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WASHINGTON (AP) — Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, who commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died Monday. He died in a hospital near his Space Coast Florida home, said Max Ary, director of the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Photos You Should See View All 60 ImagesThe Apollo 10 mission in May 1969 set the stage for Apollo 11’s historic mission two months later. He volunteered for the Air Force and had hoped to fly combat in the Korean War. After the Apollo-Soyuz mission, Stafford returned to the Air Force and worked in research and commanded the Air Force Flight Test Center before retiring in 1979 as a three-star general.

Persons: Thomas P, Stafford, Max, Tom Stafford, Bill Nelson, “ Tom, Gene Cernan, John Young, Charlie Brown, ” Stafford, Alexei Leonov, Tom, Gerald Ford, Leonid Brezhnev, “, you’re, Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, Wally Schirra, Stafford’s, Cernan, didn’t, Get, Linda Organizations: WASHINGTON, Air Force, Coast, Stafford Air & Space Museum, NASA, Apollo, Soviet Union, Disney World, Soyuz, Russian, Space, U.S . Naval Academy, Air, Gemini, Gene, Stafford's Air Force, Pentagon Locations: U.S, Stafford, Coast Florida, Weatherford , Oklahoma, Soviet, Soviet Union, Russia, Oklahoma, Florida, Cape Canaveral

☆ Analysis: As Putin sails to re-election, Russia’s leader has a succession problem
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Nathan Hodge | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to sail to re-election in a nationwide vote that begins on March 15, securing a fifth term in office and a full third decade as Russia’s paramount leader. As Kremlin chairman, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin would become the country's leader temporarily if Putin were to die or be incarcerated while in office. In 2008, Putin reached the end of his second presidential term, and stepped aside for a handpicked placeholder, Dmitry Medvedev. Some Russian political observers speculate that the real competition to succeed Putin is not likely until the 2030s, when Putin reaches his sixth term. Even the former president Medvedev, who lost the number two slot in 2020 when he stepped down in a government shakeup, may still have aspirations.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Alexey Navalny, Joseph Stalin, Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Putin “, Joe Biden, Putin’s, …, ”, Andreas Umland, “ Putin, ” Umland, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin –, “ It’s, Umland, Mikhail Mishustin, Gleb Schelkunov, Dmitry Medvedev, Medvedev, Irina Buzhor, Leonid Brezhnev, Alexander Lukashenko, Xi Jinping, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Nazarbayev, President Kassym, Tokayev, Andrey Pertsev Organizations: CNN, Stockholm Centre, Eastern European Studies, Russian, Russian Federation, Soviet, Air Force One, United Russia, Russian Security Council, AP, Chinese Communist Party, country’s Security, Kremlin Locations: Soviet, Ukraine, Moscow, Russia, Russian, Belarusian, Kazakhstan

The palace's disclosure that King Charles III has been diagnosed with cancer shattered that longstanding tradition. “The King has cancer,” the Times of London declared in a terse banner headline Tuesday. But in beaming a sliver of light from inside the palace walls and his own life, Charles has broken with his mother and royal tradition. HOW MUCH DOES THE BRITISH PUBLIC HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW? Charles' news was received with great sympathy in a country in which 3 million people live with cancer, according to Macmillan Cancer Support, a London-based charity.

Persons: King Charles III, Charles, “, Queen Elizabeth II, ”, wasn’t, Charles ’, King George VI, he's, Sally Bedell Smith, “ Charles, Simon Lewis, King, Julie Sharp, Charles “, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, It’s, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, they’re, Defense Lloyd Austin —, —, William, Kate, Wales, Danica Kirka, Laurie Kellman Organizations: —, BBC Radio, Cancer Research, Soviet, Defense, Defense Department, Black, Royals, Republican, National Center for Social Research, Macmillan Cancer, National Health Service, Associated Locations: London, Soviet Union, United States, Wales, British

☆ Henry Kissinger, American diplomat and Nobel winner, dead at 100
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger speaks at the International Economic Forum of the Americas/Conference of Montreal in 2008. U.S. President Richard Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger stand on Air Force One during their voyage to China February 20, 1972. U.S. President Gerald Ford meets with Secretary Kissinger at Camp David, U.S., July 5, 1975. In 1973, in addition to his role as national security adviser, Kissinger was named secretary of state - giving him unchallenged authority in foreign affairs. But Ford did replace him as national security adviser in an effort to hear more voices on foreign policy.

