. Mr. Kadyrov, whose clan had once backed the indigenous independence movement, switched sides in 1999 and, with Russian help, seized power in Chechnya. Chechen resistance was defeated, as the Kremlin had hoped, but at the cost of letting a local warlord with his own powerful army gain near-total sovereignty.

While Mr. Kadyrov regularly pronounces his personal loyalty to Mr. Putin, he brooks no intervention from federal Russian authorities. He flaunts Russian law, for example by permitting polygamy. On April 21, he stated his sovereignty with clarity, telling his fighters that if any security officer, “whether from Moscow or Stavropol, appears on your territory without your knowledge, shoot to kill. They have to take us into account.”

The Kremlin is now repeating its reckless policy from Chechnya in eastern Ukraine, with similar results. Although the leaders of Donetsk and Luhansk rely on training and arms from Russia, their crime-based financial independence also gives them incentives to play their own game.

Their influence comes from the trade of weapons, drugs and alcohol, and cash generated from checkpoints on roads. New criminal fortunes are being made through corporate raids, shakedowns of local businesses and the seizure of houses abandoned by residents who have fled the region: As of last month, there were more than 1.3 million internally displaced people inside Ukraine, with the highest rates in the eastern parts of the country, according to U.N. sources. And there were more than 700,000 Ukrainian refugees seeking legal status in Russia.

The mounting criminality in eastern Ukraine is also spilling over into Russia, with both contraband and irregular fighters crossing the porous borders. Rostov Oblast, a Russian province that is a staging ground for the Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, has experienced a huge spike in crime: an increase of more than 23 percent in the first four months of this year. It is now the sixth-most crime-ridden of Russia’s 83 regions.

The proliferation of criminality and the emergence of a broad array of well-armed players along Russia’s southwestern border have not been welcomed by the Russian security services, which are accustomed to operating under a strict chain of command. In fact, they are suspected of being involved in a spate of assassinations of some troublesome local chieftains, most recently Aleksey Mozgovoy, who was killed in an ambush on May 23. The head of an insurgent battalion in Luhansk, Mr. Mozgovoy had criticized local separatist leaders for giving up on establishing a larger breakaway region that was to be called Novorossiya, or New Russia.

Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine has brought death and mayhem to Ukraine, and sanctions, political isolation and an economic downturn to Russia. It has also brought instability to the vast swath of territory that runs from the Donetsk and Luhansk statelets of Ukraine to Russia’s Rostov and Krasnodar regions, linking up with the Caucasus. Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine, in other words, is slipping out of his control.

Adrian Karatnycky is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.

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· · ·

Erdogan loses his chance to become Turkey’s Vladimir Putin

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 11:03 AM

The Great Debate

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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan looks on after arriving at Esenboga Airport, in Ankara, Turkey, June 8, 2015. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

The government begged the electorate not to vote for instability. Turkish voters shrugged their shoulders and did exactly that. The result is that a party with only 13 percent of the vote is being hailed the winner, while the incumbent party that won the most seats may well be written off as a waning force.  

This topsy-turvy state of affairs is the result of a bold move by the People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Its charismatic leader, Selahattin Demirtas, led what was a Kurdish nationalist force, openly sympathetic to the armed struggles of the past, into becoming a mainstream party. Under Turkish electoral law, a party needs to clear 10 percent of the national vote to qualify for any parliamentary seats at all. In past elections, Kurds got around this exclusion by running as independents. This time, Demirtas took the gamble that his party should run under its own flag.

To succeed, HDP needed to attract not just Kurdish but Turkish voters disillusioned with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) rule. But win it did. A rump of some 80 HDP deputies in the 550-seat parliament means the party that ruled Turkey for more than a dozen years has lost its working majority.

Erdogan’s hope of persuading parliament to change the constitution and grant himself Vladimir Putin-like unchecked powers has gone up in smoke.

The financial markets dreamed of a modest AK Party victory that would tame Erdogan’s excessive ambitions, nudge the party back to the middle of the road but still allow business as usual. They will now have to wake up.

The problem is Erdogan himself. He started in national politics by courting the political center, but in later years has tried to yank that political center closer to his own extreme of religious-coated nationalism. His style has been deliberately divisive. He branded the opposition as traitors or worse. During the campaign, his rhetoric teetered on hate speech; he lambasted the HDP for running an openly gay candidate, accused it of offering a home to godless heterodox Muslims or being a tool of the Jewish lobby that runs the New York Times.

The election campaign may have been free but it was certainly unfair. Through a system of cronyism — many media bosses have huge contracts with the government — the ruling AK Party managed to rule the television airwaves. Even publicly funded TRT seemed to carry little other than a speechifying Erdogan snipping the ribbon at ceremonies marking the completion of this airport or that highway. Reports concentrated on defending the record of the government he had run up until last summer as prime minister.

There was a week in May when the president enjoyed 44 hours of airtime. with opposition candidates unable to make themselves heard. It got to the point where Demirtas joked that if you had a bottle of soda pop at home, the president would be round to organize an opening ceremony with a speech.

Even scarier were the draconian measures the AK Party has introduced. These give police the power to search homes as a result of “reasonable suspicion” rather than concrete evidence, as well as giving ministers the ability to ban access to webpages they dislike without going to court and to impose gag orders on newspapers on public security grounds.

In recent months, these have included newspapers reporting on high-level corruption, the causes of a huge mining accident in which 301 workers died and a gun-running operation organized by national intelligence almost certainly intended for Islamist militants in Syria.

The AK Party still won 41 percent of the vote. Many rightly credit the party with putting the economy on an even path, listening to demands for better urban services and for lifting restrictions on pious Muslims entering public life. Many were prepared to overlook evidence of massive corruption (“all politicians steal”) or to forgive the construction of a presidential palace four times larger than Versailles as a fitting home for a powerful head of state.

Yet for a majority of voters, the AK Party was a force running out of ideas. The economy and, more importantly, productivity have been static in recent years. Increasingly, the Turkish economy has been running on a treadmill of ever more ambitious and environmentally hazardous urban megaprojects.

So from zero, the HDP has become the hero that dealt Erdogan his first major defeat. The odd thing is that the Turkish president’s office is meant to be above any partisan fray, using its prestige to call for a coalition government. The AK Party was founded in 2001, a year before it was elected into power. It has never known opposition. But it is hard to see which of the other three parties would join with it and serve under the tutelage of such a polarizing figure as Erdogan.

One prognosis is that an early election is now inevitable.  But opposition parties, while deeply divided among themselves, might still make common cause to dismantle some of the worst aspects of the AK Party’s legacy — and to lower that 10 percent voting threshold. None of this will be easy. But for many, the difficulties ahead are worth facing if it means that Turkey has really turned away from the brink of authoritarianism.

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· · · · ·

Standing up to Putin really isn’t necessary

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 11:03 AM

Hamilton-News (From Http://Www.Thespec.Com)

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Just before he sat down to a traditional Bavarian meal of sausages and beer Sunday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the start of the G7 summit, U.S. President Barack Obama told the media one of the meeting's priorities would be discussing ways of "standing up to Russian aggression in Ukraine."

Which invites the question: What kind of aggression are we talking about here?

There are unquestionably Russian troops in the rebel provinces of eastern Ukraine, and that is certainly an act of aggression under international law.

The Russian troops there are definitely not just volunteers lending the rebels a hand while they are on leave, as Moscow maintains. How can we be sure? Because soldiers on leave do not take their tanks and artillery with them.

But is this a prelude to a Russian invasion that would take over all of Ukraine, as Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko recently alleged? If it is, it would require a whole different level of response, and the result could easily be a new Cold War.

Is it also the first step in a Russian campaign to take back everything that used to be part of the Soviet Union, and before that of the Russian empire, as many in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Georgia and other former "Soviet Republics" fear?

If so, "standing up to Russian aggression" would be an even bigger task, involving a major NATO troop buildup in Europe and probably a new nuclear arms race.

Might Russian President Vladimir Putin actually be the next would-be world conqueror, out of the same mould as Napoleon and Hitler? In that case, get ready for the Third World War, because it's unlikely that anything less would stop him. So exactly what kind of aggressor Putin is matters quite a lot.

Here's a clue: Putin was first elected president of Russia in 1999, and for his first 15 years in power he didn't attack anybody. (He responded very toughly to the cretinous Georgian attack on Russian peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia in 2008, but he didn't start that war.) On the whole, would-be world conquerors don't wait 15 years before making their first move. They get started as soon as possible, because it's a big job.

After three months of non-violent demonstrations against Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, in the winter of 2013-14, and after a day of shooting on Independence Square (the Maidan) in Kyiv that killed at least 50 protesters and three police officers, Putin agreed to a deal in February 2014 that promised new elections in Ukraine within a month.

It was always puzzling why the demonstrators went out onto the square and spent three bitterly cold months there demanding that Yanukovych quit right away, given that elections were due in Ukraine within a year. Why not stay warm at home and vote him out next year? He couldn't do anything irrevocable in the meantime.

Never mind that. The representatives of the protesters definitely did agree to the deal hammered out by Russian and European Union negotiators on the evening of Feb. 21, 2014. Yanukovych was to resign and there would be new elections in one month.

Yet only hours later, the demonstrators attacked the presidential administration buildings and Yanukovych had to flee. Why couldn't they wait even one month?

Maybe because they were afraid they would lose the election. Kyiv is in western Ukraine, where most people are strongly pro-Western and would like to join the European Union, even NATO if possible. It certainly looked to people watching it on television as if all Ukrainians wanted Yanukovych out.

But Yanukovuch had won the 2010 election fair and square with a 52 per cent majority, thanks to the votes of eastern Ukrainians. Their ancestors had lived in the Russian empire for more than three centuries, unlike those of western Ukrainians. Most eastern Ukrainians speak Russian, share the Orthodox religion of Russians, are actually pro-Russian in general.

