http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/04-07-2011/118391-russian_president-0/
04.07.2011
While many people in Russia and in the rest of the world are trying to guess whether Dimity Medvedev and Vladimir Putin are going to run for presidency in 2012, WikiLeaks knows everything beforehand.
The return of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin as Russia's President is inevitable. This is what Russian scientists of politics where sharing with American diplomats. It is already obvious that Russian voters will have to choose between one of the two main presidential candidates in 2012. The parliamentary opposition in the face of Gennady Zyuganov, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and others will fly by and win their usual tiny percentage of votes.
Putin made a subtle decision. He gave Russia a liberal president, who was concerned with the program of modernization and technological innovations. Russia has not had big success in foreign policy during the recent eight years. Medvedev advocates friendly relations with the West, but Russia has not achieved anything during the meetings within the framework of the G8 and the European Union.
Medvedev shares a different point of view, though. He is certain that during his presidency Russia managed to overcome the financial crisis and lash Georgia, which attacked South Ossetia in August 2008. One should bear in mind the fact that it was Putin and the Finance Minister (who is a member of Putin's team), who put forward the idea to spend gold and currency reserves to avoid the collapse of the Russian ruble as it happened in 1998.
Medvedev said during his recent interview with The Financial Times that he had an intention to run, although he added that he was not going to compete with Putin. Medvedev is aware of the fact that he is No. 2 after Putin in all ratings.
As for Putin, he started working on his campaign soon after Medvedev took office as president in 2008. He has a strong team with himself, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov, and many others. If Medvedev wants to keep his office in 2012, he will have to make serious changes in the Cabinet of Ministers.
Vladimir Putin as President in 2012 is an axiom.
Darya Deryabina
Newsinfo
The billion-dollar question
http://rt.com/politics/press/nezavisimaya/cargo-us-transit-route/en/
Published: 5 July, 2011, 07:37
Edited: 5 July, 2011, 07:43
The US is putting pressure on Pakistan, while increasing the supply of goods to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia Andrey Terekhov
The Pentagon plans to significantly increase the load on the NATO and US northern supply route to Afghanistan. Nezavisimaya Gazeta’s (NG) interlocutors in the diplomatic and expert circles are confident that if this scenario is implemented, the amount of US transit dollars in the Russian treasury will rise.
According to The Washington Post, the Pentagon plans to decrease its dependence on Pakistan, through which 90% of military cargo was just recently supplied to Afghanistan. The only alternative to the inexpensive and fast route through Pakistan is the delivery of food supplies, fuel, and other cargo to the Baltic ports, and then through Russia and Central Asia to Afghanistan.
Amid the deteriorating US-Pakistan relations, partly as a result of the high-profile May raid to liquidate Osama bin Laden, the US Department of Defense is working to create a plan of action in an emergency situation, namely if the route from the Pakistani port of Karachi to Afghanistan is completely shut off. At stake are hundreds of containers and tanks of fuel, which are transported each day. Already today, according to the assessments of the director of Pakistan’s Center for Research and Security Studies, Imtiaz Gul, the US and NATO’s annual spending on logistics in Afghanistan amounts to $4 billion. A single gallon of gasoline costs the US troops in Afghanistan an average of $400.
Russia, according to NG’s source, has received about a billion dollars for the transit of cargo. Today, the US argues that about 40% of cargo is supplied to Afghanistan from the north. US military strategists are insisting on increasing this number to 75% by the end of this year by reducing the shipment of cargo through Pakistan.
NG’s Russian diplomatic source has expressed confidence that in the event this adjustment takes place, Russia’s budget revenues (as well as those of the Central Asian states) will increase from the transit – especially considering that Russia is meeting the wishes of NATO and the US. For example, now the alliance is able to not only transport food and fuel to Afghanistan, but also Ambush Protected-All Terrain Vehicles, which should protect the soldiers from roadside bombs. Carrying such large vehicles by air is costly. Besides, by September of 2012, the United States plans to reduce its troop presence in Afghanistan by a third. According to our interlocutor, they will be able to export illegal cargo in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, ammunition will need to be transported by air.
NG asked the deputy director of the Institute of Oriental Studies, Professor Vyacheslav Belokrenitsky, to comment on Washington’s signal about the change in the supply chain to Afghanistan. In his opinion, the US is possibly trying to put pressure on Pakistan, which collects substantial revenues from US cargo transits to the military zone. Among other things, this money goes toward the defense budget. The prospect of a reduction in the US military presence in Afghanistan and a reduction in the supply volumes are, in this regard, also not suitable for Pakistan. The expert recalled that militants, possibly acting on orders from Islamabad, have already once tried making the northern route unsafe by carrying out attacks in the Afghan Kunduz Province. It is possible that this practice may be resumed today. According to Belokrenitsky, the deterioration of US-Pakistan relations could put a question mark over further co-operation between Islamabad and Washington.
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