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NEWS & LETTERS, June -July 2007Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry and Mitch WeerthRussia flexes musclesRiding high global oil prices and taking advantage of the U.S. quagmire in Iraq, Russia has begun to reassert itself as a Eurasian power. It has attacked U.S. plans to locate missile bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, rattling Western Europe, which depends upon Russian natural gas. In Central Asia, it has outmaneuvered the U.S., which had sought to set up a natural gas pipeline from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan that would have bypassed Russia. Russia also turned to Greece and Bulgaria to contract an oil pipeline to bypass Turkey. This would serve as a counterweight to an even larger U.S.-sponsored pipeline running from Azerbaijan to Turkey, but bypassing Russia. At home, the regime of Vladimir Putin is moving in an increasingly authoritarian direction. On May 27, police allowed thugs from the Orthodox Flag Bearers and the neo-fascist Black Hundreds to physically attack gay rights demonstrators in the heart of Moscow, among them visiting members of the Europarliament. Police also attacked or prevented a number of small pro-democracy demonstrations in various cities. |
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