Persons: Henry Kissinger, Shaun Best, Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Xi Jinping, Nixon's, Gerald Ford, Duc Tho, Gerald R, Ford, Henry, Heinz Alfred Kissinger, Anglicizing, Lyndon Johnson's, Nixon, Nelson A . Rockefeller, Henry A, Roosevelt, Premier Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, China Winston Lord, Leonid Brezhnev, Brezhnev, Gromyko, Dobrynin, Salvador Allende, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W, Bush, Ann Fleischer, Nancy Maginnes, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Abinaya, Sandra Maler Organizations: U.S, International Economic, Americas, Conference of, REUTERS, Kissinger Associates, New York City . U.S, National Security, Air Force, Richard Nixon Presidential, REUTERS Acquire, House, Republican, Paris Peace, Camp David, Ford Library, HARVARD, Nazi, Army, Harvard University, State Department, Office, White, Communist, Premier, Former U.S, Reuters, Ford, Soviet, CIA, Democrat, New York Governor, Thomson Locations: Conference of Montreal, Connecticut, New York City ., China, North Korea, Beijing, U.S, Israel, Paris, North Vietnam, America, North, Cambodia . U.S, Camp, Washington and New York, Voluble, Furth, Germany, United States, Europe, Vietnam, South Vietnam, Washington DC, Cambodia, Jerusalem, Damascus, Syria, Golan, Vladivostok, Soviet Union, Russian, Russia, Egypt, Sinai, India, Pakistan, Washington, New York, Bengaluru

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Henry Kissinger, the most powerful U.S. diplomat of the Cold War era, who helped Washington open up to China, forge arms control deals with the Soviet Union and end the Vietnam War, but who was reviled by critics over human rights, has died aged 100. While many hailed Kissinger for his brilliance and statesmanship, others branded him a war criminal for his support for anti-communist dictatorships, especially in Latin America. Kissinger won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for ending U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, but it was one of the most controversial ever. When Nixon's pledge to end the Vietnam War helped him win the 1968 presidential election, he brought in Kissinger as national security adviser. And in the India-Pakistan War of 1971, Nixon and Kissinger drew heavy criticism for tilting toward Pakistan.

Persons: Henry Kissinger, Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Nixon's, Gerald Ford, Joe Biden's, John Kirby, Biden, Le Duc Tho, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Abdul Momen, Kissinger's, Momen, Ford, Henry, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Heinz Alfred Kissinger, Egon Bahr, Fabrizio Bensch, Lyndon, Nixon, Premier Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong, China Winston Lord, Leonid Brezhnev, Salvador Allende, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W, Bush, Xi Jinping, Ann Fleischer, Nancy Maginnes, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Steve Holland, Arshad Mohammed, Dan Whitcomb, Don Durfee, Kanishka Singh, David Brunnstrom, Trevor Hunnicutt, Jarrett Renshaw, Bill Trott, Diane Craft, Rosalba O'Brien, Tomasz Janowski, Frances Kerry, Jonathan Oatis Organizations: Jewish, Kissinger Associates, Arlington National, Republican, Paris Peace, Democratic, U.S, HARVARD, Nazi, Social Democratic, Mary's, REUTERS, Army, Harvard University, State Department, Paris Peace Accords, Communist, Premier, Former U.S, Ford, CIA, Democrat, House, New York Governor, Thomson Locations: U.S, Washington, China, Soviet Union, Vietnam, German, Connecticut, New York, Arlington, Israel, Paris, North Vietnam, America, Cambodia, North Vietnamese, Beijing, Russian, statesmanship, West, East Pakistan, Bangladesh, Fuerth, Germany, United States, St, Berlin, Europe, Jerusalem, Damascus, Syria, Golan, Vladivostok, Egypt, Sinai, India, Pakistan, Saint Paul , Minnesota, Long Beach , California