What's more, eastern Ukraine is the home of almost all of the country's heavy industry, and it was Russia that bought most of the coal, steel and industrial goods produced by eastern Ukrainians. It was their votes that elected Yanukovych in 2010, and there was no reason to believe that they would vote differently in 2014. There really was a coup in Kyiv in 2014, and Putin was quite right to feel deceived and betrayed.

He was wrong to respond as he did, taking back the province of Crimea — which had an overwhelmingly Russian population but had been bundled into Ukraine in a Communist-era decision in 1954. He was very wrong to back the rebellion in the eastern Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk. If he actually encouraged them to rebel — which is not clear — he is even more in the wrong. It is all being done in defiance of international law.

But he is not setting out down the path of world conquest. He is not even planning to take over Ukraine. "Standing up to Putin" is an invigorating moral exercise, but it is not strictly speaking necessary.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist.

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· · ·

Putin just made more revealing comments about his opinions of NATO

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 11:02 AM

Business Insider

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In an interview with the Italian website Corriere della Sera, Russian president Vladimir Putin made revealing statements regarding his stance on NATO.

In the West, Putin's Russia is largely seen as acting downright aggressively towards Ukraine and Crimea, causing many eastern European countries to bolster their defense programs and act cautiously in regards to Russia.

Putin made it clear in this interview that he thought it was NATO and the US that the world ought to fear.

"US military spending is higher than that of all countries in the world taken together," Putin told the Italian news website. "The aggregate military spending of NATO countries is 10 times, note – 10 times higher than that of the Russian Federation."

He stressed that Russia has virtually no military bases abroad, and that they've been happy to disarm and disband his foreign holdings while the US has maintained theirs: "We have dismantled our bases in various regions of the world, including Cuba, Vietnam, and so on. This means that our policy in this respect is not global, offensive or aggressive."

Putin contests that Russia's increasingly provocative behavior is defensive, saying: "Everything we do is just a response to the threats emerging against us."

It seems that NATO's expansion is what really irks Putin: "We are not expanding anywhere; it is NATO infrastructure, including military infrastructure, that is moving towards our borders."

Putin has even described Ukraine's military as a proxy arm of NATO.

"This is not the army, per se, this is a foreign proxy, in this case a foreign NATO legion, which, of course, doesn't pursue the objective of national interests of Ukraine," Putin said at the end of January. "They have entirely different goals, and they are tied with the achievement of the geopolitical goals of containing Russia." RNGS Reuters/REUTERS

While some of the above statements are demonstrably true — the US has maintained military outposts, and NATO is expanding — Putin's comments speak to Russia's real interest in Ukraine.

Having Ukraine become a NATO ally would mean that the force Putin sees as his enemy would be resting comfortably at his front door, so manifesting Russian loyalists in this border state becomes very important to his cause. 

The Ukrainian conflict is just the current venue for a bigger struggle going on in Europe. As more and more nations seek to fall in line with the prosperity and freedoms enjoyed in the West, Russia is reluctant to give up influence in a region that was once under its thumb.

And it's his fear of NATO and the West that makes Putin so dangerous. With Putin acting erratically, and grasping at straws to maintain his regional clout, he becomes more and more aggressive.

"Expanding NATO further into post-Soviet space is a red line with Russia, and the US is frankly not in a position to challenge it without running a huge risk," Greg Scoblete of RealClearWorld told Forbes in 2014.

"Put bluntly, Russia will be able to invade eastern Ukraine faster than the West could admit Ukraine into NATO to deter Russian aggression." 

NOW WATCH: Why Putin is the most powerful man in the world

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· · · · ·

Jeb Bush's Anti-Putin Republican Primary Tour

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 11:00 AM

BuzzFeed - McKay Coppins

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BERLIN — If all goes according to plan, Jeb Bush will end this week with a superlative worthy of a campaign bumper sticker: Vladimir Putin’s least favorite Republican.

Beginning with a saber-rattling speech here Tuesday, the presidential contender is set to kick off a carefully choreographed five-day tour of European capitals — from Berlin, to Warsaw, to Tallinn, Estonia — designed to place him in meetings and photo ops with some of the continent’s leading critics of Putin’s Russia. Aides say the itinerary will help Bush lay out his vision for a more aggressive American stance against Russia, and illustrate what he considers to be the failures of President Obama’s weak-kneed response to Putin’s recent aggression in Eastern Europe.

It will also allow Bush to score political points with Republican primary voters back home. The day after he returns from Europe, Bush is expected to officially announce his bid for the presidential nomination in a party where few geopolitical figures are more reviled than Russia’s president.

“Putin looms large in the American imagination in a way that no other Bond villain out there does,” said Hugh Hewitt, an influential conservative talk radio host. He said the Republican voters he talks to “cannot name the president of China… but everybody knows the bare-chested, horseback-riding, Olympics-giving, country-invading Putin.”

It’s true that Putin has achieved a pop culture–fueled notoriety rarely bestowed upon world leaders. He shows up in best-selling spy novels, and inspires mocking memes that litter the internet. His barely fictionalized clone in the most recent season of House of Cards was notable, perhaps, for being the only character in the show who seemed less cartoonish than his real-life counterpart.

But Russia’s growing potency as a political issue in 2016 is also emblematic of long-held frustrations on the right with Obama’s foreign policy. When Russia annexed Crimea last year, many American conservatives called for immediate action from the United States, beginning by providing arms to Ukraine. The Obama administration has resisted those calls so far, in favor of economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure.

Hewitt has made it his mission to get Republican candidates on the record with regard to their Russia agenda, frequently quizzing them on air about the intricacies of NATO treaties and U.S. Naval policy. It was on Hewitt’s show in March that Bush said the United States should be willing to use military force to prevent Russia from further infringing on the sovereignty of its allies in Eastern Europe — some of his more elaborative remarks on the topic. Bush also called for more NATO troops to be deployed in the region, and said the United States should start providing Ukraine with weapons.

But Bush has not yet distinguished himself as a true Russia hawk when compared to a field of GOP rivals like Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, who regularly turn up on cable news and talk radio to rail against Russian aggression. At times, Bush’s rhetoric has seemed a little vague and unsteady. In a question-and-answer session following a speech earlier this year on his foreign policy agenda, Bush emphasized engaging countries like Germany and stronger support for Ukraine. He also praised Obama for his so-called “forward lean” in the Baltics — but seemed unsure of whether the approach had been successful. “I don’t know what the effect has been because it’s really kind of hard to be on the road, and I’m just a gladiator these days, so I don’t follow every little detail,” he said.

Here in Berlin, Bush will use his appearance at a major economic conference to sharpen his rhetoric, calling for unified, aggressive NATO action against Putin’s recent provocations.

“Russia must respect the sovereignty of all of its neighbors,” he is expected to say. “And who can doubt that Russia will do what it pleases if its aggression goes unanswered? Our alliance, our solidarity, and our actions are essential if we want to preserve the fundamental principles of our international order.”

From Berlin, Bush will head to Poland, an ex-communist state where anti-Russia sentiment permeates the political establishment. Last month, for example, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski used a high-profile speech to warn that a recent parade in Moscow’s city center commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany was, in fact, a “demonstration of force.” He predicted, ominously, “Once again, Red Square will turn into Tank Square, and the very same tank divisions which recently invaded Ukraine will be there. This is not about history; it’s about the future.”

While in Warsaw, Bush will meet with Andrzej Duda, the president-elect who recently defeated Komorowski in part by attacking his foreign policy for being too weak. According to Michal Kolanko, co-founder of the insider news website 300Polityka — a Polish Politico clone — the country’s business and government leaders will welcome the sort of Putin-bashing that plays so well back home. But they may also seek to extract some campaign promises of their own from Bush.

“The U.S. is seen as the only country which could help Poland if the situation goes from bad to worse,” said Kolanko. “If there’s some sort of commitment from Bush in regards to U.S. military deployment in Poland, setting permanent bases in Poland, or strengthening U.S. presence in the region, that’d be seen as proof that he ‘gets it’ — that Putin’s Russia is a Cold War–type enemy… There is hope that a GOP administration is going to be more ‘realistic’ and less dithering on Putin than Obama.”

To drive his message home, Bush will conclude his trip across Europe at Russia’s doorstep, touring a NATO cyberdefense facility in Estonia that was formed after the country endured a serious cyberattack that many suspected the Russian government of orchestrating.

Estonia’s president, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has worked urgently to bring attention to what he describes as a dire situation in the region, warning that his country — and other Baltic states — are obvious annexation targets for Putin. Asked last year to account for the international community’s lackluster response to Russia’s aggression, Ilves said, “The West has been in a state of shock.”

When Bush meets with Ilves and his political allies later this week, he will likely present himself as a clear-eyed leader prepared to pry the West from its stupor, and finally confront Putin. Chances are, he’ll be making the same pitch on the campaign trail next week.

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· · · ·

Obama Accuses Putin Of Wrecking Russia's Economy For 'Glory'

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 10:59 AM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

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U.S. President Barack Obama has accused President Vladimir Putin of wrecking Russia's economy in a doomed drive to re-create the glories of the Soviet empire.

In some of the strongest rhetoric to come out of the Group of Seven summit, Obama told a news conference in Bavaria, Germany, that the Russian people were suffering severely because of Putin, who was not present with other world leaders because he was ousted from the exclusive club of economic powers after Russia's takeover of Crimea last year.

"As we've seen again in recent days, Russian forces continue to operate in eastern Ukraine, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Obama said.

"Russia is in deep recession. So Russia's actions in Ukraine are hurting Russia and hurting the Russian people," he said.

"Ultimately, this is going to be an issue for Mr. Putin. He's got to make a decision," Obama said of his Russian counterpart. "Does he continue to wreck his country's economy and continue Russia's isolation in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to re-create the glories of the Soviet empire, or does he recognize that Russia's greatness does not depend on violating the territorial integrity and sovereignty of other countries?"

