Friday, March 1, 2013

3.1.13 - Mike Nova comments: Revoke Putin's phony academic degree! A phony "candidate of economic sciences" makes a phony "president"! | Russia News Review: Putin’s Ph.D.: Can a Plagiarism Probe Upend Russian Politics? | Internet Sleuths a Real Threat to Lawmakers

Last Update: 3.13.13

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Но мишенью кампании является не Владимир Путин. По словам Генерального директора института региональных проблем Дмитрия Журавлева, политический капитал и репутация Путина не зависят от написанной им диссертации. Рядовых граждан больше волнует жилищно-коммунальное хозяйство, в котором он отменой ...

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Mike Nova comments: Revoke Putin's phony academic degree! A phony "candidate of economic sciences" makes a phony "president"!


Photo: Москва вчера


Putin’s Ph.D.: Can a Plagiarism Probe Upend Russian Politics?


It’s an open secret in Russia today that many politicians and businessmen pad their resumes with fake diplomas, either plagiarizing their dissertations or paying someone to do it for roughly the cost of a midsize sedan. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, no real effort has been made to stop this practice, in part because so many of the country’s elite — all the way up to President Vladimir Putin — might have their graduate work scrutinized. But on Feb. 6, Putin’s political underling Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev broke the taboo. ...
 

Putin’s Ph.D.: Can a Plagiarism Probe Upend Russian Politics?

 
 

It’s an open secret in Russia today that many politicians and businessmen pad their resumes with fake diplomas, either plagiarizing their dissertations or paying someone to do it for roughly the cost of a midsize sedan. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, no real effort has been made to stop this practice, in part because so many of the country’s elite — all the way up to President Vladimir Putin — might have their graduate work scrutinized. But on Feb. 6, Putin’s political underling Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev broke the taboo. At a meeting with government officials and academics, he announced a campaign to ferret out fake degrees at every level of society. The number of “phony” diplomas had “burst through all possible limits,” Medvedev said. “This will be a sort of purge.” So how far is he willing to go?
Last September, when Medvedev first brought up the issue on his video blog, he aimed low. In time for the start of the school year, he urged Russian high school and college students not to copy their work from the Internet, saying that plagiarism is “a road to nowhere.” A week later, the Russian news website Slon, as well as numerous bloggers, dared him to preach further up the hierarchy. Slon offered a list of four names to start with: Sergei Shoigu, the Minister of Defense, Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, Vladimir Medinsky, the Minister of Culture, and at the top, President Putin. All of them, Slon pointed out, have faced accusations of plagiarism that have never been investigated. All four have either denied the claims or, in Putin’s case, declined to comment.
(MORE: Putin’s Commissar to Protect Russian Orphans — from Americans)
The man in charge of Medvedev’s purge is Igor Fedyukin, a rookie official with a Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and just eight months’ experience as the Deputy Minister of Education and Science. Fedyukin was part of a group of academics who in January exposed the extent of Russia’s plagiarism crisis by reviewing 25 dissertations chosen at random from the prestigious history department of Moscow Pedagogical State University. All but one were at least 50% plagiarized, with some as much as 90% copied from other sources. “That created the impression in the academic sphere that this phenomenon is pretty massive,” Fedyukin told me a few weeks later at his ministry, just up the block from the Kremlin.
When the subject turned to Putin and other high-ranking officials, Fedyukin became jittery. (The government spokesman who attended our interview, at the sound of Putin’s name, glanced up from his smart phone with a look of horror.) Repeatedly asked if Putin’s dissertation might be reviewed amid the purge, Fedyukin, his right leg tapping beneath the table, said, “It’s possible to review any dissertation when there are grounds to do so.” Later he added, “Status has nothing to do with it.”
The grounds for reviewing Putin’s dissertation in economics, which he received in 1996 from the St. Petersburg Mining Institute, stem from a 2006 report by the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. That year, two Brookings researchers obtained a copy of Putin’s opus, which journalists had for years been unable to find. In poring over the 218-page work, they found 16 pages copied with minor changes from a Russian translation of an American economics textbook published in 1978. Apart from a reference in the bibliography, there were no signs to indicate that Putin was appropriating entire paragraphs without quotation marks. Six diagrams in Putin’s dissertation were also nearly identical to work in the American textbook and appeared without citation.
(MORE: Will Russian Science Be Stunted by Putin’s Fear of Espionage?)
The Brookings report caused a stir in the Russian press that spring, but not exactly a sensation. State TV networks did not cover the story, even though Russian bloggers were going berserk and a respected independent weekly, Kommersant Vlast, published a cover story, which extensively quoted Clifford Gaddy, one of the Brookings researchers. It also quoted the head of Putin’s alma mater, Vladimir Litvinenko, who said he had “no doubts” Putin wrote the work himself. Since the scandal broke, Putin has repeatedly declined to comment, as did his spokesman when I reached him last week. “The approach has been to simply ignore it,” Gaddy says by phone from Washington. “It’s the elephant in the room. Everybody knows about it, but nobody wants to bring it up.”
Now that Medvedev is turning the issue into a national crusade, it may become a lot harder to ignore. In the past few months, several lawmakers have faced plagiarism scandals, which have become a favorite way for political rivals to attack one another. On Feb. 18, the liberal lawmaker Ilya Ponomaryov demanded that the leader of a nationalist party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, be stripped of his parliamentary immunity for allegedly buying a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1998. Zhirinovsky denies the claim.
The Russian scientific community, meanwhile, has long been calling for a crackdown. Its reputation abroad has been devastated by the diploma mills, which have pushed Russian universities lower in the global rankings. Even the math and physics brain trusts that developed Soviet space and nuclear programs no longer carry much weight in the West, while the most prestigious school in Russia, Moscow State University, with 11 Nobel laureates among its alumni, places well below the University of Iowa and UC Santa Barbara in the Times Higher Education rankings.
(PHOTOS: Protesters Rally in Opposition to Vladimir Putin’s Rule)
Konstantin Sonin, a professor of economics who blogs about plagiarism, says the roots of the crisis go back to the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, when the best scholars in Russia were forced out of universities and Marxist-Leninist dogma came to dominate every discipline in the humanities. Cut off from their international peers, Russian academics suffered “a return to the Middle Ages,” says Sonin. After four generations of isolation, many of the scholars who emerged from behind the Iron Curtain could offer little more than “indecipherable blather,” Sonin says. At the same time, the arrival of capitalism turned doctoral degrees into a status symbol, like a Lamborghini or a Rolex. “So our academics learned to do one thing well,” Sonin says. “They churn out these dissertations.”
Not everyone is convinced that Medvedev’s crusade will address the problem. Some experts feel his “purge” could be a way of hitting back at the conservatives surrounding Putin, who have mounted a campaign against Medvedev. On Feb. 19, a Kremlin-connected communications firm, Minchenko Consulting, published a report claiming that Putin had begun to seek a successor for Medvedev, setting off a scramble for the post of Prime Minister.
The report came after numerous attacks against Medvedev in state-run media, which have accused his government of mismanagement. The Skolkovo technology hub outside Moscow, Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley and Medvedev’s pet project, has been wracked by allegations of corruption. Kirill Petrov, who co-authored the Minchenko report, says the plagiarism issue “could be some small tactical move to injure one group in this battle.” The most likely political target from the Slon list is Shoigu, the recently appointed Defense Minister, who is a leading contender to replace Medvedev.
Despite the Brookings report and Medvedev’s political troubles, the plagiarism purge is unlikely to implicate Putin himself. “The entire campaign would become null and void,” says Sonin, the economics professor. “The Ministry of Education will immediately sweep it under the rug.” In the West, plagiarism scandals have ended political careers, most recently in Germany, where Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned in 2011 after his alma mater found flaws in his doctoral thesis and revoked his Ph.D. But Putin’s reputation as a leader doesn’t rely on his bookishness; a thorough review of his dissertation would hardly make a dent in his ratings. “For the Russian people, this is not even a tertiary issue. It is way down on the list,” says Petrov. “Nobody really cares outside of academic circles.” Those circles will likely be the only ones affected. It may be more ambitious than chiding freshmen for copying their homework, but Medvedev’s purge will hardly matter for Russia’s most powerful cheats.


