Thursday, July 11, 2013

Putinisation of Russia (and the World?)


Putin's anti-Western and anti-American course (shrewdly but poorly disguised, and now evident and clear) is perilous to Russia for deep historical, philosophical and "ideological" if you will, reasons. Historically, economically, culturally, Russia is a part, although on the margins, of the Western and European civilisations, the criticisms of "eurocentric" views notwithstanding. 

"The revival of the czarist, 19th-century ideological trifecta of Russian Orthodoxy, autocracy, and populism—aggravated by rabid anti-Americanism—is bad news for the security interests of the United States and Europe", writes Ariel Cohen, expressing the opinion that "the Russian “reset” policy was doomed to failure from the beginning." 

V. Putin, shaped by the Soviet Russia as a man and as a politician, lends his image, personality, character and worldviews ("second-rate spy" cynicism) to the millions of post-Soviet (or pseudopostsoviet and pseudopoststalinist) Russian eyes and ears, playing up to them and playing them up; manipulating them in an exciting fit of the world political drama turning into a soap opera (future Mosfilm productions will follow, no doubt), and in the process, unburdening them from the unneeded sensations of logs in their eyes and plugs in their ears and trying to turn the attention instead to some foreign "straws" in the others' eyes, to some "foreign bodies" and foreign "agents" and to their horrible listening devices. And, also in the process, as Senator Schumer observed, Putin never missed a chance to poke America in the eye, as if trying to get a sadistic pleasure out of it. Putin compared Snowden to the famous Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and proposed to give a Nobel Peace Prize to a treacherous narcissistic punk "hacker", at the same time tacitly encouraging him to the further "scandalous" disclosures and revelations by observing that Snowden as an exemplary ideological warrior  will never accept his condition for asylum in Russia: to keep his mouth shut. 

Why not give Snowden a Golden Star of the Hero of Postsoviet Disunion or, which might be even better and more dramatic: a new Order of Raymond Mercader, first degree?

What a sweet revenge, what a triumph, forty years later: now post(?!)-Soviet Russia has her own, "American Andrei Sakharov", now Putin can fight an "enemy" with his "enemy's" own ideological weapon. Maybe those were "the sweet dreams of revenge", among many other "sweet dreams", that twenty years old Volodya Putin had then? 

Thousands of newly minted, happily converted, "enlightened" and zombified world putinoids (gradually morphing into putinistas) track their eyes from one corner of the screen to another, viewing the theatrical images of RT and the "wise, fare and uncompromising" posture of the Russian leader. And ain't it a coup, eh? Almost like in good old Stalinist days. The only thing distinctly missing appears to be the fat strings of cockroachy mustache, but they might grow too, in time, considering all the bio and other technologies. 

The recent chain of events creates the impression of some carefully pre-thought, and possibly, to a certain degree, prefabricated (planned and proactively organised) actions. They might be the expressions and the elements of relatively new, more aggressive and expansionist, after a period of contraction, Russia, as formulated in "Putin-3" foreign and domestic ("tightening of the screws") doctrines

"Snowden’s defection, announced after a week in Moscow, may be not an impulsive act but a thoroughly pre-planned operation...  the Snowden–Russian connection needs to be explored in depth." 

Psychological roots of Russian anti-Americanism run deep, long and tortuous. However, the latest bout or exacerbation of this chronic infectious disease is related to and caused by Putin himself directly and deliberately as a part of his third term campaign and now more than ever "imperial" presidency, which is viewed by many observers as illegitimate. The image of a "threatening enemy" obviously serves his political aims of consolidating the Russian society (or its most conservative, least educated, lacking independent thinking and pro nationalist part) but mostly the aims of personal political self-preservation and survival. What is somewhat surprising is the intensity and the pitch of his rhetoric and the length of his genuine hostility, which exceeds even the obsessional hysterics of the Soviet times. 

"Over the last few months, Putin has been scrambling to build a case for himself to be president for at least another six years in the face of a welling restlessness among the Russian people. His tactic of choice has been a shameless anti-American campaign that has been noticeably stepped up since November 2011 with actions that have been at times crude and just plain weird." 

