Posts tagged as:

Middle East

Putin to use Iran airstrike to cling onto power

December 3, 2007

Spotted in the Guardian this morning, possibly the most bonkers suggestion ever as to how Putin could stay at the top of the Russian power tree:
Another scenario involves a foreign policy crisis, such as a US airstrike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Under this scenario, Putin holds and wins an emergency referendum and keeps going.
Even 24 [...]

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Suicide bombers plan to assassinate Putin in Iran

October 15, 2007

Russian security services claim that they have uncovered a plan by a group of suicide bombers to assassinate Russian President Putin during his visit to Iran later this week. Advisors have informed Putin of the threat – but he’s going to visit Tehran anyway.
It’s not clear who wants to kill Putin – apparently there are [...]

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Georgia to send 2,000 soldiers to Iraq

March 9, 2007

Georgia is to more than double the size of its forces in Iraq, from 850 to 2,000.  The increase will make Georgia the fourth largest contributor of troops to the Coalition in Iraq, behind the US, UK and South Korea:
In a statement, President Mikhail Saakashvili said that Georgia wanted to do everything possible to help the Iraqi people [...]

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Production Sharing Agreements

March 8, 2007

Tim Newman has an article up at TCS daily correcting some misinformation about oil and gas Production Sharing Agreements, using both Russia and Iraq as case studies. 

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Iran training Chechens to fight in Russia

November 28, 2005

Oh, this is going to just thrill the boys at the Kremlin – Iran is training Chechens in terror techniques:
Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary [...]

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New Russian proposal to break Iranian nuclear impasse

November 24, 2005

It looks as though Russia may be becoming isolated over it’s position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions. An anonymous (it’s a pre-requisite for employment in Brussels these days) EU official told the Guardian:
“The Chinese are very, very constructive and on board with the US-European position,” one official said.
At the same time, though, Russia seems to [...]

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Mixed messages on Iran

October 28, 2005

Following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s charming call for Israel to be “wiped off the map” Russia’s response, coming mainly from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who is currently in the Middle East, has been rather mixed.
On the plus side, came this blunt condemnation:
“What I have seen on television is unacceptable. We will convey our [...]

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Sergei Lavrov interview

March 3, 2005

BBC Newsnight aired an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on tv last night.  The realaudio file can be found here, and a text report here.
Lavrov – who speaks very good English, by the way – got a grilling from Jeremy Paxman on the sale of weapons to Syria, whether Syria should withdraw from [...]

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Running to stand still

February 6, 2005

Window on the Arab World notes that neither Russia nor Syria have been paying attention in history class, and are still stuck in a timewarp of ultra-realist international politics.
So instead of recognizing the course of history and moving toward the free world, Syria has decided to become a post-Soviet Soviet client state, and Russia [...]

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Russia accused of removing WMDs from Iraq

October 28, 2004

Note (added 29/10/04): Shaw’s claims (below) have been rejected by the White House and the Pentagon.
John A Shaw, America’s Deputy Undersecretary for International Technology Security, is behind the remarkable claim that Russian special forces (Spetsnaz) spirited “special weapons” (read: WMDs) out of Iraq in early 2003.
In the Washington Times he alleges that Spetsnaz forces visited [...]

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