☆ Henry Kissinger, the towering American diplomat, dies at age 100
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Marty Steinberg | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +25 min

President Gerald Ford (left) and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger talk together in the Oval Office, February 19, 1975. In his 2001 book "The Trial of Henry Kissinger," social critic Christopher Hitchens called him a war criminal. North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho (left) and US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger at the Paris peace talks, January 1973. Chairman Zedong of the People's Republic of China meets U. S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Nov. 12, 1973. On a helicopter during the period of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, Henry Kissinger talks to his wife, Nancy.

Persons: Henry Kissinger, —, Richard Nixon's, Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Richard Corkery, Duc Tho, Gerald Ford, Benjamin E, Ford, Warren Burger, Kissinger's, Paula, Gene, Forte, Seymour M, Hersh bashed Kissinger, Walter Isaacson's, Christopher Hitchens, Greg Grandin, Niall Ferguson, Kant, Clausewitz, Bismarck, Barry Gewen, Gewen, Elizabeth Holmes, Nixon, George Shultz, Holmes, Heinz Alfred Kissinger, Louis, Walter, Hitler, Kissingers, Fritz Kraemer, William Yandell Elliott, Spengler, Toynbee, Metternich, Castlereagh, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Mike Wallace, Wallace, Kennedy, Johnson, Republican Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney, Hubert Humphrey, Democratic Sen, George McGovern, McGovern, Nguyen Van Thieu, Reg Lancaster, Tho, Thieu, Mao, Gen, Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan, Nicolae Ceausescu, Zhou Enlai, Leonid Brezhnev, Andrei Gromyko, Dirck, Sen, Henry Jackson, Charles Vanik, Brezhnev, Spiro Agnew, Archibald Cox, Cox, Robert Bork, White, Alexander Haig, Anwar Sadat, David Hume Kennerly, Marxist Salvador Allende Gossens, Fidel Castro's, Martin Bernetti, Allende, Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, Pinochet, Ann Fleischer, Elizabeth, David, Nancy Maginnes, Rockefeller, Jill St, John, Candice Bergen, Shirley MacLaine, Liv Ullman, Diane Sawyer, , Napoleon, Nancy, David Rubinger, Maginnes, Moshe Dayan, Robert Dallek, Nixon's, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, Paula Kissinger, Brooks Kraft Organizations: Gould, Kissinger Associates, National Security, Waldorf, Astoria, Richard Corkery | New York Daily, Forte, Soviets, State, Chief, New York, Theranos Inc, Economic, Nuremberg, George Washington High School, City College of New, Army, 84th Infantry Division, U.S ., Hesse . Harvard, Harvard, Confluence, Foreign, Eisenhower, Republican, Republican National Convention, Rockefeller and Michigan Gov, Democratic, District of Columbia, US National Security, Getty, Paris Peace, North, Nationalist, China, Bettmann, East Pakistan, of, U.S, Soviet Union ., Ballistic, Soviet, Washington, Egyptian Third Army, Department, West, Marxist, Museum, AFP, CIA, Israeli, Southern California Quaker, White, Partners, Power Locations: New York City, U.S, Connecticut, Richard Corkery | New, United States, Vietnam, Saigon, Viet, Soviet Union, Communist China, Israel, Egypt, Syria, Chile, Pakistan, Theranos, Ukraine, Russia, Davos, Switzerland, Fuerth, Germany, Bavarian, American, Nazi Germany, London, New York, City College of New York, Ahlem, Hanover, German, Krefeld, Hesse, Cambodia, Massachusetts, Haiphong, Paris, North, China, Washington, Taiwan, People's Republic of China, Beijing, Moscow, India, East, Bangladesh, Shanghai, USSR, Soviet, Kremlin, Dirck Halstead, Ohio, Saudi, Japan, Sinai, Alexandria, Cairo, Suez, Americas, Santiago, Cuba, Chilean, America, Europe, Virginia, Southern California