It would not be out of place to pose a question: to what degree and the extent does Putin's illness, apparently chronic, severe and potentially debilitating, although its precise nature is not known to us (possibly Lupus Erythematosus, or one of the related syndromes) affect his thinking, his emotional state and his decision making capacities? Without a doubt, the leadership in Russia is collective, and there is always a balance between the collective part and Putin's personal power component in it. The role of Sergei Ivanov, Putin's chief of staff, was described by some observers as a "de facto acting "Regent". The recent assertive actions by Medvedev might indicate some subtle shifts within the power structure and arrangements and the possibility that "siloviki" are somewhat on a defensive at the given moment due to some undesired side effects of their "irrational exuberance". 

In this regard, the reports (if they are true or have  some element of truth in them) on Putin's "extreme outrage" about "bee apocalypse" leading "most certainly" to "world war" as a reason for "refusing to meet with Kerry for three hours" are puzzling, almost bizarre and add to the concerns. 

Putin's increasing political (and possibly emotional) isolation might be one of the factors in his reactions and behavior, although the true extent of it is difficult to determine.  

One of the liberal journalists, commenting on the rejection of Putin and his kleptocratic circle by the "world elite", noted: "This is a very painful disappointment. That is why Putin now is extremely dangerous. He is a very painfully wounded beast." ("Это очень болезненное разочарование. Поэтому Путин сейчас чрезвычайно опасен. Это очень больно раненый зверь.") 

D. Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, predicts that "Putin’s fourth foreign policy [in the third term - M.N.] will be markedly different from the previous three", noting that "Russia seems to have gotten temporarily allergic to further integration in the world economy" and the relationship with the West is de-prioritised. 

"An analysis of the latest version of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, approved by the president in February 2013, as well as policies actually put into practice, shows that first on the agenda was promoting integration within the CIS.
The second priority was increasing the role of relations with Asia; the third – cutting back economic ties with the EU and de-prioritizing cooperation with NATO and other Western institutions. The fourth is to maintain an arms-length relationship with the United States." 

According to A. Shleifer, a Harvard economist with a certain experience in Russia, "the economy of Russia is obviously slowing down. It's almost inconceivable that it's going to have the same economic performance in the next decade as it did in the previous decade." Putin is "going to need to find alternative ways of staying in power; that is to say, popularity for economic growth is not going to keep him popular." And with all that, the basic geoeconomic and geopolitical dynamics, realities and factors remain the same: "Russia is interested in high energy prices, which means at least to me that it has a very keen interest in instability in the world. And in that respect, its basic interest, political interest, economic interests are either orthogonal or opposed to the interests of the United States. They like instability because instability helps oil prices, because it prevents U.S. dominance, and it makes Russia more central."

Ben Judah, in his recently published book, "Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin", describes Russia as "a vegetating catastrophe". 

"Mr Judah’s portrait of Mr Putin is devastating. For his "second-rate spy" cynicism, he says, is a world view. Mr Putin is convinced that he combines the best of Czarist and Soviet Russia, and his self-image was boosted by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who called him "a miracle of God".

Under Mr Putin, the Kremlin has become a court, where favourites strain to please, and the price of a minister’s post is $10m. Meanwhile, with 350,000 employees, the KGB’s successor, the FSB, has grown bigger than some European armies."

Russia's long term problems and the issues of her political and economic development will not be solved by theatrical displays, TV images and anti-American propaganda

Putinism is a temporary, tactical and reactionary deviation from Russia's historical course and direction of integration with the West. Economic and political stability, which putinism touts as its main achievements, are illusory and in fact, "zastoyni" - "stasis-producing", and its foreign  and domestic policies and their objectives appear to be short sighted and at times ill-conceived and almost reckless

Michael Novakhov

First Published on 7.4.13     Last Update: 7.11.13

Friday, July 5, 2013

Russia News Review - continuously updated

Russia: the land of second-rate spies: Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin by Ben Judah





A message from a "Blue Sepia Lady"



Operation "Skyfall"


Purpose: 

to shoot down The Big Ear and The Big Eye from the Sky with a new "smart and soft" psychotronic ("mass opinion manipulation and control via mass media") weapon hidden in "Snowden download" files. 

