Free Republic

Putin Rejects Suspension of Aid to Hamas-Run PA 20:21 Feb 08, '06 / 10 Shevat 5766 (IsraelNN.com) In an interview with Spanish media, published today, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his objection to suspending aid to the Palestinian Authority, regardless of the Hamas terrorist organization's position there. Putin is beginning a two-day state visit to Spain today. "It would be a big mistake to suspend aid to the Palestinians," the Russian leader said. "If we stop helping simple Palestinian citizens, are we going to eradicate terrorism and criminality? Of course not." Putin added that while Hamas is "considered as terrorist...

# NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- When George W. Bush confronted Vladimir Putin last week about the freedom of the press in Russia, Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe reports, Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS." Details of the meeting, which included just the two presidents and their translators inside the historic castle that overlooks the Slovak capital of Bratislava, are reported in the March 7 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 28). It's not clear how well Putin understands the controversy that led...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

Did United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan hightail it to Moscow to check in with his handpicked UN reform man Yevgeny Primakov within weeks of William Safire’s New York Times expose on alleged scandal in the Oil-For-Food Program? The first of Safire’s groundbreaking Oil-For-Food investigative stories ran in mid-March, 2004. Here’s Annan’s Moscow itinerary as documented by The Russian Federation: "Annan arrived in Moscow on Sunday, April 4, 2004 where he had an early working dinner with Evgeni (sic) Primakov, former Prime Minister of the Russian Federation." On the following day, Annan visited the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where...

Not only do a small number of extraordinarily wealthy business clans control most of Ukraine's economy, but they grew accustomed to tremendous access to political power under Kuchma. As unpopular as Russian President Vladimir Putin has become in the West for his assault against Russia's oligarchs, Yushchenko has little choice but to do the same against Ukraine's oligarchs. No one should be surprised if Yushchenko very soon singles out one oligarch to reverse a number of illegal privatizations under Kuchma as an example for other oligarchs of what is to come. Yushchenko's drive to expel oligarchs from direct influence in...

Viktor Yushchenko's election as president of Ukraine on Dec. 26 ushered in a new era for the post-Soviet state. But what now? Patching up relations with Russia, battling corruption at home, and assembling a government are top priorities. But so, too, is making sure that everyone -- even political top dogs -- is brought to justice for past crimes. SPIEGEL: Mr. Yushchenko, have you had any contact with Russia's President Vladimir Putin since your election as president of Ukraine? Yushchenko: So far there hasn't been any direct contact, no. SPIEGEL: Putin recently warned that you are surrounded by "anti-Russian influences."...

Ukraine's opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has urged his supporters to prevent a planned cabinet meeting from going ahead on Wednesday. Mr Yushchenko, declared winner of the re-run presidential election, said the "illegal government" should not be allowed to meet. The planned meeting is due to be chaired by his defeated rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Mr Yushchenko urged supporters to renew their blockade of government offices. Results unofficial "In what country is it possible for a government that has been dismissed to say that it doesn't want to go? No meeting of an illegitimate government can take place," he told...

RUSSIAN Presi dent Vladimir Putin's brazen scheme to rebuild the old Soviet Empire by annexing Ukraine has backfired. The backlash is brewing throughout the former Soviet republics that Russia calls its "near abroad." In trying to win the electoral contest in Ukraine for his pro-Russian puppet and then seeking to steal an election, Putin sacrificed valuable political capital and credibility in the region. That his allies in the KGB and the Russian Mafia likely sought to poison pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko when they couldn't defeat him just compounds the blunder. The overreaching by this would-be czar is most reminiscent...

LONDON - Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with TCDD, the most harmful known dioxin and one contained in Agent Orange, a scientist who analyzed his blood said Friday. The tests showed the TCDD was pure and must have been concocted in a laboratory, lead investigator Abraham Brouwer told The Associated Press. The tests, confirmed by three labs in the Netherlands and Germany, also confirmed that Yushchenko's blood contained 100,000 units of the poison, the second-highest concentration on record. Doctors announced last weekend that the 50-year-old Yushchenko was poisoned with a dioxin chemical that left him disfigured, but Brouwer...

President Vladimir Putin has come to the rescue of an injured seagull he found in the grounds of his holiday home in southern Russia. Russia's Centre TV reports Mr Putin discovered the stricken bird during a short break at his Bocharev Ruchey country residence, in the popular Black Sea resort of Sochi. One of the gull's wings was broken, but after some care and attention, it now appears to be on the mend. "Quite how the bird made it into grounds of the high-security presidential dacha is a mystery," the TV said. "But it got lucky: the president decided to...

Half of Russian women considers Putin a Super-Man05/07/2004 15:09 Russian newspaper St. Petersburg Times informs that women go crazy about Vladimir Putin. "I think he possesses unique male allure," stated 33-year-old accountant Elena Volkova. She has a picture of Putin on her desk and carries a keychain with his image in her pocket at all times. "In my opinion, he is the best leader we've ever had in Russia." Elena is not alone in her passion. Natalya Kuznetsova, 23-year-old PR manager said to the Times: "This is a true balsam for my soul to see him representing our country abroad....

December 3, 2002 C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet SmallpoxBy JUDITH MILLER he C.I.A. is investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab in Moscow during Soviet times, senior American officials and foreign scientists say. The officials said several American scientists were told in August that Iraq might have obtained the mysterious strain from Nelja N. Maltseva, a virologist who worked for more than 30 years at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow before her death two years ago. The information came to...

Russia calls on the United States to end its offensive in Iraq (AFP)

The arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, chairman of Yukos in Russia, the ouster of president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in Bolivia and the stiffing of international lenders by the Nestor Kirchner government in Argentina all demonstrate one thing. Far from having ended, history is rolling back the free market reforms of the 1990s, as the international landscape grows ever darker. To deal with the bleak reality of Latin America first. Sanchez, the owner of Bolivia's largest mining company, was elected with a tiny majority in June 2002 against two leftist candidates, Manfred Reyes Villa, a former military officer, and Evo Morales,...

St Petersburg, 1 June: The Russian Foreign Ministry has begun preparations for President Vladimir Putin's visit to the USA. "We have begun preparations for this important visit," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said at a press conference in St Petersburg on Sunday [1 June]. Meeting Putin in St Petersburg's suburb of Strelna earlier on Sunday, President George W. Bush invited him to visit the USA in September this year. "The invitation was accepted with gratitude," Ivanov said.

Putin Visits Lyricist on His BirthdayFriday March 14, 2003 1:40 AM MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday visited the man who wrote the lyrics to both the Soviet and Russian national anthems, giving him a medal for his 90th birthday. ``I consider you by rights a man of our epoch,'' Putin told Sergei Mikhalkov. Putin called on Mikhalkov in his Moscow apartment and presented him with the Order for Service to the Fatherland, Second Class, hanging the medal around Mikhalkov's neck during a 90-minute visit. Mikhalkov, a poet who first gained fame through verse for children, co-wrote...

                 The Empire strikes back: Putin cult reaches new levels By Andrew Jack in MoscowFinancial Times | Oct 12, 2002 They came bearing tributes from all parts of the empire: a crystal crocodile from Moldova; a slow-growing Siberian pine tree from Tomsk; even promises of a reproduction Tsarist crown from the Urals, and of a mountain in Kyrgyzstan.As officials in the Kremlin begin sifting some of the more extravagant presents offered to President Vladimir Putin in the past week, others are considering the underlying significance of the pomp surrounding the head of state's 50th birthday this week.If the gifts...