Russia

Source : The Wall Street Journal | Moscow | 29 Dec 2011

Russia sought to undermine the authority of the U.S. as a global judge of human rights with its first report detailing allegations of torture, phone tapping and abuse by the U.S. government.

"The situation in the United States is a far cry from the ideals that Washington proclaims," says the foreign ministry's report, released Wednesday.

By Associated Press | Sanaa | 21 Dec 2011

Nearly 200 people, among them 15 foreigners, have been killed in clashes over the past few weeks between an ultraconservative Islamist group and former Shiite rebels in northern Yemen, a military official and the leader of the Islamist faction said Wednesday. In Moscow, Russia’s Foreign Minister said four Russian citizens were among those killed.

By Gleb Bryanski : Reuters | Moscow | 20 Dec 2011

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia would not reduce funding for the impoverished and volatile North Caucasus region despite criticism from the opposition and a rising wave of nationalism in the rest of the country.

Putin, campaigning to support his flagging popularity ratings ahead of March 2012 presidential election, made a surprise visit to Chechnya where Russia fought two wars with separatist rebels.

Source : Reuters | 16 Dec 2011

Russia offered the U.N. Security Council a new, stronger draft resolution on the violence in Syria, lifting possibility of U.N. action after the killing of 27 Syrian soldiers by deserters raised the spectre of a slide into civil war.

Western envoys said the Russian text was too weak, but they were willing to negotiate over it, offering the council a chance to overcome its deadlock and issue its first resolution on Syria's nine-month-old crackdown on protesters.

Source : RT | Moscow / 7 Dec 2011

The Arab spring could turn into a fiery Arab summer as a result of NATO actions, the Russian envoy to the alliance says.

­“NATO’s political and military interference in the Arab spring may bring about a ‘hot Arab summer’, with a whole range of consequences for neighboring regions,” Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax ahead of Thursday’s Russia-NATO Council ministerial meeting.

He added that as a result of NATO’s interference, “Sharia law is coming to previously relatively secular states”.

David Hearst : The Guardian/UK / 02 Dec 2011

While an international noose is tightening around the neck of Bashar-al Assad's regime in Syria, with Turkey this week doing most of the pulling, one country, other than Iran, is intent on bucking the trend – Russia.

A day after the UN human rights council said that Syrian forces were committing crimes against humanity, and Turkey was considering imposing a buffer zone along its border to protect Syrians, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said further attempts should be made to engage with Damascus.

Islam Has Only One God

By Ali Vyacheslav Polosin | Moscow | 15 Oct 2011

Today there is much debate about the ideology of the future Russia. In addition to the traditional opponents – the Westerners and the Slavophiles, the Russian political stage has been joined by Islam, rising throughout the world. Kremlin officials and oligarchs, dubbed ‘democracy representatives’ by Russians, found no model idol on the presidential order and engaged in the creation of an enemy.

By Al Jazeera : United Nations / 05 Oct 2011

Russia and China have joined forces to veto a European-drafted UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria and hinting that it could face sanctions if it continues its crackdown on protesters.

Tuesday’s resolution received nine votes in favor and four abstentions from Brazil, India, Lebanon and South Africa. Russia and China cast the only votes against the resolution, which was drafted by France with the co-operation of Britain, Germany and Portugal.

By Vladimir Isachenkov | AP | Moscow / 04 Oct 2011

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proposed forming a “Eurasian Union” of former Soviet nations, saying the bloc could become a major global player competing for influence with the United States, the European Union and Asia.

Putin, who has lamented the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century,” denied that his proposal represents an attempt to rebuild the Soviet empire.

By Amie Ferris-Rotman : Reuters | Moscow / 30 Sept 2011

Al Qaeda is providing Russia's Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus with increasing amounts of money and vocal support, according to a lengthy report by a prominent Washington think tank.

The mainly Muslim regions along Russia's southern frontier are beset by near-daily shootings and bombings, carried out by rebels fighting for a separate Islamic state in an insurgency underpinned by two post-Soviet wars in Chechnya.