The U.S. and Global Security Review - Blog by Michael Novakhov

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Stocks tumbled sharply Friday in China and across Asia after the release of weaker than expected data about Beijing's crucial manufacturing sector. The Shanghai Composite Index ended down 4.2 percent, extending a slide that saw it lose 11 percent this week. A key Shenzhen index plummeted 5.4 percent. In Tokyo, the Nikkei share average, Japan's benchmark stock index, closed down 3 percent. Shares were also down in Hong Kong, Seoul, Sydney, Singapore, Taiwan, Bangkok and Jakarta. In the U.S., stocks also suffered Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 both off 2.1 percent. It was Wall Street's worst day in 18 months. The Asian sell-off intensified Friday after a preliminary version of the closely watched Caixin purchasing managers' index revealed shrinking Chinese factory activity for August. Investors have also been concerned about further devaluation of China's yuan currency, as well as about whether Beijing will continue to prop up its volatile stock market. China's economy had already been slowing and there are worries it may not be able to meet its 2015 GDP target of "around 7 percent." That level of growth would be China's lowest in 11 years, but still well ahead of the expansion expected for other major developed economies. Beijing's surprise devaluation of the yuan this month was seen as an attempt to spur economic growth, since it will make Chinese exports much cheaper in foreign markets. But any further devaluation risks causing a regional currency war, since many other nations could lower the value of their own currencies in order to protect their own export markets.

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Baku Prosecutor Seeks Nine-Year Sentence For Journalist Ismayilovaby support@pangea-cms.com (RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service)
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:13 AM

The Azerbaijani state prosecutor has requested a nine-year sentence for investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova.

Pentagon: Russia poses 'existential threat' to the US - WTOP
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:12 AM

Russia - Google News

The Hill

Pentagon: Russia poses 'existential threat' to the US
WTOP
WASHINGTON — The U.S. was warned almost a decade ago by a high-level defector thatRussia would rise from its devastating post-Cold War crash to once again become the nation's number-one threat. After years of avoiding confrontational language, U.S. ...
Pentagon chief: Russia is a 'very significant threat'The Hill
Russia Nearing Deployment of New Intermediate-Range Naval MissileWashington Free Beacon
Pentagon Chief: Putin's Russia a 'Significant' Threat but Not Top of the ListThe Fiscal Times
BBC News -Washington Examiner -Sputnik International
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The Daily Vertical: Russia's Temper Tantrum
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:12 AM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

The Daily Vertical is a video primer for Russia-watchers that appears Monday through Friday. Viewers can suggest topics via Twitter @PowerVertical or on the Power Vertical Facebook page.

Report: Israeli Drone Strike Kills 5 in Syriaby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:12 AM

Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian-controlled portion of the Golan Heights have killed at least five unarmed civilians, according to Syrian state media, in what Israel says was retaliation for rocket fire into its territory. Israel says those killed were Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad militant group. The drone strike targeted a car near a market in Quneitra province's al-Kom village early Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the Syrian war, confirmed the attack, also saying that five people, including two pro-Damascus fighters, were killed. Israeli military officials say the strike was targeted at those responsible for firing rockets into Israel's Galilee region Thursday. Other Israeli strikes Israel also carried out over a dozen airstrikes against Syrian army positions near the Golan Heights late Thursday in response to the rocket attacks. Syrian officials say at least one person was killed in those bombardments. No one was reported wounded by the rockets that landed in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that Israel will respond firmly to "anyone who tries to harm us." "The IDF killed the forces responsible for the rocket attacks and the Syrians who allowed it to happen," Netanyahu said. "We have no intention to escalate the situation, but our policy remains the same." Violence has occasionally erupted along the volatile Israeli-Syrian front since Syria's civil war broke out in 2011. Many of the Israeli strikes in the area have targeted members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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Page 11

Some Clinton Emails Newly ‘Classified’ but Declassify Dates Raise Questions by webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:11 AM

