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By Ariel Cohen
In Washington last Friday, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov announced that Russia will supply P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria, confirming the rumors about the contract between the two countries that appeared in October 2009. The contract was signed in 2007 according to Moscow.
By Ariel Cohen
The appearance of a government-sponsored Putin 2012 cyrillic website [1]s pretty much clinches the major question in Russian politics: Will Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, “National Leader” and the former President of Russia, run for (and, by definition, win) the Russian presidency?
By Ariel Cohen
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently proclaimed Eurasia a Russian "sphere of exclusive interests." Moscow has backed up those words with every available foreign-policy tool: diplomacy (including recognition of breakaway republics), arms sales, defense pacts, base construction—even regime change.
The Manas Base and Challenges to the U.S. Presence in Kyrgyzstan
07-27-2010
By Ariel Cohen
Winning in Afghanistan is a vital U.S. national interest, and since 2001, Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan has been critical to this effort. Manas moves some 500 tons of cargo and 15,000 people per month into and out of Afghanistan.
By Ariel Cohen, Sally McNamara, and James Phillips
Commonly referred to as the West’s bridge to the Muslim world, Turkey has long been a key NATO partner and a strategic ally of Europe and the United States. On his first official state visit to Turkey, President Barack Obama singled out Turkey as a “strong, vibrant, secular democracy.”
By Ariel Cohen
Russian and Iranian energy ministers Sergei I. Shmatko and Massoud Mir-Kazemi, signed a “roadmap” to future economic cooperation in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries [2], according to ITAR-TASS, a Russian news-wire.
By Ariel Cohen
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that ten people have been arrested for being alleged undercover Russian spies. They were charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, as well as for money laundering. While not yet charged with espionage, nevertheless, they walked liked spies and talked like spies.
By Ariel Cohen
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit the United States from June 22 through 24 at the invitation of U.S. President Barack Obama. Topping the agenda will be the New START Treaty between the two countries, a treaty that is likely to arouse controversy in the Senate. The visit occurs after the U.S. was able to secure a vote by Russia on the United Nations Security Council to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran.
By Ariel Cohen
As President Medvedev of Russia is coming to visit Barack Obama, the Administration’s spokesmen are desperately trying to convince us that the “reset” policy with the Russia has paid off. They argue that Russia and the United States have developed a real partnership, as demonstrated by the signature of the New START treaty...
By Ariel Cohen
The bloody ethnic clashes occurring in southern Kyrgyzstan are the worst violence in the Fergana Valley, the heart of Central Asia, since 1990, when hundreds died in another outpouring of mutual hatred. The tragedy is that the current conflict, which risks turning the country into a failed state and tipping the entire region into chaos, could have been avoided.
By Ariel Cohen
The Obama administration has been caught flat-footed once again—this time in Kyrgyzstan. The administration didn’t anticipate the spring riots escalating and sweeping away corrupt President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and his clan. The U.S. was perceived as being too close to Mr Bakiyev, yet it did not move fast enough to distance itself from him and recognize the temporary government led by Roza Otunbayeva.
Kyrgyzstan’s Corruption Instigated Revolution
04-09-2010
By Ariel Cohen
What’s behind the revolution in Kyrgyzstan? Its people were fed up with the graft, nepotism and authoritarian ways of deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. The irony is that Bakiyev rose to power riding the same wave of public discontent and revulsion. It enabled him to depose Askar Akayev, his equally corrupt predecessor, five years ago.
START and Beyond: Obama Abandons US Power
04-07-2010
By Ariel Cohen
The New START Treaty that Presidents Obama and Medvedev are going to sign tomorrow in Prague sets the stage for the big show, the April 12-13 non-proliferation summit in Washington.
Both events are deeply flawed. Both are theater productions for Obama to push through his unrealistic agenda of “getting to zero”, i.e. attempting to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.
Free Khodorkovsky
03-10-2010
By Ariel Cohen
President Obama has his hands full dealing with Russia. However, high on his agenda should be the release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Moscow’s most famous prisoner.
Success there would demonstrate the administration’s ability to promote freedom in Russia and around the world. It even might encourage the freeing of other political prisoners and a new wave of reforms that would make Russia a better partner for the U.S.
By Ariel Cohen & Helle Dale
Russian anti-Americanism remains an entrenched and politically expedient phenomenon among the country’s governing elites. This may seem puzzling, given the rapprochement between Russia’s political leadership and the Obama Administration. Yet the idea of "resetting" the relationship between the two...
By Ariel Cohen, Ph.D. and Khrystyna Kushnir
On February 7, Ukrainians elected former Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych as president, a defeat for current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The first round of elections, held on January 17, appeared to be free and fair. The U.S. embassy and OSCE concluded that the second round of runoff elections were free and fair as well.
By Ariel Cohen
The Obama administration’s Russian “reset button” continues to malfunction.
The latest ignominy was a meeting last month between Russia and the United States designed by presidents of both countries to reset relations and explore new opportunities for partnership. Two days after the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission’s Civil Society Working Group’s ineffective meeting.
By Ariel Cohen
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week approved the first sale of a Mistral-class assault ship to a foreign nation—Russia. Paris is also considering Moscow’s request for three more of these powerful vessels to be built under license in Russia. It’s the Kremlin’s first major warship purchase from the West since before World War I and the first major weapons sale to Russia by a NATO member.
By Ariel Cohen
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.
By Ariel Cohen
As the Obama Administration negotiates a range of arms control initiatives with Russia, U.S. policymakers need to critically examine Russia’s views on nuclear weapons and doctrine. While successive U.S. Administrations have announced that Russia is no longer the enemy, Russia still considers the United States its "principal adversary," despite President Barack Obama’s attempts to "reset" bilateral relations.
By Fred Weir
After years squabbling over how the US could build an effective missile defense shield for Europe without scaring or offending Moscow, a growing number of experts suggest there may be an obvious way to square that circle: bring the Russians in and make them partners in a broad multi-national project.
By Ariel Cohen
In what appears to be an emerging ritual, Vice President Joe Biden is heading out to Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic ostensibly to talk missile defense. But in reality it looks like a mopping up operation after yet another faux pas by his Administration.
By Ariel Cohen
Is President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia trying to come out from under the shadow of his long-time political mentor and former boss Prime Minister Vladimir Putin? So it would seem.
By Ariel Cohen
Last weekend, Israel leaked to the Sunday Times of London that Russian scientists are developing nuclear warheads for Iran. According to the leakers, that’s why Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow for a “secret” visit September 7.
Velvet Reform
10-02-2009
By Ariel Cohen
As both Putin and Medvedev declared their interest in running in the 2012 elections, it became the main political scoop of that week. The Medvedev manifesto appeared as his electoral platform for a second presidential bid, and the first clear statement of his disagreements with Putin, his political mentor.
Continued
