Word: primed
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...competing superpowers, ideologies and worldviews clashed. But when Barack Obama visits Moscow on July 6, it will be something of a rarity for the U.S. President: a rather dull trip. Obama will encounter no cheering crowds or overly excited local media. His hosts, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, will be no more than coolly polite. The end of the visit is unlikely to be marked by grand declarations of friendship or announcements of breakthrough deals. Indeed, experts on both sides say the area where progress is most likely is in negotiations on the reduction of nuclear...
...reversal in Russia's economic fortunes is particularly painful. Since 1998 - the year of Russia's last financial crisis - the economy has expanded eight-fold. As oil prices rocketed, so did the country's self-confidence. Not content with presiding over the economic boom, then President (now Prime Minister) Vladimir Putin vowed to restore his country's great power status. Talk about a partnership with the West gave way to belligerent statements about a new Cold War. In the summer of 2008, Russian tanks trundled into Georgia. In early 2009, a dispute with neighboring Ukraine led Russia...
...Israeli hawks and the disdain of liberals, Palestinians and just about every government in the Arab world. In February's election, Lieberman's 10-year-old party, Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Is Our Home), won the third highest number of seats in the Knesset, making him a linchpin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government. That has complicated the Obama Administration's effort to pressure Israel to freeze settlement growth and restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians. How far Netanyahu travels in Obama's direction may depend on Lieberman's willingness to go along. "Lieberman is the most talented politician...
Around the time he settled in Nokdim, Lieberman met Netanyahu, then a rising Likud star. He ran Netanyahu's first, successful campaign for Prime Minister, in 1996, and became his chief of staff. "Netanyahu trusted him," says Tzahi Hanegbi, who served as the Justice Minister at the time. "He was quiet, discreet and loyal." In 1999, Lieberman split from Netanyahu and Likud, forming Yisrael Beitenu, an unapologetically nationalist party that drew its support from Israel's Russian-immigrant community. The party's most explosive position is the call for all citizens to pledge allegiance to the Jewish state...
...Actually titled Questions for the President: Prescription for America, the town-hall forum sat the POTUS down to field questions about his plans to overhaul the health-care system. Before it aired, Republicans criticized it as an infomercial that would allow Obama to sell his platform to a vast prime-time audience...