As a brief reminder that there is more going on in the world than “debates over healthcare”:http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28213.html, “nobel prizes”:https://themonkeycage.org/2009/10/obamas_first_nobel_prize_1.html and “SNL skits”:http://www.politico.com/arena/archive/snl.html, here’s a quick summary of recent news from Russia:
bq. Regional elections were held in 75 of Russia’s 83 regions on Sunday, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s “United Russia”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Russia party “was the big winner”:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/world/europe/13russia.html amid “allegations of electoral fraud”:http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/387304.html, including the common Russian practice of the misuse of “administrative resources”.
bq. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Moscow now for talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, apparently not asking Russia to take specific steps “in regard to Iran’s nuclear program”:http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE59C1OF20091013, but is heralding an era of “improved cooperation with Russia”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/13/hillary-clinton-dmitry-medvedev-talks on issues including Iran and “cooperation on missile defense”:http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2009-10-13/clinton-lavrov-us-russia.html.
bq. Both Russia and Georgia “continue to react”:http://www.rferl.org/content/Finding_The_Facts_Losing_The_Message_/1849595.html to last month’s release of the report of the EU’s “Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/30_09_09_iiffmgc_report.pdf, with both sides claiming “justification of their actions from the report”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8281990.stm.
bq. Russia Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who incidentally is not supposed to be in charge of Russian foreign policy, is in China signing trade deals but apparently “has not reached agreement on a gas deal”:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125542273198682053.html.
bq. Finally, Mikhail Kasyanov, a prime minister during Putin’s first term as Russian president, has published a new book entitled _Without Putin_ that “offers a scathing critique of the current prime minister and former president, including claims that Putin kept his former mentor, Boris Yeltsin, locked in a ‘golden cage’ and isolated from his supporters in the years before his death” (quote from “RFE/RL”:http://www.rferl.org/content/In_New_Book_Kasyanov_Tells_of_Yeltsins_Golden_Cage_Khodorkovsky_Deal/1849413.html, for more see “here”:http://www.rferl.org/content/In_New_Book_Kasyanov_Tells_of_Yeltsins_Golden_Cage_Khodorkovsky_Deal/1849413.html).
