Russia

Photo: Moscow International Business Center with Alisa Andreevna Prokhorova (on the left), Managing Director for International Activities and Interaction with Business Councils, and Group of companies of the Russian Export Center. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Russia's Trade Growing with Africa

Interview by Kester Kenn Klomegah*

In this interview, Alisa Andreevna Prokhorova, Managing Director for International Activities and Interaction with Business Councils, and Group of companies of the Russian Export Center offers in-depth information and statistics about Russia’s trade with Africa.

MOSCOW (IDN) — First Russia–Africa Summit held on October 23-24, 2019 in Sochi, Russia, set the grounds for raising trade collaboration across various areas and work towards a new dynamism in the existing economic cooperation with African countries.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 20 May 2021

Photo: US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and other members of NATO Ministers of Defense and of Foreign Affairs meet at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 14, 2010.

NATO Plans to Focus on Russia and China

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (IDN) — “What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared in a blunt interview with The Economist in November 2019. Europe stands on “the edge of a precipice”, he said, and needs to start thinking of itself strategically as a geopolitical power; otherwise, we will “no longer be in control of our destiny.”

: Robert Johnson; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 May 2021

Photo: Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, is the largest city in the country and is separate from the Maputo Province. In the image the Port of Maputo is featured, the second largest in East Africa.

Mozambique In Search of Political and Economic Security

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — While speaking during a signing ceremony of an agreement formalising World Bank support of US$100 million assistance to the affected districts, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi unreservedly reiterated his detailed plan to enforce nation-wide security by cracking down on the militant groups who have been staging attacks in parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado since October 2017.

He also informed that courage, persistence and determination are necessary for the full-fledged fulfilment of the plan, as well as time for modernising and building the capacity of the Mozambican forces, adding that his government has to tread cautiously in choosing what type of aid to accept from other countries.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 May 2021

Photo: In 'good old days', India and Russia signed agreements for the cooperation and use of GLONASS-K satellite at CeBIT 2011—a global navigation satellite system, providing real time position and velocity determination for military and civilian users. CC BY-SA 2.0

When from Russia With Love Was About Bonding, Not Bond

By Shastri Ramachandaran*

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Amidst the raging epidemic and desperate clamour for vaccines, along with oxygen and hospital beds, comes news that Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, is expected in India by May end. Russia has also been forthcoming with a lot of other support and assistance as India finds itself desperately short of medicines, oxygen and hospital beds for battling a huge second surge of the coronavirus where the daily infections exceed 300,000 and deaths are at an all-time high.

: Shastri Ramachandaran; THE WORLD; Russia; 30 April 2021

Photo: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Roscongress Foundation Alexander Stuglev with Roscongrees Foundation in the backdrop. Credit: Roscongress Foundation.Collage of photos of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Roscongress Foundation and Head of the Coordinating Council under the Secretariat of the Russia–Africa Partnership Forum (RAPF) Alexander Stuglev

Russia Keen to Strengthen Partnership with Africa

Kester Kenn Klomegah* Interviews Roscongress' CEO

MOSCOW (IDN) — As the epidemiological situation begins to stabilize through mass vaccination and building herd immunity, the 24th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is finally set to take place on June 2-5, 2021. This unique Russian forum is expected to bring together politicians, corporate business directors and investors from different parts of the world. The organizing committee will do everything in its power to ensure that the event is held with all the necessary measures in place to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 29 April 2021

Photo: Debris of Afghan civil war: A boy runs past a destroyed Soviet-made armoured tank on a Kabul street, Afghanistan. (File photo)

Viewing Post-American Afghanistan Through Looking Glass

Viewpoint by M.K. Bhadrakumar

The writer is a former Indian diplomat. This article was first published in the Indian Punchline.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — Ex-CIA officer Bruce Riedel at Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, whose familiarity with Afghanistan is never in doubt, has held a looking glass to figure out the future course of events even as the US troop withdrawal commences.

History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes. Riedel sees in the haziness old familiar shapes appearing—the erstwhile Northern Alliance warlords. And he invokes the fate of the communist regime led by Dr Najibullah after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 29 April 2021

Sleepwalking into Nuclear War?

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — On April 20, US Strategic Command, the part of the military responsible for nuclear weaponry and its use, posted an official Tweet that read, “We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option”.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 27 April 2021

Photo: Capt. Matthew Dixon, who deployed with the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry of the 10th Mountain Division, receives a combat patch during his deployment to Afghanistan during the spring of 2020. U.S. ARMY

The US to End its War In Afghanistan, “The Graveyard of Empires”

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden of the United States announced that its war in Afghanistan, the US’s longest war ever, will end on September 11, 2021.

A glimpse of Afghanistan’s history—dubbed as “the country where Empires go to die” will help us understand why many empires failed in that country.

Afghanistan, rightfully called a “graveyard of empires”, is a mountainous landlocked country located along the ancient Silk Road between Asia and Europe, and surrounded by powerful nations such as India, Pakistan, and Russia.

: Somar Wijayadasa; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 23 April 2021

Photo: Counter-attack by Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces supported by T-34 tanks near Playa Giron during the Bay of Pigs invasion, 19 April 1961, by CIA-led Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. CC BY 3.0.

Lessons of the Bay of Pigs Invasion Followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is well remembered, even by those not yet born when it happened. The word has been passed down the generations and probably always will be. It was the first and only time, say many historians and political scientists, that the world faced the likelihood of nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the USA.

For my part, I find it impossible to forget.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 April 2021

Photo: Prof. Ksenia Tabarintseva-Romanova and Prof Alexei Antoshin

Economic and Social Development of the African Continent — A Russian Perspective

Kester Kenn Klomegah* interviews Prof. Ksenia Tabarintseva-Romanova and Prof Alexei Antoshin

MOSCOW (IDN) — After the Soviet collapse, Russia has maintained strong and time-tested relations with African countries, particularly as the Soviet Union had played an important role during decolonization. The African continent comprises a diverse collection of countries, each with its own set of development setbacks and challenges. The political culture and investment climate are, in fact, diverse but are also important forces in determining the levels of the economy.