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RUSSIA, CLINTON AND AMERICA'S FOREIGN POLICY

BY STEPHANIE KIMBALL | January 4, 2009

     

  Distracted by pressing domestic issues and ongoing

  wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Russia anticipates

  Obama to delegate the U.S-Russia relationship to

  Clinton.  “Obama will not play a big role for us. He will

  be more focused on Afghanistan and Pakistan. There

  is a big chance that she [Clinton] will determine

  Russia policy,” commented Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global AffairsRead more

   

VENEZUELA 2009   BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | January 1, 2009

   

  Confronted with a new electoral defeat and an

  incoming financial crisis, Chavez will shed all

  remaining pretenses of democratic rule and will

  become openly autocratic. He could formally

  suspend all constitutional rights and might send

  to prison one or more members of the opposition, under charges of corruption or of conspiring against his life or his regime. He could decide to close down Globovision and, even, El Nacional daily newspaper. Read more

  

RECLAIMING THE RUSSIAN NORTH OF KAZAKHSTAN

BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | December 27, 2008

 

  An official Russian territorial claim on the North

  of Kazakhstan is just a matter of the time when

  Russia feels strong enough to reclaim it, and

  Nazarbaev knows that. There are several

  possible scenarios, the most classical of which is predicated on the Kosovo/Ossetia pattern, when the local Russian population holds a plebiscite which affirms the creation of a Russian autonomy in the North of Kazakhstan. Read more

  

UNDERMINING SECULAR STATE IN BOSNIA

BY MO SACIRBEY | December 22, 2008

  

  There is no absolute secular state. In Germany, church

  financing is intertwined with that of the state. In the

  United States, the US Congress initiates sessions with a

  prayer. Some American colonies that evolved into the

  United States were in fact begun as a refugee for

  particular religious groups centuries earlier. However, today, there is no truly secular state where also eligibility to be a candidate or serve in particular office is limited by religious identity. Read more

  

BOSNIA TO ENTER U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL?

BY MO SACIRBEY | December 18, 2008

  

Bosnia stands prepared to win election to a 2 year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Poland, BiH's only announced competition for the election next year, has sent note to other UN member states that it is withdrawing its candidacy. Poland probably came to the conclusion that it could not beat BiH, and quietly indicated that it would withdraw in favor of and support BiH. Read more

  

VENEZUELA: RISE AND FALL OF AN AUTHORITARIAN PETROSTATE   BY GUSTAVO CORONEL | Dec 16, 2008 

  The new leader, a military man, came to power in

  1998-1999 and found a country in political and

  economic crisis. Increasing oil prices in 2000

  started to make him look good. Based on this oil

  windfall he developed a policy of increasing state

  control of the industry and used energy as a political

  tool. When independent, private television stations

  criticized him, he closed them down. He is actively working to modify the laws of the country to allow him to rule for 15 or more years.  This leader is… Vladimir Putin. Read more

  

FROM UNCLE SAM TO UNCLE TOM  

BY DIEGO ARRIA | Dec 14, 2008

     

The truth is that the only obstacle in normalization of bilateral relations between Venezuela and the United States is Hugo Chavez himself. To preserve his power, Chavez necessarily needs to have some external enemy to fight against. He arbitrarily chose the United States to become his imaginary enemy. Without the United States he would be boxing his own shadow. Read more

   

STRUGGLE FOR CRIMEA   BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | Dec 13, 2008

   

Sevastopol has been home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet for 225 years. Since the annexation of Crimea in 1783, Sevastopol grew as the headquarters of the Russian Imperial Navy on the Black Sea vis-à-vis the Ottoman Empire. The presence of Russian Navy reinforces the local Russian population’s feeling that Crimea is part of Russia. Thousands of Russian sailors and soldiers stroll around the city, and huge Russian flags fly above the naval headquarters and other buildings. Read more

KOSOVO AND THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE   

BY BINOY KAMPMARK | December 10, 2008

  Never say never is an assertion of international

  law. One state’s legal claim is another’s

  contention for illegality, and this has proven to

  be little different in the context of Kosovo’s

  unilateral declaration of independence which

  took place on February 17 this year. Russia has made ample and conspicuous use of the precedent, backing

the autonomous regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, most notably after the security measures taken by Georgia. Read more

   

RUSSIAN REVANCHISM AFTER THE GEORGIAN BLITZKRIEG   BY DR. ALEC RASIZADE | December 5, 2008

  