A "Sky-fall" or a "Sunrise" ? 
Good time to wake up, to smell the coffee and to rise and shine! 
Actions speak louder than songs. However, sing, baby, sing! I like it! 



Sing Sing Sing! by Benny Goodman - YouTube 


Russian Army Choir - Skyfall (Adele Cover) - YouTube

skyfall lyrics - YouTube  

» Russian Army sings Skyfall - video
24/08/13 11:08 from World news: Russia | guardian.co.uk
Members of Russia's army sing 'Skyfall' on television 


Mike Nova comments: 

Skyfall (song) - From Wikipedia


"The lyrics closely follow the narrative of the film rather than focusing on romanticism.[3][9] According to Epworth, the song is about "death and rebirth", saying "It's like, when the world ends and everything comes down around your ears, if you've got each other's back, you can conquer anything. From death to triumph, that was definitely something we set out to try and capture".[2] The Daily Telegraph writer Neil McCormick described the lyrics as "slightly sinister" and containing references to a number of Bond tropes and motifs.[17]"


In MVHASPO (My Very Humble And Strictly Personal Opinion), 


I have associations that this is a message: jointly from Russian political and military leadership, performed, by the way, by a gayish looking singer (? A tacit acknowledgement of Western concerns with human and gay rights issues), holding a folder with a name of "Morning - 5" in his hands (? "We have all the Snowden files on you! Wake up! Hende hoh!" ?); since "the chorus of the Russian Army" would not dare to emit a note or produce any audible sound without proper approval and command from the "highest leadership". 


This message possibly, if it is interpreted by me more or less correctly, contains three main parts. 


1). Admission of guilt and celebration of crime: "Yes, we did it, it is a "Skyfall" for you, of major proportions; and it is a retaliation for our previous humiliations and it is our victory which we now celebrate with this show. Catch me if you can!" 

Subcomment: We will. 
This part of the message also appears to signal a desire to end the current stage of this operation and to take a breather. 

2). Claim of unity "in the face of adversity": "Russian political and military leaderships stands united and you are not going to drive a wedge between us (intended or perceived)". 

See also Lavrov - Shoigu visit

3). Plea for truce or "peace": It might be also (again, if it is interpreted by me correctly and if it is not some type of the "wishful thinking" on my part), an offer of truce and/or peace (on the part of the mentioned above "joint Russian leadership") and a tacit acknowledgement of the seriousness of the issues and circumstances involved and the desire to signal the peaceful intentions and offers of cooperation: see the recent developments on Syria: "to stand back to back", "together" "we will stand tall or face it all together at skyfall" as the words in the "Skyfall" song are. 


Subcomment: For Russia, to stand firmly and unequivocally within the Western orbit and and to share Western values and interests - is the best she can hope for historically, as a country and as a culture. 
     
The last part sounds good, and, apparently this is the most immediate and sincere reaction to Mr. Obama's cancellation of the planned meeting with Mr. Putin, for whom the subjects of the various statuses and their various symbols are of such a deep importance and who is so sensitive and thin-skinned about what he perceives as "personal snubs", for some possible and interesting onto-genetic reasons. It also signifies, to some degree, the greater range of accessibility, attention and efficiency which, apparently comes with this newly sprouted system of communications, based more on the negative, rather than positive feedback model. 

The mentioned above hypothesis can be easily tested by the practical actions, which always speak much louder than the cracklings of "Skyfall operations", words, songs, and "motifs"; and even more than the much beloved by the Russians, James Bond movies themselves, which are, no doubts,  a part of the "Western Propaganda's subversive, perverse, and corrupting influence" on some of the Russian intelligence most sensitive and, undeniably and without a doubt also (?), (super?)artistic? fledgling(?) and promising (what, when, how?) minds. 



Links and References

skyfall meaning - GS

skyfall as apocalypse - GS

skyfall movie - GS

skyfall movie online - GS

Skyfall movie - From Wikipedia

sunrise songs - GS

Lavrov, Shoigu to meet with US counterparts in 2+2 format

sergun igor - GS

игорь дмитриевич сергун - GS

главное разведывательное управление - GS

glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye gru - GS

Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye - From Wikipedia


Saturday, June 29, 2013

News Reviews: Biden asks Ecuador’s president to reject NSA leake...

