Poll
The Cypriot current banking crisis threatens to:
4th annual conference of the Middle East Dialogue of the Valdai International Discussion Club, titled “Islam in Politics: Ideology or Pragmatism?”, will take place in Marrakesh, Morocco, on May 14-15.
Issues of commonalities and differences in the Muslim communities of Russia and Canada, as well as problems of their integration into the legal frameworks of their respective countries, were the main topics of discussion at the conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation
The conference Muslims in Russia, the CIS, and Canada: Cohabitation and Cooperation presented by Carleton’ Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Political Science, the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam, and the Valdai Discussion Club is to be held on March 8, 2013 at the Carleton University, Ottawa.
The analytical report “Russia’s Economy: after Transformation, before Modernization” was prepared after discussions at the Valdai Discussion Club Summit held on October 21–22, 2012. The report incorporates many of the conclusions on Russia’s political development contained in the 2011 Valdai report “Russia Should Not Miss Its Chance: Development Scenarios”.
The Russia Development Index (Valdai Index) reflects the combined opinion of the world's leading experts on Russia as regards Russia’s political, economic, social, cultural and international performance. The annual poll aims to study changes in Russia’s development trends over a year. It is important that respondents assess not the current situation, but changes.
The analytical report “Military Reform: Toward the New Look of the Russian Army” summarizes the results of the conference of the Valdai Discussion Club Defense and Security section titled “Modernization of Russia’s Armed Forces and Cooperation in International Security” which was held on May 25-27, 2011 in Moscow.
Published in 2012 by the Beijing publisher Xinshijie this analysis of Vladimir Putin’s personality and his role in making Russia a strong and respected nation has enjoyed great success, with four printings and over 30,000 copies sold. It has been called by some of his colleagues the best biography of Vladimir Putin.
The immanent dynamic of Putin’s system points to another direction, that of a strengthening grip on civil society, a further repression of individual freedoms combined with an aggressive foreign policy in the post-Soviet space, possibly including revisionist territorial claims.
Anne Applebaum studies the formation of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe during the first decade. She describes how security services were gradually established in Eastern European countries with a view to controlling all aspects of life.
It is obvious that Russia and Vladimir Putin intend to build pragmatic cooperation with all those ready to build relations on equal and mutually beneficial terms. China is a very conven-ient partner in this regard. There is no need to remind of all the assessments made by leaders of both countries during the course of their high- and top-level meetings.
Over two decades China has made a huge success in implementing its long-term foreign strategic policy while Russia is still struggling to engage Africa. A critical assessment shows that Russia's problem of winning Africa back stems primarily from lack of political will and concrete policy agenda. After the collapse of the Soviet system, Russia revised its foreign policy concept which underlines new directions to develop political contacts and expand economic cooperation, but in the case of Africa, policy implementation has been slow and most often with little vigour and business-like flavour.
The growing outright rivalry between the United States and China gives Russia more foreign policy weight, enabling it to assume the role of a balancer. So far it has been doing so rather skillfully. Today it may participate in a joint naval exercise with China that Beijing positions as outwardly anti-American. But tomorrow it can team up with the naval forces of the Old World.
Richard Beeston, one of the leading foreign affairs writers in contemporary British journalism and a Member of the Valdai Club, passed away on May 19 2013 aged 50.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is one of the most important foreign policy initiatives taken by Russia along with five other countries. Both Russia and China want to reduce the threat of separatism and western influence in the region. Emergence of SCO provoked new international order.
Iran has made varying degrees of progress down the tracks—enrichment, weaponization and delivery system—needed to have a viable nuclear weapon. How far will it proceed? One option is to build a bomb and, to show the world its nuclear prowess, conduct a test. But that option poses real risks for the Iranian government.
The current contract portfolio of Russian arms exporters is worth about $46 billion. Annual exports total $15 billion, and this will ensure uninterrupted deliveries for the next three years, even in the worst-case scenario. The list of the main buyers of Russian weapons is unlikely to change drastically.
The fifth BRICS Summit declaration reflected confidence and hope for future cooperation. The BRICS acronym, created by Goldman Sachs five years ago, brought together the five fastest-growing emerging economies.
Russia’s primary interests in the region include maintaining sociopolitical stability and regional security, which comprises issues as varied as the fight against Islamist extremism and the drug threat, nuclear nonproliferation, and border control.
The world order laid down by the Atlantic Charter was based on U.S. military and economic dominance. To all intents and purposes, Washington will maintain its military dominance for the foreseeable future. Economic dominance is another matter.
Top Russian officials have blasted the United States defence and security policies even as Russia’s security chief was in Washington discussing ways to improve relations between the two countries. Moscow sees a big mismatch between Washington’s words and deeds.
Former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft said the top U.S. priority in Syria should be to work with Russia to arrange a cease-fire rather than to arm Syrian rebels or establish a no-fly zone in the country, as some in Washington are advocating.
Russia is not marching lock step with the North Korean, Iranian and Syrian governments. At last notice, Russia is not supporting extremists who do things like fly airplanes into office buildings, take civilian hostages and attack US government property. The budgetary considerations of post-Soviet Russia are geared towards giving greater preference to domestic concerns, when compared to the more guns over butter economic approach of the Soviet Union.
Russia could postpone its ambitious military spending program as an economic slowdown forces the government to review its spending plans, the country's finance minister indicated Wednesday.
President Barack Obama wants Russia to be friends. Obama reaffirmed on Wednesday his desire to strengthen the beleaguered bilateral relationship with Russia during talks with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
Wartime MI6 had secret plans for 'liquidation or kidnapping' of targets. British National Archives reveal plan to sow dissension among Soviet communists. The prime targets of the secret intelligence service were leading Soviet personalities.
Russia believes that its long-held vision of how to achieve peace in civil war-torn Syria has at last become possible due to a shifting balance of forces in the war and changing perceptions in the West, experts say.