Section: The National (United Arab Emirates)
Russians wary about Moscow’s air strikes on Syria
MOSCOW // There was no patriotic enthusiasm on Friday from Russians watching footage of their jets bombing targets in Syria, just a keen sense of the danger of getting entangled in a nasty conflict with no end in sight.The wary mood was in stark contrast to sentiments over Ukraine, where most Russians felt a surge of national pride that their...
West and Turkey soften tone towards Assad regime
BEIRUT// As the Syrian government began using newly acquired Russian aircraft to bomb ISIL positions this week, western countries, along with Turkey, have increasingly softened their tone on the Assad regime.The continued Russian military build-up in Syria appears to be pushing western governments and Ankara to rethink their Syrian policies at a...
Vladimir Putin: the unlikely father figure for a motherland reinvented
In the summer of 2011, the Russian media were summoned to the Black Sea, where an archaeological dive had been under way for some time to explore the ruins of the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria. On that day, though, the diver was not an official member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but rather the country’s former president, current...
Assad must step down, but not necessarily now, says Kerry
LONDON // US secretary of state John Kerry said on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar Al Assad must step down, but not necessarily immediately upon reaching a settlement to end the country’s civil war.Speaking after talks in London with British foreign secretary Philip Hammond, Kerry said he was prepared to negotiate to achieve a...
Nuclear ‘Tsar’ bomb put on display in Moscow
MOSCOW // Eight metres long and weighing 25 tonnes, a replica of the so-called Tsar Bomb, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever detonated, has gone on display for the first time in Russia, in the midst of an ongoing standoff with the West over Ukraine.Tested in 1961 by the Soviet Union, the hydrogen bomb — also known as the AN602 —...
Ukraine reports polio outbreak, first cases in Europe since 2010: WHO
KIEV // Two polio cases have been confirmed in western Ukraine, the first to be recorded in Europe since 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.A 10-month-old baby and a four-year-old child were diagnosed with the polio virus in Ukraine’s southwestern Zakarpattya region, which borders four European Union member states,...
Grenade explodes during Ukraine clashes; 1 officer killed
KIEV // As lawmakers took up a measure to give greater powers to separatists in eastern Ukraine, nationalist protesters clashed with police outside parliament on Monday, and the Interior Ministry said one officer was killed in a grenade blast and more than 100 were wounded.It was the worst violence in the capital since the government took power...
Protesters and police clash outside Ukraine parliament – in pictures
A grenade exploded outside Ukraine’s parliament during a nationalist protest against a vote to give greater powers to separatist regions in the east, killing one police officer. About 100 other officers were injured in the clashes, 10 of them seriously. …read more Source: The...
Putin pumps iron as his popularity dips
MOSCOW// The Kremlin has released pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin working out at the gym with Prime Minister Dmitrty Medvedev, images apparently aimed at shoring up Putin’s rugged, masculine image as his popularity dips.Wearing a white T-shirt, track suit trousers and running shoes, Putin is shown on muscle-building apparatus...
Outrage as Russia burns piles of illegally imported Western food
MOSCOW // Government plans for the mass destruction of banned Western food imports in Russia have provoked outrage in a country where poverty rates are soaring and memories remain of famine during Soviet times.Even some Kremlin allies are expressing shock at the idea of “food crematoria” while one orthodox priest has denounced the campaign, which...
