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Due West: Putin Signals Foreign Policy Shift

21:16 16/05/2012 Weekly column by Konstantin von Eggert

Ever since his inauguration on May 7, President Vladimir Putin has been engaged in frenzied activities designed to convince the world that he is in full control of Russian politics, economics and foreign policy.

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Women Talk: Eat, Pray, Love - and Eat Again!
17:06 15/05/2012
On one of my recent trips to Italy, I was to take a bus from the quaint Tuscan town of Siena to Rome, and then catch a plane back to Moscow.2
Deeper Than Oil: Under The Gaze of a Kazakh Poet
16:52 14/05/2012
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently at Moscow’s week-old opposition camp, the gathering of anti-Putin activists that sprang up overnight in the center of the capital, under the gaze of a 19th century Kazakh poet philosopher named Abai Kunanbayev (born Qunanbaiuli).
Trendwatching: The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Russian Pilot
18:28 11/05/2012
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the same things I am thinking. You’re asking yourself: after the Sukhoi Superjet-100 crash - what exactly is it going to take to reform the Russian aviation sector?2
Transmissions from a Lone Star: March of the Pygmies
12:02 11/05/2012
Right now it seems as if the leadership of the entire planet is coming up for election. At least that’s the impression I get from the news: there are changes of leadership everywhere, or at least in those places where the population is allowed to have a say in such matters.
Uncertain World: Putin and Washington: Is Conflict Inevitable?
18:27 10/05/2012
Vladimir Putin, who was inaugurated as president of Russia on May 7, has instructed the Foreign Ministry to ensure compliance with the New START Treaty, focusing on the issue of ballistic missile defense.4
Due West: What’s in a Third Term?
09:40 09/05/2012
Does Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin mean more of the same Putin we know? Yes and no.
Sam's Exchange: Are We Being ‘Mushroomed’ with Oil Prices?
19:50 08/05/2012
You know what it is to treat someone like a mushroom? Keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit. This is the best way to grow a mushroom and is an Australian colloquialism used when we want to keep the truth from someone, and in fact feed them disinformation.
Deeper Than Oil: Rocking Red Square
21:14 07/05/2012
Some 20,000 people gathered just off Red Square, screams of passion and rage, a heavy police presence, an air of abandon…No, that’s not a description of an out-of-control anti-Putin protest, but a free concert by the English techno/breakbeat group The Prodigy in Moscow in 1997.
Trendswatcher: Of Parking and PR Disasters
19:34 04/05/2012
Should one pick sides in a conflict between a pro-Kremlin youth group and the alleged relatives of a big-time Chechen government official? Or should one just reach for the popcorn?
Transmissions from a Lone Star: Watching Kim Jong-un
14:08 04/05/2012
What would it be like to be told at age 27 that for the next four decades you were going to have to kill, starve and oppress millions of people if you wanted to stay alive? A strange question you may think, and yet not an unreasonable one. It is after all, precisely what happened to Kim Jong-un, the son of Kim Jong-il and now leader of the world’s most oppressive state.1
Uncertain World: Putin on the Threshold of His Third Term
13:59 03/05/2012
Vladimir Putin is poised to take the oath of president of Russia for a third time. It was in August 1999 that he essentially began to run the country, having been appointed prime minister by an ailing President Boris Yeltsin. He served as president for eight years and then returned to the position of prime minister for four, but he continued to call the shots. After his third term as president, Putin will be 65, and he will have been in power for almost 19 years.
Due West: Conviction Politics in Russia
18:44 02/05/2012
The audience was small and the location in central Moscow - a Christian cultural center - probably not the most glamorous. But that did not stop Mario Mauro from giving a sparkling performance on his favourite subjects: persecution of Christians around the world, aggressive secularism in Europe, and the way forward toward closer spiritual bonds between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.5
Women Talk: Is the Past Sexier Than the Future?
12:24 02/05/2012
The 1920s are back. Or, rather, we are back to the 1920s. Culture, fashion, social life – the “Roaring Twenties” nostalgia has been thriving on many fronts lately.2
Deeper Than Oil: An Early Morning Elektrichka
18:11 30/04/2012
I’ve been spending the short May holidays here in the Moscow countryside, but took an elektrichka – an electric suburban train - back into the capital this morning.
Trendswatcher: So an Ax-Wielding Maniac Walks into Court...
15:38 28/04/2012
Getting Russians to agree on things is a bit like herding cats. Yet I think it’s fairly safe to say that most Russians hate cops and judges - a phenomenon directly responsible for the fact that criminal culture continues to endure, methinks.
Uncertain World: Jury Still Out on Boris Yeltsin
14:59 26/04/2012
Five years have passed since the death of the first Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, and twelve years have passed since he quit politics. Yet it’s still too soon to judge Yeltsin and his political era objectively.
Women Talk: Having It All For a Woman – a Utopia or Reality?
20:05 25/04/2012
“Of all CEOs among Fortune 500 companies, only 18 are women,” wrote Joanna Coles, Marie Claire USA editor-in-chief, in the magazine’s latest issue devoted entirely to career.3
Sam's Exchange: The Energy Conspiracy
19:03 24/04/2012
Most of us understand that the real 21st century wars are economic.
Deeper Than Oil: Priests, the Lot of Them
17:45 23/04/2012
Russia’s Orthodox Church has been at the center of a storm of controversy of late – from Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin “punk prayer” in Moscow’s largest cathedral to the comical “now you see it, now you don’t” saga of Patriarch Kirill’s luxury watch.7

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