Tag Archives: Russia

Replace "Russia" in this article with "Iran" or "China" and the analysis still applies against the conventional wishful thinking and corresponding policy based on magical thinking rather than objective analysis based on fact.This kind of thinking go the US bogged down in quagmires from Vietnam to Iraq that were costly in blood and treasure.IrrussianalityResilient RussiaPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Yesterday the State Duma in the third and final reading passed a bill increasing the rate of Value Added Tax from 18% to 20%. The increase will be effective starting from January 1, 2019. At the same time, Russian government is planning to keep the current reduced VAT rates (10% and 0%) for socially important goods and services. Thus, by the end of 2019 the budget will receive an additional RUB 620 bln, which will be used to implement President Putin’s spending plan.... AwaraRussia Passes...

Lighthearted but serious Patrick Armstrong updates us with links and humor.Russian ObserverRussian Federation Sitrep 19 July 2018 Patrick ArmstrongSee alsoStrategic Culture FoundationThe Establishment Strikes Back Philip Giraldi, former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer, now Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest and founding member of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for SanitySee also Fort Russ The Butina Case: A Tale Of...

Top security and intelligence officials from Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and China held a meeting in Islamabad, where they stressed the need for more active involvement of regional forces in efforts to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan.This is reported by TASS. On Tuesday, a meeting of leaders of the intelligence services of Russia, Iran, China and Pakistan was held in Islamabad, at which measures were discussed to combat the threat of the reunification of ISIS fighters in Afghanistan.......

The US has already tested this strategy in Iraq and Libya, according to Sergei Shoigu MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Russia will always counter the US neocolonialist strategy aimed at weakening legitimate governments in other countries, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale published on Wednesday. "The issue at hand is the neocolonialist strategy, which the US has already tested in Iraq and Libya and which boils down to supporting any,...

Must-read. as governTake-Away: Some Russian leaders, including Vladimir Putin, want Russia to be a democracy and they do not think that America is one. They want a real democracy as governance of, by and for the people. The Russian ObserverYes, Putin Once Dreamed the American Dream Patrick Armstrong

Links and commentary.Russian ObserverRussian Federation Sitrep 31 May 2018 Patrick ArmstrongalsoRussia FeedRussia launches its new hyper-sonic warhead from submerged submarine (Video)

Russia responds, not tit-for-tat, but asymmetrically as it said it would. Navalny helped the EU compile sanctions on the people who made Crimea’s return to Russia possible in 2014. A year later, he submitted a list of Russian bureaucrats he believed should be sanctioned to the FT, many of whom were indeed later sanctioned by the West. Also in 2015, professional oppositionists Mikhail Kasyanov and Vladimir Kara-Murza traveled to the US to lobby Congress into putting Russian journalists –...

Kudrin demoted. Kudrin is pro-Western and neoliberal.Dances with BearsAlexei Kudrin Accepts Accounting Chamber Post From SubordinateJohn Helmer

The six Russian national security documents issued since Putin first became president in 2000 display a remarkable conceptual consistency.1 They argue that a polycentric world is emerging and shifting the balance of power from the West to the Asia-Pacific region.2The West is attempting to prevent this, according to Russia, and this will mean greater competition over values and less cooperation in combating global threats like migration, pandemics, global warming and resource scarcity....