Fertile fields where there was once barren tundra; the Arctic free of ice; unhindered access to mineral resources — in Russia, there is increasing hope that the country will emerge as a winner from the catastrophe of climate change. For the northern giant with millions of cubic kilometers of permafrost soil, global warming could bring enormous national benefit. The other countries around the North Pole are likewise beginning to imagine the coming of a new Golden Age. On this view, a Union of Nordic Nations might be the strategic alliance of the future, which thanks to the warming climate could [...]
TBILISI, Georgia — The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia has voted in parliamentary elections its leaders hope will confer long-awaited international recognition, but Georgia’s president and the West dismissed the ballot and said results will not be recognized. Abkhazia’s status has become a sensitive issue between Georgia and Russia, which has given tacit support to separatists there and in nearby South Ossetia. Although the conflicts remain frozen, analysts say the region is a potential flashpoint as tensions mount between the two countries. Georgia accuses Russia of interfering with its internal affairs, while Moscow counters its southern neighbor has become increasingly [...]
Russian dissatisfaction over U.S. plans to deploy missile defense radars and interceptors in Poland and the Czech Republic has become so intense that senior Russian political and military leaders have recently warned that Moscow might withdraw from the two most important arms control treaties relating to European security. First, Russian policy makers have indicated they might renounce the December 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This accord prohibits Russia and the United States from developing, manufacturing, or deploying ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers. Its negotiation ended one of the most dangerous periods of [...]