MORE: Is Moscow Developing Super-Duper-Secret Mega Weapons?
 
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Источник фото: Интернет.
 
Monday, February 4, 2013
 
15:47, 26 марта 2006

Кандидатскую диссертацию Владимира Путина объявили плагиатом

Владимир Путин. Фото Reuters
 
Главная часть кандидатской диссертации Владимира Путина - плагиат, сообщает американская газета Washington Times со ссылкой на исследователей Брукингского института Вашингтона.
Они заявляют, что 16 из 20 страниц, которыми начинается ключевая часть работы Путина, были либо скопированы, либо переписаны с минимальными изменениями со статьи "Стратегическое планирование и политика" профессоров Уильяма Кинга (William King) и Девида Клиланда (David Cleland).


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Circling the wagons? Putin urges 'drastic upgrade' to Russia's military
MinnPost.com
In a speech to Russia's top military brass, President Vladimir Putin has urged them to make a "drastic upgrade" to Russia's armed forces within the next five years to counter a series of emerging external threats and what he described as "systematic ...
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via Russia - Google News on 2/28/13





Russia: Free Pussy Riot Members
Human Rights Watch
A Moscow court found Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina, and Ekaterina Samutsevich, guilty on charges of hooliganism committed by a group of persons motivated by religious hatred, under article 213, part 2 of Russia's criminal code. In October, the Moscow City ...

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via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Nikolaus von Twickel <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/27/13
The ouster of Vladimir Pekhtin from the State Duma is considered a milestone victory for opposition-minded online sleuths like blogger Doctor Z, so much that activists have started to call their sleuthing "pekhting."

After a surprisingly positive first meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Berlin Tuesday, Russian experts say they're hopeful that a real opportunity has opened up to pressure the Bashar al-Assad regime and Syria's fractured rebel movement to come to the bargaining table and discuss a negotiated end to the stalemated civil war that has killed around 70,000 people in the past two years.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Ivan Nechepurenko <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/27/13
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called on Russia's top military leadership to deliver a "drastic upgrade" to the country's military capabilities over the next three to five years to thwart "systematic attempts to undermine the strategic balance."

Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary and chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili listens to a question during a final news conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Negotiations with world powers over how to curb Iran's nuclear program have reached a "turning point" for the better after nearly breaking down last year, the Islamic republic's top official at diplomatic talks said Wednesday at the close of two days of delicate discussions aimed at preventing Tehran from building an atomic arsenal. (AP Photo/Pavel Mikheyev)ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — World powers offered broader concessions than ever to Iran in attempts Wednesday to keep alive diplomatic channels that seek to rein in the Islamic Republic's nuclear program and prevent it from building an atomic weapon.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/27/13
The Investigative Committee said Wednesday that anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny had fraudulently obtained his credentials as a lawyer.

