Wary US looks to calm rising tensions in Asia

By MATTHEW LEE | Associated Press – 09/08/2012

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AP) — Alarmed by a rise in nationalist sentiment around the Asia-Pacific, the Obama administration is looking for Russia to play a greater role in the region as it seeks to quell growing maritime tensions.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was to meet on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin at meeting of Pacific Rim leaders to gauge Moscow's intentions as it looks increasingly eastward after decades of European orientation. U.S. officials say they would welcome a more active Russian role in the Asia-Pacific where territorial disputes, including between U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, sparked by nationalist rhetoric have fueled fears of conflict.

A senior U.S. official traveling with Clinton said Russia's engagement in the region has until now been "episodic," not very active and primarily focused on the six-nation effort to get North Korea to give up nuclear weapons.

Russian TV to go on air in Cambodia

Lesson from Russia?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMD7Gt_hndc

Jul 25, 2012
Margarita Bogatova
The Voice of Russia

At present, Cambodians are getting a chance to watch Russian television programmes. The General Satellite Corporation which is working with the operators of satellite TV ”Trikolor” and NTV has created its own ONE TV network of cable channels in Cambodia.

The project was implemented together with the Royal Group of Companies, which possesses 49 percent of the joint venture. The Russian company, which is the initiator of the project, owns the majority share.

The ONE TV platform, which was launched as an experiment on the 24th of July, has become the first venture of the General Satellite abroad. The company is planning to expand its broadcast to Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries in Asia as well as Africa, CIS and Latin America.

Russia Could Lose Last Arab Ally as Assad Regime Teeters

A member of the Free Syrian Army holds a burning portrait of President Bashar al-Assad, in Al-Qsair, southwest of Homs, Syria. (Alessio Romenzi/AFP/Getty Images)

Vladimir Putin, Russia's president. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

By Henry Meyer - Jul 19, 2012
Bloomberg

Vladimir Putin is being caught on the wrong side of the Arab Spring as the threat to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime raises the prospect that Russia may be left with Iran as its only friend in the region.

The day after a bomb decapitated Assad’s security command as fighting engulfs Damascus, Russia teamed up once more with China yesterday to block United Nations sanctions against Syria.

“The Kremlin has pushed itself into a corner that it can’t get out of, and it should have been smarter about the new order in the Middle East,” Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said in a phone interview yesterday. “Losing its last Arab ally and alienating all other former Arab partners, particularly Qatar and Saudi Arabia, is a huge strategic loss for Russia.”

Asean Postpones Passage of Nuclear Weapons Treaty

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin holds hands with (L-R) The Philippines' Foreign Minister Albert Rosario, Singapore's Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Bilahari Kausikan, Thailand's Foreign Minister Surapong Towijakchaikul, Vietnam's Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Brunei's Foreign Minister Prince Mohamed Bolkiah, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, Laos' Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, Malaysia's representative and Secretary General of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Surin Pitsuwan during the opening ceremony of the 45th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting (AMM) at the office of Council of Ministers in Phnom Penh on Monday. (Reuters Photo/Samrang Pring)

July 09, 2012
Antara (Indonesia)

Phnom Penh. Three documents on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ), which were scheduled to be signed this week during an Asean summit in Cambodia, were postponed until November because four of the five recognized nuclear-weapon states (P5) have “reservations,” a Cambodian senior official said Monday.

Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at Cambodia’s foreign ministry, said three documents were supposed to be signed this week, including the Asean Statement on the Protocol to the Treaty of the SEANWFZ, the Memorandum of Understanding between Asean and China to the treaty on SEANWFZ and the protocol to the treaty on the SEANWFZ by the P5 on July 12. The P5 includes France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia and China.

“The SEANWFZ Commission decided to postpone the signings until the member states in Asean countries are able to work closely with the members of the P5 to resolve the reservations by members of the P5,” Hourn said in a press briefing after the 45th Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) on Monday.

4 nuke states postpone signing SEANWFZ protocol next week

Xinhua | 2012-7-9

Four out of the five recognized nuclear-weapon states (P5) will not be ready to sign on the protocol to the treaty on the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone (SEANWFZ) during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting next week, a Cambodian senior official said Sunday.

