Russia’s security differences with NATO countries have been encouraging Moscow to strengthen ties with Asian countries, above all China. These differences range from concerns over U.S. missile defense programs to unease about NATO’s increasingly capable conventional weapons to dissatisfaction with Moscow’s minimal influence on European security issues due to Russia’s non-membership in NATO. Read Here […]
Is the decade-long BRIC dream over? Bloomberg reports that capital flight from Brazil, Russia, India, and China has sent their bonds, currencies, and stocks down together for the first time since 2006. Read Here – Businessweek
Instead of joining the race to commercially exploit this pristine region, New Delhi must use its position in the regional council to push for a global mechanism to prevent an unseemly gold rush. Read Here – The Hindu
It would be perversely ironic if Edward Snowden’s crusade against the U.S. government Internet surveillance programs resulted in less Internet freedom in Russia. Read Here – Moscow Times
Russia has consummated some huge energy deals with China in recent weeks. These deals are – or at least are being advertised as – major steps forward in the Russo-Chinese energy relations, Russia’s pivot to Asia – which uses big energy sales to upgrade its influence and standing – and the development of the energy […]
President Vladimir Putin‘s improbable rise to the pinnacle of Russian power in 1999-2000 was partly the result of an elite consensus about the importance of restoring order to the Russian state after a decade of domestic crisis and international humiliation. Read Here – Moscow Times
Lavrov, at age 63, is already the longest-serving of Russia’s post-Cold War foreign ministers. Hard-drinking, hard-charging, a relentless and smart negotiator who has by turns infuriated and impressed his many diplomatic interlocutors over the years, he has come, more than anyone perhaps aside from Putin himself, to personify Russia’s return to the world stage. Read […]
No matter what one thinks should be done about global warming, the fact is, it’s happening. And its effects are not all bad. In the Arctic, it is turning an impassible region into an emerging epicenter of industry and trade, according to Scott Borgerson, Managing Director of CargoMetrics and Co-Founder of the nonprofit organization Arctic Circle. […]
Observers say he is a sure thing. His party hopes he is. In what is a three-way competition, Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj will be seeking to retain power in the presidential election scheduled for June 26, keeping his Democratic Party the dominant force in government at least until the next legislative election. Read Here – […]
Ten years after China sent its first man into low earth orbit, three astronauts operating the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft started a journey on a mission which seeks a permanent space station around 2020. Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the launch site that the crew carry a “space dream” of the Chinese nation and represent the lofty […]
looking beyond borders 