Another Putin critic assassinated

Anna Politkovskaya's lawyer Stanislav Markelov shot dead in Moscow


Stanislav Markelov

Anna Politkovskaya

Alexander Litvinenko

Peter to the Rescue

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Monday.
The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington's traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War.
Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia.
Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev asked on Saturday how Washington would feel "if we now dispatched humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean...using our navy."
Later that day, a Venezuelan naval official said four Russian warships would visit the Caribbean in November.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said on Monday that the naval mission to Venezuela would include the nuclear-powered battle cruiser "Peter the Great," one of the world's largest combat battleships.

Shouldn't we protest this? I bet it leaks radiation all the way across the Atlantic! The last time an maintenance was done on this thing was right after the real Peter came back from Holland for the last time.

Georgia Update

Georgia overrun by Russia in the Daily Mail - an extensive and informative article.

My own government disgusts me

... American diplomats conceded that the US had few options and ruled out military intervention on behalf of Georgia. "We have no good options," a US National Security Council official told The Daily Telegraph. "We need Russia's co-operation over Iran and derailing that over a localised conflict in Georgia makes no sense. We just have to hope that diplomacy prevails. The next necessary step is for Russia to respond positively to Georgia's ceasefire declaration."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, "must go". Mr Lavrov said Russia would continue its military action in South Ossetia due to the "continuing direct threat to Russian citizens".

Yes, Putin, (& his stooge, Medvedev) are so obviously our trusted allies & have been so helpful in containing Iran's nuclear ambitions that we daren't stand up for the staunchly (& demonstrably) pro-US Georgians, who are merely a "localized conflict". That the elected president of Georgia "must go" is certainly out of concern for the well-being of Ossetians, and not a blueprint for what will come to other former parts of the Soviet Empire- no need to worry your little heads, Ukrainians....

An interesting WaPo editorial from 2006: Russia's Shadow Empire.

News about our dear, dear friend, Mr. Putin....

Russia stunned by Vladimir Putin's choice

President Vladimir Putin has plunged the political future of Russia into confusion by sacking his government and appointing a virtually unknown bureaucrat as prime minister.
...
The unexpected appointment raises the prospect that a bureaucrat whose name and face are almost totally unknown to the Russian public could emerge as president of the world’s largest country when Mr Putin steps down next year.

Read it all at The Telegraph.

Vladimir Putin keeps his friends in high places

The appointment of Viktor Zubkov as Russia's new prime minister has intensified speculation that Vladimir Putin harbours ambitions of remaining in office beyond next year's presidential election.

Although Mr Zubkov, 65, an economist, is a member of the so-called St Petersburg set, the cabal of former KGB officers and Putin loyalists that has seized control of key levers of power at the Kremlin, no one in Russia - not even those who have heard of him - regards him as a serious contender for the presidency.

Read it all at The Telegraph.

Via ¡No Pasarán!:

Politicus: America's misplaced hopes on Russia

WASHINGTON: Suppose the Russians, as Iran's monopoly supplier of nuclear wherewithal, decided they could live with a few atomic weapons in the hands of the mullahs.

Suppose the Russians, flush with money and superpower fantasies, believed that weakening and humiliating the United States was well worth the instability that might come with Moscow's refusal to help block Iran's drive toward nuclear arms.

Where's the downside? From Vladimir Putin's point of view, it's win-win.

With Russia's obstructive tactics encouraging Iran to plunge ahead, he may figure the Americans will eventually strike Iranian nuclear installations. The Yanks would harvest opprobrium in much of the world.

Still, if their strike does eradicate the Iranian nuclear program, that's fine, too. Russia's oil and gas prices are sure to shoot up. Russia becomes Iran's key reconstruction contractor, and sets out a rare claim to international righteousness.

Read it all at the International Herald Tribune.