The four countries are France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, Kao Kim Hourn, secretary of state at Cambodia's foreign ministry, said in a press briefing after the meeting of the SEANWFZ Commission, which was attended by ASEAN foreign ministers and chaired by Cambodian foreign minister Hor Namhong.

"They (the four countries) have introduced the text of reservation and position reservation to the SEANWFZ commission very late; therefore, the commission has not had more time to review them, and the commission decided that the signing will be postponed so that we will have more time to review the text of reservation and position of reservation," said Kao Kim Hourn. "We do hope that the signing by the four countries can take part during the 21st ASEAN Summit in November this year."

[Cambodia-flagged] Cruise Ship in Distress in Sea of Japan, Crew Evacuated

VLADIVOSTOK, July 7 (RIA Novosti)

A Cambodia-flagged cruise ship is in distress in the Sea of Japan, a rescue coordination official said on Saturday.

The Star ship with 16 Russian crew members on board started taking on water in the early hours of Saturday, when it was some 90 miles off the port of Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.

The crew reported a leak in the ship’s engine unit.

All people have been evacuated from the ship on board another cruise vessel which was sailing nearby and rushed to the Star’s aid.

A rescue operation is under way.

Politiktoo​ns No, 210 : Al-Assad's Friends

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Politiktoons No. 206: Assad

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

China and Russia hold first navy exercises

This file photo shows, made available by US Navy in 2009, shows the Russian destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, which currently takes part in China's and Russia's first joint naval exercises. The six days of drills are talking place in the Yellow Sea off China's east coast

22 April 2012
AFP

BEIJING — China and Russia on Sunday launched their first joint naval exercises amid tensions between China and its Asian neighbours over regional territorial claims.

The six days of drills are taking place in the Yellow Sea off China's east coast, the official China News Service said, adding these were the first dedicated exercises involving the two navies.

Taking place near Qingdao city off the coast of Shandong province, they were launched by Russian and Chinese military officials on Sunday morning, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The exercises come as China boosts military spending and asserts claims over disputed territory, including a chain of islands in the East China Sea also claimed by Japan.

Far East Border Guards Detain Foreign Vessel [flying Cambodia's flag of convenience] for Poaching

16/03/2012
Sergei Krasnoukhov
RIA Novosti (Russia)

Border guards in Russia’s Far East detained on Friday a foreign fishing vessel that carried some 16 metric tons of poached live sea urchins, Natalia Yershova, a spokeswoman for local border guards, said.

She said border guards detected Winner-2 vessel, flying the flag of Cambodia, in the exclusive Russian economic zone to the south-east of the Shikotan Island and asked the ship to stop for an inspection.

Russia looks to the Pacific in 2012

March 6th, 2012
Author: Artyom Lukin, Far Eastern Federal University
EastAsiaForum.org

Russia’s foreign ambitions have been directed almost entirely westward throughout its long history.

And while relations with the West continue to dominate Moscow’s foreign policy, recent developments suggest that Russian policy makers are now reassessing the importance of the Asia Pacific region. In the last decade, Russia has actively engaged with its neighbours through multilateral cooperation and efforts at economic integration. This year, Moscow’s new Pacific strategy will be highlighted as Russia hosts the 2012 APEC Summit in its principal Pacific city, Vladivostok.

Russia has been a major player in the Asia Pacific since the late 19th century, but its engagement with the region has focused mostly on political and military — rather than economic — affairs. And despite having a Pacific coastline of more than 25,000 kilometres, Russia is a relative late-comer to Asia Pacific regionalism.

Politiktoons No. 188: The Putin

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Internet: Russia's new anti-Putin weapon [-It already is the new anti-Hun Xen weapon]

Irina Pravnichenko (C), volunteer coordinator for Citizen Observer, a non-profit and non-partisan group, speaks while training future observers to monitor March 4 presidential polls in Moscow

Members of the Solidarnost (Solidarity) opposition movement pretend to clash with fellow members during a street performance against police despotism in Moscow in 2011

Tuesday, February 28, 2012
By Anna Malpas and Laetitia Peron
AFP News

Russia's new Internet-savvy opposition is going online to protest and monitor the presidential elections on March 4, bringing its iPhones and Twitter into the fray against Vladimir Putin.