Republican Chuck Hagel has been sworn in as the U.S. defense secretary in President Barack Obama's Democratic administration, following a bitter nomination fight in the Senate.

During his visit, the Georgian president is also scheduled to hold talks with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and parliament speaker Oqtay Asadov.

via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by Mark Fisher on 2/27/13
Tron, Glasgow
"How do they expect me to fight two wars at once?" asks Lily Litvak early in Peter Arnott's play. Not only is she the star pilot in a Red Army squadron of "lady bombers" facing the Nazis, but she is at the vanguard of a battle of the sexes. As long as the men keep Comrade Captain Litvak from flying with them, the communist philosophy of equal rights for women is put to the test. In the week when the Observer reported that women are being squeezed out of positions of power at an accelerating rate, it's a question that has lost none of its topicality.
But this is the second world war, and White Rose focuses on the fascinating historical moment when women could feel they were fighting as equals against the fascist foe, and in favour of a bright Soviet future. The real-life Litvak was said to have flown with the white rose of Stalingrad on the side of her plane (actually a white lily) and before her death in combat, she shot down 11 enemy planes.
Arnott's play asks: at what price did her equality come? First seen in 1985 in a landmark season at Edinburgh's Traverse, White Rose is a Brecht-influenced study of the contradictions between elite achievement and the common good. The higher Litvak flies, whether driven by ideology or ego, the less human she seems.
Given an overdue revival by director Richard Baron for the Borders-based company Firebrand, the play comes across like an unusually urgent theatre-in-education piece, packed with facts and passion. There can be something too casual and 21st-century about Lesley Harcourt's Lily and Alison O'Donnell's engineer Ina but, together with an assured Robert Jack, they give a committed portrayal of pioneering women caught in history – and too easily forgotten by it.
• What have you been to see lately? Tell us about it on Twitter using #GdnReview
Rating: 3/5

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Christian Science Monitor









Are the US and Russia bridging their divide over Syria?
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Van Cliburn, pianist 'who conquered Russia,' dies at 78
Los Angeles Times
Trumpeted on the cover of Time magazine as “The Texan Who Conquered Russia,” the lanky, 6-foot-4 Cliburn was given a hero's welcome in New York City with what was a first for a classical musician: a ticker-tape parade. Like a rock star, Cliburn was ...
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After triumph at 1958 competition in Moscow, Cliburn was the first classical musician to receive a New York ticker tape parade
Van Cliburn, the US pianist whose triumph at a 1958 Moscow competition helped thaw the Cold War and launched a spectacular career that made him the rare classical musician to enjoy rock star status, has died. He was 78.
Cliburn died early Wednesday at his Texas home surrounded by loved ones following a battle with bone cancer, said his publicist and longtime friend Mary Lou Falcone.
"Van Cliburn was an international legend for over five decades, a great humanitarian and a brilliant musician whose light will continue to shine through his extraordinary legacy," Falcone said in a statement. "He will be missed by all who knew and admired him, and by countless people he never met."
Cliburn made what would be his last public appearance in September at the 50th anniversary of the prestigious piano competition named for him.
"Never forget: I love you all from the bottom of my heart, forever," he said to a standing ovation.
Cliburn skyrocketed to fame when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at age 23 in 1958, six months after the Soviets' launch of Sputnik embarrassed the US and propelled the world into the space age. He triumphantly returned to a New York City ticker tape parade the first ever for a classical musician and a Time magazine cover proclaimed him "The Texan Who Conquered Russia".
But the win also proved the power of the arts, bringing unity in the midst of strong rivalry. Despite the tension between the nations, Cliburn became a hero to music-loving Soviets who clamored to see him perform, and Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly gave the approval for the judges to honor a foreigner: "Is Cliburn the best? Then give him first prize."
In the years that followed, Cliburn's popularity soared, and the young man sold out concerts, caused riots when spotted in public and even prompted an Elvis Presley fan club to change its name to his. His recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 with Russian conductor Kirill Kondrashin became the first classical album to reach platinum status.
Time magazine's 1958 cover story quoted a friend as saying Cliburn could become "the first man in history to be a Horowitz, Liberace and Presley all rolled into one".
Cliburn performed for royalty, heads of state in Europe, Asia and South America, and for every US president since Harry Truman.
"Since we know that classical music is timeless and everlasting, it is precisely the eternal verities inherent in classical music that remain a spiritual beacon for people all over the world," Cliburn once said.
But he also used his skill and fame to help other young musicians through the Van Cliburn International Music Competition.
Created in 1962, the competition, held every four years, remains a pre-eminent showcase for the world's top pianists.
"It is a forum for young artists to celebrate the great works of the piano literature and an opportunity to expose their talents to a wide-ranging international audience," Cliburn said during the 10th competition in 1997.
President George W Bush presented Cliburn with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor in 2003. In 2004, he received the Order of Friendship of the Russian Federation from Russian president Vladimir Putin.
"I still have lots of friends in Russia," Cliburn said at the time. "It's always a great pleasure to talk to older people in Russia, to hear their anecdotes."
After the death of his father in 1974, Cliburn announced he would soon retire to spend more time with his ailing mother. He stopped touring in 1978.
He told The New York Times in 2008 that among other things, touring robbed him of the chance to enjoy opera and other musical performances. "I said to myself: 'Life is too short.' I was missing so much," he said. After winning the competition, he added, "it was thrilling to be wanted. But it was pressure too."
Cliburn emerged from his sabbatical in 1987, when he played at a state dinner at the White House during the historic visit to Washington of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev leapt from his seat to give the pianist a bear hug and kisses on the cheeks.
The 13th Cliburn competition, held in 2009, made history when a blind pianist from Japan, Nobuyuki Tsujii, and a teenager from China, Haochen Zhang, both won gold medals. They were the first winners from any Asian country, and Tsujii was the first blind pianist to win. And it was only the second time there were dual first place winners.
Cliburn was born Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr on July 12, 1934, in Louisiana, the son of oilman Harvey Cliburn Sr and Rildia Bee O'Bryan Cliburn. At age 3, he began studying piano with his mother, herself an accomplished pianist who had studied with a pupil of the great 19th century Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt.
Cliburn won his first Texas competition when he was 12, and two years later he played in Carnegie Hall as the winner of the National Music Festival Award.
At 17, Cliburn attended the Juilliard School in New York, where fellow students marveled at his marathon practice sessions that stretched until 3am. He studied under the famed Russian-born pianist Rosina Lhevinne.
Between 1952 and 1958, he won all but one competition he entered. By age 20, he had played with the New York Philharmonic and the symphonies of most major cities.
Cliburn's career seemed ready to take off until his name came up for the draft. Cliburn had to cancel all shows but was eventually excused from duty due to chronic nosebleeds.
Over the next few years, Cliburn's international popularity continued as he recorded pieces ranging from Mozart to a concerto by American Edward McDowell. Still, having been trained by arguably the best Russian teachers in the world, Cliburn's heart was Russian, with the Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff concertos.
After 1990, Cliburn toured Japan numerous times and performed throughout the United States. He was in the midst of a 16-city US tour in 1994 when his mother died at age 97.
In December 2001, Cliburn was presented with the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors medallion at the televised tribute held in Washington.
Until only recently, Cliburn practiced daily and performed limited engagements.

