http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/putin/ en-us Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:40:54 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044146/posts SEVERODVINSK, Russia (AFP) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday toured a new Arctic oil rig intended to boost Moscow's position in the intensifying competition for northern energy reserves. Putin also met ministers and top oil executives in the Severodvinsk shipyard to discuss prospects for developing more Arctic fields, which are estimated to contain up to a quarter of Russia's proven oil and gas reserves. "The Arctic zone is a guarantee of Russia's economic power. Oil, gas, gold, diamonds and phosphates -- it's all there," Artur Chilingarov, a member of parliament who is also an Arctic explorer, told AFP... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044146/posts#comment Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:40:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043820/posts Despite renewed friction between Russia and the United States, the specter of open conflict has faded since the days of the Cold War. However, equipment designed by the two nations remains on opposite sides of 21st-century battlefields. This isn't surprising: America is the top vendor of major conventional weapons, and Russia ranks number two. Both countries share a legacy of making military equipment to counter the other's capabilities and a long history of parlaying arms sales into geopolitical influence. These deals, sanctioned by both national governments, are extensions of foreign policy. A resurgent Russia wants cash and international influence, while... Popular Mechanics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043820/posts#comment Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:21:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039863/posts The State Duma has called on Lithuania to end what it calls anti-Russian activity. It came after the U.S. suggested the former Soviet republic could become a base for its planned anti-missile shield in Europe and also followed the adoption of a ban on the public display of all Soviet symbols - a move Russia describes as rewriting history. From Thursday, relics of the Soviet Union such as the hammer and sickle flag, the Soviet army uniform or the USSR's national anthem are forbidden in public. Lithuania says the new law gives them a chance to move on from what... russiatoday.ru http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039863/posts#comment Wed, 2 Jul 2008 19:25:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042682/posts MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it would use military means if the United States deployed a missile defence shield close to Russia's borders. "If the real deployment of an American strategic missile defence shield begins close to our borders, then we will be forced to react not with diplomatic methods, but with military-technical methods," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its www.mid.ru website. The Foreign Ministry said the U.S. missile shield would undermine global security and Moscow's strategic deterrent. It said Moscow's proposals to Washington on the shield had been ignored. Top Russian generals have threatened... Yahoo.Au http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042682/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 00:59:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042783/posts The United States has criticised what it calls "bellicose rhetoric" from Russia over US plans to develop a missile shield in Europe. Russia said it would be forced to react with military means if the US went ahead with its plan for a shield based partly in the Czech Republic. The reaction was "designed to make Europeans nervous about participating" said a Pentagon spokesman. A White House spokesman said dialogue with Russia would continue. "We seek strategic cooperation on preventing missiles from rogue nations, like Iran, from threatening our friends and allies," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. He said... bbc.co.uk http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042783/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 05:22:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041329/posts Russian agents came close to carrying out the perfect assassination on British soil when they killed Alexander Litvinenko... Security sources have disclosed that the former Russian spy would have died within hours had the poisoned tea he was given been served hot. Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who had become a critic of the government of Russia's then president, Vladimir Putin... Security sources say that during the meeting Litvinenko took just a few sips of the tea but left the remainder of the cup because it was cold. "If Litvinenko had drunk all the tea he would have been dead... The Sunday Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041329/posts#comment Sun, 6 Jul 2008 03:58:04 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/2036846/posts Russian bombers have stepped up provocative flight exercises off the Alaskan coast, reminiscent of Cold War incursions designed to rattle U.S. air defenses. U.S. Northern Command, which protects North American airspace, told The Washington Times that TU-95 Bear bombers on 18 occasions the past year have skirted a 12-mile air defense identification zone that protects Alaska. The incursions prompted F-15s and F-22 Raptor fighters to scramble from Elmendorf Air Force Base and intercept the warplanes. The last incident happened in May. The venerable propeller-driven TU-95 came to symbolize the Cold War, as did its counterpart, the U.S. B-52 Stratofortress. "They... The Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036846/posts#comment Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:15:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036007/posts MOSCOW On Nov. 9, 2007, during a special operation in the village of Chemulga, in the republic of