☆ Henry Kissinger, a dominating and polarizing force in US foreign policy, dies at 100
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Paul Leblanc | Kristin Wilson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images Kissinger takes a call in his office in the early 1970s. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Kissinger talks with journalists on his way to meet with NATO foreign ministers. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Kissinger, second from left, walks with Leonid Brezhnev, secretary-general of the Soviet Communist Party, in 1973. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Kissinger looks out a window at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1975. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Kissinger is greeted by US Sen. John McCain after a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in 2015.

Persons: CNN — Henry Kissinger, Kissinger, Henry Kissinger, Stephen Voss, Walter, Heinz Alfred Kissinger, Henry, William P, Rogers, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Tom Blau, Richard Nixon, Nixon, Warren Burger, Alamy Kissinger, Le Duc Tho, Tho, Wally McNamee, Corbis, Zhou Enlai, Leonid Brezhnev, Dirck Halstead, Gerald Ford, Nancy, pats, King David Hotel, David Hume Kennerly, Kirk Douglas, David, Elizabeth, Mikki Ansin, Diana Walker, Peter Southwock, Princess Diana, Colin Powell, Barbara Walters, Diana, David McNew, George W, Bush, Charles Dharapak, Christian Wulff, Stephan Schraps, Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, John Kerry, Chip Somodevilla, US Sen, John McCain, Tom Williams, Ash Carter, Yin Bogu, Cui Tiankai, Zhang Chaoqun, Donald Trump, Jim Watson, Andrew Harnik, Maximilian, Daniel Vogl, Xi Jinping, Nixon’s, Reagan, ” Kissinger, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, ”, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, “, Lincoln, Bernie Sanders, Count, ” Sanders, Clinton, “ I’ve, Zakaria Organizations: CNN, Kissinger Associates, Bettmann, Getty, Harvard University, Harvard's Center for International Affairs, National Security Council, US Arms Control, Disarmament Agency, State Department, Camera, State, Chief, Everett, Inc, Paris Peace Accords, MPI, NATO, Soviet Communist Party, Hulton, King, Times Newspapers, Concord Academy, Senate Energy, Richard, US Diplomacy Center, US, Armed Services, Nixon Library, Museum, Capitol, Science, Arts, New York’s, Nazis, United States Army, Jewish, Pentagon, CBS News, Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Republican Party Locations: Nazi Germany, Connecticut, Washington , DC, Fürth, Germany, United States, Paris, Beijing, ITAR, Washington ,, Japan, Egypt, Israel, Jerusalem, Massachusetts, Boston, New York, Yorba Linda , California, Berlin, Xinhua, AFP, Bavarian, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Chile, Soviet, Saigon, Laos, New, Furth, Nazi, Soviet Union, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Fuerth

☆ Kremlin's Peskov Hopes Putin Runs for Another Term as President - TASS
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Nov. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published on Friday that he hoped President Vladimir Putin would run in the March election for another term as Russian president, a move that would keep the Kremlin chief in power until at least 2030. Asked by the student television channel of Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO) what the next president after Putin should be like, Peskov said: "The same." "Or different but the same," Peskov added with a smile. I have no doubt that he will continue to be president." Reuters reported earlier this month that Putin has decided to run in the March election, as the Kremlin chief feels he must steer Russia through the most perilous period in decades.