News Reviews: Biden asks Ecuador’s president to reject NSA leake...: Biden asks Ecuador’s president to reject NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s asylum request Saturday June 29 th , 2013  at  5:29 PM ...

29/06/13 14:11 - from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

» Edward Snowden may be the last of the human spies | Christopher Steiner | Comment is free
29/06/13 14:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk. 'Edward Snowden and the teams of analysts at the NSA, CIA and GCHQ who sit in front of our stores of electronic intelligence will hardly be necessar..
» PRISM NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s gross miscalculation | Washington Times Communities
29/06/13 14:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest entries for Intelligence and World Affairs. WEST PALM BEACH , FL, June 29, 2013 – When Edward Snowden elected to release classified information to the world, he apparently saw himself as a Lone ..
» Latin America is ready to defy the US over Snowden and other issues | Stephen Kinzer | Comment is free
29/06/13 13:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk. An automobile of the embassy of Equador appears at Sheremetyevo Airport where an Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong carrying Edward Snowden arrived on S..
» Edward Snowden has not weakened president, says Susan Rice | World news
29/06/13 13:55 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk. Susan Rice said Edward Snowden's NSA leaks were something 'we will get through, as we've gotten through all the issues like this in the past'. Photo..
» Contra George Mitchell, NSA Surveillance Is Not a Minor Issue - Conor Friedersdorf
29/06/13 13:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Master Feed : The Atlantic. The former Senate majority leader suggested that controversies over surveillance, the IRS and Benghazi are distractions. Reuters In an item yesterday, I praised the considerable a..
» Review & Outlook: The President and the 'Hacker'
29/06/13 13:52 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Keith Alexander, the general in charge of the National Security Agency, told ABC News on Sunday that intelligence revelations by fugitive contractor Edward Snowden had "caused irreversible and significant damag..
» Review & Outlook: The President and the 'Hacker'
29/06/13 13:50 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Keith Alexander, the general in charge of the National Security Agency, told ABC News on Sunday that intelligence revelations by fugitive contractor Edward Snowden had "caused irreversible and significant damag..
» U.S. Backs Trans-Adriatic Pipeline Choice
29/06/13 13:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. T he United States has welcomed the decision by the international consortium developing Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field to choose the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to del..
» Iran, Russia plan joint naval exercise in Caspian Sea: Russian cmdr.
29/06/13 13:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from PRESS TV RSS News. Iran, Russia plan joint naval exercise in Caspian Sea: Russian cmdr. A top Russian Navy commander says his country and Iran are examining a plan to conduct a join naval exercise in the Cas..
» Russia won the long battle of pipeline politics, but now what does it do?
29/06/13 13:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Quartz. Russia has won a big round in an almost two-decade battle with the West over the flow of natural gas from the Caspian Sea. But the June 28 victory is a mixed one for Moscow, for it helps undermine th..
» Russian pro-, anti-gay activists clash, police detain dozens
29/06/13 13:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . ST PETERSBURG, Russia | Sat Jun 29, 2013 10:38am EDT ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Police detained dozens of people when pro- and anti-gay activists clashed in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Saturday,..
» U.S. bugged EU offices, computer networks: German magazine
29/06/13 13:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States bugged European Union offices and gained access to EU internal computer networks, according to secret documents cited in a German magazine on Saturday, the latest in a serie..
» Putin Triumphant at the G-8
29/06/13 11:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Putin Triumphant at the G-8 29 June 2013 The meeting between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland left an impression that the White House is ready to cooperate ..
» Russia's Crackdown On 'Gay Propaganda' And Popular Illiberalism
29/06/13 11:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Over at The Nation, Alec Luhn recently wrote a quite good summary of the recently-passed ban on “gay propaganda” and the generally perilous state of gay rights in Russia. I encourage everyone to rea..
» Is search for Edward Snowden turning into sideshow? | Detroit Free Press
29/06/13 10:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Whisked out of a luxury Hong Kong hotel, vanishing into the mysterious wing of a Moscow airport, Edward Snowden’s continent-jumping, hide-and-seek game seems like the stuff of a pulp thriller — a de..
» While N.S.A. Leaker Stays in Hiding, Russian TV Builds a Pedestal for Him
28/06/13 22:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . MOSCOW — While Edward J. Snowden has remained mysteriously hidden from sight during his visit to Russia this week, Russian television has been making him a hero. On programs that were hastily arranged and..
» The Service of Snowden - NYTimes.com
28/06/13 22:56 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . LONDON — Edward J. Snowden, the whistleblower on global U.S. surveillance, has been called all kinds of things by members of Congress over the past couple of weeks — including a “defector̶..
» Op-Ed Columnist: The Service of Snowden
28/06/13 21:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Global Opinion. Deluded geek endangering his country or brave American? History will judge Snowden kindly.         
» Letters: For Gays, a Very Personal, Emotional Moment
28/06/13 21:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Global Opinion. Two readers describe their feelings upon hearing about the Supreme Court decisions.         
» Opinionator: The Up-in-the-Air President
28/06/13 21:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Global Opinion. Obama’s policies are sound and have majority support. It’s his fear of taking the fight to Republicans that is so maddening.         
» Op-Ed Columnist: A Nation of Mutts
28/06/13 21:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Global Opinion. There’s a fluid, hybrid New America before us. What is this really going to look like? What does it mean?         
» Op-Ed Contributors: The Criminal N.S.A.
28/06/13 21:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Global Opinion. The N.S.A.’s mass surveillance violates the Constitution and has never been authorized by Congress or the courts.         
» The Same-Sex Marriage Rulings
28/06/13 21:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Editorials. Two decisions by the Supreme Court are huge victories for the gay rights movement, but we still have a long way to go.
» Immigration Reform, Finally
28/06/13 21:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Editorials. The success of an ambitious bipartisan bill in the Senate puts pressure on the House, where prospects of passage are long.
» Russia debates letting Snowden in from the cold (+video) - Christian Science Monitor
28/06/13 21:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Christian Science Monitor Russia debates letting Snowden in from the cold (+video) Christian Science Monitor Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who Russian offic..

