Posts Tagged ‘Bush’
Posted on June 15, 2009 - by Venik
A ‘Reset’ Is Not Enough
By E. Wayne Merry This article originally appeared in The New York Times. E. Wayne Merry was a speaker at the World Russia Forum which was recently held in Washington, D.C. by Discovery Institute and the American University in Moscow. The Obama administration has offered to “reset” relations with Russia. But what is really needed [...]
Posted on August 22, 2008 - by Venik
US Confirms It Knew of Georgia’s Plan to Attack South Ossetia
In its August 22 issue, the Russian business daily Kommersant published the interview with the new US Ambassador to Russia John Beyrly. As should have been expected of an experienced diplomat, Ambassador Beyrly said a lot about nothing. Although he did bring up a couple of points worth mentioning. John Beyrly is a fluent Russian [...]
Posted on August 21, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia’s Propaganda War
Saakashvili must be still under the impression that his presidency will be saved by the outgoing Bush administration. Georgian propaganda warriors continue with their efforts. The New York Times decided to jump on the bandwagon: In the Georgian village of Shindisi on Wednesday, three journalists from The New York Times were present when a researcher [...]
Posted on August 15, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia’s Attack on South Ossetia: Washington’s Role
Elusive NATO Membership At the NATO Summit in Bucharest in April 2008 Georgia was denied Membership Action Plan. Aside from Russia’s vehement opposition, the key issues outlined in the NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan, accepted by Georgia in October 2004, remain unresolved. These issues are: Georgia’s antiquated military equipment, insufficient training and deployability of its [...]
Posted on August 14, 2008 - by Venik
Russians in Georgia: Goals and Consequences
The Christian Science Monitor – of all newspapers – published perhaps the most relevant and concise description of what Moscow has achieved so far with its blitzkrieg response to Georgia’s sneak-attack on South Ossetia. “If the Russians stop hostilities now, they will have redrawn the whole strategic situation in the Caucasus, to the detriment of [...]
Posted on August 12, 2008 - by Venik
Georgia’s Blunder
Saakashvili’s hysterical propaganda aside, it is now evident that Russia’s operation in Georgia was strictly limited to defending the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia against Georgian aggression. Consider the facts: Russia deployed just 6,000 troops in South Ossetia and 9,000 troops in Abkhazia (and even these modest numbers are probably overstated by the [...]
Posted on July 27, 2008 - by Venik
Karl Marx and the White House
The redneck right in the US and their fearless leader John McCain are praising Dubya for lowering oil prices. Just look at the facts, they say, oil price dropped ten bucks and the gas price is a whole penny lower. We’ve been paying a lot of attention to the prices of crude and gasoline, but [...]
Posted on June 28, 2008 - by Venik
The Makings of a Successful Foreign Policy
I just finished reading Jim Hoagland’s “Enough Rope for Russia” in the Washington Post. From time to time the mouthpiece of Republican neocons publishes nonsense about Russia and this piece by Hoagland is a particularly entertaining example. Hoagland mentions Russia’s intention to form a cartel of natural gas-exporting nations, similar to the OPEC. He also [...]
Posted on June 14, 2008 - by Venik
Bush-Sarkozy News Conference
On the stage they looked like two brothers – American Bush and the French Bush. Bush looked tired and annoyed: same old questions from the journalists and the same old answers from Bush’s policy advisers that he memorized and could regurgitate almost without mistakes. Sarkozy, on the other hand, was clearly feeling napoleonic that day. [...]
Posted on March 29, 2008 - by Venik
Russia and the US heading toward a confrontation
It seems that Russia and the US are moving toward some major headbutting in April. First, there’s the issue of Kosovo and the announcement by the US that it intends to provide weapons to the breakaway province. Russia opposes the move, saying that this would be a violation of the UN SC Resolution 1244 (which [...]
Posted on January 11, 2008 - by Venik
Presidential primaries and the idiot’s war
Like many of you, I was watching the Democratic presidential debates. They almost convinced me to vote Republican for the first time ever. The first question on the agenda: nuclear terrorism and, of course, Osama. According to the leading economists, the country is heading toward a deep recession (1). Even with the buy-out of Countrywide, [...]
Posted on December 10, 2007 - by Venik
Russia’s liberals: the identity crisis
I just stumbled upon a remarkably-balanced article about Russian politics: “In Russia, a democratic message blurred“, by Nikolai Petro, US State Department’s former special assistant for policy on the Soviet Union under George H. W. Bush. It is not every day that in an American newspaper one encounters an intelligent thought about Russia’s political life. [...]
Posted on December 3, 2007 - by Venik
Western press on Russian elections
I guess sometimes the desire to criticize is just too overwhelming to resist. Western journalist covering the Russian elections resemble a herd of wildebeest crossing a river, falling prey to logic and common sense. An unstoppable desire to print something scathing, and brutal, and full of appearance of righteous indignation. It doesn’t matter if the [...]