Persons: Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin, Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Josef Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev's, Peskov, Guy Faulconbridge, Dmitry Antonov, Mark Trevelyan Organizations: Kremlin, Moscow State Institute for International Relations, Reuters Locations: MOSCOW, Russia

"The decision has been made - he will run," said one of the sources who has knowledge of planning. Three other sources said the decision had been made: Putin will run. A foreign diplomatic source, who also requested anonymity, said Putin made the decision recently and that the announcement would come soon. Peskov said in September that if Putin decided to run, then no one would be able to compete with him. "Russia is facing the combined might of the West so major change would not be expedient," one of the sources said.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Kuzma Minin, Dmitry Pozharsky, Mikhail Metzel, Putin, Boris Yeltsin, Josef Stalin, Leonid Brezhnev's, Dmitry Peskov, Peskov, Mikhail Gorbachev grappled, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Prigozhin, Alexei Navalny, Oleg Orlov, Guy Faulconbridge Organizations: Unity, Sputnik, Kremlin, Reuters, Kommersant, West ., KGB, Soviet, Cuban Missile, West, NATO, China, European Union, Thomson Locations: Red, Moscow, Russia, MOSCOW, West . RUSSIA, Soviet Union, Ukraine, United States, European, Soviet Russia, Afghanistan

Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said an "abnormal situation" occurred as mission control tried to move the craft into a pre-landing orbit at 11:10 GMT on Saturday, ahead of a planned touchdown slated for Monday. "During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the manoeuvre to be performed with the specified parameters," Roskosmos said in a short statement. Russia has not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin. Luna-25 was supposed to execute a soft landing on the south pole of the moon on Aug. 21, according to Russian space officials. It was not immediately clear from official sources how serious the "abnormal situation" was - and whether or not Moscow could save the situation.

Persons: Luna, Roskosmos, Yuri Gagarin, Leonid Brezhnev, Alexander Ivanov, Guy Faulconbridge, Christina Fincher Organizations: REUTERS, Kremlin, India, Thomson Locations: Handout, MOSCOW, Moscow, Soviet, Russia, China, United States, Ukraine

☆ Factbox: Russia's Luna-25 moon mission fails: what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LUNA-25It was Russia's first moon mission since the Soviet Union's Luna-24 returned with samples from the moon in 1976. The lander was boosted out of Earth's orbit toward the moon a little over an hour later. Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin. Luna-25 was supposed to execute a soft landing on the south pole of the moon on Aug. 21, according to Russian space officials. Eventually, in the early 2010s, Russia settled upon the idea of the Luna-25 mission to the south pole of the moon.

Persons: Luna, Roskosmos, Yuri Gagarin, Leonid Brezhnev, Vladimir Putin, Guy Faulconbridge, Philippa Fletcher, Christina Fincher Organizations: 2.1b, Vostochny, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Soyuz, Luna, Kremlin, Thomson Locations: Amur, Russia, Soviet, Vostochny cosmodrome, Moscow, RUSSIA, Soviet Union

SummaryCompanies Russia moon mission failsLuna-25 crashes into the moonFailure is a blow to Russian space prestigeSoviet space veteran: Luna-25 was my last hopeMOSCOW, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Russia's first moon mission in 47 years failed when its Luna-25 space craft spun out of control and crashed into the moon after a problem preparing for pre-landing orbit, underscoring the post-Soviet decline of a once mighty space programme. Russia's state space corporation, Roskosmos, said it had lost contact with the craft at 11:57 GMT on Saturday after a problem as the craft was shunted into pre-landing orbit. Though moon missions are fiendishly difficult, and many U.S. and Soviet attempts have failed, Russia had not attempted a moon mission since Luna-24 in 1976, when Communist leader Leonid Brezhnev ruled the Kremlin. Russian officials had hoped that the Luna-25 mission would show Russia can compete with the superpowers in space despite its post-Soviet decline and the vast cost of the Ukraine war. "This was perhaps the last hope for me to see a revival of our lunar program," he said.