Globalpost: Dirty money of Aliyev regime reached the U.S. - Politics - Panorama

Globalpost: Dirty money of Aliyev regime reached the U.S. - Politics - Panorama

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Baku hopes to buy itself a favorable opinion in DC, the chair of the Azerbaijani-Americans for Democracy, a non-profit US organization promoting support for democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan Elmar Chakhtakhtinski wrote in US news agency Globalpost.
The Article says that a large US delegation visited Azerbaijan’s capital Baku last month to take part in the US-Azerbaijan Conference. Different rights groups raised concerns with the high-profile American involvement in what they saw as a PR show by the corrupt and repressive government of Azerbaijan.
A good example of such viewpoint is the recent piece by George Friedman, “Why Azerbaijan should matter to America,” published online by Forbes Magazine, the author says.
Friedman heads a geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor and he also was one of the speakers at the US-Azerbaijan convention in Baku. In his article, posted shortly after his return from the convention, he defends the ruling regime in Azerbaijan, highlighting the country’s importance to the US energy and security interests to counter the criticism over the lack of democracy.
However, as the article says, even a quick Google search would have revealed Azerbaijan's appalling record on human rights and democracy. High-level corruption and persecution of dissent in that country is well documented by the world’s most reputable rights organizations, US State Department’s annual reports and the international media.
Azerbaijan is led by a president who has been recognized as the “most corrupt person” in the world for 2012 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). More and more facts keep emerging about the enormous wealth hidden in secretive offshore holdings by President Ilham Aliyev’s family and his close circle of minister-oligarchs.
The tainted wealth of Azerbaijan's ruling elite has reached American shores and entered DC lobbying scene. The Azerbaijan American Alliance (AAA) was founded in 2010 by Anar Mammadov, a playboy son of the Azerbaijan's corrupt transport minister Ziya Mammadov.
Before founding AAA, Anar Mammadov was known for suing a newspaper that published a story about him paying $1 million dollars at a restaurant to grill a live bear from the venue's small zoo. His father, Ziya Mammadov, is mentioned in Wikileaks cables and OCCRP reports as one of the top corrupt Azeri oligarchs.
Millions of dollars are paid by AAA to a DC-based firm Fabiani & Company to establish contacts with the US officials. Former congressman Dan Burton is hired as AAA's Chairman. House Speaker John Boehner, Senator John McCain and other members of Congress and the US government officials have attended extravagant receptions hosted by AAA.
In case you have found a mistake in the text, please send a message to the editor by selecting the mistake and pressing Ctrl-Enter.
Read the whole story
 
· ·

Snowden is the leaker we’ve got

Russia won the long battle of pipeline politics, but now what does it do?

