Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- Follow Carnegie
- Search
- Global Resources
Global Centers
Languages
It is unlikely that negative perceptions of Islam in Russia will be reversed in the foreseeable future, since external factors outside Russia influence this attitude. Everyone is interested in stopping the rise of Islamophobia, not least the Muslim themselves, who should also be more cautious and circumspect when dealing with Russia.
In advance of 2008, if Mr Putin were looking to improve his legacy he might consider three moves. He should release Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oligarch, bury Lenin and invite the Pope. Each move would erase a dark shadow of Russia’s history.
Without a viable, effective nonproliferation regime, nuclear energy will neither be accepted publicly, nor would it be a wise choice.
After nearly 13 years of tough negotiations, the United States and the Russian Federation have finally reached a bilateral agreement about Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization. It is the only piece of good news for a relationship that has steadily deteriorated to a point of acrimony and distrust not seen since Mr. Gorbachev came to power more than twenty years ago.
Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin were all smiles when they met Wednesday at a Moscow refueling stop during Bush's trip to Asia. But the truth is that the U.S.-Russian relationship has reached its lowest point since the end of the Cold War.
In recent years British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has made a controversial career out of denigrating Kazakh culture through satire -- much to the chagrin of some in Kazakhstan. But for all of the country's shortcomings, Kazakhstan is really one of the few success stories, not just in Central Asia, but among former Soviet republics.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization lacks the power to effectively combat Central Asia's security threats, and the organization's economic mission remains ill-defined as Russia and China jockey for dominance in Central Asia's energy market.
In four key regions—East Asia, the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, and Latin America—a combination of factors has created a new, fluid alliance that could potentially oppose the U.S. and other democracies. In all four regions, countries that have flirted with democracy since 1989 have begun to turn their backs on it. And, in all four regions, authoritarian regimes have a new weapon: oil.
Trying to understand what is really going on in the Kremlin is like peeling an onion : layer by layer by layer with the only certitude that the process will bring you to tears. Kremlin politics can be described as “democracy within one fortress”; it is almost a completely nontransparent ruthless struggle where the stakes are high for the participants as well as those outside the Kremlin walls.