Russia

March 3, 2008 -- Washington, DC –Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement on Sunday’s elections in Russia:

“Dmitry Medvedev is taking over one of the toughest jobs in the world. Russia is facing endemic corruption, demographic collapse, a brewing insurgency in the North Caucasus and spiraling inflation.    » read more »

3/2/2008 -- "Today’s presidential election in Russia – where the installation of Dmitriy Medvedev as Vladimir Putin’s self-designated successor was never in doubt – marks a milestone in that country’s retreat from democracy. Today’s contest is not an open and democratic election, and the Russian people have been denied the opportunity to choose their leaders and shape the future of their country. There’s no other way to describe today’s election.    » read more »

02 March 2008 -- With nearly all of the ballots counted, Dmitri Medvedev has 70 percent of the vote. While the result is hardly a surprise, two of his opponents are crying foul.

Speaking at a political rally on Red Square just hours after polls closed, incumbent President Vladimir Putin said his hand-picked candidate, Dmitri Medvedev, was enjoying a convincing lead in the vote count. He said victory entails enormous responsibility, adding that it will ensure continuation of what he termed the "successful policies of the past eight years."    » read more »

11 February 2008 -- Russia has agreed to write off most of Iraq's multi-billion-dollar debt as Moscow expresses hope for increased economic relations between the two countries.

The deal to write off $12 billion, more than 90 percent of Iraq's nearly $13 billion debt to Russia, was reached in Moscow during a visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Baghdad's remaining $900 million arrears to Moscow would be restructured over the next 17 years.    » read more »

Legislation required to eliminate threat to domestic industry and jobs

February 1, 2008 -- Washington, D.C. -- United Steelworkers (USW) International President Leo W. Gerard confirmed today support for a new long-term suspension agreement being signed late today between government representatives of the U.S. and Russia that sets limits on exports of uranium products, including commercial Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU), at levels that won’t threaten the workforce producing this in Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois.    » read more »

27 January 2008 -- Russia's Election Commission has barred former prime minister and Kremlin critic Mikhail Kasyanov from the March presidential election.

The commission ruled Sunday that Kasyanov had tens of thousands of invalid signatures on his nominating petition.

Independent candidates need at least two million valid signatures from across the country to register to run for president.

A Kasyanov spokeswoman says the upcoming presidential election will be a farce. She says the Kremlin is scared of competition and someone with different opinions.    » read more »

07 January 2008 -- The Bush administration said Monday it remains confident Poland will join the United States in a European missile-defense program, despite reservations expressed by the Polish foreign minister. The system is aimed at countering an Iranian missile program but Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski downplays any threat from Iran.

Officials here say they're confident a deal will be struck for Polish participation on the missile defense plan, despite signs the new government in Warsaw is less supportive of the program than its predecessor.    » read more »

16 December 2007 -- Russian news reports say the military has deployed another batch of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The announcement Sunday says three new Topol-M truck-mounted missile units have been positioned about 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow, in the Ivanovo region near Teikovo. A first batch of the mobile missiles were deployed in the area last year.

Analysts say the missile has an effective range of 10,000 kilometers and can carry a more than one-ton payload.    » read more »

Dec 03, 2007 -- HEIDELBERG, Germany — April 25, 1945, was a historic day for the soldiers of V Corps' 273rd Infantry Regiment, 69th Infantry Division. As they moved deep into eastern Germany, the American troops apprehensively chased remnants of the German army. Approaching the Elbe River in the small town of Torgau, the soldiers saw something unexpected -- men in Soviet uniforms. As they came together to shake hands, the union of the U.S. and Soviet armies marked the symbolic defeat of Germany's Third Reich and the victory of the Allied forces.    » read more »

15 November 2007 -- A Russian opposition political party says it has asked the country's Supreme Court to disqualify Russian President Vladimir Putin as a candidate in next month's parliamentary elections.

A spokesman for the Union of Right Forces, Nikita Belykh, told reporters in Moscow the president's position as head of state gives his United Russia Party an unfair advantage in the December 2 vote. United Russia has put Mr. Putin at the top of its list of candidates in the parliamentary election.    » read more »

13 November 2007 -- Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych, have agreed to set up a joint working group to deal with a major oil spill along the coasts of the two countries.

The two men reached the agreement Tuesday as they met in Russia's seaport of Anapa, near Krasnodar. Mr. Zubkov is visiting the Kerch Strait area where crews are feverishly working to deal with a disaster local officials have called an ecological catastrophe.    » read more »

9 November 2007 -- "I am disturbed by the unprecedented restrictions to credible international election observation contained in the Russian Federation's invitation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) election observation body," said former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, founder of The Carter Center.    » read more »

09 November 2007 -- Defending champion Justine Henin of Belgium and former champion Maria Sharapova of Russia have scored wins at the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid, Spain.

Justine Henin, who had previously qualified for the semifinals, did not lose a game in routing Marion Bartoli of France in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. It was the Belgian's third win in round-robin play. Bartoli was a last-minute replacement for American Serena Williams, who pulled out of the event Thursday because of a knee injury.    » read more »

Nov 09, 2007 -- STUTTGART, Germany — Members of the Russian Federation Military and U.S. Military conducted a bilateral training event, Shared Response 2007, in Moscow, Russia Oct. 31 to Nov. 1.

The scenario-based exercise is meant to improve military interoperability for future combined operations between the U.S. and Russia. The theme of this year's exercise was peacekeeping operations.    » read more »

01 November 2007 -- The widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of stalling a British inquiry into her husband's murder, and turning the prime suspect into a hero.

A year to the day after Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210, Marina Litvinenko accused Mr. Putin of obstructing the probe.    » read more »