Ingushetia, Russian special forces shot and killed an individual by the name of Rakhim Amriyev. Eyewitnesses said that they shot him in the head and placed an automatic rifle beside his body. Then, as dozens of villagers who had run out of their homes looked on, the troops used an armored personnel carrier to demolish a wall of the one-room house where Amriyev lived and announced that he had died in a shootout. You may ask how I can be sure that... The Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2036007/posts#comment Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:17:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2034960/posts Quote:This poster design inspires you to learn about design history. There are a lot of interesting artists and art movements. The past is a rich design resource that can have a positive influence on your designs.It is a poster design inspired by an art movement called Russian Constructivism. I cut up some images and paste them together to create a stylized revolutionary design and then tied it all together by overlaying some texture to give it a vintage feel. "my skratchpad" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2034960/posts#comment Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:36:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033133/posts ----snip---- As news outlets pointed out, most of the G-8 countries have little control over production. One, however, does, and it has leveraged that control, and its enormous reserves, to regain status as a world power. ----snip---- He does have a stern warning for Western Europe, however. The region has become dangerously dependent on Russia for natural gas, he writes. With its spreading network of pipelines, Gazprom now has the power to let Europe freeze if it so chooses. ----snip---- While the Europeans and Americans have sought to break Gazprom's pipeline monopoly by promoting the construction of a bypass gas... The New York Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033133/posts#comment Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:17:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032762/posts June 18 (UPI) -- Russian state television taunted Sweden with past military victories before the two countries vie for a place in the quarterfinals of Euro 2008, the continent's most prestigious soccer tournament. Vesti-24, the government's cable channel, played a commercial every half-hour today using Soviet-era movie footage of Russian soldiers killing Swedes during Peter the Great's victory over Charles XII in 1709 and Alexander Nevsky's defeat of invaders in 1240. Each scene was followed by a scorecard reading ``Russia 1 Sweden 0'' and accompanied by the theme to the movie ``Gladiator.'' ``It's part of a revival of Russian nationalism,''... upi via email no link http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032762/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:31:31 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027731/posts CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Saturday he wants to work together with the next U.S. president and that Venezuela and the United States should cooperate to resolve problems including world hunger, energy shortages and climate change. But Chavez also warned that George W. Bush "will be much more dangerous during the last months that he has left" in the White House, and accused the outgoing U.S. president of attempting to orchestrate his assassination or spur a military rebellion in Venezuela. "Whoever is the next president of the United States, I'd like start preparing the way to start working... AP on Yahoo http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027731/posts#comment Sun, 8 Jun 2008 00:49:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026946/posts On May 26th, the United Nations did something it very rarely does. It took a stand. When that happens you know that some country has been caught dead to rights doing something so outrageous that even the cowardly bureaucrats at the UN were compelled to speak out against it. No country in the world is better at committing acts that outrageous than Russia is. In its May 26th report, after a formal investigation, the UN concluded that Russia had committed an act of war against Georgia when it shot down a Georgian reconnaissance aircraft as it flew over Georgian airspace... Publius Pundit http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026946/posts#comment Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026900/posts Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who wrapped his party’s presidential nomination just this week, is already besieged by liberal constituencies demanding that he cut military spending to boost social programs. Two influential liberal groups have sent the presumptive Democratic nominee a letter pressing him to support cuts to defense programs to pay for universal preschool, relief for Americans facing foreclosure on their homes and expanded benefits for military veterans. The demands carry weight because the groups, the Black Leadership Forum and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), represent two constituencies that are important to Obama’s political strategy: blacks and... thehill.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026900/posts#comment Fri, 6 Jun 2008 04:46:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026225/posts LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States, at a time when the nation's image abroad has been seriously damaged. From hundreds of supporters crowded around televisions in rural Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, to jubilant Britons writing "WE DID IT!" on the "Brits for Barack" site on Facebook, people celebrated what they called an important racial and generational milestone for the United States. "This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," said Sunila... