The Assad regime in Syria is broke. That was the consensus of every expert, and resident, more than one year ago. American officials noted that the regime was struggling to find a way to print currency, and that by July of last year the regime had spent more than half of its sovereign wealth fund. […]
News of the stabbing death of a 25-year-old ethnic Russian by a non-Russian, and the subsequent rioting in Biryulyovo, a district of Moscow, was not particularly surprising – Russia has been experiencing inter-ethnic violence and subsequent protests with alarming frequency. What set the Biryulyovo pogroms apart was both the extreme nationalist catharsis that characterized the events […]
The prospects of a Geneva II conference to resolve the Syrian crisis occurring in November are fading, as several key unresolved issues remain. The first is that the Syrian opposition that took to the streets to protest, and later to fight, against Bashar al Assad remains unwilling to negotiate until Assad’s resignation is agreed to […]
Syria has sacked their deputy prime minister, Qadri Jamil, without warning. Any sudden change in the Assad regime is likely to spark controversy and conspiracy theory. Jamil is a member of the opposition party recognized by the President’s party, the Ba’ath party. Jamil’s party is often seen as a farce as it is fairly closely tied […]
The press secretary of the head of state speaks about Vladimir Putin’s nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, the conflict in Syria and relations with the opposition and photoshops of the president. Dmitry Peskov, deputy head of the presidential administration and press secretary for the head of state spoke to Izvestiya correspondent Aleksandr Yunashev on […]
U.S. President Barack Obama made a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday. He addressed many issues, but there were two key areas, the crisis in Syria and Iran’s nuclear program, that were his focus. On Syria, Obama said that Assad must be held accountable for using chemical weapons on August 21st, an event with […]
Izvestia has deep ties to the Kremlin, and if anyone is unclear about Izvestia’s motives, a sense of history and a quick read of their editorials will quickly shed light on their ideology. This article, for instance, was published on the front page this week, and claims to explain the historical causes of the tragic […]
The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) met in Sochi to discuss security concerns facing the former Soviet bloc. Izvestia, a pro-Kremlin outlet, highlights the discussion of Syria. According to the report, the CSTO is concerned about “gangs” from Syria endangering their borders. This is curious, as one would think that the “gangs” in Syria have […]
ITAR-TASS (the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia) is a state-owned outlet with close ties to the Kremlin. Last week they published the article below in response to the editorial written by American Senator John McCain, which was published on another pro-Kremlin outlet, Pravda.Ru. The article is called “Public Opinion: Reply to McCain,” but as we see […]
This has been the week where foreign policy battles have been waged in newspaper op-eds. First, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an editorial in the New York Times, criticizing the Obama administration’s rush to war in Syria. In response, an indignant Senator John McCain, highly critical of both Assad and Putin, demanded to write an […]
