http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/medvedev/ en-us Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:57:33 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045960/posts Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has attacked Western "paternalism" in a major foreign policy speech, singling out US and European policies on missile defence and Kosovo for criticism. "With the end of the Cold War, there is no reason to have a bloc mentality. There is also no reason for paternalism, where some countries decide everything for others," Mr Medvedev said during a meeting with Russian diplomats in Moscow. The Kremlin leader also likened the situation in Kosovo to Iraq and warned that Russia would be forced to take countermeasures against controversial US plans to site missile defence installations in Eastern... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045960/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:57:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040308/posts Russia’s new president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, less swaggering than his predecessor but as touchy about criticism from abroad, said in an interview that an America in “essentially a depression” was in no position to lecture other countries on how to conduct their affairs. ... In the interview, Mr. Medvedev was asked about a call by Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, to bar Russia from the Group of 8 because of its record on democracy. ... “The Group of 8 exists not because someone likes or dislikes it, but because objectively, they are the biggest world... nytimes.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040308/posts#comment Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:36:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032856/posts MOSCOW, June 17 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Tuesday with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Moscow. RIA Novosti reported Kissinger, who served as secretary of state from 1973-77, said he was honored to meet with Medvedev, who was inaugurated May 7. "I have followed with great interest your becoming president and the plans you have put forward in some of your speeches. I wish you every success. It is important for Russia and important for the world," Kissinger was quoted as saying. Kissinger serves as U.S. chairman of the panel "Russia-USA: A Look into the... upi.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032856/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:49:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029669/posts Dmitry Medvedev delivered the most anti-American speech of his one-month presidency this weekend when he claimed that US selfishness had led the world into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Addressing a grandiose conference designed to show off Russia's financial resurgence, the new president said that America's "economic egoism" and Western protectionism had triggered a global economic slowdown. "The aggressive financial policies of the biggest economy in the world have led not only to corporate losses; most people on the planet have become poorer," he told delegates at the St Petersburg Economic Forum. Western chief executives who came... telegraph.co.uk http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2029669/posts#comment Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:51:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027819/posts Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday blamed the US and its banks in large part for provoking today’s financial crisis - and pushed for a role for Russia in finding a way out of the turmoil. Mr Medvedev warned that growing ”economic egoism” had contributed to global problems including rising food prices, but singled out the US for particular criticism for its role in triggering a global economic slowdown ”Failure to take proper account of the risks by the biggest financial companies in combination with an aggressive financial policy by the world’s biggest economy led not only to corporate losses,”... The Financial Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027819/posts#comment Sun, 8 Jun 2008 07:06:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026702/posts BERLIN -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday in his first major foreign policy speech that if NATO moves to expand further east it would seriously undermine relations between Russia and the West. At a Berlin forum on his first Western trip since succeeding Vladimir Putin, Mr. Medvedev suggested a new European security pact that would protect interests of all nations on the continent. But if NATO continues eastward expansion instead, he suggested it could lead to long-term problems with Moscow. Using harsh rhetoric characteristic of his predecessor, Mr. Medvedev said, "I'm convinced that in this case our relations with... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026702/posts#comment Thu, 5 Jun 2008 21:31:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015369/posts Dmitry Medvedev may be Russia's president but Vladimir Putin has kept his place in the Kremlin. When Putin came to his old office in the Kremlin on Monday to propose the names of ministers for his government, the former president made for his customary seat on the left of the desk. But he paused before sitting down and told President Medvedev: "Now this is your place," Russia's Kommersant daily reported. "Oh, what's the difference?" Medvedev answered and immediately sat on the right of the desk, where Putin's guests traditionally perched for the eight years of his presidency. Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2015369/posts#comment Tue, 13 May 2008 18:24:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013588/posts "Nuclear missiles and tanks paraded Friday across Red Square for the first time since the Soviet era but new President Dmitry Medvedev warned other nations against "irresponsible ambitions" that he said could start wars. Marching bands and 8,000 troops goose-stepped across the square, followed by a huge display of heavy weapons including Topol-M ballistic missiles and T-90 tanks, and a fly-by of warplanes. Reviewing his first parade as commander in chief, Medvedev warned against "irresponsible ambitions" that he said could spark war across entire continents. In an apparent attack on US foreign policy and Western backing for Kosovo's independence, Medvedev... Breitbart.