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Although a few dozen of Hillary Clinton's publicly released work emails from her time as secretary of state are now stamped "Classified", the U.S. State Department, and Clinton herself, have maintained these classifications are new. But the dates for declassification marked by the department on those emails raise questions about the assertion that none of the information should have been handled as classified when it first traversed Clinton's private, home email server. The declassify dates suggest either that the department did not follow standard government classification regulations, or that it might believe that the information in at least 30 email threads reviewed by Reuters was in fact classified on the original day Clinton sent or received it. Clinton, front-runner to be the Democratic nominee in next year's White House election, has repeatedly said she did not handle information on her private email account that was classified at the time. The State Department has stood behind its former boss, saying it has seen no proof to the contrary. Current and former White House officials with responsibility for the government's classified information regime interviewed by Reuters were puzzled at how the declassification dates aligned with the State Department's public assertions. "The State Department's blowing smoke here," J. William Leonard, a former director of the U.S. government's Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), said in a telephone interview. "It's clear from the declassification date — that's their tacit acknowledgement this stuff was classified from day one." The U.S. government prohibits the sending of classified information outside secure networks. Clinton's campaign has been dogged by allegations she may have mishandled sensitive information by using a private email address, run from a server in her home, as secretary of state. Dates square with classification in 2009 According to a presidential executive order, a government official classifying something for the first time must pick a declassification date at least 10 years "from the date of the original decision," so long as there is no earlier moment when the information loses its sensitivity. The State Department has made public about 3,500 of the 30,000 or so work emails Clinton handed over to the department late last year. It has redacted and stamped a few dozen of them as "Classified." In the 30 such email threads examined by Reuters, which all date from 2009, the State Department says all the information was classified for the first time on either June 30 or July 30 this year. However, the department has given declassification dates that correspond to the date the original email was sent, adding a standard classification period of between 10 and 25 years. Several of them will be declassified in 2019, exactly 10 years after they were sent. If the department is following government rules, it appears that those emails should remain classified for 10 years from now, until at least the summer of 2025. Asked whether the declassification dates indicated the department thought the information was classified all along, a State Department spokesman said this was not the case. "This is incorrect," Alec Gerlach, the spokesman, wrote in an email. "The department's practice in this case is to link the declassify date to the original date of the email, however that has no bearing on its prior classification status." He declined to explain how this squared with government regulations. Reuters could not rule out the possibility that the department was following the declassification regulations in an unusual way. John Fitzpatrick, the White House's current ISOO director, said he found it "curious" that the State Department said the classifications were new if at the same time it was tying declassification dates to the emails' original send dates. The best explanation, he said later, might be that these were not new classifications after all, and the department believed the information in those emails was really considered classified the very day Clinton sent or received it. The Reuters review of the email threads also found that State Department's redaction markings indicate those messages are filled with a category of information the U.S. government presumes classified from the get-go.

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Prosecutors Seek 13 Years For Ex-Deputy In Starovoitova's Murder
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:11 AM

A state prosecutor has asked a St. Petersburg court to sentence former Russian lawmaker Mikhail Glushchenko to 13 years in jail for his alleged role in organizing the high-profile killing of lawmaker Galina Starovoitova.

Kidnappings Abroad Another Form of Putin’s ‘Hybrid War’ Against the West, Latynina Saysby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:10 AM

Window On Eurasia -- New Series

Paul Goble

Staunton, August 21 – The arrest on foreign territory, trial in a closed court with a government-supplied lawyer who considered him guilty, and the sentencing of Eston Kohver to 15 years in Russian prisons on trumped up charges of espionage is part and parcel of Vladimir Putin’s “hybrid war” against the West, according to Moscow commentator Yuliya Latynina.

This particular case, of course, is only the latest in a long line of such actions extending back to the 1920s. (On one of the most notorious of those cases, see the new discussion of the kidnapping of White General Kutepov in Paris by Soviet intelligence agents, at artpolitinfo.ru/pustaya-mogila-a-p-kutepova/.)

Many, perhaps most, had thought such actions were a thing of the Soviet past, but Putin has revived them; and in many ways, the most disturbing case is that of Kohver because it represents a direct challenge not only to Estonia but to the EU and NATO and to the US as well, Latynina says (novayagazeta.ru/columns/69611.html).

In September 2014, President Barack Obama declared in Tallinn that NATO and the US would defend Estonia in the event of an attack, she writes in “Novaya gazeta,” but “less than 48 hours” after he did so, the seizure of Kohver on Estonian soil by Russian agents and his illegal transfer to Russia and Russian “justice” called that commitment into question.