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026225/posts#comment Thu, 5 Jun 2008 01:41:01 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/2025473/posts Despite renewed friction between Russia and the United States, the specter of open conflict has faded since the days of the Cold War. However, equipment designed by the two nations remains on opposite sides of 21st-century battlefields. This isn't surprising: America is the top vendor of major conventional weapons, and Russia ranks number two. Both countries share a legacy of making military equipment to counter the other's capabilities and a long history of parlaying arms sales into geopolitical influence. These deals, sanctioned by both national governments, are extensions of foreign policy. A resurgent Russia wants cash and international influence, while... Popular Mechanics http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2025473/posts#comment Tue, 3 Jun 2008 21:21:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024514/posts MOSCOW -- The Byzantine Empire fell in 1453. But you wouldn't know it in Russia, where Vladimir V. Putin has been behaving as though the 15th century never ended, as though he is the direct descendant of the Byzantine kings and Moscow remains the "Third Rome" it declared itself to be in 1472. Just like the leaders of Byzantium centuries ago, Putin and his supporters talk about Russia today as if it were a divinely ordained power, destined to withstand the decay and destruction of the West. The "double eagle" emblem, originally adopted in Russia about the time of the... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024514/posts#comment Sun, 1 Jun 2008 21:05:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024258/posts Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has urged France to distance itself from America, comparing the US to a 'frightening monster'. "How can one be such a shining example of democracy at home and a frightening monster abroad?'' Putin said in an interview with French newspaper Le Monde in Paris released on Saturday. "France, I hope, will continue to conduct an independent foreign policy,'' said Putin. He said the US was creating a new Berlin Wall in Europe by pushing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to expand into ex-Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine. The former Russian President also voiced concern... presstv.ir http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2024258/posts#comment Sun, 1 Jun 2008 03:56:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2023702/posts Publisher Peter Osnos, who admits to personally working with former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan on his new book, What Happened, began his career as an assistant to I.F. Stone, the pro-communist "journalist" named as a Soviet agent of influence who was the uncle of Weather Underground communist terrorist Kathy Boudin. But the connections don't end there. Boudin's son Chesa was raised by Barack Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were Boudin's comrades in the communist terrorist group, after Kathy Boudin went to prison for her involvement in an armed robbery and assault that took the... familysecuritymatters.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2023702/posts#comment Fri, 30 May 2008 20:59:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022250/posts A top Russian general says Moscow will take adequate measures to counter U.S. missile defense plans. Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky told a Tuesday briefing that Russia was thinking about "asymmetrical" steps if the United States deploys missile defense elements in Europe. He did not give specifics. ap news http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2022250/posts#comment Wed, 28 May 2008 02:11:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2020374/posts On February 22, 2008, Ben Smith of Politico reported a story that ran under the headline, “Obama once visited ‘60s radicals.” It concerned how, “In 1995, [Illinois] State Senator Alice Palmer introduced her chosen successor, Barack Obama, to few of the district’s influencial liberal at the home of two will known figures on the local left: William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.” Dr. Quentin Young, described as “a prominent Chicago physician and advocate for single-payers health care,” [1] was quoted as saying “I can remember being one of small group of people who came to Bill Ayers’ house to learn that... America's Survival http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2020374/posts#comment Fri, 23 May 2008 19:19:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2020373/posts Of Barack Obama’s contacts and associations with anti-American political figures, none is more controversial than Frank Marshall Davis, a writer an poet identified as a member of the Communist Party USA by several sources, including some sources sympatheitic to him. Obama and Davis met in Hawaii, at a time when a young Obama was in need of a black role model and mentor. Obama’s relationship with Davis, including subsequent associations with radical, communist and socialist figures in Chicago, should be investigated for the benefit of promoting the public interest and the public’s right to know. Indeed, America’s Survival, Inc. believes... America's Survival http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2020373/posts#comment Fri, 23 May 2008 19:19:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019047/posts Turns out that Obama's opening act at the megarally was The Decemberists, a hugely popular indie rock band, which typically opens their concerts with the Soviet National Anthem. How odd that the MSM didn't tell us that a few of the 75K in attendance may have come for the tunes. And did the Obama rally begin with the Soviet National Anthem? The concert went for 45 minutes and was widely pitched on Facebook etc. But did the band trim their act to make it Obama-appropriate? BTW: Here's an except of an interview with the band's guitarist: We’re a city magazine,... Hugh Hewitt.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2019047/posts#comment Wed, 21 May 2008 06:07:21 GMT