  Having withdrawn from the Armed

  Forces in Europe Treaty in 2007,

  Russia is litarizing the Caucasus and its

  European frontiers, disregarding

  Western efforts to bring it back to the

  treaty regime. Russia is building

  airbases along the border with   

  Ukraine, modernizing its nuclear submarine fleet, and placing long-range missiles in the Caucasus, Belarus and Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. Ramifications of this Russian revanchism caught many in the West by surprise. Read more

LITTLE SARKOZY THAT COULDN'T  

BY SEBASTIAN AULICH | Dec 3, 2008

    

Speaking on May 28th in Polish Sejm, Nicolas Sarkozy said that Poland has been the only country in Europe against which France never waged a war. Ironically, only a few months later, Sarkozy found himself in a fierce conflict not only with Poland’s top political establishment, but also became a target of humiliating criticism from many respected Central European intellectuals and leaders like Vaclav Havel. Read more

Jan 4 | CHAVEZ ATTACKS THE LAST FREE MEDIA IN VENEZUELA

   

Reporters Without Borders condemend "New Year's Day tear-gas grenade attack on the Caracas headquarters of privately-owned TV news station Globovisión. It has been claimed by La Piedrita, a radical group based in the west Caracas slum of 23 de Enero that has claimed previous attacks on news media critical of President Hugo Chávez’s government." Read more

    

Jan 3 | CHILD LABOR

   

A new US-funded project aims to raise awareness of, and significantly reduce, child labor in four of Yemen's 21 governorates. Launched on 21 December, the three-year program is funded by the US Department of Labor at a cost of US$3 million and will be implemented in the governorates of Aden, Hudeidah, Taiz and Hajjah. Thousands of children could benefit. Read more

   

Jan 2 | AUTOMAKERS BAILOUT

            

GMAC, (General Motors Acceptance Corp), only last week qualified for TARP, (Troubled Asset Relief Program), cash infusions. It was a complex process intertwined with such considerations as the broader auto bailout program, renegotiating with bondholders and being reborn as a bank holding company. Now, having secured access to new money, up to $6 billion, GMAC has indicated that it will immediately put such liquidity into new loans. Read more

 - i n t e r v i e w s -     

D. ARRIA: CHAVEZ'S REGIME WILL COLLAPSE  | Nov 29, 2008

The EuropeanCourier.org speaks with Mr. Diego Arria,

a Venezuelan politician, former Governor of Caracas, Minister of Information and Tourism (1977-1978), a diplomat and former President of the United Nations Security Council (1992-1993). We talk results of

Venezuela’s recent local elections, Obama’s  policy

toward Latin America and the anticipated end of Hugo Chavez’s regime. Read more

   

MACIEJEWSKI: EU ERRS IN ITS APPROACH TOWARD RUSSIA

| November 23, 2008 

  Here is an interview with Mr. Andrzej Maciejewski, a policy

  expert at the Sobieski Institute, a Polish think-tank in

  Warsaw. We talk Poland’s foreign policy, the U.S.

  antimissile shield project, policy toward Russia and the

  crisis of leadership in the EU. Read more [also in Polish]

  

HARTMANN: THE AL CAPONE JUSTICE   | November 16, 2008

  

Florence Hartmann

Here is a new interview with Mrs. Florence Hartmann,

former spokesperson of the Prosecutor’s Office of the ICTY, who has been recently criminally indicted for disclosing confidential information showing behind

the scene political calculations in the operation of the ICTY and its administration of justice. We discuss the Karadzic trial, Karadzic-Holbrooke deal and Mrs. Hartmann's own criminal case at the ICTY. Read more   [also in Bosnian]

 

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by S.Aulich (1,248 readers)

2. United Nations Report on Srebrenica Genocide

by M.Sacirbey (924 readers)

3. Chavez's Regime will Collapse

int. with D.Arria (814 readers)

4. Democracy in Venezuela Blog

by D.Arria (769 readers)

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by M.Sacirbey (450 readers)

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int. with F. Hartmann

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9. Russian Revanchism

by A.Rasizade (383 readers)

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11. Abkhazia Conflict Blog

(315 readers)

12. Rise and Fall of An Authoritarian Petrostate

by G.Coronel (314 readers)

13. Mumbai Terrorist Strategy?

by M.Sacirbey (261 readers)

14. Undermining Secular State in Bosnia

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