More sanctions will be the consequence if Putin chooses to continue his current course, Obama said.

"If Russia, working through separatists, doubles down on aggression inside of Ukraine," then the United States and European Union will increase their sanctions, he said. 

A communique issued by the G7 said that the broad economic sanctions already in place will continue until the Minsk cease-fire accords signed between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels are fully implemented.

"We expect Russia to stop transborder support of separatist forces and to use its considerable influence over the separatists," the declaration said.

The Kremlin did not directly answer Obama's accusations but played down Putin's absence from the summit, saying he preferred "other formats" that were more effective and better reflected the balance of global economic power.

"It's impossible now to get together in seven or eight people and effectively discuss global problems," the RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, and AFP

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Barack Obama: 'Putin trying to bring back Soviet empire and sacrificing Russian economy'

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 10:59 AM

US News

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It was the second summit of the group of leading industrial nations to exclude Russia since Putin was frozen out of what used to be the G8 after Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year, a move the G7 condemned in their communique as "illegal".

The term "G7" itself speaks to the exclusion of Russia. It was reduced from G8 when Russia had its metaphorical seat removed from the table, leaving a void which has been felt more acutely than the presence of any Group of 7 nation at the summit.

Sources said the Ukraine crisis and G7 policy toward Russia reportedly took up two-thirds of the discussion at a Sunday dinner devoted to foreign policy.

 
Russian troops driving tanks to the border with Ukraine in April 2014

The Kremlin played down Mr Putin's absence, saying he preferred "other formats" that were more effective and better reflected the balance of global economic power.

"It's impossible now to get together in seven or eight people and effectively discuss global problems," RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, who has led diplomacy to engage Mr Putin in a diplomatic solution to the conflict, told reporters that sanctions against Russia could be lifted if Moscow and the separatists fully implemented a peace deal struck in the Belarus capital Minsk earlier this year.

But she added that Europe and the United States were also prepared to toughen sanctions. German officials said this would be necessary if separatists seized more territory in eastern Ukraine, especially around the strategic port city of Mariupol.

 
Ukrainian servicemen take part in military exercises near Mariupol in the Donetsk region (AFP)

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told his military last week to prepare for a "full-scale invasion" by Russia in response to an upsurge in fighting, which has gone far beyond the low-level skirmishing seen in recent months.

"As we've seen again in recent days, Russian forces continue to operate in eastern Ukraine, violating Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," Mr Obama said on Monday.

"Russia is in deep recession. So Russia's actions in Ukraine are hurting Russia and hurting the Russian people. And the G7 is making it clear that if necessary we stand ready to impose additional significant sanctions against Russia."

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· · · ·

Путин уволил начальника полиции Новосибирской области после митинга Навального

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 10:59 AM

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Президент России Владимир Путин своим указом уволил начальника полиции Новосибирской области Алексея Кириллова, который занял этот пост в феврале 2015 года, сообщает во вторник, 9 июня, «Тайга.Инфо».

В пресс-службе ведомства рассказали «Тайге.Инфо», что обязанности начальника полиции сейчас исполняет заместитель начальника полиции Вячеслав Певнев. 

Увольнение Кириллова произошло после митинга, который был организован в Новосибирске 7 июня лидером «Партии прогресса» Алексеем Навальным. До начала акции неизвестные сняли билборд с изображением оппозиционера, а также на пресс-конференции его закидали яйцами. 

Митинг был приурочен к проведению праймериз демократической коалиции, который запланирован на 14-15 июня.

В своем твиттере член центрального совета «Партии прогресса» Леонид Волков отмечает, что уволенный начальник полиции Алексей Кириллов отвечал за массовые мероприятия.

The defeat of would-be-emperor Erdoğan – POLITICO

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 10:58 AM

Comments On: Feed His Sheep

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Supporters of the Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) wave flags with a picture of the jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan as they cheer during a gathering to celebrate their party's success in the parliamentary elections, on June 8, 2015 in Diyarbakir, Turkey. | Getty

Opinion

Turkey doesn’t want a Putin of its own.

By Barin Kayaoglu

Updated

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), in office since 2002, on Sunday suffered its first electoral defeat. Although the AKP is likely to remain relevant in the Turkish political scene for the foreseeable future, the danger of Erdoğan accumulating more power and establishing a volatile and autocratic regime has passed.

To counter his enemies, Erdoğan had emphasized the need to create an all-powerful presidency — similar to that of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. To that end he had asked the Turkish electorate to give the AKP 330 parliamentary seats to rewrite the constitution.

They refused. AKP will get 258 MPs (18 seats short of a bare majority).

Few Turkey analysts (including this author) expected the AKP defeat. After all, the ruling party won the local elections in March 2014 and then, five months later, catapulted Erdoğan from the prime ministry to the presidency. Neither billions in corruption-and-kickback allegations against Erdoğan and several AKP ministers nor Turkey’s role as a jihadist highway to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq stuck to “Teflon Tayyip.” Although it was unlikely that the AKP would get the 330 seats it needed to amend the constitution, most opinion polls before the election showed the ruling party retaining a slim majority in parliament.

So why did the AKP fall short? The answer is, quite simply, Erdoğan himself.

For several years the Turkish president has used a divisive rhetoric — ultra-religious and ultra-nationalistic — to hedge his party’s religious and nationalist base. He called the protestors who rose up against his government in June 2013 “marauders.” Erdoğan accused not only the United States and Israel (the “interest rate lobby”) but also Syria, Iran, Russia, Britain and France of backing the protestors. He claimed that “Jewish” and “Armenian” lobbies, together with their partners at home, were conspiring against the “New Turkey” that he was trying to create.

While Erdoğan promised to build a revived Ottoman Empire on a global scale, the president’s new vision turned out to be little more than a cult of personality around him. In one of his first moves as president, Erdoğan abandoned the presidential residence in Ankara and relocated to a mega-palace with 1000 rooms that cost anywhere between $600 million to $1.2 billion. The Erdoğan family’s displays of conspicuous wealth combined with its patriarch’s lust for more power.

Erdoğan belied little interest in leaving the headlines to the nominally more powerful prime minister. In the run-up to the election, contrary to tradition and the Turkish constitution, Erdoğan ran his own campaign on behalf of his “former” party and appeared at rallies with his successor, AKP Chairman and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The Turkish president turned an election in which he was not even a candidate into a referendum on his personality and his office.

A man walks past an election office showing posters of Prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on June 1, 2015 in Istanbul, Turkey. Getty

That strategy backfired. Disillusioned with the uncertain economy and Erdoğan’s policies — too divisive and autocratic even for the traditionally authoritarian Turks — about 2 to 3 percent of AKP constituents voted for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a conservative party.

Even without those losses, the AKP would have won a majority if it weren’t for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) — the smallest opposition group. Turkey has the highest electoral threshold in the world — a party that fails to tally more than 10 percent nationally does not win any deputies. For years pro-Kurdish parties had contested elections as independents because they could never receive more than 6 or 7 percent of the vote.

On Sunday, HDP took a big risk. The party fielded its own lists and appealed to religiously conservative Kurds as well as other minorities, Turkish liberals and leftists. The gamble paid off: HDP won 13 percent of the popular vote and 80 MPs. Had they failed, the AKP would have received most of HDP’s seats because it is the only other competitive party in southeast Turkey, where half of Turkish Kurds live.

So what happens now?

After nearly 13 years of AKP’s single-party rule, Turkey will experience coalition government once again — though which parties can stomach working together is the million-lira question. AKP has burned bridges with all of its opponents. The Republican People’s Party (CHP), which was the party of first Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and is the main opposition group today, sees the AKP as a threat to the secular legacy of Turkey’s founding father. To boot, CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu has engaged in too many personal feuds with Erdoğan and Davutoglu to form a government with their party.

Chairman of the Turkish CHP party Kemal Kilicdaroglu. EPA/Roland Weihrauch.

An AKP-HDP coalition, though unlikely, is a possibility. HDP Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtas started and led his campaign with one simple promise to Erdoğan: “We will not let you become [a Putin-like] president.” If the AKP and HDP can ignore Erdoğan’s wishes for a Putin-style presidency (or Erdoğan gets the message and abandons his dream), the two parties could conclude the peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which battled the Turkish state for independence and autonomy from 1984 until 2013. A peace accord with the Kurds would resolve Turkey’s greatest political and societal headache.

A more likely outcome is an AKP-MHP coalition. Despite the MHP campaigning against Erdogan’s and the AKP’s corruption, the AKP is relatively close to the MHP on social issues and thus would have an easier time turning over a few of the critical ministries to its new coalition partner — including Interior Affairs (more similar to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security than the Department of the Interior), Foreign Affairs, Finance or Defense. MHP, for its part, would put a full stop to the “peace process” with the PKK because it has opposed any form of negotiated settlement with the Kurds for two decades.

The least likely — but best-case — possibility is the three opposition parties forming a caretaker government. A CHP-HDP or CHP-MHP minority cabinet, with support from the other party, could enact necessary reforms to purge the Turkish state of the AKP’s partisan cadres. Perhaps the caretakers even could restart the accession negotiations with the European Union.

But even such an outcome would not solve Turkey’s immediate problems. The economic stability that AKP’s single-party government provided — no matter how tentative — was an important part of Turkey’s above-average growth rates for the past twelve years. Successful coalition negotiations take weeks (if not months) and the uncertainty surrounding the process could undermine Turkey’s fragile economy. One worrying sign was the Turkish lira falling to a record low against the U.S. dollar today. Plus the country’s current account deficit is again on the rise. And how badly the AKP bungled state finances to pay for election spending remains to be seen.

No matter what sort of government emerges from Ankara’s political labyrinths, another big question is whether Turkey can attune its foreign policy to U.S. priorities in the Middle East and North Africa. The Bush and Obama administrations had hoped that Turkey would play an assertive but responsible role in its neighborhood as a major ally of the United States and a rising Muslim power.

