Vladimir Putin
Interview: Garry Kasparov talks about Putin's endgame
March 11, 2010Former world chess champion and current Kremlin gadfly Garry Kasparov sat down recently with RFE/RL Azerbaijani Service correspondent Ibragim Bayamduroglu to talk about the Russian political landscape. In a wide-ranging interview, Kasparov interprets...
Yanukovych in Moscow: More than balancing his Brussels visit
March 10, 2010By Vladimir Socor Ukraine’s newly elected President, Viktor Yanukovych, paid a visit (and, to a degree, homage) to Moscow on March 5. Inaugurated in office on February 25, Yanukovych chose Brussels as his first destination for a working visit...
Russia: Kaliningrad protests force region health minister to resign
March 10, 2010By Paul Goble Yesterday, Elena Lyuikova, the Kaliningrad health minister, retired “at her own request,” according to Russian media, but because local political activists had staged 63 demonstrations over the last 18 months calling...
Putin's old nemesis, Marina Salye, speaks out after decade of silence
March 05, 2010By Anastasia Kirilenko Marina Salye has been a small but persistent thorn in Vladimir Putin's side for nearly two decades. As a local lawmaker in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s, she pushed for Putin's resignation as the city's deputy mayor after...
Russians seeing U.S. in a sunnier light
March 03, 2010By Kevin O'Flynn The Cold War may be over, but for the past several decades Russians have taken an extremely dim view of their former superpower rival, the United States. Much of that appeared to mirror relations between then-presidents Vladimir Putin...
Medvedev and Putin pay surprise visits to the North Caucasus
March 03, 2010By Valery Dzutsev The North Caucasus receives unprecedented attention from Russian leaders On March 1, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made an unannounced brisk visit to the North Caucasus. In the North Ossetian town of Beslan, Putin met the head of...
Russians ready for a ‘softer’ and ‘more civilized’ Iron Curtain
February 26, 2010By Paul Goble Russians, as a result of their history and actions connected with the rule of Vladimir Putin over the last decade, increasingly believe that their country must follow a “special” path, one that sets the stage for dividing...
Russia makes new demands on Ukraine after Yanukovich’s victory
February 22, 2010By Paul Goble Moscow has demanded that incoming Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich among other things end Kyiv’s contacts with the CIA and allow the FSB to return to Crimea, part of a more general effort by Russia to exploit the election outcome...
Moldova to build good relations with Russia, Ukraine and Romania
February 11, 2010Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat visited the Gagauzia autonomous region on Tuesday and stated in Chadyr-Lunga town, in particular, that his Government stands for establishing good partnership relations with the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Romania...
New military doctrine highlights Russia’s focus on former Soviet space
February 11, 2010By Paul Goble In a marked departure from Soviet precedents, Russia’s newly approved military doctrine specifies that Russia’s “opponent is not NATO or the United States in general” but rather the extension of the activities...