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via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/27/13
Moscow is at the center of a small but booming illegal trade in polar bear body parts, new research says.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Roland Oliphant <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/27/13
An adult female European Bison turned around and leisurely defecated in the direction of a group of tourists from Moscow.

Last week's resignations from the State Duma appear to be a warm-up for a wholesale reset of Russia's political system.

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Yahoo! News (blog)









Veteran explorer stakes Russia's claim over the Arctic
Yahoo! News (blog)
Reuters/Reuters - Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) applauds after he decorated Russian State Duma member Artur Chilingarov, the leader of the 2007 Arctic deep-water expedition, with the Hero's Golden Star …more during a ceremony in Moscow's ...

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via - Europe RSS Feed on 2/27/13
Britain and its allies will be able to provide training for rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime and supply them with military support, including armoured cars, under major changes which are due to be made to European Union sanctions rules on Syria.

Van Cliburn passed away at his home in Texas after suffering from bone cancer.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 2/27/13
A top official says that although the United States sees no "imminent Islamic militant threat to Central Asian states," the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan is looking for opportunities to expand its presence in the region as part of a long-term strategy to broaden its influence.









via Russia - Google News on 2/27/13










Russia Denies Visa For Rep. Chris Smith
TPM
Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights, has been traveling to Russia and before that the Soviet Union for decades. But this month, the Russian government denied him a visa for the first time, despite ...

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Ruble Drops Against Basket as Russia Sells 50% of Bond Offering
Bloomberg
The Russian currency fell 0.1 percent to 34.8621 against the central bank's basket of dollars and euros by 7 p.m. in Moscow. The ruble gained 0.1 percent against the dollar to 30.6085, paring its decline to the greenback this month to 1.9 percent. The ...

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via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by Miriam Elder on 2/27/13
On his last visit to Moscow in 2011, classical pianist was showered with gifts from people who remembered his genius
It was one of those endless summer nights that grace northern Russia when my mother grabbed two friends to occupy a square outside Leningrad's philharmonic. The year was 1965 and the world was awash in Beatlemania. My mother, Ella, and her friends loved them like most other 20-year-olds, but secretly, in hiding – the Soviet Union strictly forbade the hedonistic foreign musicians and their corrupting ways.
So when the authorities announced that Van Cliburn, the American pianist who has died at the age of 78, would be performing in Leningrad – openly! officially! – it was truly as if a rock star were coming to town.
"He was adored, he was a kumir," my mother said, using the Russian word for idol. "He was the one that we wanted to hear."
Seven years earlier, in 1958, Cliburn won first place in the Soviet Union's first ever International Tchaikovsky Competition. It was the height of the cold war. The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite, sending the US into a spiral of inferiority and self-doubt. The competition was set to further boost the empire's glory. An American wasn't supposed to win.
Yet no one could deny the 23-year-old's genius, expressed through humongous hands whose fingers skipped across the keyboard with rapid ease, and eyes that would close in seeming awe at the power of the music he was playing.
"We knew he must be extraordinarily brilliant, because they wouldn't let foreigners win otherwise," my mother said. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier at the time, is said to have personally blessed Cliburn's victory.
And so she waited overnight, on the square in front of Leningrad's philharmonic, for hours and hours until the ticket office opened.
Hundreds waited alongside her. "The square was filled. It was a snake of people."
She doesn't remember now, nearly 50 years later, what Cliburn played. She is just left with the feeling of seeing something extraordinary – the beautiful impression of the music and the sense that the vast world beyond the Soviet Union's tightly sealed borders could sometimes seep through.
Cliburn's star never faded in Russia, even as he disappeared from the world stage. Describing what would become his last visit to Russia in 2011, Ellen Barry of the New York Times wrote: "when Mr. Cliburn steps into a concert hall, the whole room seems to twitch and move toward him like a living organism". Women showered him with gifts; one couldn't stop crying.
And Cliburn loved them back – as an artist loves a true appreciator.
New York City threw him a ticker tape parade upon his return from winning the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow. He was held up as an ambassador of American greatness, a cultural diplomat. In Russia, he was – and remains – the lanky pianist genius who unexpectedly wowed a nation.