By its kidnapping of an Estonian citizen on the territory of his own country, Moscow “demonstrated,” she says, “that Russia can seize an EU citizen on the territory of the EU [and of NATO] and that this will not have any consequences for [Moscow].” Thus it is an act of intimidation and so far at least in part an effective one, she argues.

Estonia has stated that Kohver was near the Russian border because he was investigating smuggling, but Russia has claimed that he was planning to meet with Estonian agents operating inside Russia. But “it is difficult to consider these ‘narratives of equal value,’” despite the tendency of the media to do just that, Latynina says.

She gives four reasons for her conclusions:

First, “immediately after Kohver’s arrest, Russian and Estonian border guards composed an initial protocol of the place where this happened.” The Russian side then refused to sign it because that document made clear that what Tallinn had said was true and what Moscow was claiming was false.

Second, “the Estonian explanation is logical and understandable, but the Chekist one borders on the fantastic.” It strains credibility that some Estonian “spy” would act in the way that Moscow has accused Kohver of acting. No real spy would, and consequently, one must conclude that Kohver wasn’t one, Latynina says.

Third, the Putin government “has a long history of actions which it is difficult to interpret other than the kidnapping of citizens from the territories of neighboring states and then accusing them of illegal crossing of the border,” she points out. Among the other prominent victims of this policy are Leonid Ravozzhayev and Nadezhda Savchenko.

And fourth, Moscow tried Kohver in secret. If it was so confident in its own version of events, it wouldn’t have done so. But even more than that, the Russian authorities allowed Kohver access to only a single attorney who openly suggested that his “client” was in fact “obviously guilty,” an echo of Stalinist times.

Countries can be divided in many ways, Latynina says, “between the developed and underdeveloped, between democracies and dictatorships, and between countries of the third world and those of the first. But countries can also be divided into two categories: those who take as hostages citizens of other countries, and those who don’t do that.”

Among the countries notorious for taking hostages are the Libya of Muammar Qadaffi and the Belarus of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, she writes; and one would assume that such regimes who treat Russian citizens in that way “ought to be our most evil enemies, but in practice things have worked out just the opposite.”

Instead, she continues, “the regimes which take our citizens as hostages are somehow our friends and those who don’t are our enemies.”

“The reason is very simple,” she suggests. “The Kremlin and the hostage-taking regimes live in one world, they have a common understanding of law” as something they can use “and of international politics” as a process in which two leaders can come together and reach agreement regardless of the rules. That is something the West must come to understand.

Latynina concludes with what she says is “one small but important detail.” Many think that the Kremlin has shown its strength by such actions and that the West has time after time shown its “weakness in the face of hybrid war.” But in fact, “hybrid war is precisely a sign of the powerlessness” of those who conduct it.

Whatever people in the Kremlin think about “the importance of ‘a short victorious war,’” in the West, “let us hope,” people understand that in a conventional war, the advantages would all be on the side of the West and Russia would suffer a rapid and crushing defeat.

“To put it crudely,” the Russian analyst says, if Moscow sent tanks into Estonia, they would be destroyed. But “if one seizes Kohver or organizes in Narva the next spontaneous expression of the will of the Russian-language majority mistreated by Estonian fascists, then “these Western wimps will be confused and not know where to shoot.”

Thus, Latynina concludes, “’hybrid war’ translated from geopolitics into ordinary language is simple hooliganism,” a set of actions committed by rulers who care nothing for their own people but only feel the need to make themselves feel important by sowing disorder among others.

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Head of Russian Railways, Close to Putin, Resignsby By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Friday August 21st, 2015 at 9:10 AM

NYT > Russia

Vladimir I. Yakunin was seen as wielding vast power through the rail monopoly, and a relatively unknown technocrat was appointed to the post.

