Victor Yasmann

Also by Victor Yasmann

• April 24, 2007

  Pressure Mounting On Opposition, Media

  In recent months, there has been widening intimidation against Russia's paltry political opposition and the few remaining alternative mass media organizations.

• April 11, 2007

  Third Term Becomes Election Issue

  For months, Russia's domestic politics have revolved around one basic but tantalizing question: Will Vladimir Putin leave office in March 2008?

• March 23, 2007

  Russia | Backtracking on Bushehr

  This week has seen much speculation about why Russian specialists are abandoning work on the Iranian nuclear plant at Bushehr. Pro-Kremlin observers say the move is punishment for Iran's refusal to cooperate with international demands to abandon uranium-enrichment activity. Will an anticipated vote on March 24 at the UN Security Council on a sanctions regime see Russia upholding this stance?

• March 21, 2007

  Russia: Kremlin Sees Its Foreign-Policy Star On Rise

  (RFE/RL) March 21, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The influential Russian think-tank, the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP), recently released a report on its projections for global geopolitical developments over the next decade.

• March 13, 2007

  Russia: Why Putin Is Going To The Vatican

  President Putin is an Orthodox Christian (epa) March 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- On a recent trip to Jordan, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked his host, King Abdullah II, if he could pray on the banks of the Jordan River.

• March 12, 2007

  A New Military, A New Doctrine

  President Putin seems to be personally leading a stepped-up effort to revive the military.

• February 22, 2007

  Is Heated Rhetoric Leading To 'Cold War Lite'?

  Following President Vladimir Putin attack on U.S. foreign policy in Munich, observers have speculated about the dawn of a new Cold War.

• February 16, 2007

  Russia: Putin's Cabinet Reshuffle Extends His Control

  (RFE/RL) February 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- President Vladimir Putin on February 15 announced a cabinet reshuffle that featured the promotion of Sergei Ivanov to the post of first deputy prime minister.

• February 13, 2007

  Russia: Putin Uses Gulf Trip To Boost Russian Role In Arab World

  (RFE/RL) February 13, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- It is rare for foreign leaders to be received in such pomp in Saudi Arabia, but Russian President Vladimir Putin was greeted by King Abdullah himself.

• February 12, 2007

  Russia: Putin Comes On Strong

  Putin speaks in Munich on February 10 (Courtesy Photo) February 12, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Speaking before political and military leaders from 40 countries at the Munich security conference over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin showed that his views are clearly at odds with those of his Western partners.

• February 06, 2007

  Russia: Rebranding The Nation

  One of the Antarctic explorers, Vladimir Pronichev (ITAR-TASS) February 6, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- When French police briefly detained Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov last month at a fashionable winter resort in France on suspicion of "illegal trafficking of young girls," public officials in Moscow condemned the action as evidence of an "anti-Russian campaign."

• February 02, 2007

  U.S. Takes Over NATO Force

  Britain has handed over control of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to the United States.

• January 31, 2007

  Potential Putin Successor Debuts At Davos

  First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has emerged as the second most-popular politician in Russia.

• January 23, 2007

  A Belarusian Pawn On Kremlin's Chessboard

  While the world sees Russia's relationship with Belarus in terms of energy security, Moscow is thinking incorporation.

• January 22, 2007

  Leaders Find Common Language

  Despite an agenda full of heavy topics, President Vladimir Putin and Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting in Sochi offered more style than substance.

• December 23, 2006

  Is USSR Nostalgia On The Upswing?

  This year marks the 15th anniversary of the death of the USSR, and it finds some in Russia looking back wistfully at Soviet times.

• December 21, 2006

  Russia's View | Integration hopes, gas worries

  December 21, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- For Russia, Saparmurat Niyazov's death means, on the one hand, the pleasing prospect of a less isolated Turkmenistan. On the other, there is the very real possibility that Ashgabat's gas supplies to Russia will dry up as the Central Asian nation navigates a new course.

• December 20, 2006

  Russia: The KGB's Post-Soviet 'Commercialization'

  Before the fall: KGB headquarters in 1990 (ITAR-TASS) December 20, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Russia today is honoring workers in the state security agencies -- a professional holiday better known by its Soviet-era appellation, "Chekists' Day" -- as the legacy of the KGB grows increasingly commercial -- and criminal.

• November 07, 2006

  Russia: U.S. Elections Unlikely To Affect Relations

  (RFE/RL) U.S. policy toward Russia is likely to change very little even if the Democratic Party gains control of one or both houses of Congress, says the head of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee.

• November 07, 2006

  Kremlin Pursues Special Relationship With Germany

  Kremlin spin doctors are talking more and more about a new strategy: "sovereign economy."

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