As jokes and spoof videos about Putin, expected to win back the presidency in Sunday's polls, spread like wildfire on social networking sites and YouTube, opposition activists are using the Internet to promote their cause.

After a slow start, Internet use has sky-rocketed in Russia in recent years and last year the country overtook Germany as having Europe's largest number of Internet users, a development the opposition have not hesitated to exploit.

Putin says ready for talks with Russian opposition

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attends a meeting of All Russia People's Front, an umbrella movement of his supporters, in Moscow December 27, 2011. (Credit: Reuters/Yana Lapikova/RIA Novosti/Pool)

MOSCOW | Wed Dec 28, 2011
By Gleb Bryanski

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin softened his tone towards the protesters who have staged the biggest political rallies of his 12-year rule, saying on Wednesday he was ready for dialogue with Russia's opposition but was at a loss for a leader to hold talks with.

Tens of thousands gathered in central Moscow on Saturday to protest against election results that gave Putin's United Russia party a majority in the lower house of parliament, or Duma. International monitors said the vote was marred by violations.

The demonstrators demanded a re-run of the election and a resignation of the Central Election Commission chief Vladimir Churov, Putin's close ally.

Anti-Putin protests draw tens of thousands

Protesters hold a portrait of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as they gather to protest against alleged vote rigging in Russia's parliamentary elections on Sakharov avenue in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Tens of thousands of demonstrators on Saturday cheered opposition leaders and jeered the Kremlin in the largest protest in the Russian capital so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

Protesters gather together to protest against alleged vote rigging in Russia's parliamentary elections on Sakharov avenue in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011, with a white balloon with words "why did you join WTO?". Tens of thousands of demonstrators on Saturday cheered opposition leaders and jeered the Kremlin in the largest protest in the Russian capital so far against election fraud, signaling growing outrage over Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Sunday, December 25, 2011
By JIM HEINTZ and NATALIYA VASILYEVA

MOSCOW (AP) — Tens of thousands of demonstrators on Saturday cheered opposition leaders and jeered the Kremlin in the biggest show of outrage yet against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's 12-year rule.

The Moscow demonstration was even bigger than a similar rally two weeks ago, signaling that the protest movement ignited by the fraud-tainted Dec. 4 parliamentary election may be growing. Protests were also held in dozens of other cities and towns across Russia.

Rally participants densely packed a broad avenue, which has room for nearly 100,000 people, about 2.5 kilometers (some 1.5 miles) from the Kremlin, as the temperature dipped well below freezing. They chanted "Russia without Putin!"

A stage at the end of the 700-meter (0.43 mile) avenue featured placards reading "Russia will be free" and "This election Is a farce." Heavy police cordons encircled the participants, who stood within metal barriers, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

U.S. Officials Cite 'Nationwide Awakening' In Russia

Protesters at a Moscow rally on December 10 to protest alleged violations in the parliamentary elections nearly a week earlier.

Thursday, December 15, 2011
By RFE/RL

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. State Department official says recent mass protests in Russia could represent a "nationwide awakening" among Russians who want more accountability from their government.

Protesters across Russia have staged a series of demonstrations accusing Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his ruling United Russia party of rigging votes in the party's favor during the December 4 parliamentary elections, which United Russia narrowly won. More major protest rallies are being organized for December 24.

At a hearing in the U.S. Senate on December 14 focusing on rule of law and corruption in Russia, Thomas Melia, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary for democracy and human rights, said "the curtain has gone up on a new act" in Russia, though he said Russia's future direction remains unclear.