MI5 papers show ‘sixth man’ Soviet agent
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 7:17 PM

World News + Video | The Guardian

Fresh light shed on infiltration of UK intelligence — and officials’ determination not to believe it

Macedonia declares state of emergency over influx of migrants - video by Guardian Staff
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:51 PM

The Macedonian government declares a state of emergency as thousands of migrants attempt to enter the country. Up to 2,000 people arrive in the border town of Gevgelija daily as they cross the country in an attempt to reach northern Europe. Although borders will remain open, authorities say ‘illegal’ entries will be reduced

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Greek PM Alexis Tsipras resigns and calls for snap electionby Nick Squires
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:51 PM

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras announces his resignation and calls for an early election, likely held in September

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France's Front National party expels founder Jean-Marie Le Penby AFP
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:50 PM

Party president Marine Le Pen, the elder's daughter, has been trying for months to oust her father, who held the title of honorary president for life

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Two tourists may have contracted the plague at Yosemite National Park
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:50 PM

Two American tourists are believed to have contracted the plague after visiting California’s Yosemite National Park.

Ukraine crisis: Both sides accused of concealing weapons from inspectors and discreetly shifting them to the front line in violation of ceasefire
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:50 PM

AP Top Headlines At 9:06 A.M. EDT

The international watchdog monitoring the conflict in eastern Ukraine is increasingly powerless to act in the face of escalating hostilities as its officials become the targets of death threats, violent attacks and a systematic campaign of intimidation, its deputy chief has revealed.

BP settlement money flows to governments in far-flung placesby By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:50 PM

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Clusters of landlocked municipalities more than 100 miles from the Gulf Coast have secured millions of dollars in BP money through settlements designed to compensate local governments for lost tourism dollars and other economic damage from the company's 2010 oil spill, according to records obtained by The Associated Press....

Ashley Madison hack: how many British users did adultery site really have? by Gordon Rayner
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:49 PM

World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post

British victims whose details have been published online as alleged users of the Ashley Madison adultery website claim they had never even heard of it

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Page 13

In Pakistan, worries that U.S. could cut military aid over counterterror efforts by Tim Craig
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:49 PM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pentagon could withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from Pakistan’s military over concerns that it is not doing enough to combat insurgent groups that launch attacks from its soil on neighboring Afghanistan, according to officials in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry. Read full article >>

Ashley Madison hack: Leaking personal email addresses puts gay lives at risk around the world
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:32 PM

AP Top Headlines At 9:06 A.M. EDT

Gay and bisexual users of the Ashley Madison infidelity website have been left in fear for their lives after it emerged that the identities of users living in countries where homosexuality is illegal and even punishable by death have been posted online.

Defense is done questioning accuser in prep school rape case - Corvallis Gazette Times
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:31 PM

Jean-Marie Le Pen, Co-Founder of National Front, Is Ousted From French Far-Right Party by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:31 PM

NYT > World

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who co-founded the National Front, was excluded on Thursday from the party following a disciplinary hearing.

Police may seek manslaughter charges against Jenner in crash: report - Reuters
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:30 PM

These 5 Facts Explain Why China Is Still on the Riseby Bryan Walsh
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:30 PM

TIME

Stock market plunges, currency devaluations and warehouse fireballs out of China have dominated headlines this summer. But make no mistake—this is the opening of the “China Decade,” the moment when the emerging giant’s international influence crosses a crucial threshold. These five facts explain why China’s rise is inevitable, even in the face of bad news—and why it won’t last forever.

1. Rough Summer

Economic indicators have been pointing to a Chinese slowdown for some time—exports had already dropped 8 percent last month compared to the same time last year—but matters have come to a head these last couple of months. Between June 12 and July 8, the Shanghai stock market plummeted 32 percent. On July 27, the stock market fell 8.5 percent, its greatest single-day drop. To put that in perspective, “Black Tuesday,” which kicked off the Great Depression in 1929, saw the Dow plunge 12 percent. Markets under the thumb of autocratic regimes were thought to be immune to such wild swings; turns out they’re not.

On August 11th, the Chinese government devalued the renminbi to kick-start their slowing economy. By the end of the week, the currency’s value had fallen by 4.4 percent, its biggest drop in 20 years.

(The New York Times (a), CNN Money, The New York Times (b), TIME)

2. China’s Rise

Yes, growth is slowing, but to levels enviable in any developed country. In the mean time, China’s march to no. 1 continues. In 2014, China’s total GDP overtook the US’s when measured by purchasing power parity. Using this metric, China accounted for 16.32 percent of world GDP in 2014, eclipsing the US’s 16.14 percent.