Those hopes were highest during the Arab Spring in 2011. Many commentators pushed the idea at the time that Turkey, with its Muslim-majority population, democratic institutions and free market economy could guide its neighbors through troubled times.

Unfortunately for the region and the rest of the world, events did not unfold like that — mostly because Erdoğan pursued foolish policies. To his enemies list, which included only Israel in early 2011, the Turkish president added Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Iran. To Washington’s and NATO allies’ chagrin, Erdoğan signaled his intention to buy an expensive missile defense system from China and got cozier with Vladimir Putin, despite Russian misbehavior in Ukraine.

Although not much has yet happened since the results of the election were announced on Sunday, Turkey now has a chance to pull itself out of its Erdoğan-inflicted mess: The man who caused considerable consternation to his country and its allies for the past few years received his first electoral defeat. For Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to lose an election which he turned into a referendum about his powers is a clear sign that Turkish people do not want an emperor.

June 7 was a great day to be Turkish and a Turkophile.

Barin Kayaoglu is an independent political analyst and consultant in Washington, D.C. He writes and comments for U.S. and international media outlets and he recently finished his doctorate in history at the University of Virginia. You can follow him on www.barinkayaoglu.com, Twitter (@barinkayaoglu), and Facebook (Barin Kayaoglu).

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Jeb Bush's anti-Putin speech in Berlin is a strategic and political blunder

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 10:57 AM

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I happened to arrive in Berlin a few days before Jeb Bush, who is visiting the German capital today for a big anti-Putin speech. The governor did not see fit to recruit me into his advance team. But if he had, I would've called the home office to strongly urge that he cancel, for the good of both his political campaign and American strategic interests in Europe.

Having Jeb Bush come to Berlin to argue on behalf of US foreign policy in Europe is a bit like sending Edward Snowden to give a speech on NSA reform to the Republican National Committee. Bush has come up in nearly every conversation I've had here since arriving, and always with a warning: that skepticism of the US is already high here, that the German public's support of tough policies toward Russia is tenuous, and that the mere sight of a Bush makes Germans want to run in the opposite direction of US foreign policy.

Jeb Bush's support for US policies on Russia is a poison pill here

Bush's speech is expected to offer some generic lines about how Russia's aggression in Ukraine is a serious threat to the European order and shouldn't go "unanswered," according to advance excerpts published by Josh Rogin. Bush, Rogin notes, has in the past supported providing arms to Ukraine — something that even Germany's hawkish leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, opposes.

Bush is correct that Russia's aggression poses a threat to Europe, and he is correct to identify Germany as the most important audience for that argument: the Germans have become Europe's decision-maker on matters of Ukraine and Russia. But coming to Berlin for a big speech, and putting the Bush family name on this policy, seems almost certain to backfire. What Bush may not realize is that German support for US policies toward Russia is precarious and polarized, and his voice is likely to deepen German polarization against the US and against hard-line Russia policies.

Jeb Bush is extremely unpopular in Germany, where only 7 percent see him in a positive light, according to a recent YouGov poll, with 27 percent negative. His last name is deeply intertwined with a popular opposition to US foreign policy that, to my surprise, Germans themselves have frequently characterized to me as "anti-Americanism." When Germans express skepticism toward Merkel's hardline policies on Russia and Ukraine, they often do so by suggesting those policies are being pushed by the Americans, and raising the much-loathed 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The very worst person to convince them to stay the course on Russia, then, is anyone named Bush.

Since the Ukraine crisis began, the German public has swayed based on whom they despise more at that moment: Russia or the US. The country has an ugly history but close business and political ties with Russia. Early in the crisis, two former chancellors, Gerhard Schröder and Helmut Schmidt, expressed sympathy for Russia's position. Newspapers and government officials that supported Merkel's hard line on Russia were besieged by angry readers and constituents.

While many Germans changed their minds after Russian-backed separatists shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 last year, this was driven primarily by anger at Russia. Skepticism toward the US and its policies remains. In May, Clemens Wergin, the foreign editor of German newspaper Die Welt, warned in a column for the New York Times, "German society may well be drifting away from the West again." Growing anti-Americanism and sympathy for Russia, he wrote, "is placing constraints on how aggressively the government of Angela Merkel ... can act against Russia."

Putting Bush's face on hard-line Russia and Ukraine policies, then, seems destined to make them less popular and more polarizing here. His support is a poison pill. That alone is unlikely to prove anywhere near decisive, of course — Jeb Bush is wisely keeping a low-ish profile — but it's not going to help, and German public opinion is already tenuous and sure to become more so as the Ukraine crisis continues.

Given that Germany's support is central to US strategy on Ukraine, and that in the longer term Germany is becoming the key American ally checking against Russian aggression, Bush's decision to speak here will weaken that cause. It is unhelpful and speaks poorly of his foreign policy.

It's not great politics for him, either. American voters are not going to decide Bush's fate based on his reception in Berlin, of course. But he already has a problem of being associated with his unpopular brother, particularly on foreign policy. Seeing Jeb get a chilly reception abroad could bring back memories for Americans of the global backlash from George W.'s 2003 Iraq invasion, heightening already problematic comparisons to his brother.

Later in the week, Bush will also speak in Poland and Estonia, two NATO members that are much more confident and unified in their anti-Russia and pro-America stances. Bush's trips to their capitals are both strategically and politically sound. He is far less controversial in those countries, and far more welcome as a show of US resolve in their defense against Russia. Visiting Poland and Estonia is a smart move for Bush. Visiting Berlin is not.

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Putin Is No James Bond Villain

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 10:56 AM

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Despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on foreign-language propaganda, all that President Vladimir Putin has achieved outside Russia is the status of a Bond movie villain. He may enjoy it, especially since there's no 007 in sight to tackle him, but his variety of pop stardom is growing into a problem for his country: He is seen as a bigger threat to the West than his actions warrant.

A fresh survey of European and U.S. politicians and policy wonks by the website Politico revealed that Putin is seen as by far the biggest threat facing Europe and its relationship with the U.S.:

Source: Politico

Brexit? Grexit? Economic problems? A million migrants waiting in Libya to cross the Mediterranean into Europe, or the extremist parties that would have these migrants drown rather than resettled? Are these threats really less deadly than one rather short Russian man? 

"Putin has achieved a pop-culture-fueled notoriety rarely bestowed upon world leaders," McKay Coppins wrote in a BuzzFeed article on Jeb Bush's upcoming European tour. The yet-undeclared Republican presidential candidate is expected to attack Putin at each stop, including Poland, where the newly elected President Andrzej Duda campaigned on taking a tougher stand against Putin's aggression. Bush will also speak in Estonia, where President Toomas Hendrik Ilves accuses Putin of destroying the post-World War II order in Europe.

Duda's anti-Putin rhetoric needed to be tougher than the incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski's to win. In the same way, Bush's rhetoric must be a few degrees hotter than that of President Barack Obama. That isn't easy. On Monday, Obama used his public appearance at the end of the Group of 7 summit in Germany to hammer the Russian president. "Does he continue to wreck his country’s economy and continue Russia’s isolation in pursuit of a wrong-headed desire to re-create the glories of the Soviet empire?" he asked.

A preoccupation with Putin at this level is far more serious than the Bond villain listicles that have been made about Putin for years. If policy makers and pundits see Putin as a major, even dominant threat, countering that threat will become a policy priority. 

So far, rearmament in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine has been largely limited to Russia's neighbors in Eastern Europe. Still, North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials are playing up the Russian threat, which has breathed new life into a declining organization. Doing business with Russia is politically unpopular, so the damage to Western trade with Putin's country is likely to go beyond the Ukraine-related sanctions that will probably get extended later this month. 

The perception of the threat Putin poses, and the rhetoric of response to it have outgrown the the threat itself. Taken much further, that response could even feed Putin's paranoia about the threat the West poses to his regime and Russia more broadly, that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Since the Minsk cease-fire in eastern Ukraine came into effect in February, Russia has not used its regular troops to gain more territory, although the feisty Ukrainian government has provided potential excuses for action. The government in Kiev has imposed a de-facto economic blockade on the rebel-held regions, making it difficult for goods and people to move across the contact line. It has been in no hurry to make the legislative changes required by the Minsk deal to give more autonomy to the eastern regions.

Instead of steamrolling the still-weak, underequipped and undertrained Ukrainian military, Putin has been giving it time to recover from previous defeats. Last month, the pro-Kremlin site Gazeta.ru announced that "Project Novorossiya" -- the idea that the two rebel "people's republics" in eastern Ukraine would unite to form a pro-Russian unrecognized state -- had been shelved, and that the Russia-based unofficial support structures for the project had been disbanded.

In recent days, the rebels tried to grab the village of Maryinka from the Ukrainian forces, but were pushed back and apparently denied the kind of Russian support that allowed them to claw back a lot of lost territory a year ago and then win the crucial railroad junction of Debaltsevo in February.

None of this looks as though Putin is "re-creating the glories of the Soviet empire." There is no question he pines for those glory days, but, were he a bona fide Bond villain, he'd try a lot harder to obliterate Ukraine's pro-Western government. As it is, he seems intent on a negotiated solution, even though he is trying to drive a hard bargain. This behavior is not consistent with plans to invade Estonia or Poland and not compatible with presenting the biggest threat to European order. 

Putin is a rogue dictator and respects nobody's rights but his own. That doesn't, however, mean that he is intent on destroying the world with nuclear weapons unless it bends to his will, or on launching a Hitleresque blitzkrieg in Europe. He will make trouble for the EU, NATO and the U.S., but he is careful not to unduly endanger the grip that he and his billionaire friends have on Russia. Adventures in the style of Auric Goldfinger, or Ernst Stavro Blofeld, would be too risky for the real life Putin.