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via NYT > Europe by By MELISSA EDDY on 2/27/13
President Giorgio Napolitano of Italy said he would not attend a meeting with Peer Steinbrück, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s main challenger, after he spoke about two prominent Italian political figures.


via Russia - Google News on 2/27/13

Foreign Policy (blog)









Russia denies visa for leading congressional human-rights advocate
Foreign Policy (blog)
Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights, has been traveling to Russia and before that the Soviet Union for decades. But this month, the Russian government denied him a visa for the first time, despite ...

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via NYT > Europe by By CHRIS COTTRELL on 2/27/13
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats are struggling to catch up to changing attitudes among voters on issues like gay marriage and adoption.


via NYT > Europe by By ALAN COWELL on 2/27/13
A British coroner said he would hold secret hearings on some evidence before a planned inquest into the death of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer who died in 2006.


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Sport.co.uk









Russia planning major Tour with Red Square finish
SBS
Russia is planning a world-class velodrome on the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics and hopes to create a Tour of Russia with a Red Square finish to promote the sport, its cycling federation chief said on Wednesday. The head of Russia's cycling body ...
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via NYT > Europe by By CHRIS COTTRELL and NICHOLAS KULISH on 2/27/13
Chancellor Angela Merkel must walk a fine line between her party’s younger voters, who increasingly favor gay rights, and older, more conservative voters.
 









France's President Hollande attends an awards ceremony at the Elysee Palace in ParisMOSCOW (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande will raise concerns about Russia's human rights record with Vladimir Putin on Thursday but he sought to play down differences that might undermine trade ties. Hollande, who began his 24-hour debut trip to Moscow by giving a radio interview, hopes to strike a balance between a robust defense of human rights and the desire to boost France's economy by increasing business links with Russia. ...

MOSCOW (AP) — French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that he hopes to discuss political transition in war-torn Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose stance on Syria is crucial to hopes for a peace settlement.

via Uploads by rferlonline by rferlonline on 2/27/13
Josef Stalin is remembered in the West as a brutal dictator who engineered mass famine, deportations, and the Gulag system. But in Russia, he is often seen as a strong and savvy leader -- even by those who suffered the most under his rule. In Vorkuta, a far-northern city founded as a labor camp, former Gulag prisoners give Stalin credit for winning World War II, and have little to say about his policies of political repression. RFE/RL's Tom Balmforth spoke to former prisoners and other residents of Vorkuta about the complex legacy of the Soviet leader.
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via The St. Petersburg Times by By Natalya Krainova on 2/27/13
MOSCOW – A first meeting between new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might have been a key development in tense U.



via The St. Petersburg Times by By Natalya Krainova on 2/27/13
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov surrounded by party faithful during last year's Victory Day celebrations. MOSCOW – Gennady Zyuganov, re-elected Saturday as leader of the Communist Party, a position he has held for 17 years, said Tuesday that public calls to remove Stalin’s and Brezhnev’s graves from the Kremlin Wall Necropolis came from “provocateurs” and “SS loyalists.



via The St. Petersburg Times by By Howard Amos on 2/27/13
MOSCOW – The Investigative Committee said Wednesday that anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny fraudulently obtained his credentials as a lawyer. The accusation against one of Russia's most prominent opposition figures is the latest in a series of blows traded between Navalny and the powerful Investigative Committee.



via The St. Petersburg Times on 2/27/13
MOSCOW – Former Moscow police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, sentenced to 11 years in prison for his involvement in the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politikovskaya, said he knows people involved in two other high-profile killings, a news report said Wednesday.



via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 2/27/13
French President Francois Hollande and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met in Moscow.

It’s an open secret in Russia today that many politicians and businessmen pad their resumes with fake diplomas, either plagiarizing their dissertations or paying someone to do it for roughly the cost of a midsize sedan. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, no real effort has been made to stop this practice, in part because so many of the country’s elite — all the way up to President Vladimir Putin — might have their graduate work scrutinized. But on Feb. 6, Putin’s political underling Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev broke the taboo. ...
 