More impressive than the size of China’s economy is the speed with which it’s grown. Back in 2000, Chinese imports and exports accounted for 3 percent of all global goods traded. By 2014, that figure had jumped to more than 10 percent. In 2006, the U.S. was a larger trade partner than China for 127 countries. China was the larger partner for just 70. Today, those numbers have reversed: 124 countries trade more with China than with the United States.

(International Monetary Fund, Financial Times, Russia Today)

3. China’s Resilience

And despite recent turmoil, China’s economy has staying power. That’s in part because China’s leadership has spent decades building its foreign exchange reserves, which today are valued at $3.7 trillion. That’s by far the world’s biggest rainy day fund.

More important than its money buffer is China’s consolidated political leadership under Xi Jinping. China’s president has presided over an extensive anti-corruption campaign that has already seen 414,000 officials disciplined and another 200,000 indicted. In the process, Xi has probably rebuilt some of the party’s lost credibility with China’s people. He has definitely sidelined current and potential opponents of his reform program—and of his rule. And the lack of backlash illustrates just how strong his political control really is.

(Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic)

4. Spreading Wealth (and Influence)

Consolidated leadership also enables Beijing to pursue its comprehensive global strategy. China has spent the last two decades tactically investing around the world. Chinese investments in Africa jumped from $7 billion in 2008 to $26 billion in 2013, helping the continent build desperately-needed roads, rails and ports. In Latin America, China has already pledged to invest $250 billion over the coming decade, giving Beijing a solid foothold in the West. This extends China’s influence well beyond East Asia, helps China secure long-term supplies of the commodities it needs to continue to power its economy, creates jobs for Chinese workers, and helps China open new markets for its excess supplies of industrial products.

China also wants to use its money to reshape the world’s financial architecture. To that end, Beijing just launched the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to rival the Washington-based IMF and World Bank. Given that 57 countries have signed up as founding members, some of them US allies who chose to ignore US objections, it’s well on its way. With initiatives like the AIIB, China will continue funding infrastructure projects—and building goodwill—for years to come.

(Bloomberg, BBC, Wall Street Journal)

5. Problems Ahead

All that said, China’s longer-term challenges are becoming impossible to ignore. By 2050, it’s estimated that China’s work force will have shrunk by 17 percent. Blame demographics—back in 1980, the median age in China was 22.1 years; in 2013, 35.4, and by 2050 it will rise to 46.3. An aging labor force is like an aging sports star: both want more money, and both are nowhere near as productive as they once were.

Pollution continues to take its toll—less than 1 percent of China’s 500 cities meet WHO air quality standards. China’s environment ministry concedes that nearly 2/3 of underground water and 1/3 of surface water is “unfit for human contact.” A new study estimated that 4,000 Chinese die prematurely each day thanks to air pollution. As China’s masses join a growing middle class, the leadership will have to deal with stronger public demand for clean air and water. Beijing better deliver if it wants to keep the peace, and its regime, intact. And the public will have the means to make its demands known: There are already 650 million Chinese people online, and censorship, however sophisticated, can never fully control the flow of ideas and information in a social media market of that scale—witness the information leaking out on the Tianjin blast. China’s leaders know they must care about public opinion.

(Bloomberg, UN Economic and Social Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, Russia Today, CNN)

China’s growing strength threatens the established world order, but its domestic vulnerabilities will have global repercussions, as well. It’s still too early to tell which of the two will be more destabilizing. Either way, the world will be shaped by Beijing’s successes and its failures. Welcome to the China Decade.

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What the secret agreement between Iran and the UN saysby By GEORGE JAHN
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:30 PM

VIENNA (AP) -- Iran has agreed to cooperate with the U.N. in answering longstanding allegations about possible past work to develop nuclear weapons at its Parchin plant - but only with the Iranians conducting the inspections themselves. That is raising other questions....