Crackdown or Negotiation? Russian Protests Pose a Dilemma for Putin

Russians stage a protest against alleged vote rigging in parliamentary elections, holding signs including one that reads "Putin Must Go Away," on Dec. 10, 2011 in Moscow (Konstantin Zavrazhin / Getty Images)

A protester stands during a rally in downtown St. Petersburg, Russia, Dec. 10, 2011. The sign reads "No vote." (Dmitry Lovetsky / AP)

Sunday, Dec. 11, 2011
By Simon Shuster / Moscow
Times Magazine (USA)

Mercenaries, goateed liberals, jackals who scavenge for money at foreign embassies in Moscow — those are some of the things Vladimir Putin has called Russia's opposition. But he's never before had to reckon with them as a significant threat to his rule. That may now have to change. On Saturday, in the biggest act of popular resistance ever to Putin's government, tens of thousands of protesters rallied across the country to challenge the results of parliamentary elections held a week ago. This time, the once and future President can't ignore his challengers or simply dismiss them with colorful epithets.

"We realize these aren't Chinese people sent here to protest," an official from Putin's United Russia party told TIME after the demonstrations. "These are regular citizens, and we have to respond to their demands." (The official asked to remain anonymous because these are "nervous times" and "no one wants to talk out of turn.") Since the wave of protests began last Monday, party officials and Putin's circle of advisers have held emergency meetings to try to hammer out a response, the official added, but have so far come up with little.

Russian vote protests spread across nation

Up to 50,000 people turned out in Moscow on Saturday for a protest against disputed polls that have sparked a rare national show of defiance against Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule.

Saturday, December 10, 2011
By Agence France-Presse

But analysts say rapid social changes and the Internet’s first significant gains in Russia may have caught Kremlin strategists off guard amid signs that Putin’s likely return to head of state is less welcome than originally thought.

Hundreds of security trucks blocked off central squares while helicopters patrolled the skies as Moscow authorities deployed more than 50,000 riot police and troops on the biggest day of protest to hit Russia since the turbulent 1990s.

Protesters braved a whipping snow storm to snake their way through tight police cordons and across the Moscow River to a secluded square not far from the Kremlin, assigned by the authorities for the “For Fair Elections” protest.

“The current regime does not know how to behave with dignity,” former cabinet member turned Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov said as the crowd gathered for the biggest Moscow opposition rally of the Putin era.

Russians fight Twitter and Facebook battles over Putin election

Protest against Vladimir Putin United party over elections have escalated across social media, including Twitter and Facebook, with a flood of automated counterattacks. Photograph: Yana Lapikova/AFP/Getty Images

Protests against president's party escalate across social media with flood of automated counterattacks and alleged hacking

Friday 9 December 2011

Miriam Elder in Moscow

guardian.co.uk

Russians have flooded Facebook and Twitter as they organise unprecedented protests against Vladimir Putin's United Russia party. But they are not alone. Thousands of Twitter accounts appear to have been created with the sole purpose of drowning out opposition voices by flooding the service's hashtag search function.

The automated attacks have dumped a blizzard of meaningless tweets with hashtags such as #Navalny, on which tweets about Alexei Navalny are collated, making it impossible to follow the flow of news about the arrested opposition leader. Many of the so-called "Twitter bots" have now been shut down.

The flood of fake tweets came after liberal websites, including the LiveJournal blogging platform, the website for radio station Ekho Moskvy and weekly journal Bolshoi Gorod , were shut down by distributed denial of service attacks on Sunday, the day of Russia's disputed parliamentary vote.

Cold war redux?

China Threatens World War Three If Anyone Attacks Iran 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=l-3xeP7NFRE#!

China Joins Russia, Orders Military To Prepare For World War III

Dec 7th, 2011
EU Times

A grim Ministry of Defense bulletin issued to Prime Minister Putin and President Medvedev today states that President Hu has “agreed in principal” that the only way to stop the West’s aggression led by the United States is through “direct and immediate military action” and that the Chinese leader has ordered his Naval Forces to “prepare for warfare.”

Hu’s call for war joins Chinese Rear Admiral and prominent military commentator Zhang Zhaozhong who, likewise, warned this past week that: “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a Third World War,” and Russian General Nikolai Makarov who grimly stated last week: “I do not rule out local and regional armed conflicts developing into a large-scale war, including using nuclear weapons.”

A new US intelligence report has also stated that China has up to 3000 nuclear weapons compared with general estimates of between 80 and 400. To further pour more gasoline on the fire, the Washington Times has just reported that North Korea is making missile able to hit the US.