To contact the author on this story:
Leonid Bershidsky at lbershidsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor on this story:
Marc Champion at mchampion7@bloomberg.net

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One Thousand Casualties For Every Point

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 1:19 AM

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Vladimir Putin stakes his claim to leadership on approval ratings that would be the envy of any democratic politician. Skeptics, however, question the meaning of approval ratings when a dictator appoints all political positions and ensures that rivals are distrusted by the electorate. A dictator who controls the media and devotes enormous resources to propaganda can manipulate approval ratings with extraordinary measures, offsetting fundamentals that would otherwise push the favorability rating down. But what does someone like Putin do when he runs out of diversions during a period of prolonged economic stagnation? We’ll perhaps know the answer soon.

Vladimir Putin uses his favorability rating, currently in the mid-80s, to legitimize his regime, crack down on political opposition, war against Ukraine, and threatening posture toward the West. His rating, he claims, proves that he is doing what is good for Russia. How else to explain his “atmospheric” and “Teflon” approval, amid double-digit inflation, an accelerating recession, declining living standards, and international pariah status—with no end in sight?

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with the leader of Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia Leonid Tibilov during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on June 1, 2015. IVAN SEKRETAREV/AFP/Getty Images

To outside observers, Putin’s sky-high ratings appear to give him an air of inevitability and invincibility. They ask, “How can we counter a ruthless leader who violates international norms when he has his people solidly behind him while our own are divided?”

An analysis published by the respected Levada Center (which conducts the above-mentioned surveys), entitled “Putin’s Rating: Anomaly or Pattern?” points to Putin’s “amazing ingenuity in adapting to changing conditions, and a strong desire to stay in power at any cost.” 

Putin’s modus operandi is clear: He pumps up his approval ratings using extraordinary measures, such as wars and external threats, when fundamentals, such as the economy, threaten to drive them down. He also uses spectacles, such as the Sochi Olympics or the 2018 World Cup, to distract attention from economic woes and repression and whip up national sentiment.

Putin leaves nothing to chance. His vast propaganda and law enforcement machines (which cost only 15 percent less than the bloated defense budget) punish dissent and overwhelm the air waves with Putin’s narrative. Putin appoints virtually all officials, national and regional, ensuring that he has no viable rivals. The leaders of the three opposition parties in parliament rank among the 10 most untrustworthy figures, as rated by the Russian people. Another three are dissidents, regularly vilified by state television from which nearly all Russians get their news.

An extraordinary measure brought Putin to power. In August 1999, as the newly appointed prime minister, Putin had an approval rating of 31; 37% of Russians did not know who he was (this and later figures are from Levada Center’s assessments of the political situation.) Less than a year later, Putin’s approval had risen to 84% after a series of mysterious apartment bombings, which he blamed on Chechen terrorists. He followed that by devastating Chechnya in the second Chechen war. When the active military phase ended in April 2002, war casualties included the tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers killed and wounded and more than 200,000 persons displaced, not counting the more than 250 civilians who died in the apartment bombings. Putin was the big winner, being easily elected as Yeltsin’s successor in 2000 after starting out at the bottom of the polls.

Putin’s August 2008 war against Georgia, which separated South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Georgia, raised his favorability rating to 88 during active hostilities, despite Russia’s severe hit from the world financial crisis. The five-day war resulted in more than 800 killed on both sides—Putin saw a five-point increase in his approval ratings. Putin’s propaganda war against Georgia continued long after armed hostilities ended and his approval ratings remained in the upper 70s, despite the 8% drop in GDP in 2009—a remarkably weak popular response to bad economic news.

Lacking a new foreign policy diversion and confronted with a stagnating economy, Putin’s favorability ratings had fallen to the mid-60s by 2011. In the days following the disputed Russia parliamentary election of December 2011, Putin’s rating stood at 66. Hundreds of thousands of Russian demonstrators went out on the streets shouting, “Russia without Putin.” Putin’s rating collapse continued throughout his crackdown on domestic opposition and muzzling of the press. In January 2014, his favorability rating bottomed at 61; only 29% of Russians expressed a willingness to vote for Putin’s reelection.

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How to Defeat Putin’s Internet Trolls

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 1:16 AM

Newsweek

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Opinion

Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to respond to questions put forward by Internet users before a televised answer session in Moscow's Kremlin July 6, 2006. A Kremlin youth group paid bloggers to post pro-Putin content and vote down anti-Putin YouTube videos. Itar-Tass/Presidential Press Service/Reuters

If you’ve spent any substantial time on a social networking site, you’ve likely encountered an anonymous troll. They may mock something you’ve said, or a photo of yourself or others that you’ve shared. Then again, maybe they’ll say nothing of substance at all, churning out a slew of profanities or insults.

Sometimes they hit below the belt; other times they’re easy to swat away and ignore. Either way, a troll’s purpose is inherently ethereal—its raison d’être can be shattered by the click of a “block” button.

Much ado has been made about the psychology of trolling—and for good reason. We store a lot of our lives online—photos, private correspondence, biometric data, tax returns. We spend the rest of our time in spaces that we have collectively designated as a digital commons. These virtual public spaces are governed by rules, explicit or otherwise, of their own.

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Like any crowded physical space, these regions can be noisy, confusing and easily subjected to disruption. It’s the ideal space for getting your message out so long as you don’t particularly care about being heard. Think of it as like screaming at a rock concert: It’s annoying for those people nearby, but completely ineffective if you want to convince the crowd to do anything.

Those endeavors may be largely fruitless, but they have gained a great deal of ground in one country: Russia. Here, the troll as an agent of information warfare on behalf of the state has garnered a great deal of attention since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. If recent revelations are any indication, the well-oiled, Kremlin-sponsored troll machine has no intentions of closing up shop anytime soon.

State-sponsored or state-sanctioned Internet trolls are nothing new on the Russian Internet—or RuNet, as it is often called. In 2012, a series of emails published by a Russian hacktivist group showed a youth group with ties to the Kremlin was paying bloggers and journalists to post pro-Putin content online. Activists were also paid to down-vote YouTube videos posted by the opposition and to even leave hundreds of comments on news articles with an anti-Putin spin.

The leak was huge, but the practice was nothing new. Indeed, a Freedom House report in 2013noted that “Russia [has] been at the forefront of this practice for several years.”

But the practice became even more critical to the Kremlin’s informational warfare strategy during the invasion of Ukraine in 2014. One firm, called the Internet Research Agency, garnered a great deal of mainstream media attention last year after a major document leak exposed the agency’s operations.

In June 2014, Buzzfeed reported that the Kremlin had poured millions into the agency so as to fund a veritable army of trolls to post pro-Putin commentary on English-language media sites. Commenters were also expected to balance several Twitter and Facebook accounts while posting over 50 comments on various news articles throughout the day.

A more recent account described a heavier workload: Over the period of two 12-hour shifts, one employee was expected to draft 15 posts and leave 150 to 200 comments.

“We don’t talk too much, because everyone is busy. You have to just sit there and type and type, endlessly,” one former Russian troll told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty a couple of months ago.

“We don’t talk, because we can see for ourselves what the others are writing, but in fact you don’t even have to really read it, because it’s all nonsense. The news gets written, someone else comments on it, but I think real people don’t bother reading any of it at all.”

If they were only trolling comment threads, that’s likely true. Many readers (and writers, sorry) skip the comments. Head over to your favorite mainstream media news site and read the comments on any given article. On occasion you’ll find some gems among the weeds of trolls and spam bots, but they can be few and far between. A paid Russian troll would be just one voice among many.

The new age of information warfare may have started out on comment threads, but its biggest battles won’t be fought there. If recent events are any indication that shift has already begun.

According to a recent account by reporter Adrian Chen in The New York Times, the Internet Research Agency may be behind several larger hoaxes throughout the United States. The first engineered a fake chemical spill in St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, through a coordinated social media campaign and text message alerts. This “airborne toxic event” of sorts had media coverage and eyewitness testimony. None of it, investigators soon realized, was real.

Months later, many of the same accounts used to spread the news of the fictional chemical spill reported an Ebola outbreak in Atlanta. Others told of a shooting of an unarmed black woman, again in Atlanta.

At first glance, none of these three events appeared to be related, although two videos—the first one documented the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) apparent involvement in the chemical spill and the other the shooting of the unarmed woman—appeared to have the same narrator.

Chen’s account should be read in full, not summarized. Nevertheless, it does raise a few important questions. For one, are these hoaxes the new face of the 21st century information war? It would appear so, if only in for the short term.

Will technological developments in image manipulation make conning easier? What about an increase in the number of social media users? Probably. In the latter case, though, it could swing either way.

In the end, the most important question is one that we need to continuously ask ourselves: What am I, as a responsible Internet user and media consumer, doing to protect the integrity of the Web?

Ignoring the troll(s) screaming in the crowd is a start.

Hannah Gais is assistant editor at the Foreign Policy Association and the managing editor ofForeignPolicyBlogs.com. This article appeared on the Foreign Policy Association site.

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Putin is caught in a classic trap

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 1:15 AM

Business Insider

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Putin is caught in a classic trap: Russia’s military advantage is fading and certain to decrease further.

Sergey Aleksashenko wants everyone to stop calling Russia weak. He contends that Russia is actually stronger than many people believe—to include U.S. President Barack Obama and British military historian Lawrence Freedman among other prominent voices. But Russia is weak and Russian President Vladimir Putin is even weaker.

Aleksashenko misunderstands Russian strength because he makes three critical errors. First, he assumes that strength and weakness are static and so fails to look at trends.

Second, by focusing on the weakest of Russia’s neighbors, he fails to notice that most Eastern European states are not intimidated by Russia. Finally, he wrongly believes that Russia’s strengths can be effectively used by Putin to maintain his grip on power.

First, strength and weakness are dynamic—that is, they change over time. In spite of Russia’s current displays of military strength in Ukraine, the former superpower is steadily and irreversibly weakening. As Aleksashenko knows—better than most officials in Moscow, in fact—Russia’s current economic crisis cannot be willed into recovery, and the economy is set to break through one false bottom after another.

