Free Republic

A key adviser to President Vladimir Putin accused Foreign Secretary David Miliband of 'anti-Russian racism' over his handling of the Alexander Litvinenko affair. It was claimed Mr Miliband let his personal views cloud his judgment in the recent tit-for-tat diplomat expulsion row over the murder of ex-KGB operative Litvinenko. Last month the Foreign Secretary expelled Russian diplomats from Britain after the Kremlin refused to sanction the extradition of the prime suspect in the murder case. President Putin responded by throwing out several British Embassy officials and banning visas for other UK diplomats. Now Russian political analyst Gleb Pavlovsky, who is...

Anti-Georgian hysteria in Russia is boiling over. On February 18 an advisor to Russian President Putin's administration and an anchor of his own program "Real Politics" on NTV Gleb Pavlovsky directly insinuated that "one bullet" would end difficulties Russia is facing with Georgian leadership. Speaker of Parliament Nino Burjanadze paid special attention to this fact and called on the international community to react. Recent anti-Georgian hysteria has been growing in Russia. Russian politicians and political analysts compete with each other in making anti-Georgian statements. There do exist, however, Russian political analysts that do not support the aggressive, imperialistic policy of...

On December 2, a constituent forum of the Democratic Choice Commonwealth took place in Kiev. The is as an alternative organization to the CIS, that unites Ukraine, Moldavia, and all Baltic countries, Poland, Slovenia, Macedonia, Romania and Georgia. During the round table discussion “Influence of the fourth wave of NATO expansion on political and election processes in post-Soviet countries”, that took place in Moscow on December 2, President of the Effective Policy Foundation Gleb Pavlovsky stated, that the creation of the new organization presumes peculiar blockade of Russia, as a REGNUM correspondent informs. “The unification of democratic countries’ club between...

KIEV, November 23 (RIA Novosti) - Director of the Russian Political Research Institute Sergei Markov said Wednesday that a "gas war" between Russia and Ukraine is inevitable after the postponement of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's visit to Ukraine. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov had originally planned to visit Ukraine on November 23, but during a phone conversation with Ukraine's Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, agreed to determine a new date for the meeting after coordinating the issue of Russian natural gas supplies to Ukraine and its transit via Ukrainian territory in 2006. "The Ukrainian leadership is counting on the fact...

It's 7:30 on a Saturday morning in July. On the scenic shores of Lake Seliger, about 360 kilometers northwest of Moscow in the Tver region, some 3,000 young Russians are emerging sleepily from their tents underneath tall birch trees, summoned to morning assembly and exercises by the booming strains of the Russian national anthem. Camp Seliger offers its teenage denizens hiking, swimming, sports, and cookouts. But this camp has a twist. It is run by a new political youth movement called Nashi ("Our Own" in Russian). Its purpose, along with outdoor summer fun, is to build up patriotic fervor in...

On the day of Viktor Yushchenko's inauguration, Tom Mangold reveals the extraordinary story of his rivals' plot to deny him power. The big khaki tents are coming down in Independence Square and the braziers are being doused. The Orange Revolutionaries, shrunk from half a million to a few hundred, are going home. It's inauguration day for new President Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's modernist President, a reformer who beat a brutal and medieval assassination attempt by poisoning and an outrageous example of poll rigging last November to become Ukraine's new leader. And only now are the astonishing truths of Mr Yushchenko's fight...

MOSCOW - A creeping crackdown is underway in Russia as the Kremlin has accused nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) of spying, moved to restrict political parties, and is considering measures that would weaken its print media. Earlier this month Nikolai Patrushev, head of the state's FSB security service, charged that NGOs - including the US Peace Corps, the British Merlin medical relief foundation, and the Arab Red Crescent Society - were vehicles for "conducting intelligence operations under the guise of charity" activities. All the named groups issued angry denials. Tough talk of limiting Russia's foreign-funded civil society, coupled with a new election...

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who is one of President Vladimir Putin's closest confidants and is regularly mentioned as a possible successor to Putin in 2008, made some uncharacteristic political statements in a 1 March interview with "Moskovskii komsomolets." "Only democrats, with their split personalities, could believe that we might get help from abroad," Ivanov said. "Nobody will help us except ourselves. Therefore we should be powerful and capable of guaranteeing our national security in any situation."' He also criticized Russian liberals for viewing Russia only as "a money-making enterprise." Recent Russian media reports indicate that the Kremlin has ordered...

Yushchenko: Russian poison link 27/02/2005 08:53 - (SA) Kiev - In a bizarre twist to the mysterious poisoning that disfigured the face of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, investigators in Kiev are probing a new lead that involves a Russian political consultant. Prosecutors are studying an audiotape of a conversation which alleges a role in the dioxin poisoning by Kremlin-connected spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovsky, a spokesperson for the prosecutor general told AFP. Pavlovsky, a key campaign advisor to Yushchenko's defeated Moscow-backed rival Viktor Yanukovich, dismisses the claims as a "fabrication". "The prosecutor has said he knows whose voices are on the tape....