Russia

Source : Associated Press
MOSCOW | 28 Jun 2011

A Russian envoy told Syrian opposition members Tuesday that “leaders come and go” — an apparent signal to Syrian President Bashar Assad that he cannot count on his ally’s unconditional support after months of protests demanding his ouster.

It remains to be seen, however, if Mikhail Margelov’s comments indicated a change in Moscow’s opposition to tough UN action on Syria for Assad’s bloody crackdown on his opponents.

Source : Reuters
Damascus | 28 Jun 2011

Members of Syria's opposition in exile said they would use a visit to Moscow on Tuesday to urge Russia to condemn a violent crackdown on protests in the Middle Eastern nation.

Opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were due to meet Moscow's Africa envoy Mikhail Margelov, who has been involved in Rusian efforts to mediate in North Africa and the Middle East -- regions that have been hit by a wave of popular uprisings.

Source : Agencies
Moscow | 20 Jun 2011

Russia on Monday emphasized its opposition to a U.N. resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and urged the opposition to sit down with President Bashar al-Assad's government for talks on reform.

In an interview with the Financial Times, President Dmitry Medvedev strongly suggested Russia would not back any resolution on Syria in the U.N. Security Council but stopped short of vowing a veto.

Source : Reuters
Friday | 18 Jun 2011

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday, trying to break a deadlock over a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

Russia and China dislike the idea of any U.N. Security Council judgment on Syria and have played little role in discussions on a draft resolution to condemn Syrian bloodshed against protesters.

Source : Middle East Online
MOSCOW | 17 Jun 2011

Russia and China oppose Western interference in the unrest in the Arab world, the two presidents said Thursday in a declaration.

"The sides believe that the search for settling the situation in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa should take place in the legal field and through political means," said the declaration signed by Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao.

"Outside forces should not interfere in internal processes in the countries of the region."

Source : Reuters
Astana | 15 Jun 2011

Russia won the backing of China and other members of a regional security body in criticising U.S. plans for a missile shield, saying on Wednesday it could undermine global security.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a security bloc grouping Russia, China and four ex-Soviet Central Asian states, signed a declaration condemning any unilateral build-up of missile defences after their leaders met in the Kazakh capital.

Source | AP
MOSCOW | 10 Jun 2011

A disgraced Russian army colonel convicted of murdering a Chechen teenager was gunned down contract-style in downtown Moscow Friday, investigators said.

Yuri Budanov was sentenced to 10 years in jail for kidnapping and murdering 18-year-old Heda Kungayeva in 2000. His release on parole in 2009 sparked protests in Chechnya, but was cheered by Russian ultranationalists and neo-Nazis.

Source : Diaa Hadid | AP
SINGAPORE | 05 Jun 2011

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says NATO is “one step” from sending troops into Libya in a bid to help rebels remove Muammar Qaddafi from power.

Ivanov said Sunday at an Asian security conference in Singapore that Russia didn’t know that a United Nations resolution it supported to protect civilians and shut down Libyan air space would lead to a land operation.

Source : Reuters
Moscow | 26 May 2011

Russia has contacts in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's entourage with whom it can negotiate his departure, Moscow's special representative on Africa Mikhail Margelov said on Friday.

"We shouldn't talk to Gaddafi himself but with members of his cabinet, possibly with his sons. And we are making such contacts, so there is a hope for a political resolution," Margelov told reporters at the G8 summit in northern France.

Source | Reuters
TBILISI | 23 May 2011

Georgia's parliament has branded the 19th-century killings of the Muslim Circassian minority by Russia's tsarist forces as genocide in a resolution likely to further strain Tbilisi's ties with Moscow.

Originally from the northwest Caucasus, Circassians say 1.5 million of their ancestors were systematically killed in a 1860-64 military campaign to conquer the Caucasus Mountain area on the southern border of today's Russia.

The deaths were recorded by Russian imperial historians in 1864. No nation has recognized them as genocide.