Persons: Luna, Roskosmos, Yuri Gagarin, Leonid Brezhnev, Anatoly Zak, Zak, Mikhail Marov, Marov, Guy Faulconbridge, Christina Fincher, Frances Kerry Organizations: Kremlin, India, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, YP Rajesh, Thomson Locations: Russia, MOSCOW, Moscow, Soviet, Europe, Tenerife, China, United States, Handout, Ukraine, Soviet Union, India, Delhi

☆ Vladimir Putin Can’t Count on Chinese Support Forever - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-23 | by ( Sergey Radchenko | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mao Zedong warned, “You piss on my head, and I shall retaliate!” The Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev called Mao “treacherous.” An alliance that Moscow and Beijing previously billed as unbreakable quickly unraveled. So Mao reached out to his avowed foe the United States. Mao, a scathing critic of what he called American imperialism, suddenly referred to President Richard Nixon as “the No. 1 good fellow as the two countries make common cause against the United States. Mao’s abrupt turn to the United States showed just how quickly Chinese loyalties can crumble when the usefulness of a strategic partner wanes.

Persons: Mao Zedong, Leonid Brezhnev, Mao, Richard Nixon, Nixon, Vladimir Putin, Xi, —, Wagner, Mikhail Kapitsa Organizations: Communist Locations: China, Soviet, Moscow, Beijing, United States

MOSCOW, July 12 (Reuters) - Russia is decaying in a potent brew of absurdity and repression that is comparable to the Leonid Brezhnev-era of the Soviet Union, Oleg Orlov, one of the Russia's most respected human rights campaigners, told Reuters. One of the leaders of the Memorial rights group, which won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 a year after being banned and dissolved in Russia, Orlov stood by his articles and cast Russia as a country gripped by the demons of history. "Russia is going backwards," Orlov told Reuters in his Moscow flat over a glass of the traditional fermented kvas. "For Putin, war is his political technology," Orlov said. Current Russian levels of repression, he said, could be compared to the Brezhnev era of the Soviet Union after the arrest of writers Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel in 1965.

Persons: Leonid Brezhnev, Oleg Orlov, Orlov, Wagner, Russia, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, Brezhnev, Andrei Sinyavsky, Yuli Daniel, unpatriotic, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's, William Faulkner, Fyodor Dostoevsky's, Tatiana, Guy Faulconbridge, Filipp Lebedev, Nick Macfie Organizations: Reuters, Memorial, Solidarity, West, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Soviet Union, Moscow, Ukraine, Soviet, Afghanistan, Chechen, Russian, Tbilisi

☆ During the last attempted coup in Russia, ballet dancers alerted citizens of the turmoil. As the Wagner mercenary boss turns on the Russian military, Tchaikovsky's swans may dance again.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

On Friday a new attack on the Russian military began, led by Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. But instead of Yanayev taking control, one of Gorbachev's political rivals, Boris Yeltsin, urged the Soviets to resist the attempted coup and fight back. Three protesters died in a tense, three-day standoff against the army, but Yanayev and the others behind the attempted coup eventually relented. On Friday, Prigozhin appeared to openly declare taking up arms against the Russian military. The infighting between the mercenary leader and the Russian military comes after months of Prigozhin feuding with Putin over the treatment of his for-hire army.

Persons: Swan, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, —, Leonid Brezhnev, Gennady Yanayev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Putin, Prigozhin, Russia's, Prigozhin's, GeoConfirmed Organizations: Swan Lake, Russian, Service, NPR, Soviet Union's Communist Party, Treaty, Wagner Group, Wagner Locations: Russia, Soviet, Moscow, Russian, Swan, USSR

