Section: The Epoch Times (USA)
Kazakh Banker Saga Spins Intrigue, Politics, Cash
PARIS—Traced to a Cote d’Azur villa by private detectives for the bank he once led, the Kazakh oligarch-turned-dissident is dwarfed by the masked French court guards flanking him. He is the smallest man in the room. Mukhtar Ablyazov is nonetheless a huge problem for Western governments, forced to choose between abetting a resource-rich...
Russia and the West Compete in Eurasian Borderlands
Video Transcript Ben Sheen: Hello and thank you for joining us. My name is Ben Sheen, I’m a managing editor here at Stratfor, and today I’m joined by Eurasia analyst Eugene Chausovsky. We’ll be talking a little bit today about the increased buildup of tensions along Russia’s periphery. So, Eugene, clearly this is something...
Reports: French Leader Arrives in Moscow
MOSCOW— French President Francois Hollande is meeting with his Russian counterpart in an impromptu visit to Moscow, Russian news agencies report. The French leader met with Vladimir Putin at a Moscow airport on Saturday in an unexpected stopover visit, as he traveled from neighboring Kazakhstan back to Paris. Last month, France suspended the...
Ukraine Tests Ground for Lasting Cease-Fire
KIEV, Ukraine—A one-day truce announced by Ukraine’s president will serve as a test to see if the fighting in eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists can truly be halted, a military spokesman said Friday. President Petro Poroshenko’s declaration of a break next Tuesday in the fighting marks a new attempt to revive a...
EU Urges Russia to Let Bosnia Join the Bloc
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina—The European Union urged Russia on Friday to leave the Balkans out of its dispute with the bloc over Ukraine, and let the region proceed on its path toward EU and NATO memberships. Moscow has said that because of its strained relations with the West, it no longer supports Bosnia’s membership efforts and that...
Crimean Tatars Face Repression After Russia Takes Over
BRUSSELS—It was traditional for Crimean Tatars, a Muslim Turkic ethnic minority, to hold a large gathering for Human Rights Day in the central square in Simferopol, Crimea’s capital, on Dec. 10. But this year the Mejlis, a representative body of the Crimean Tatars, were told by Crimean authorities that they will not be able to hold their...
British Museum Loans Parthenon Sculpture to Russia
LONDON— The British Museum has loaned one of the Parthenon Marbles to Russia’s Hermitage Museum — the first time in 200 years that any of the ancient sculptures, whose return has been strongly demanded by Greece, has left Britain. The marble sculpture of the river god Ilissos —a reclining male figure from the west pediment of the Parthenon...
Islamic Militants Attack Chechen Capital; 20 Dead
GROZNY, Russia—Police waged hours-long gunbattles with Islamic militants who attacked Chechnya’s capital Thursday, leaving at least 20 people dead and underscoring Russia’s vulnerability just as President Vladimir Putin used patriotic and religious imagery in his state-of-the-nation address to defend his standoff with the West. The...
Putin Speech Offers Few Reforms for Russian Economic Woes
MOSCOW—Russia will defend its geopolitical interests, President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday as he promised economic reforms to pull his country back from the brink of recession. But Putin’s patriotic bluster and vague promises did little to assuage real fears that Western sanctions, plummeting oil prices and a collapsing ruble are...
Georgia Is Still Haunted by 2008 Russian Invasion
Georgia’s response to the Ukraine crisis has been less strident than some of Russia’s other neighbours. In part this is because many Georgians view the 2008 Russo-Georgian war as the first expression of renewed Russian expansionism, which makes them wary of taking too provocative a position. Nonetheless, the Ukrainian crisis has had...