via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Associated Press <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/27/13
For a time in Cold War America, Van Cliburn had all the trappings of a rock star: sold-out concerts, adoring, out-of-control fans and a name recognized worldwide. He even got a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Representatives of the great European powers agree to make peace after almost three years of war
I sent last night by telegraph a short message, announcing the important fact of the signing of the armistice. The Moniteur of this morning confirms the fact in the following words:
The first meeting of the congress took place this day at the hotel of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, at one o'clock. The sitting lasted till half-past four o'clock. It was agreed that an armistice, which will of right expire on the 31st of March next, shall be concluded between the belligerent armies. This armistice shall be without effect on the blockades established or to be established.
The Moniteur will no doubt be as sparing as possible in the communications it makes to the public of the progress of the conferences - but I learn that besides the above the Austrian propositions were paraphed by the plenipotentiaries as preliminaries of peace, establishing their identity.
Count Walewski, as president, opened the proceedings with a brief speech, explanatory of the important business before the congress, and no doubt containing the usual good wishes for success. The sitting lasted but three hours and a half, and as we presume that a sincere desire of peace animates all parties, it is probable that all unnecessary and tedious etiquette was dispensed with on the occasion; that space of time was not too much for the exchange of powers of the plenipotentiaries, the opening address of the president, the reading and affixing the ne varietur to the preliminaries of peace, and the discussion as to the armistice.
It appears, moreover, that a declaration in writing was signed by the plenipotentiaries not to reveal directly or indirectly what passes at the conferences until the whole shall be concluded. This last is the only point to which a journalist may object, but there is no help for it, and any protest he might make would very probably be considered as non avenu.
With this exception, all the rest appears satisfactory, and you will appreciate the importance of the armistice expiring on the 31st of March next, when the operations may be resumed without the necessity of any new order being given and also its being limited in its effect to operations by land. I communicated yesterday, the fact of the Russians continuing to fortify themselves in the Gulf of Finland. This fact has been confirmed to me in another quarter since I despatched my intelligence; and though the enemy only imitate us in continuing the construction of their defences, yet it shows that they are not yet so completely exhausted as is supposed, in one direction at least.
It was rumoured this morning—and the rumour may be repeated—that nothing like serious discussion took place at this first sitting, everything having been previously known and probably agreed on, and that conversation rather than discussion took place. I am informed that the contrary is the fact, and the various points which were to be brought before the plenipotentiaries at the first meeting were in reality seriously discussed, and that it was only after such discussion
[Following the Congress of Paris, the Treaty of Paris was signed on 30 March 1856, bringing an end to the Crimean War]

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Russia's Putin tells army to shape up for foreign threat
Yahoo! News (blog)
Reuters/Reuters - Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with officers and defence officials at the General Staff Academy in Moscow February 27, 2013. REUTERS/Alexei Nikolsky/Ria Novosti/ …more Pool less. MOSCOW (Reuters) ...



via Russia - Google News on 2/27/13

The Atlantic



























France's Hollande to raise human rights in Russia
Reuters
MOSCOW (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande will raise concerns about Russia's human rights record with Vladimir Putin on Thursday but he sought to play down differences that might undermine trade ties. Hollande, who began his 24-hour debut ...
Russia May Actually Be Getting Less Corrupt ... for the Wrong ReasonsThe Atlantic
Putin Signals Russia Can Be More Flexible on SyriaABC News
Russia backs France's Syria plansThe Hindu
RT -ISN
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via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Ivan Nechepurenko <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
A senior U.S. lawmaker and human rights advocate says he's been denied a Russian visa, citing his sponsorship of the recently passed and highly controversial Magnitsky Act as the reason for the refusal.

via Russia - Google News on 2/27/13

The Guardian



























Van Cliburn's star never faded in Russia even as he left the world stage behind
The Guardian
It was one of those endless summer nights that grace northern Russia when my mother grabbed two friends to occupy a square outside Leningrad's philharmonic. The year was 1965 and the world was awash in Beatlemania. My mother, Ella, and her friends ...
Van Cliburn, pianist 'who conquered Russia,' dies at 78Los Angeles Times
Van Cliburn, pianist who conquered Russia with music, dies at 78Arizona Daily Star
Van Cliburn Dead: Classical Pianist 'Who Conquered Russia' Dies at 78Spinner
Fort Worth Star Telegram -Beaumont Enterprise (blog) -RIA Novosti
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via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Anya Aseeva <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
Nearly a year after Vladimir Putin's election to a third term as president, most Russians are content with his leadership, although his popularity as a future presidential candidate has declined, according to two surveys published this week.

A group has registered with Georgia's Central Election Commission that wants to have the country's president elected by parliament rather than directly by the public.




























via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by Charles Recknagel on 2/28/13
At the height of the Cold War, pianist Harvey Lavan Cliburn Jr., better known as Van Cliburn, connected with the Soviet Union in a way no other American could.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by Reuters <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
Russia's richest man, Alisher Usmanov, commenced placement of a 7.4 percent stake in Russian Internet group Mail.ru, the company said, after the company forecast slower revenue growth this year.

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia and France agreed on Thursday that Syria must not be allowed to break up but differed on other aspects of the two-year-old conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. "Despite the existing differences in the Russia and French positions (on Syria), we are for keeping Syria an integral, democratic state," Putin told a joint news conference after talks with French President Francois Hollande. (Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin defended Russia's human rights record on Thursday after French President Francois Hollande raised concerns during talks in Moscow. "I don't think we had any problems with human rights in 2012," Putin told a joint news conference in the Kremlin. (Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk, Writing by Alissa de Carbonnel, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Moscow has the greatest number of billionaires of any city in the world, according to a global rich list, with London in fifth place.


via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by Umid Bobomatov on 2/28/13
He was accused of beating and robbing a 92-year-old war veteran and his family went on a prime-time TV show to beg forgiveness. But now that the case has stalled, an Uzbek migrant in Russia is speaking out about his arrest and the TV station's treatment of his family.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
The State Duma has proposed adding Chelyabinsk meteorite fragments to the federal list of items banned from being exported, a news report said Thursday.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
Chief health inspector Gennady Onishchenko might visit Georgia at the final stages of inspection of Georgian enterprises producing wine and mineral water, the Georgian agriculture minister said Thursday.


via Russia - Google News on 2/28/13




























Russia Stocks Erase Gains, Extend 1st Month Drop Since November
Bloomberg
Shares of VTB Group, Russia's second-biggest lender, climbed 1.4 percent. The bank's shares have been included in the Moscow Exchange's A list of stocks which pension funds can invest in, according to an e-mailed statement from the bourse today.