MOSCOW, June 8 (Reuters) - For more than 15 months Russia has been fighting a war in Ukraine that the Kremlin refused to call a war - but that is changing: President Vladimir Putin is using the word "war" more often. The Russian media was ordered not to use the word war - and has either complied or shut down. But in response to what Russia said was a major Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, Putin last week used the word "war" four times in relation to Ukraine, according to a Kremlin transcript of his remarks. "What is more important is what is says about the future: does war mean a more serious approach and what will Russia at war look like?" Attacks far inside Russia that Moscow blamed on Ukraine have stiffened opinion within the Kremlin, emboldening hawks who propose a much tougher approach to a war in which Putin has said Russia has not got even got serious yet.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Pavel Zarubin, Sergei Shoigu, Dmitry Peskov, Sergei Lavrov, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vyacheslav Gladkov, Lyndon B, Johnson, George W, Bush, Leonid Brezhnev, Abbas Gallyamov, Nikita Yuferev, Yuferev, Prigozhin, Putin's, General Augusto Pinochet, Guy Faulconbridge, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: Kremlin, Nazi, Red, Motherland, U.S, Soviet, West, Russia, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MOSCOW, Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Ukrainian, Moscow, Ukraine's, Crimea, Soviet, Nazi Germany, Russia's Belgorod, Europe, U.S, Vietnam, Afghanistan, St Petersburg, RUSSIA, Chile, Pinochet

☆ Eyeball to eyeball: Estonia stares down Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It sits high on the western bank of the Narva River, its 13th-century castle proudly flying the blue, black and white flag of Estonia. We think we know roughly what makes them tick.”Like parts of Ukraine, Estonia was illegally annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union. Estonians at the conference were adamant: Unless Russia is utterly defeated in Ukraine, there is no reason to expect Putin will change his strategic objective. Jill Dougherty/CNNSeveral Russians at the conference said they feel personally responsible for the horrors Russia is unleashing on Ukraine. What’s more, Vladimir Putin is winning support for the war from so-called “swing states” and nations in the Global South.

☆ Opinion | We Forget Nuclear Powers Have Lost Wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Timothy Snyder | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During both conflicts, people in the West worried, understandably, about nuclear war. In the West today, unlike during the Cold War, these are discussed in psychological rather than in strategic terms. In nearly 15 months of war, despite Russian nuclear propaganda and Western anxiety, there has been no use of nuclear weapons. Those who predicted “escalation” if Ukrainians resisted, if the West supplied weapons or if Russia suffered defeat have thus far been wrong. Strategic thinkers point to deterrence, and note that nuclear use would not in fact bring a Russian victory.

☆ Russia's Medvedev snaps back after U.S. appeal over Ukraine war
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the most deadly wars in Europe since World War Two and the deepest crisis in Moscow's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Medvedev said the missiles could be placed 100 miles (160 km) off the U.S. coast, adding: "So rejoice! He was speaking after the U.S. embassy to Russia released a video that it called an "an appeal to the people of Russia". The 50-second video included images of the impact of bombing in Ukraine, saying what was happening there "is not worthy of you". Since the war began, Medvedev's rhetoric has become increasingly vitriolic though his published views sometimes chime with thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.

☆ Putin's war in Ukraine looks more and more like a failure. Past Russian leaders haven't survived similar mistakes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Joy Neumeyer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Instead, Russia's failing war effort has raised doubts about Putin's hold on power. For now, Putin looks secure, but past Russian leaders have suffered at home for blunders abroad. By the following summer, the Germans had taken huge swathes of Russian-controlled territory and a million Russian soldiers were dead. Captured Russian soldiers after the defeat at Tannenberg, in present-day Poland, on August 30, 1914. After an ineffectual troop surge, Gorbachev gave up on trying to improve the situation, and the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989.

☆ Old men helped cause the Soviet Union's collapse. Historians say it's a warning sign for the United States.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The Soviet Union became a gerontocracy in its final years, contributing to its collapse. And Reagan was right: Soviet leaders had consistently died on the job. "It doesn't matter whether it's the Soviet Union or the United States — there's always a clash" between older and younger generations, Grunewald said. They were afraid to let it go," said Zubok, the author of "Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union." And that did become a central factor in the demise of the Soviet Union."

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