Paranoid, mischievous and heading in the wrong direction, Russia is an awkward prospect for Barack Obama Over the past ten years, under Vladimir Putin's leadership, Russia has become more nationalistic, corrupt and corporatist. Its economy, although much bigger than a decade ago, is even more dependent on oil and gas, an industry now controlled by a small group of kleptocratic courtiers and former spies. The decision by Ikea, a well-known Swedish furniture supplier once bullish about Russia, to suspend investment because of graft is an indictment of the dire commercial climate (see article). Its non-energy exports are smaller than Sweden's.

Zbigniew Brzezinski President Barack Obama should have three central goals in mind when he meets Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin next week: first, to advance US-Russian co-operation in areas where our interests coincide; second, to emphasise the mutual benefits in handling disagreements between the two countries within internationally respected "rules of the game"; and third, to help shape a geopolitical context in which Russia becomes increasingly conscious of its own interest in eventually becoming a genuinely post-imperial partner of the Euro-Atlantic community.

Interviewee: Stephen Sestanovich, George F. Kennan Senior Fellow for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Council on Foreign Relations Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org President Barack Obama's trip to Moscow from July 6-8 takes place at a time when both sides have said they want to improve relations. But CFR's top Russia expert, Stephen Sestanovich, says there are indications the summit could be marked by some hard bargaining on arms control issues, which are at the center of the talks.

Cold-war mentalities "We don't have the ability or even will to use coercive power to change Russia's behaviour," says a senior administration official. Instead Mr Obama will be talking about America's national interests, in the hope that some of them may overlap with Russia's. The irony is that while Mr Obama and Mr Medvedev have pledged "to move beyond cold-war mentalities and chart a fresh start", the central (and safest) topic of talks is nuclear-arms control, just as it was in the 1980s.

By Andrei Piontkovsky Germany's ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is a legend in Russia. He serves Gazprom's interests for a measly couple of million euros a year, sits in at sessions of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and writes books about his staunch friendship with "Genosse Wladimir," who, in the not-so-distant past, earned himself the well-deserved nickname of "Stasi" among business circles in gangster-ridden St. Petersburg. "...Like Schroeder, all these people are not economically disinterested. Baker is a consultant for the two companies at the commanding heights of the Russian economy, Gazprom and Rosneft. The Kissinger Associates lobbying group, whose Russian section is headed by Graham, feeds in to the Kissinger-Primakov working group, a quasi-private-sector effort, blessed by Putin, to deepen ties between Russia and the United States.

Paul Goble In a lead article published yesterday, the editors of "Gazeta" argue that "Russia is entering the stage of the final loss of influence in the post-Soviet space" because it has failed to take the interests of the other countries into account or offer them "attractive" economic and political projects (www.gazeta.ru/comments/2009/06/15_e_3210751.shtml).

UNOMIG, RIP: The curtain finally falls on a side-show By: Vladimir Socor On June 16 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saw himself compelled to order the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) to cease operations immediately, after 16 years of existence (Secretary-General's office press release, June 16). That same day (late on July 15 New York time) in the U.N. Security Council, Russia had just vetoed a Western-initiated resolution to renew UNOMIG's mandate.

http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/victoriassecrets/archive/2009/06/04/ lennikov-the-kgb-and-the-search-for-facts.aspx I agree, the law is straightforward, and there is a reason those laws are in place. It is all too easy to get taken in by stories intended to elicit compassion and sympathy, especially those expertly spun by parties with vested interests (like "compassionate" opposition politicians).

Ellen Barry

MOSCOW -- Russian border guards on Saturday began taking up long-term positions along the boundaries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, an arrangement that will probably mean sustained tension in the two breakaway Georgian territories.

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The territories were at the heart of a war last August between Russia and Georgia; the conflict raised tensions between Moscow and the West to a level not seen since the end of the cold war. Heavy Russian armor poured into both territories after Georgia attacked Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia.

By Yuri Zarakhovich

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For Russia, May 9 remains the Victory Day â€" this country's only meaningful national holiday, its most sacred and bitter anniversary and the one most cynically abused by the authorities in pursuit of their own aims.

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And it is the most bitter because Soviet policies had strengthened Hitler in the first place, allowing him to grab lands that were liberated only after four years of desperate combat, which cost the lives of some 27 million Soviet citizens.

Judith Latham

Moldova's Constitutional Court has upheld the results of a vote recount that confirmed the victory of the ruling Communist Party in the nation's April 5th parliamentary elections. The recount was initiated by the Communist Party of President Vladimir Voronin.

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The opposition refused to participate in the recount of the vote, insisting instead on checking the electoral lists, according to Moldovan political analyst Vlad Lupan, who has a radio show in the capital city, Chisinau.

Discussions over the many conflicts between Ukraine and Russia have focused on the more well known: the status of the Russian language, unpaid energy bills and gas pipelines, withdrawal of the Black Sea Fleet, Russia's invasion of Georgia, support for Crimean separatism, and future NATO membership. What is less widely known is the undeclared Ukrainian-Russian cultural war that is as bitter as any other aspect of the poor state of the bilateral relationship between Ukraine and Russia.