What is less obvious for many Russia-watchers is that the military strength demonstrated so pompously on the Red Square during the May 9 Victory Day parade is also in decline. In Ukraine, the lack of any meaningful political or strategic Russian goals erodes the morale of the troops who are clandestinely deployed there. Nervous about the domestic political consequences of growing casualties, Putin has classified information about warzone deaths as a state secret.

The costs of the war are mounting, and over-spending in the Armaments 2020 priority procurement program is yet another item in the list of embarrassing fiscal setbacks. It is clear to serious Russian economists that military expenditures have been out of control for the last four quarters at least. Such spending cannot be sustained indefinitely, and deep cuts in the defense budget are certain this year.

Reuters

Second, Alakshashenko’s description of Russian intimidation of its neighbors misses that many of Russia’s neighbors do not find it fearsome. While Georgia sees the need to tread carefully and avoid confrontation (even when signing an association agreement with the EU), Estonia and Latvia have turned their exposure to Russian pressure into a strategic advantage, requesting and receiving substantial support from NATO.

Moscow continues its military provocations in the Baltic theater, but it realizes that the military balance there is ultimately not in its favor. In the Arctic, Finland has joined the international Arctic Challenge 2015 exercise, which makes use of the Rovaniemi air base; Finland is apparently unperturbed by the fact that Russia’s newly-formed Arctic brigade is deployed just 30 miles across the border from this city.  

It is prudent of NATO to be vigilant along its northern flank, but Russia has little or no capacity for simultaneously waging two “hybrid wars.” Back in 1940, Stalin amassed some 600,000 troops for the swift occupation of three defenseless Baltic states; now, Putin can deploy only about 50,000 troops for the (very probable) upcoming offensive in Donbass.

Finally, even the strengths that Russia genuinely possesses do not necessarily strengthen President Vladimir Putin’s grasp on power. The example of Russian gas exports to Europe is a case in point. As Aleksashenko rightly points out, Russia has leverage in some ways.

Russian gas exports to Europe, for instance, are essential for the economies of both, whatever proposals for alternative “green” sources the EU energy strategy entertains. This is a main source of Russia’s economic and political strength. (Though, even here, the opportunities for converting these exports into an instrument of security policy are curtailed by the joint stance of the consumers led by Germany.)

ReutersMap of Europe showing planned gas pipelines in the region. Includes proposed Gazprom pipeline to Europe through Turkey.

Putin’s dominance over Russian politics used to be based on redistributing the ever-expanding petro-revenues that resulted from this Russian strength among greedy stakeholders, while also ensuring some trickle-down. However, as energy prices fell and the economy tanked, he had to re-invent himself as a war leader.

The triumphant Anschluss of Crimea accomplished this trick. But his sky-high popularity is fragile, requiring a massive propaganda campaign as well as new victories. Putin feels empowered by the wave of public support, but he cannot allow his artificially boosted approval ratings to start declining. He is the only decider and the only possessor of all state secrets. But managing a war, even a “hybrid” one, requires a team of able and loyal lieutenants.

Putin knows uncomfortable truths about the Kremlin, rife with petty quarrels and ill-begotten fortunes, and knows there are limits to its trustworthiness. His supreme authority is, therefore, far more vulnerable than it appears. He is perfectly aware of the ugly end of quite a few fellow autocrats, who had looked so secure in their palaces, until they were not.   

PixabayThe Kremlin is a fickle place, where things are fine until, suddenly, they're not.

Putin is caught in a classic trap: Russia’s military advantage is fading and certain to decrease further. He needs to exploit that advantage sooner rather later. Putin likely views the pause in the Ukraine conflict as a losing proposition, and the big guns that have resumed cannonade recently in the suburbs of Donetsk very probably spell the end of the Minsk ceasefire.

Russia, having boldly skipped the phase of melancholic stagnation (zastoi), is now witnessing a rapid deterioration. Its leaders are in desperate need of a new victory to sustain public support. One thing Sergey Aleksashenko has right is that the West cannot accept the status-quo in war-torn Ukraine, cannot expect the current pause to last—and should work on non-traditional responses to Putin’s aggressive revisionism.

But such responses are more than U.S. State Secretary John Kerry was apparently able to muster during his four-hour meeting with Putin in Sochi last month. The length of that monologue (Kerry hardly had anything to say) is a good measure of Putin’s anxiety. He needs to make a decision on Ukraine before the logic of Russian weakness asserts itself. In the end, Putin is not a natural crisis manager or risk-taker and he can be deterred if the West asserts its strength.

Read the original article on The Brookings Institution. Copyright 2015. Follow The Brookings Institution on Twitter.

NOW WATCH: Two models in Russia just posed with a 1,400-pound bear

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· · · · · · · ·

How To Take Down Putin

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 1:12 AM

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You don’t need to mention 1936 to know dictatorships place great stock in hosting major international sporting events. They confer legitimacy; they project virility. Denying both to Vladimir Putin should be a part of any plan to unseat him.

So it’s instructive and amusing to read former FIFA official Chuck Blazer’s account, on his personalblog, of his 2010 meeting with Mr. Putin, shortly before Russia won the right to host the 2018 World Cup.

“At one moment he looked at me with a very serious gaze and said, without cracking a smile, ‘You know, you look like Karl Marx,’ ” Mr. Blazer recounted of his meeting. “I simply winked at him and said, ‘I know.’ This brought an immediate response with him lifting his right arm up in the air and thrusting it forward to give me my first High-5 from a Prime Minister.”

Score one for Karl.

Mr. Blazer wound up voting for Russia’s bid, having initially favored Britain’s. He has since confessed to accepting millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks in connection with the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and at least four international tournaments in the Americas. The Russian government, for its part, has a reputation for being generous toward its foreign friends.

There’s no need to put two and two together here, since the FBI and Swiss prosecutors are taking a closer look at the Russian bid and FIFA may wind up revoking it. But why not at least threaten a boycott of the Cup for as long as Russian troops remain in Ukraine? The average Russian couldn’t care less that the deputy prime minister is under international sanctions for Moscow’s seizure of Crimea. But soccer-mad Russians would care, a lot, if the games were taken from them.

Particularly if the reason for it is properly explained. As of last November, a poll found that a narrowmajority of Russians seem to believe Mr. Putin when he insists “outright and unequivocally that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine.” But that lie is becoming harder to sustain in the face of the hundreds of Russian military deaths sustained in the conflict, which is why Mr. Putin ordered last week that Russian fatalities in peacetime “special operations” be kept a state secret.

Vladimir’s splendid little war is becoming less splendid. Warning Russians that their precious World Cup may be boycotted on account of Mr. Putin’s adventures would underscore the unsplendid part.

This is what the G-7 leaders, starting with Barack Obama, failed to understand when they decided over the weekend to maintain economic sanctions on Russia for at least a few more months. They think the primary point of sanctions is to be punitive, economically speaking, when they ought to be pedagogical, morally and politically speaking. What Russians need isn’t more financial upheaval and deprivation. (They’ve seen worse.) They need re-education in how an ostensibly great nation behaves in the modern world.

The point was brought home by the same November poll, which found that a plurality of Russians, or 43%, would approve of Mr. Putin sending Russian soldiers to Ukraine in spite of his denials. In other words, they don’t mind being lied to by their president, because they share his territorial and ethnic ambitions.

Such is the combination of cynicism and grandiosity that lies at the heart of Russia’s political pathology and that Mr. Putin has so skillfully exploited. Too frequently, Russians have no expectations as to the probity or decency of their leaders. But they have great expectations of their entitlements as a world power. It needs to be the opposite.

Boycotting the 2018 Cup, or showing that it was gained by corrupt means (and thereby lost), would be one hard lesson for Russians of the consequences of being led by disreputable men. A policy of arming Ukraine so that it can inflict heavier—and undeniable—losses on its invaders is another.

So too would be a much broader application of the Magnitsky Act, which imposes travel bans and asset freezes on Russian officials suspected of corruption and human-rights abuses. The current list covers 30 people. Expand it 10- or 50-fold, and you could even start to make Mr. Putin unpopular within the Kremlin.

Since taking power 15 years ago, Mr. Putin has proved a master at self-reinvention, by turns a modernizer or a traditionalist, a capitalist or a conqueror, a populist or an emperor—all in ways that have consolidated his power without running afoul of public opinion. The worst he’s done is alienate the intelligentsia and middle classes of Moscow and St. Petersburg, who have obliged him by leavingthe country.

If Mr. Putin is to be taken down, it will only happen when the rest of the country swings against him, not necessarily because he’s made them poorer, but because he’s humiliated them. When it comes to humiliation, nothing is so bad as an own-goal, both in soccer and in war. Time to force the play.

Write to <a href="mailto:bstephens@wsj.com">bstephens@wsj.com</a>.

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James Holmes Was Delusional, But Knew Right From Wrong, Another Psychiatrist Says

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 12:57 AM

Crime - The Huffington Post

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CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) -- Another state-appointed psychiatrist testified Monday that Colorado theater shooter James Holmes was mentally ill at the time of the deadly attack but still knew it was wrong.

Dr. Jeffrey Metzner, the first psychiatrist to interview Holmes after the shooting, told jurors that Holmes was depressed but sane when he opened fire in 2012, killing 12 people and injuring 70 at the suburban theater.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his attorneys say he suffers schizophrenia and couldn't tell right from wrong during the attack.

"Someone could have a chronic mental illness and they're not psychotic all the time," Metzner told jurors. "His planning of the shooting was well thought out, and it was thought out in a manner to delay getting caught."

Holmes' attorney pressed Metzner to concede that Holmes' plan doesn't necessarily mean he was sane.

"The fact that someone has the ability to plan doesn't mean that in and of itself they're not psychotic, correct?" lawyer Dan King asked. Metzner agreed.