Washington Gov.: State facing "unprecedented cataclysm"
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:29 PM

Home - CBSNews.Com

Three firefighters died Wednesday after their vehicle crashed and was likely caught by flames from blaze in Washington state

Florida Woman Who Says She Alerted FBI About Jared Fogle's Activities: 'He's a ... - People Magazine
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:28 PM

Fbi - Google News

People Magazine

Florida Woman Who Says She Alerted FBI About Jared Fogle's Activities: 'He's a ...
People Magazine
The woman who claims she alerted the FBI to Jared Fogle's criminal activities has said she is "relieved" that the former Subway spokesman has agreed to plead guilty. Rochelle Herman told WWSB that she spent more than four years recording her ...
Acquaintance of Jared Fogle Claims She Worked With FBIABC News
Florida woman who tipped off FBI to Jared Fogle: 'He's a monster'Fox 59
Sarasota Woman Says She Worked With FBI To Take Down Jared FogleCBS Local
KRON4.com -WAAY
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Terrorism expert appointed to head Buffalo FBI office - Buffalo News
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 4:27 PM

James B. Comey - Google News

Buffalo News

Terrorism expert appointed to head Buffalo FBI office
Buffalo News
FBI Director James B. Comey announced Cohen's assignment on Thursday. Cohen, who will start here in October, most recently served as section chief of the FBI's Counterterrorism Internet Operations Section. His job was to oversee investigations into how ...
Adam S. Cohen Named Special Agent in Charge of BuffaloFederal Bureau of Investigation (press release) (blog)

all 3 news articles »

Sheriff's Investigators to Recommend Manslaughter Charge for Caitlyn Jenner in Fatal Crash
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:58 PM

ABC News: Top Stories

Sheriff's investigators to recommend manslaughter charge for Caitlyn Jenner in fatal crash

War with Isis: Is Turkey's buffer zone in Syria a matter of self-defence – or just anti-Kurd?
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:57 PM

Fbi Aclu Report - Google News

Turkey has taken the first step towards setting up a buffer zone in northern Syria by assisting Turkmen militia to enter the country and set up base near the border.

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Page 15

Israeli Army: 4 Rockets From Syria Hit Israel; No Injuries
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:54 PM

ABC News: Top Stories

Israeli military says 4 rockets fired from Syria hit northern Israel but caused no injuries

NYC Identifies Hotel as Source of Legionnaires' Outbreak
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:54 PM

ABC News: Top Stories

NYC identifies historic Bronx Opera House Hotel as source of deadly Legionnaires' outbreak

French National Front expels founder
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:54 PM

BBC News - World

France's Jean-Marie Le Pen expelled from far-right National Front after feud with daughter and party leader Marine

Caught In the Internet Patrick Toomey - Foreign Affairs
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:53 PM

Foreign Affairs

Caught In the Internet Patrick Toomey
Foreign Affairs
More broadly, as a report issued last year by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU shows, the chilling effects of this surveillance on journalists, lawyers, and others are palpable. It makes sources unwilling to talk to journalists, even about ... Similarly ...

AP's top photos of the week
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:52 PM

Stars And Stripes News

Images from the World Tango Championship in Argentina; a demonstrator with his face painted in the colors of the Brazilian flag; and the Ferris wheel at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.

The Kremlin’s Economic Gambit
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:52 PM

Home - Institute Of Modern Russia

Despite the conventional view that Russia’s economy will rebound when the price of oil swings upward, experts agree that what it really needs is an influx of capital investment. As IMR analyst Ezekiel Pfeifer writes, the Kremlin is attempting to stimulate investment by taking the risky step of allowing people’s wages to decline. The question is: Will the gambit work?

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Russia Is Drifting Into the Great Unknown (Op-Ed)by By Ivan Sukhov
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:30 PM

The Moscow Times Top Stories

The Russian people have no idea toward which port the ship of state is sailing, much less whether it is a worthwhile destination, writes columnist Ivan Sukhov.

Russian Leaves U.S.-Owned Grain Terminal Over Homophobic Comment
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:30 PM

The Moscow Times Top Stories

A Russian man had to leave his job at the U.S.-owned Cargill grain terminal in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia after writing a homophobic comment below a company news story about a gay pride parade.

Health Officials Probe 2nd Plague Case at Yosemite Parkby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Thursday August 20th, 2015 at 2:29 PM