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Russia's President Vladimir Putin, right, and France's President Francois Hollande arrive for a news conference, in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia should listen to some of the French arguments about Syria — over a bottle of vodka, not merely wine.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Jonathan Earle <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
The official at the center of Russia's controversial ban on U.S. adoptions struck back at critics Thursday, saying that "pedophiles" were his most strident detractors and that journalists who accuse him of downplaying child abuse in Russia for political reasons are "either blind or dumb."

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by By Ivan Nechepurenko <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
A senior U.S. lawmaker says he has been denied a Russian visa as a result of his vocal backing of the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which allows Washington to punish Russians implicated in human rights violations with a visa ban and asset freezes.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 2/28/13
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is marking 60 years of Russian-language broadcasting on March 1, with events planned in Washington and Moscow to mark the day.

via Russia - Google News on 2/28/13

The Atlantic



























Russia May Actually Be Getting Less Corrupt ... for the Wrong Reasons
The Atlantic
At least six more legislators could also be on their way out soon, according to Russian media reports. And Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko told reporters this week that the resignation virus could soon infect the upper house as well.
The Geopolitics of Oil and Natural Gas: Russia is Back to Stay in the Middle EastCenter for Research on Globalization
France's Hollande to raise human rights in RussiaReuters
Trade dominates talks on Francois Hollande's first visit to Russia.euronews
Press TV -ABC News -The Voice of Russia
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via Russia - Google News on 2/28/13




























Russia: Free Pussy Riot Members
Human Rights Watch
A Moscow court found Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina, and Ekaterina Samutsevich, guilty on charges of hooliganism committed by a group of persons motivated by religious hatred, under article 213, part 2 of Russia's criminal code. In October, the Moscow City ...

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via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 2/28/13
Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro says President Hugo Chavez is “battling for his health, his life.”

via World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk by Arthur Ransome on 2/28/13
Arthur Ransome draws up a short questionnaire for the Russian revolutionary
I was discussing with Litvinoff the seemingly dual character of Russian policy, the seemingly contradictory aims of the Jekyll of an International Society and the Hyde of a national Government, when after some small deadlock in the argument he said, "The best thing you can do is to get Trotsky to state the position, for he is at the same time a member of the Communist International and a member of the Soviet Government."
I drew up a short questionnaire, and Trotsky, taking my questions as his text, wrote the statement printed below.
Question: You are a member of the Third International. You are also head of the Russian War Office. Are there not moments when Trotsky of the International disagrees with Trotsky the War Minister of a particular country? If not, why not?
Trotsky: "It is not clear to me why and whence could arise contradictions between the interests of the Soviet Republic and those of the Third International. The Russian proletariat is a most important constituent part of the Third International. The working class throughout the world is interested in the strengthening of Soviet Russia, and has given proof of this on several occasions.
Soviet Russia is interested in the growth of powerful labour organisations and in the heightening of their class consciousness. You know that in our view only the programme of Communism fully corresponds to the interests of the working-class. The contrast itself is possible only if one contrasts the 'national' interests of Russia with the international interests of the working class.
But, from our point of view, what is national does not exist outside what belongs to a class. Throughout the world the bourgeoisie gives out its class interests as national interests: that it does this successfully we, to our sorrow, have seen clearly during the world war. The national interests of Russia coincide with the interests of her ruling class, i.e. the proletariat. But the genuine interests of the working class cannot be satisfied otherwise than by international means, i.e. by means of the establishment of a world federation of republics based on labour and its solidarity."
Question: The same differences of motive and interests must exist in the army, which, surely, is more Russian than revolutionary?
Trotsky: "What I have already said applies fully to this question also. You say that the Red Army is more Russia than revolutionary. You forget, first, that the Red Army in its composition is not Russian only, for in it are Ukrainians, White Russians, Georgians, Armenians, Tartars, &c., and, secondly, that in the White Armies against which we fought were also Russians. It is absolutely clear that the Red Army's objectives had and continue to have a revolutionary character.
Question: If the French had marched into the Ruhr in 1919 I feel that the crisis would have been judged in Moscow exclusively as a revolutionary crisis. Why is that not so today?
Trotsky: "You ask why we do not greet the French invasion of the Ruhr as a revolutionary stimulus. Certainly we are interested in the victory of the working class, but it is not at all to our interest that the revolution should take place in a Europe exhausted and drained of blood, and that the proletariat should receive from the hands of the bourgeoisie nothing but ruins, as we received them after Tsarism and the Russian bourgeoisie. The working masses of Europe are only gradually learning the lessons of the Imperialist war. This is expressed by the gradual growth of the Communist lnternational. Without permitting ourselves prophecy about dates, we none the less have no doubt that this process will lead to the victory of the working class in all Europe and throughout the world.
If, however, the bourgeoisie should succeed in dragging Europe into yet another devastating war, this would mean first, the bleeding and destruction primarily of those generations of the working class which are the bearers of the future, and, secondly, the economic beggary of Europe. That is why we, from a revolutionary point of view, are vitally interested in the preservation of peace."
[Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons, was the Manchester Guardian's Russian correspondent from 1919 until 1924. He was suspected of being a Bolshevik yet he also spied for MI6 – find out more about his extraordinary career here]

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via Russia - Google News on 3/1/13

Irish Times



























Russia February Manufacturing Grows at Unchanged Pace, HSBC Says
Bloomberg
Russia, the world's largest energy exporter, is counting on domestic demand to shore up growth as Europe's recession saps demand for exported commodities. Economists cut their estimates for Russia's expansion by half a percentage point last month after ...
Russia manufacturing keeps up steady growth in FebEconomic Times

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via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
Thirty people were injured in a chemical leak in the Perm region on Friday, with 27 of them hospitalized, the Emergency Situations Ministry told Interfax.

via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
Drivers in the city of Alexandrov in the Vladimir region were stunned to see a Volkswagen Polo quite literally fly through an intersection after the driver lost control of the vehicle. In the video, witnesses can be seen rushing toward the injured driver, who, miraculously, suffered only a broken leg in the shocking gravity-defying crash.

