Word: russia
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...dangerous perspective, Romney argues, at a time when China's clout is growing, Russia is resurgent and the U.S. remains mired in a grinding war with Islamic extremists. "The truth is that we are at war with a formidable enemy and that nations like Russia and China are intent on neutralizing our military lead," Romney writes in support of maintaining healthy defense budgets. "We must pay a large price to maintain our freedoms, and if we do not pay enough in dollars, we may be forced to pay the price in blood." He also charges - somewhat incongruously - that...
...what's behind Sarkozy's Russophile display? Most observers agree that it marks a rapid acceleration of the pragmatism that has been steadily influencing French policy toward Moscow and that it's a signal that Paris is ready to interact with Russia without the usual qualifiers. Gone are Sarkozy's early promises to make a respect of human rights and democracy central to all French foreign relations. Also gone is Sarkozy's former mocking of realpolitik as a political cop-out of cynical diplomats without principles. France is now eager to work with Russia on common security and economic interests...
...That goes for military deals. On Monday, Sarkozy confirmed that France was negotiating with Russia over the sale of four Mistral-class assault ships worth a total of about $2 billion - the first deal of its kind between a NATO member and Moscow. It's turning heads for other reasons too. A Russian admiral recently said the amphibious vessels - which can carry 15 helicopters or 70 armored vehicles - would have allowed Russia to complete its August 2008 invasion of Georgia in a matter of hours. Little wonder, then, that the deal has prompted deep concern among American defense officials...
Another motive behind Russia's high-tech endeavor seems to be staking out a part of the industry and a part of the Web that is distinctly Russian. This came through in a parallel initiative approved by Medvedev in November. It would allow Russian speakers to be the first to register Web addresses in their native Cyrillic script rather than in Latin letters like everybody else. Andrei Kolesnikov, the official in charge of implementing the idea and registering Cyrillic domain names, says using the Russian language online is the nation's "birthright." He concedes, however, that it offers "no technical...
This points again to the old habits - the nationalism, the overbearing management - that the Kremlin is dragging into its modernization drive. Masha Lipman, a political expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Moscow, says Russia will never succeed unless those habits are left in the past. "A modern, competitive economy can't thrive in an environment where the quality of governance is this low," she says. "And why is it low? It is low because they seek to control everything, because they do not trust their own people, and as a result the people do not trust them...