To look at him, one would never suspect that Vladislav Surkov once worked as an agent for a crack special operations unit in the Red Army’s intelligence corps. A svelte, retiring figure, Surkov, 42, usually shies away from the public spotlight. When he does give interviews or make public appearances, therefore, it commonly occasions a media frenzy. Attempts to slice through the veil of mystery shrouding this high-placed presidential aide assume particular urgency because, by some estimates, Surkov is the second most influential person in Russian politics. Surkov came to the attention of casual Russia-watchers in the West following a [...]
KUMGANG MOUNTAIN, North Korea — Bags packed, hiking boots tightly laced, visors on, cameras in hand, a few dozen South Korean tourists make their way to an unlikely vacation destination. Their journey, a mere four hours from Seoul, will take them through barbed wire checkpoints, and at their destination they will be greeted by machine-gun-toting soldiers. In cooperation with the government of South Korea and the Hyundai Asan Corp., North Korea is dabbling in the art of making money through tourism, offering a peephole into the Hermit Kingdom for visitors from all over the world. Kumgang Mountain first opened in [...]
Editor’s Note: Over the last month, World Politics Review published Swiss journalist Kurt Pelda’s diary of his three-week trip, during late February and March, to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese region of Darfur. The diary originally appeared in German on the Web site of the Swiss newspaper the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and was published in WPR for the first time in English. Today we present Pelda’s epilogue to his diary, penned exclusively for WPR. In it, Pelda provides a penetrating analysis of the conflict’s causes, and of various proposals for its resolution. He also responds to criticism [...]
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