U.S. Backs Trans-Adriatic Pipeline Choice

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The United States has welcomed the decision by the international consortium developing Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field to choose the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline to deliver Caspian gas to Europe.
A State Department statement called the move "another important step in the process of advancing Europe’s energy security and promoting competition in the supply of energy resources."
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline will  take gas from the Turkish border through Greece, Albania, and across the Adriatic Sea to Italy.
The move is seen as reducing European dependence on Russian energy supplies.
EU officials unveiled a "Southern Corridor" energy route plan in 2009. This is a network of pipelines aimed at bringing Caspian Basin gas to Europe via routes that avoid Russian territory.
Around a quarter of Europe’s gas is supplied by Russia.

Iran, Russia plan joint naval exercise in Caspian Sea: Russian cmdr.

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Iran, Russia plan joint naval exercise in Caspian Sea: Russian cmdr.
A top Russian Navy commander says his country and Iran are examining a plan to conduct a join naval exercise in the Caspian Sea in the second half of the current year.

Deputy Commander of Russia’s Caspian Flotilla Nikolai Yakubovsky announced the news after a Friday meeting with the commander of Iran’s naval fleet that has been dispatched to the Russian port city of Astrakhan, RIA Novosti reported. 

In 2009, the two countries conducted their first joint naval maneuvers in the Caspian Sea, involving about 30 vessels. 

Iran has dispatched two indigenously-built missile-launching warships to Astrakhan in a move to consolidate friendly relations between Tehran and Moscow. 

During the Iranian naval fleet’s stay at Astrakhan Port, the Iranian naval officers will visit some military and port facilities in Russia and hold meetings with a number of high-ranking Russian commanders and officials. 

On April 21, a group of Russian Navy warships docked at the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas after a long journey from the Pacific Ocean. 

The fleet, which comprised Admiral Panteleyev anti-submarine destroyer and the logistic battleships Peresvet and Admiral Nevelskoi vessel with a crew of 712, entered the Iranian naval zone in a bid to further strengthen relations between Tehran and Moscow and promote bilateral naval cooperation to maintain maritime security. 

In recent years, Iran’s Navy has been increasing its presence in international waters to protect naval routes and provide security for merchant vessels and tankers. 

The Islamic Republic has repeatedly asserted that its overseas naval presence is meant to convey a message of peace and friendship to other countries. 

ASH/NN/HJL

Russia won the long battle of pipeline politics, but now what does it do?

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Russia has won a big round in an almost two-decade battle with the West over the flow of natural gas from the Caspian Sea. But the June 28 victory is a mixed one for Moscow, for it helps undermine the rationale for another Russian project—one that has been a key weapon in the country’s fight for energy dominance.
The story is tangled, and before we move to the details, let’s just identify one suprising winner—long-suffering Greece. It will fall along the transit route for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which beat Western-backed Nabucco, the line over which the West has fought Russia since the mid-1990s.
With TAP’s victory, crows Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras, the world should understand that economically struggling Greece is on its way to recovery. After all, “who would invest money in a country facing economic, social and political threats?” Samaras said in a statement.