A U.S. military judge has accepted guilty pleas on 10 charges from the soldier who sent thousands of classified documents to the WikiLeaks website.

A prominent Russian banker claims he has received political asylum in Britain after claiming he was being subjected to a campaign of persecution led by former President Dmitry Medvedev.


via Russia - Google News on 3/1/13

ABC News



























Russia Condemns Western Help for Syrian Opposition
ABC News
Russia said Friday that decision by Western nations to support the Syrian opposition in its battle to oust President Bashar Assad would only intensify the two-year conflict. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said that moves announced in ...
Russia says "Friends of Syria" encourage extremistsReuters
Syrian opposition leader: US, Russia can end warHuffington Post
Former Syrian general now in opposition says US, Russia can work together to ...Fox News
Voice of America -Haaretz -GlobalPost
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via Russia - Google News on 3/1/13




























Russia to supply Cuban oil to USA?
Pravda
Many became highly concerned last week, when it was said that Russia was forgiving Cuba nearly $30 billion of debt. What a gesture of good will! Journalists speculated that Russia had thus received access to the Cuban shelf. Afterwards, Russia will be ...



via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 3/1/13
Despite comments from Ukrainian doctors that jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko does not require hospitalization, German doctors who examined her at Kharkiv hospital recommended Tymoshenko continue to be treated in a hospital.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 3/1/13
Prominent Russian blogger and opposition activist Rustem Adagamov says he has left Russia for the Czech Republic.


via - Europe RSS Feed on 2/28/13
Eight centuries after his death, the heart of Richard the Lionheart has revealed a sinful royal secret to forensic scientists.

via Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty by RFE/RL on 3/1/13
The national Prosecutor-General's Office in Belarus has received another request from Bishkek for the extradition of former Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev, who fled into exile nearly three years ago.

Ukrainian President Yanukovich speaks next to EU President Van Rompuy during an EU-Ukraine summit in BrusselsKIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's president will discuss Russian gas imports at a reinstated meeting with Vladimir Putin next week, as Kiev seeks to win lower energy prices from its giant neighbor without losing a lucrative trade deal with the European Union. Yanukovich's administration said he would make a working visit to Russia for talks with Putin on Monday. A Kremlin source said the two men were expected to meet at a government residence at Zavidovo, north of Moscow. ...

Russian President Putin speaks during a meeting with officers and defence officials at the General Staff Academy in MoscowMOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin has submitted legislation to change the way the Russian parliament is elected, a move he says will advance democracy but critics say is aimed at bolstering his United Russia party. The bill calls for half of the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, to be filled by voters choosing individual candidates in districts. Currently all seats are filled by voting for parties. The legislation is expected to pass. ...

A defected Syrian policeman, Adnan al-Hamod, 33, lights a kerosene lamp inside an underground shelter he made using a jackhammer to protect his family from Syrian government forces shelling and airstrikes, at Jirjanaz village, in Idlib province, Syria, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. Across northern Syria, rebels, soldiers, and civilians are making use of the country's wealth of ancient and medieval antiquities to protect themselves from Syria's two-year-old war. They are built of thick stone that has already withstood centuries, and are often located in strategic locations overlooking towns and roads. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)MOSCOW (AP) — Russia said Friday that decision by Western nations to support the Syrian opposition in its battle to oust President Bashar Assad would only intensify the two-year conflict.

A U.S. official says Secretary of State John Kerry will "express concerns" over comments by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan branding Zionism a "crime against humanity."

Georgian Foreign Minister Maja Panjikidze has told journalists she is hopeful that the second round of talks on the normalization of Russia-Georgia relations will be "productive and fruitful."

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ABC News



























Russia says "Friends of Syria" encourage extremists
Reuters
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that decisions made at a "Friends of Syria" meeting in Rome, at which Western and Arab states pledged aid for Syrian rebels, would embolden President Bashar al-Assad's foes seeking his overthrow. Foreign ...
Russia Condemns Western Help for Syrian OppositionABC News
Former Syrian general now in opposition says US, Russia can work together to ...Fox News
Syrian opposition leader: US, Russia can end warHuffington Post
Voice of America -The Voice of Russia
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via The Moscow Times Top Stories by The Moscow Times <moscowtimes@themoscowtimes.com> on 2/28/13
Russia took over as UN Security Council president for the month of March on Friday, and the top priority during its term will be resolving the situation in Afghanistan, the Foreign Ministry announced in a statement on its official website.


Mike Nova's starred items

via Russia - Google News on 3/1/13




























China Stocks Fall With Russia on Manufacturing Data, Oil Prices
Bloomberg
Chinese and Russian shares fell among emerging-market equities as manufacturing data in China trailed estimates and lower oil prices dragged down energy shares. Chinese stocks, led by Bank of China Ltd., were the biggest drags on the MSCI Emerging ...

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