Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
Confused About Russia’s Intentions in Syria? Putin Wants You to Be.
It’s not easy being a Western diplomat dealing with Russia. First there’s the cold, the poor pay and the long hours. Then there’s the bugs, creepy happenings and monitoring you have to put up with in Moscow. But the worst problem is that your counterparts lie. First in Ukraine and now in Syria, Russia’s disinformation...
Crossing Borders
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. – Rumi A man, a woman, and a little girl in pigtails. Three black silhouettes leaning forward, almost desperately, against a bright yellow background. “Caution:...
Russia in Syria – Opportunism or Opportunity?
Facing Factions Nearly five years of civil war in Syria has produced more than 300,000 war victims, and unleashed an exodus of Biblical proportions, with four million refugees converging on Europe and neighboring Middle Eastern countries and almost eight million displaced internally. Meanwhile, large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq have...
Svetlana Alexievich Wins 2015 Nobel Prize In Literature
Svetlana Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday.The 67-year-old Belarusian author, whose work has been published in 19 countries, was honored “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time,” the Swedish Academy said.Born in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine and currently living in Belarus,...
U.S. Lawmakers Probing Possible Spying Lapses In Russia: Reuters
By Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart and Matt SpetalnickWASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Senior U.S. lawmakers have begun probing possible intelligence lapses over Moscow’s intervention in Syria, concerned that American spy agencies were slow to grasp the scope and intention of Russia’s dramatic military offensive there, U.S....
Putin’s Pivot in Ukraine and the Ukrainian Battle Against Its Corrupt Elites
Victor Yanukovych looted Ukraine of billions and his lavish estate outside Kyiv, as big as Monaco, is a testament to why anti-corruption efforts must be a priorityUkraine’s two-front war Putin is pivoting and wants to withdraw from the Donbas but keep Crimea, according to Iegor Soboliev, the head of the Ukrainian parliament’s...
Will Angela Merkel Win The 2015 Nobel Peace Prize?
Nelson Mandela. Malala Yousafzai. Martin Luther King Jr. Another leader will join that prestigious group when the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is chosen early Friday.Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, has been drawing up short lists of potential winners for over a decade, and several of those...
Russia Backs Syrian Forces In Major Assault On Insurgents
BEIRUT, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Russia and Syria carried out what appeared to be the first major coordinated assaults on Syrian insurgents on Wednesday and Moscow said its warships fired 26 missiles at them from the Caspian Sea, a sign of its new military reach.The combined assault hit towns close to the main north-south highway that runs through...
Putin’s Syrian Adventure Will Cost Russians Dearly
“Has the country run out of poor people?” is a fitting question to today’s Russian leaders who, not having ended the geopolitical and military conflict in eastern Ukraine, have unhesitatingly thrown the country into a new one, jumping straight from the fire into the hellish frying pan of the Middle East. Without any discussion...
Meet The Famous Artists And Writers Who Were Teachers First
Monday is World Teacher’s Day, a UNESCO-supported holiday that honors the critical role teachers play in maintaining education systems across the globe. Organizations in countries like Brazil, Poland, India and Papua New Guinea have planned international celebrations, meant to remind parents and students how important it is to empower...