The US schemed to keep Russia out of its backyard

The story goes back to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Having defeated its Cold War rival, the US drew a figurative line around the southern half of the USSR—the eight new states of the Caucasus and Central Asia—and announced a strategy to keep them from ever falling again into Moscow’s grip.
The US plan was to back the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines to carry the region’s energy to Western markets, avoiding Russian soil, and thus bolster their economic independence. In 2006, the first line materialized—the 1,100-mile Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean. A companion natural gas pipeline soon followed. That took care of the Caucasus side of the Caspian.
But the Central Asian states, the so-called “stans,” turned out differently. There, the US and Europe envisioned a roughly 3,500-mile (5,600-kilometer) natural gas line starting in Turkmenistan, crossing west over the Caspian, and going on through to Europe. Such a line would provide Central Asia with the same independent economic channel as the Caucasus now enjoyed.
Routes of the proposed trans-Caspian, Baku-Ceyhan and other pipelines.Thomas Blomberg/Wikimedia Commons
Only, Turkmenistan balked. Year after year, it could not seem to commit to the proposed line, or any onshore drilling deal with a Western company to produce the needed gas exports. Some said Turkmenistan was afraid of Russia; others blamed its deep suspicions of all foreigners. Whatever the case, hopes for a decisive Turkmen embrace of a trans-Caspian pipeline seemed lost.

Then the US decided to abandon Central Asia

In 2002, the West pivoted. It proposed a new, shorter pipeline called Nabucco (named after a Verdi opera), which would skip Turkmenistan and instead start in Azerbaijan. This proposal seemed to have a better chance of success, but completely ignored the line’s original rationale—Central Asia would no longer be rescued from Russia’s grip. But the US and the European Union argued that, while they were no longer saving Central Asia, they could rescue Europe, which, they asserted, relied far too much on Russian natural gas. The effort gained particular momentum after 2006, when Russia, in aseries of disputes with Ukraine, shut off the natural gas supply temporarily to Europe.
In 2007, Russia’s Vladimir Putin responded with his own weapon—he would build “South Stream,” a $39 billion, 1,500-mile pipeline that, in a direct challenge to Nabucco, would carry Russian gas to the heart of Europe.
South StreamCourtesy: South Stream
But it seemed to many experts that the two lines—Nabucco and South Stream—were incompatible. For reasons of both supply and demand, only one would be financed and built.
Meanwhile, smaller players emerged that muddied Nabucco’s prospects for success in Azerbaijan. Among them was TAP, a relatively small line that would carry just one third of the volume promised by Nabucco, but would also cost a lot less.
TAP, Nabucco and other Caspian rivalsTAP
The climax came June 28. A BP-led consortium in Azerbaijan announced that it would build TAP. The decision appears, at least at this stage, to have rested on the economics. TAP came in cheaper even when Nabucco shortened itself even further into a compact version that it called “Nabucco West”.
By keeping the pressure on Nabucco, Putin provided time and breathing room for TAP to make its case. And that resulted in a much diminished threat to Russia’s dominance of the European gas market. TAP will supply just 10 billion cubic meters (about 330 billion cubic feet) a year of gas compared to the 30 billion cubic meters (1 trillion cubic feet) a year of gas that Nabucco originally proposed to ship into the continent.

With no Nabucco, what is South Stream’s rationale?

So Russia’s South Stream pipeline might now seem to have a clear road ahead. Putin has not yet commented, but in the past he has said that he will build South Stream regardless of Nabucco’s fate. And a series of bilateral agreements along its route suggest a project etched into stone.
Yet the math is challenging. In order to finance big oil deals signed June 21 with China, Russia’s heavily indebted Rosneft had to get pre-payments from Beijing totaling $60 billion-$70 billion. In aspeech on June 28, Alexei Miller, the CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom, boasted of plans for enormous liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants in Vladivostok and on the Baltic Sea, toward an aspiration to supply 15% of the world’s LNG. Such plants cost billions of dollars. In short, Russia has a lot of competing needs for its cash.
Meanwhile, the European market is uninviting: Gas competition is stiff from Norway, Qatar and potential supplies by the end of the decade from the US, Israel and Mozambique. Europe is also turning to cheaper coal. And its energy appetite as a whole is stagnant at best.
So there is reason to at least call South Stream’s economic calculus into question. And now that Nabucco is dead, there is no glory to be won in it either.
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Russian pro-, anti-gay activists clash, police detain dozens

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ST PETERSBURG, Russia | Sat Jun 29, 2013 10:38am EDT
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Police detained dozens of people when pro- and anti-gay activists clashed in the Russian city of St Petersburg on Saturday, just two weeks after parliament passed a law banning homosexual "propaganda".