Excerpt from a blog By Marianna Gurtovnik
I have asked recognized experts on Middle East and terrorism to comment on the current situation in Yemen, which I covered last week, and to share their views regarding the U.S. policy in that country and the nations surrounding it.
The Obama administration has failed to complete the negotiation of a treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), which expired on Dec. 5. The two superpowers are now in unchartered waters.
Moscow and Washington have stated that Start still applies voluntarily. This is false. First, without the consent of the U.S. Senate, expired treaties are null and void. Second, the Russians already kicked out U.S. inspectors, thus scrapping a key provision of the now-dead treaty. Third, on Tuesday, Dec. 29, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin upped the ante, linking U.S. missile defenses with the treaty signature. Speaking in Vladivostok later that week, Mr. Putin warned against U.S. “aggressiveness” and disruption of the nuclear balance in case the Obama administration deploys missile defenses.
Harvest season is wrapping up in Russia, where the nation’s leaders are producing yet another bumper crop of irony.
Case in point: a recent online article, "Forward, Russia!" by President Dmitry A. Medvedev challenging Russians to fight corruption and create a workable modern justice system. Yet as this plea on Gazeta.ru hits home pages, Medvedev and his political mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, continue to countenance a second show trial of Yukos oil company founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev.
Yukos was once the largest and most transparent Russian energy company. It was taken over by the government in 2003, and its assets were sold off to state-owned Rosneft.