By intervening squarely on the side of Shiite Bashar Assad against his own mainly Sunni people and the entire Sunni Middle East, Russia may once again be the center of attention from the global Sunni jihadist movement.  But, unlike the 1980s in Afghanistan, these mujahadeen are much more experienced, much more sophisticated, much more…

Last week I attended a conference titled “Russia’s food market in 2015”; it was the first of a series of panels that took place in occasion of the 24th World Food Exhibition, a well-known event which brought to Moscow more than 1500 firms from over 70 countries.
 
At the discussion participated the Presidents of many…

Macro level intervention through advocacy and lobbying to reduce Social cost is a tool to build up positive business environment and increase market share of micro level investors in rural parts of India and Russia. To engineer that from grass root to policy making authority’s level, we need to break some myths.  When we think of a…

We humans have migrated for millions of years, from Africa Homo Sapiens led the way, meeting with Homo Neanderthals of Eurasia. The Human Tribe may have been founded as a collaboration effort or integration effort or a conquering effort by the Homo sapiens.  And all unplanned? - We are not sure.  In the Press we see today the vitriolic…

These writers admire His Holiness, Pope Francis. Like Jean Paul II, he has shown remarkable courage and compassion while supporting the poor, suffering and disenfranchised throughout the world. Yet, on the eve of his visit to Cuba, and less experienced with communism than his Polish born predecessor, he describes the capitalism replacing communism in…

Resumed political violence in Turkey started anew debates about deep-rooted problems in its political system. Terrorist attacks in the Turkish provinces of Şanlıurfa, Hakkari and Iğdır, efforts of the AKP to profit from the ensuing chaos and its reluctance to share power after the June elections impels to think about the prospects for a…

At the 2014 BRICS summit in Brasília, which was attended by Russian president Vladimir Putin, there was a lot of buzz in the Brazilian media that Argentina was next in line to join the organization. None of it was directly attributed to president Dilma Rousseff.
 
Dilma, still in her first term leading the nation as the hand-picked…

Interview with professor Sonin, esteemed economist of the University of Chicago
  
Russia has back fired to the western sanctions by banning the import of a wide range of food products in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. According to Russian authorities, this is a two-fold policy: on the one hand, it is economically non-profitable for…

Foreign policy constitutes one of the strong pillars of every nation-state; I wouldn’t say that is the most important (this depends from state to state), but for sure, is one of the dominants. Hence, the foreign policy decision making process has to serve as link between domestic intentions and external actions…

THE MUSLIM-IZATION OF EUROPE:  REPORTS FROM GERMANY By Jiri and Leni Friedman Valenta, 9-12-2015
 
What the German press is not reporting, but Middle East expert Jake Neuman is.
 
Jake Neuman,  who lives in Germany raises the question of whether there is a hidden side of the present invasion of Muslim immigrants not reported in…

NYT, Wash.Times


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JVLV:  Divining Putin's Intentions: Why We Must Lose "Strategic Patience"


Sep 6, 2015



 PREFACE

Our just published essay in the October 2015 Aspen Review is below, but we felt some background would be interesting to the reader and further…

The downing of the Malaysian airplane MH17 in July 2014 marked a clear turning point in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. The EU leaders put aside their divisions and adopted a resolute approach on Russia for the first time. Russia’s partial isolation, the sanctions’ escalation and the crucial deterioration of the relation with the EU…