Metzner stood by his diagnosis that Holmes was sane on the day of the shooting and pointed out several factors that went into his conclusion:

- Holmes researched police response time to other mass shootings and wore body armor to the attack, meaning he knew someone would try to stop him;

- Holmes warned a friend to avoid contact with him, anticipating media scrutiny of his associates;

- Holmes bought ammunition for the attack online and in separate shipments so he didn't arouse suspicion;

- Holmes told Metzner he listened to loud, driving music through headphones during the attack so he would not feel any connection to his victims. "It was his psychological attempt to divorce himself from considering the morality," Metzner explained.

- Holmes said he wrote his feelings in a notebook and sent it to a therapist in advance so mental health professionals could understand people like him and keep them from committing similar crimes.

"It's another important component in my opinion about he had the capacity to tell right from wrong," Metzner testified.

Metzner said Holmes was psychotic, with symptoms that included his delusion that killing other people would increase his self-worth and help him recover from depression. But people with delusions can still tell right from wrong, the psychiatrist said.

"I thought his judgment was clinically impaired, despite having the capacity to judge right from wrong," Metzner testified. "He was so depressed he was willing to do anything that would make him feel less depressed, even if it meant going to jail."

After Metzner interviewed Holmes, Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. ordered a second mental evaluation, agreeing with prosecutors that Metzner's examination was incomplete. The other court-appointed psychiatrist, William Reid, testified last week that he, too, found Holmes mentally ill but legally sane.

Holmes told Metzner and Reid that he still had homicidal urges more than a year after the shootings.

In a hearing outside jurors' presence, Samour agreed with defense attorneys that jurors should not hear about Holmes' "continuing, chronic, homicidal thoughts" because it might improperly influence their judgment.

Samour noted, however, that the statements could come up during any sentencing phase.

Reid previously testified that Holmes still believes that killing people will increase his self-worth.

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· · ·

Islamic State's war on gays

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 12:39 AM

Islamic State's War On Gays - Los Angeles Times

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Twenty-six-year-old Faraj Ali Shalwi was a dapper dresser. And while his tight-knit circle of friends in his Libyan hometown, Derna, admired his sense of style, his neighbors treated him with suspicion. They said that his clothes were “contemporary.” They also said they were “effeminate.”

Shalwi's sartorial choices were different from those of most men, but they were probably not dangerous. That changed in November when the local Islamic Youth Shura Council raised the black flag of the extremist group Islamic State, pledging allegiance to the caliphate. It installed a new local government, an Islamic police force and an Islamic court.

Islamic State-allied militias in eastern Libya have committed numerous atrocities, including summary executions, public floggings and beheadings. Unidentified assailants were responsible for at least 250 seemingly politically motivated assassinations in 2014. Because of the collapse of the judicial system in the region, no one has been prosecuted or punished for these killings.

Gay men or men perceived to be gay run a particular risk in Islamic State-controlled territories. According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Islamic State executed at least 17 men in Syria and Iraq accused of indecent behavior, sodomy and adultery between June 2014 and March 2015.

Derna's roughly 100,000 inhabitants live between mountains, the desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Just 50 miles west is the larger city of Bayda, where Shalwi graduated as a pharmacist from Omar Al-Mukhtar University. He knew this city well, and even after university it remained the hub of his social life. In Bayda, with its quarter-million inhabitants, he could be a bit more relaxed about expressing his homosexuality, albeit among a group of trusted friends.

It was in this city that he met Saad Fakhakhiri, 40, who ran a clothes shop in Derna's historic downtown. Soon the two became inseparable. Shalwi confided to a friend that he was in a relationship with Fakhakhiri and liked him. He was frustrated because it was risky to express his feelings publicly. Any sexual relations outside marriage as well as “lewd acts” are punishable with up to five years in prison under the Libyan Penal Code.

Although they were careful, the relationship that blossomed between Shalwi and Fakhakhiri did not go unnoticed. In November, the two men were strolling on Derna's boardwalk, talking and joking, when an Islamic police patrol stopped, searched and questioned them. The patrol warned them to not loiter in that area. It was intimidating at the time and, in retrospect, ominous. Soon after the boardwalk incident, Shalwi and Fakhakhiri disappeared.

Through word of mouth, Shalwi's friends learned that the two men had been detained by the Islamic police in December on suspicion of homosexual conduct in a parked car. They were held in an unknown location for five months by extremist groups that pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

On April 30, the two men and a third also accused of homosexuality, Nassib Jazawi, were brought to the courtyard of the Sahaba Mosque, where masked men awaited them. Blindfolded, kneeling and with their hands tied, they were shot in the back of the head. The masked men yelled “Allahu akbar!”

Shame born of social stigma prevented the families from holding funeral services for the three men. Nor would they receive condolences. It was as if nothing had happened.

These weren't the first executions in Derna of men accused of homosexuality. An activist in Derna told Human Rights Watch that 45-year-old Fathi Katish, who was relatively out as a gay man, was shot near his home in March 2014 by unidentified assailants.

And in July, 26-year-old Yousef Ghaithy, who had been jailed in 2008 under Moammar Kadafi's rule for three years on sodomy charges, was thrown by unidentified armed men from the edge of a mountain.

Islamic State has published at least eight online visual reports depicting executions of accused homosexuals in Iraq and Syria. On Tuesday, it posted photographs taken in Nineveh province, northern Iraq, showing a man accused of homosexuality being held by his feet over the edge of a high building and then dropped in front of a crowd of onlookers.

Although establishing the veracity of the stories behind the gruesome images is almost impossible, the fact that they are broadcast as executions for “sodomy” or the “act of the people of Lot” has terrorized people who run afoul of Islamic State's warped morality. In this sense, the truth of the accusations is less important than the message.

I watched a video of the April 30 execution, recorded by a witness standing at a distance. It is the routine nature of the execution that is so unsettling. In the aftermath men slowly leave the square. One wags his finger, laughing, while another hobbles across the screen on crutches.

What is more chilling? Is it the casual chatter of the men departing the execution site, as if leaving a football match, or is it the white vans reversing into the square to collect three bodies?

Graeme Reid is LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch.

This snapshot of Shalwi's life was provided by a journalist based in Benghazi with whom I am in communication. He spoke by phone to six men who knew Shalwi and were willing to talk.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles Times

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· · ·

US Army website hacked, Syrian Electronic Army takes credit

Tuesday June 9th, 2015 at 12:35 AM

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Syrian Electronic Army hacks army.mil website

WASHINGTON –  The U.S. Army's official website was hit Monday by hackers claiming to be with a group known as the Syrian Electronic Army, Fox News has learned.  

The site, which was down Monday afternoon, is a declassified public website.

Various screenshots that appeared on Twitter reportedly showed pro-Assad propaganda on the site before it crashed.

"Today an element of the Army.mil service provider's content was compromised," Army Brig. Gen. Malcolm Frost said in a statement. "After this came to our attention, the Army took appropriate preventive measures to ensure there was no breach of Army data by taking down the website temporarily."

The SEA is a hacker group that has claimed in the past to disrupt major news websites, including the New York Times, CBS News, the Washington Post and the BBC.

The SEA website launched its website in May 2011 stating the group’s mission: to attack the enemies of the Syrian government, mainly those who “fabricated” stories about the Syrian civil war. They wrote that they were not officially affiliated with the government but were a group of Syrian youths.

In April 2013, the SEA successfully hacked the AP’s Twitter page, sending out a false message that there had been two explosions at the White House and that President Obama had been injured.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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G-7 Leaders Affirm Russia Sanctions

Putin and Putinism

Putin as a person and as a politician and his political system of "Putinism"

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09/06/15 03:52 from путин – Новости Google
Коммерсантъ Путин уволил главу Чувашии Газета.Ru Президент России Владимир Путин освободил от должности главу Чувашии Михаила Игнатьева. Об этом сообщает пресс-служба Кремля. «Принять отставку главы Чувашской Республики Игнатьева М.В. по...

» Путин 10 июня проведет переговоры с премьером Италии и посетит выставку ЭКСПО-2015 Политика 9 июня, 10:19 - Информационное агентство России ТАСС
09/06/15 03:36 from путин – Новости Google
Информационное агентство России ТАСС Путин 10 июня проведет переговоры с премьером Италии и посетит выставку ЭКСПО-2015 Политика 9 июня, 10:19 Информационное агентство России ТАСС Президент России Владимир Путин 10 июня посетит российску...

» Михаил Игнатьев назначен временно исполняющим обязанности главы Чувашской Республики
09/06/15 03:24 from Сайт Президента России: Все материалы
Президент подписал Указ «О досрочном прекращении полномочий Главы Чувашской Республики».

» Указ о досрочном прекращении полномочий главы Чувашской Республики
09/06/15 02:57 from Сайт Президента России: Все материалы
Президент подписал Указ «О досрочном прекращении полномочий Главы Чувашской Республики».

» Путин уволил начальника полиции Новосибирской области Кириллова - ТАЙГА.info
09/06/15 02:56 from путин – Новости Google
ТАЙГА.info Путин уволил начальника полиции Новосибирской области Кириллова ТАЙГА.info Президент России Владимир Путин уволил с должности заместителя начальника Главного управления МВД по Новосибирской области 58-летнего Алексея Кириллова...

» Владимир Путин посетит Итальянскую Республику и государство Ватикан
09/06/15 02:43 from Сайт Президента России: Все материалы

» Американский генерал: Путин - самый уважаемый мировой лидер - РИА Новости
09/06/15 02:01 from путин – Новости Google
Американский генерал: Путин - самый уважаемый мировой лидер РИА Новости Сам Владимир Путин в своем недавнем интервью итальянской газете Il Corriere della Sera заявлял: представить, что Россия нападет на страны НАТО, может только нездоров...

» Barack Obama: 'Putin trying to bring back Soviet empire and sacrificing ... - Telegraph.co.uk
09/06/15 01:50 from Putin - Google News
Telegraph.co.uk Barack Obama: ' Putin trying to bring back Soviet empire and sacrificing ... Telegraph.co.uk German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit host, who has led diplomacy to engage Mr Putin in a diplomatic solution to the c...