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013588/posts#comment Fri, 9 May 2008 15:16:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013222/posts MOSCOW (AP) — When Boris Yeltsin left the Kremlin eight years ago, he gave Vladimir Putin the pen he had used to sign important documents and decrees, a gesture symbolizing the transfer of power to Russia's new president. When Putin left the Kremlin, he took the pen with him. Putin, who became prime minister Thursday, has signaled that he intends to remain Russia's principal leader, at least in the short term — and possibly much longer. He is keeping the trappings of his presidency and many of its powers as well. It was not always meant to be this way.... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013222/posts#comment Thu, 8 May 2008 20:48:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013121/posts SHORTLY AFTER being sworn in as Russian president yesterday, Dmitry Medvedev declared that "my most important task is to further develop civil and economic freedoms." Above all, said the 42-year-old former law professor, "we must achieve true respect for the law and end the legal nihilism that is seriously hindering modern development." That was a remarkable statement under the circumstances. Mr. Medvedev, after all, owes his position to the "legal nihilism" of outgoing president Vladimir Putin, who grossly abused both the letter and the spirit of Russia's nominally democratic constitution to install a handpicked successor. Mr. Putin, who takes over... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2013121/posts#comment Thu, 8 May 2008 16:46:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993864/posts Two Russian newspapers, Nezavisimaya gazeta and Moskovsky korrespondent, reported today, March 28, that Vladimir Putin will be named head of United Russia at a party congress that will be held in April. Noting that Putin used the occasion of a United Russia congress last October to announce that he would head the party’s federal list of candidates in the December 2007 State Duma election, and then used the occasion of a United Russia congress in December to accept Dmitry Medvedev’s invitation to serve as prime minister under a future Medvedev presidency, Nezavisimaya gazeta reported that Putin will use a United... Eurasia Daily Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993864/posts#comment Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:33:18 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993862/posts Russian President-Elect Dmitry Medvedev Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev is citing low popular support for NATO membership in Ukraine as his argument against NATO approval of a Ukrainian Membership Action Plan (MAP) at NATO’s April 2-4 summit (Interfax, Financial Times, March 26). This thesis is common to the Russian and German governments. While Moscow is adding direct threats to Ukraine in this context (see EDM, March 24), Berlin more elegantly refers to Ukrainian public opinion polls. Chancellor Angela Merkel has invoked this argument in rebuffing a personal appeal to her from U.S. President George W. Bush by video-conference. Bush was seeking... Eurasia Daily Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993862/posts#comment Sun, 30 Mar 2008 03:28:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992994/posts What is it about Russia that drives the Anglo-American world mad? Soviet communism collapses, the empire is relinquished. Then come the wild hopes and failures of the 1990s—including the 1993 half-coup and the tank assault on Russia's legislature, the results-adjusted referendum on a new constitution (still in force), the dubious privatisations, the war in Chechnya and the financial default in 1998. But after all that, in December 1999 Boris Yeltsin apologises, steps down early—and names his prime minister and former secret police chief Vladimir Putin as acting president. To widespread consternation, Yeltsin predicts that the obscure spy is the man... Prospect Magazine, Political and Cultural Essays and Arguments http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1992994/posts#comment Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:41:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990828/posts Russian Oscars censored24/03/2008 13:13  - (SA)    Moscow - A series of jokes about President Vladimir Putin and president-elect Dmitry Medvedev were censored from the screening of Russia's equivalent of the Oscars film awards ceremony, newspapers reported on Monday. The jokes - mild by Western standards of satire - at Friday's "Nika" awards, were cut by private television station CTC in its broadcasting Saturday of the event, according to Moskovsky Komsomolets. "All the juicy stuff from the broadcast was edited out," the daily said. One of the comments axed, the newspaper said, was an allusion to uncertainty over whether Medvedev or his... News 24 (South Africa) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1990828/posts#comment Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:54:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1987215/posts The Kremlin has made little secret that its energy policies are unlikely to change in the wake of the 2 March presidential poll. Russia's president-elect Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly pledged to sustain what he has described as political "continuity." The first deputy prime minister still serves as chairman of the board of natural gas monopoly Gazprom and has tended to defend the gas giant against what he has called unfair criticism by the West, including claims of "energy blackmail." From 3 March, Gazprom cut gas supplies to Ukraine by 25 percent, and the following day it again limited gas supplies... speroforum.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1987215/posts#comment Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:39:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1986260/posts Russian secret services have foiled an attack on President Vladimir Putin close to Red Square, it has been claimed. A man with a sniper rifle and Kalashnikov assault gun was found and detained in a rented apartment overlooking Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral, on March 2, the day of the Presidential election in Russia. Mr Putin and his president-elect, Dmitry Medvedev, appeared under the cathedral for a late-night pop concert once early results indicated that Mr Medvedev would win a landslide. The popular Tvoi Den newspaper, which broke the story, claimed that both men could have been killed from the flat... Telegraph Media Group Limited http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1986260/posts#comment Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:33:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982968/posts MOSCOW – A joke circulating among Russians these days has Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev waking up in the Kremlin in 2023 with vicious hangovers. Putin says to Medvedev: “Which of us is president and which of us is prime minister today?” “I don't remember,” Medvedev replies. “I could be prime minister today.” “Then go fetch some beer,” Putin says. The new odd couple in Russian politics has become ideal fodder for keeping the cherished, and in Soviet times, once dangerous Russian tradition of poking fun at leaders through satirical jokes called “anekdoty.” The latest crop of jokes plays on... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982968/posts#comment Sun, 9 Mar 2008 20:00:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982758/posts Outside Edge: Fashion’s black day By Vanessa Friedman Published: March 7 2008 18:36 | Last updated: March 7 2008 18:36 When history looks back on that strange phenomenon of the fin de siècle known as “business casual”, it may well cite last Monday as the day the movement died. That was the moment when Vladimir Putin, the outgoing Russian president, and Dmitry Medvedev, his successor, made a surprise appearance in Red Square in Moscow at a rock concert sporting, respectively, zip-up black nylon and black leather jackets and matching zip-up black polo necks. The outfits were, presumably, Mr Putin’s and... FT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982758/posts#comment Sun, 9 Mar 2008 06:19:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982527/posts NOVO OGARYEVO, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday warned the West against expecting a thaw under his "nationalist" successor Dmitry Medvedev. "Dmitry Medvedev will be free to demonstrate his liberal views," Putin said after talks at his Novo Ogaryevo residence outside Moscow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "But he is no less a Russian nationalist, in the good sense of the word, than I am, and I do not think that with him the partnership will be more simple." Putin issued the warning just before Merkel went to a separate meeting with Medvedev, the first between a... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1982527/posts#comment Sat, 8 Mar 2008 18:32:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1981823/posts Renowned for her penchant for parties, Russia's first-lady-in-waiting is toning down her socialite image, concentrating on church and charity work as her husband prepares to move into his Kremlin office. Svetlana Medvedev, 42, wife of president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, has been a fixture on Moscow's social circuit and at fashion shows and has a reputation as a deft organizer of charity functions at home and abroad, especially in France and Italy. She's also friends with Russia's top fashion designers, pop stars and movie directors. Her exuberant personality and fondness for fine clothing have drawn some comparisons with Raisa Gorbachev, the stylish... Globe and Mail http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1981823/posts#comment Fri, 7 Mar 2008 12:37:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980288/posts Who remembers how to use a slide rule? Carbon paper? A telex machine? Such are the halfremembered skills of past decades. But for Russia-watchers, an equivalent long- dead technique is coming back: Kremlinology. Until Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Kremlin in the late Eighties, we used to scrutinise the leaden prose of the misnamed Pravda (Truth) and Izvestiya(News) for a clue to the internal machinations of the Politburo. Now, outsiders (and Russians themselves) are looking frantically for an explanation of the farcical "hand-over of power" between Vladimir Putin and his hand-picked successor as president, Dmitry Medvedev. Historically, Western opinion has... dailymail.co.uk http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980288/posts#comment Tue, 4 Mar 2008 18:12:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980338/posts ...Vaclav Havel, one of the very few truly great men of our time,... [a] lifelong advocate of nonviolent resistance, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, is a very old 71, a frail survivor of cancer and years in Communist cells. But he's as passionate as ever about freedom. The climax of his speech to NATO's military and civilian leaders was a stark warning about Russia: "A dictatorship of a fairly new type is coming into existence to the east of the area under NATO protection. All basic human and civic freedoms are gradually... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980338/posts#comment Tue, 4 Mar 2008 20:04:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980175/posts The election of Dmitry Medvedev as Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor to be president of Russia provides an opportune moment to initiate a long-overdue review of America's strategy toward Russia. It should now be clear that there is broad-based support in Russia for the direction in which Putin has taken his country; popular discontent with issues such as corruption has not translated into a desire to overturn the system he has created. Despite the excessive degree to which the Kremlin controlled the election process, there is nothing to suggest that Sunday's results invalidate the popular acquiescence with what Putin has wrought... http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/03/opinion/edgvosdev.php http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980175/posts#comment Tue, 4 Mar 2008 14:49:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1979796/posts Russia's new president has issued two clear messages designed to show he is no soft replacement for Vladimir Putin. Within hours of winning election Dmitry Medvedev allowed a pro-government youth march to descend on the US Embassy and the state-controlled gas monopoly reduced gas supplies to Western-leaning Ukraine. The moves are an early indication that Mr Medvedev, the president-elect, intends to continue the course set by his mentor Mr Putin, who has reasserted his country's power abroad while keeping a tight grip on society at home. Nearly final results from 99.45% of precincts showed that the 42-year-old Mr Medvedev had... Press Association http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1979796/posts#comment Mon, 3 Mar 2008 21:58:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1979320/posts Putin, Medvedev pledge unified pathBy JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago MOSCOW - Dmitry Medvedev, the man Vladimir Putin hand-picked to be his successor, scored a crushing victory in Russia's presidential elections Sunday, a result that was long anticipated but that still raises questions about who will run this resurgent global power. With ballots from over half of Russia's electoral precincts counted, Medvedev had 68.2 percent, according to the Central Election Commission. Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov had nearly 20 percent, it said. Medvedev was on course to win about 70 percent of the vote, according to a... Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1979320/posts#comment Sun, 2 Mar 2008 22:59:25 GMT