Archive for the ‘Russia’ Category
Russian leader demands immediate cease fire on Libya
NATIONAL JOURNAL: In a stinging rebuke of U.S. policy in Libya, the Russian defense minister accused the U.S.-led coalition of killing Libyan civilians through errant air strikes and called for an immediate cease-fire on Tuesday. The comments drew a quick rebuke from visiting Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said the Russian criticism was based on “outright lies.” Speaking to reporters following an hourlong meeting with Gates, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Russia continued to support the United Nations resolution authorizing the creation of a no-fly zone over Libya but made clear that Moscow was increasingly uneasy about the escalating campaign.
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Russia’s Putin says U.S. and Allies should pray ‘for salvation of their own souls’
REUTERS: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that all those responsible for civilian casualties in Libya should pray for the salvation of their own souls.
Putin also played down signs of a rift with President Dmitry Medvedev over the U.N. Security Council resolution authorising armed intervention in Libya, saying the president is responsible for foreign policy “and there can be no division there”.
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Russian leader calls for revoking Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize
RIANOVOSTI: Russia’s head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has appealed to the Nobel Prize Committee to revoke U.S. President Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize, the party’s press service said in a statement on Monday. Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his commitment to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. “The situation in Libya is yet another shocking act of aggression by NATO forces and in particular by the United States. This is a clear reflection of colonial policy. This is another crude invasion into the domestic affairs of an independent state. There is only one goal: to take control of Libyan oil and the Libyan regime and not saving the Libyan people,” the press service quoted Zhirinovsky as saying.
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Mikhail Gorbachev lambasts Vladimir Putin’s “sham” democracy
U.K. GUARDIAN: Russia under prime minister Vladimir Putin is a sham democracy, Mikhail Gorbachev has said in his harshest criticism yet of the ruling regime.
“We have everything – a parliament, courts, a president, a prime minister and so on. But it’s more of an imitation,” the last president of the Soviet Union said.
Gorbachev, who oversaw the softening of the communist system and subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union, has become increasingly critical of the modern Russian state, accusing its leaders of rolling back the democratic reforms of the 1990s.