» David Bonderman going to Putin's International Economic Forum - New York Post
09/06/15 01:46 from Putin - Google News
New York Post David Bonderman going to Putin's International Economic Forum New York Post TPG Capital co-founder David Bonderman is caught between profits and being politically correct — and he is choosing profits. The private-equity...

» Obama Accuses Putin Of Wrecking Russia's Economy For 'Glory' - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
09/06/15 01:40 from Putin - Google News
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Obama Accuses Putin Of Wrecking Russia's Economy For 'Glory' RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty In some of the strongest rhetoric to come out of the Group of Seven summit, Obama told a news conference i...

» Reuters: Путин олицетворяет все ошибки политики Обамы - Правда.Ру
09/06/15 01:37 from путин – Новости Google
Правда.Ру Reuters: Путин олицетворяет все ошибки политики Обамы Правда.Ру Российский президент Владимир Путин олицетворяет все ошибки внешней политики Обамы, считают потенциальные кандидаты в президенты США от Республиканской партии. Как...

» Jeb Bush's Anti-Putin Republican Primary Tour - BuzzFeed News
09/06/15 01:30 from Putin - Google News
BuzzFeed News Jeb Bush's Anti- Putin Republican Primary Tour BuzzFeed News “ Putin looms large in the American imagination in a way that no other Bond villain out there does,” said Hugh Hewitt, an influential conservative talk radio ...

» Rubin: Western leaders must confront Putin on Ukraine - Boston Herald
09/06/15 00:06 from Putin - Google News
Wall Street Journal Rubin: Western leaders must confront Putin on Ukraine Boston Herald “I can tell you outright and unequivocally that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told a live TV audience in ...

» Vladimir Putin trying to recreate 'glories of Soviet empire', says Barack ... - The Guardian
08/06/15 23:11 from Putin - Google News
The Guardian Vladimir Putin trying to recreate 'glories of Soviet empire', says Barack ... The Guardian The US president has launched a broadside against the Russian president, accusing him of attempting to recreate the glories o...

» Россия слаба, а Путин еще слабее - inoСМИ.Ru
08/06/15 21:49 from путин – Новости Google
inoСМИ.Ru Россия слаба, а Путин еще слабее inoСМИ.Ru Но Россия слаба, а российский президент Владимир Путин и того слабее. Алексашенко не понимает силу России, поскольку совершает три очень серьезные ошибки. Во-первых, он считает, что си...

» Exposed: Putin And Buffett's War On U.S. Pipelines - Western Journalism
08/06/15 21:45 from Putin - Google News
Western Journalism Exposed: Putin And Buffett's War On U.S. Pipelines Western Journalism Abundant, reliable, affordable oil and natural gas empower people. They support job creation, mobility, modern agriculture, homes and hospitals,...

» The Defeat of Would-Be-Emperor Erdogan - Politico
08/06/15 21:25 from Putin personality cult - Google News
Telegraph.co.uk The Defeat of Would-Be-Emperor Erdogan Politico While Erdogan promised to build a revived Ottoman Empire on a global scale, the president's new vision turned out to be little more than a cult of personality around him...

» With eye on US election, Republicans assail Putin - Grand Forks Herald
08/06/15 21:20 from putin's health - Google News
Grand Forks Herald With eye on US election, Republicans assail Putin Grand Forks Herald With his bare-chested swagger and wily geopolitical moves, Putin is an easy target, the man whose aggression against Ukraine and annexation of Crimea...

» How To Take Down Putin - Wall Street Journal
08/06/15 19:12 from Putin - Google News
Wall Street Journal How To Take Down Putin Wall Street Journal As of last November, a poll found that a narrow majority of Russians seem to believe Mr. Putin when he insists “outright and unequivocally that there are no Russian troops in...

» Putin And Buffett's War On U.S. Pipelines - Daily Caller
08/06/15 18:56 from Putin - Google News
Putin And Buffett's War On U.S. Pipelines Daily Caller Abundant, reliable, affordable oil and natural gas empower people. They support job creation, mobility, modern agriculture, homes and hospitals, computers and communications, lig...

» Jeb Bush Plans Tough Talk on Putin During Europe Trip - Wall Street Journal
08/06/15 18:33 from Putin - Google News
Wall Street Journal Jeb Bush Plans Tough Talk on Putin During Europe Trip Wall Street Journal Jeb Bush will take his message of containment to Mr. Putin's doorstep this week when he visits Germany, Poland and Estonia—three allies on ...

» Jeb Bush to Call Out Putin in Europe - Bloomberg View
08/06/15 18:01 from Putin - Google News
Bloomberg View Jeb Bush to Call Out Putin in Europe Bloomberg View Former Governor Jeb Bush will call for a more assertive and united front against Russia and President Vladimir Putin when he arrives Tuesday in Germany, the first stop of...

» «Путин волнует» кандидатов-республиканцев больше, чем экономика - BFM.Ru
08/06/15 17:44 from путин – Новости Google
ГОЛОС АМЕРИКИ « Путин волнует» кандидатов-республиканцев больше, чем экономика BFM.Ru «Для многих республиканцев Владимир Путин олицетворяет ошибки внешней политики Обамы. Следовательно, они получают возможность критиковать и бывшего гос...

» Obama: U.S. Lacks A 'Complete Strategy' For Training Iraqi Forces - KAWC
08/06/15 17:28 from putin's health - Google News
Obama: U.S. Lacks A 'Complete Strategy' For Training Iraqi Forces KAWC President Obama said today that the United States plans to ramp up its training of Iraqi security forces. The hope is to wage a more effective fight against t...

» Putin just made more revealing comments about his opinions of NATO - Business Insider
08/06/15 17:12 from Putin - Google News
Business Insider Putin just made more revealing comments about his opinions of NATO Business Insider Putin worried Reuters/Maxim ShemetovRussian President Vladimir Putin meets with journalists after a live broadcast nationwide call-in in...

» Obama: U.S. Lacks A 'Complete Strategy' For Training Iraqi Forces - WVAS
08/06/15 17:10 from putin's health - Google News
Obama: U.S. Lacks A 'Complete Strategy' For Training Iraqi Forces WVAS President Obama said today that the United States plans to ramp up its training of Iraqi security forces. The hope is to wage a more effective fight against t...

» Obama: U.S. Lacks A 'Complete Strategy' For Training Iraqi Forces - Alabama Public Radio
08/06/15 16:58 from putin's health - Google News
Obama: U.S. Lacks A 'Complete Strategy' For Training Iraqi Forces Alabama Public Radio President Obama said today that the United States plans to ramp up its training of Iraqi security forces. The hope is to wage a more effective...

» Obama lambasts Putin: you're wrecking Russia to recreate Soviet empire - The Guardian
08/06/15 16:29 from Putin - Google News
Business Insider Obama lambasts Putin : you're wrecking Russia to recreate Soviet empire The Guardian Barack Obama has used the close of the G7 summit in Germany to deliver his strongest criticism yet of Vladimir Putin , lambasting t...

» Путин и красные носки - Комсомольская правда
08/06/15 16:09 from путин – Новости Google
Комсомольская правда Путин и красные носки Комсомольская правда Владимир Путин в интервью итальянской газете накануне поездки в Милан на выставку ЭКСПО-2015 ответил на такое количество вопросов, что в конце разговора даже сам уже спрашив...

» Владимир Путин в риторике республиканских кандидатов в президенты США - ГОЛОС АМЕРИКИ
08/06/15 15:34 from путин – Новости Google
ГОЛОС АМЕРИКИ Владимир Путин в риторике республиканских кандидатов в президенты США ГОЛОС АМЕРИКИ В американской президентской гонке российский лидер Владимир Путин предстал как символ слабоcти внешней политики президента Барака Обамы, к...

» Standing up to Putin really isn't necessary - Hamilton Spectator
08/06/15 15:28 from Putin - Google News
The Australian (blog) Standing up to Putin really isn't necessary Hamilton Spectator Might Russian President Vladimir Putin actually be the next would-be world conqueror, out of the same mould as Napoleon and Hitler? In that case, ge...

» СМИ - о кампании кандидатов на пост президента США: Путин повсюду - Взгляд
08/06/15 15:02 from путин – Новости Google
Правда.Ру СМИ - о кампании кандидатов на пост президента США: Путин повсюду Взгляд Несмотря на то что саммит G7 прошел без участия российского президента, в риторике кандидатов на пост президента США от Республиканской партии Путин «повс...

» Putin Honors Nazarbaev's Eurasian Efforts - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
08/06/15 14:35 from Putin - Google News
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Putin Honors Nazarbaev's Eurasian Efforts RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Russian President Vladimir Putin has awarded Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev a state honor for his contribution "in bilater...

» Владимир Путин проверил работу Пенсионного фонда и ФАС - Российская Газета
08/06/15 14:33 from путин – Новости Google
Российская Газета Владимир Путин проверил работу Пенсионного фонда и ФАС Российская Газета Разговор с главой ПФР Владимир Путин начал с материнского капитала. "В условиях непростой экономической ситуации мы приняли решение разблокир...

» Владимир Путин посетит Азербайджан - Российская Газета
08/06/15 14:20 from путин – Новости Google
Российская Газета Владимир Путин посетит Азербайджан Российская Газета В конце недели, 12 - 13 июня, Владимир Путин отправится с визитом в Азербайджан. По приглашению Ильхама Алиева президент России примет участие в церемонии открытия Пе...

» Erdogan loses his chance to become Turkey's Vladimir Putin - Reuters Blogs (blog)
08/06/15 14:04 from Putin - Google News
Trend News Agency Erdogan loses his chance to become Turkey's Vladimir Putin Reuters Blogs (blog) Erdogan's hope of persuading parliament to change the constitution and grant himself Vladimir Putin -like unchecked powers has gone...