Brian Whitmore is the author of RFE/RL's popular Power Vertical blog, written especially for Russia wonks and obsessive Kremlin watchers, and the host of the weekly Power Vertical Podcast.
Dmitry Medvedev's proposal to extend the Russian president's term has set Moscow buzzing. Is Medvedev laying the groundwork for his mentor and predecessor, Vladimir Putin, to return to the Kremlin?
Much of the world has been swept by Obamamania, with widespread support for Barack Obama, the winner of America's presidential race. However, Russia -- increasingly anti-Western and confrontational -- is not joining the party.
A stable ruble has been a point of pride for the Russian government in the decade since the 1998 financial crisis sent the currency into free fall. But with oil prices falling and global markets in turmoil, the ruble is sliding -- and Russians are getting nervous.
Just months ago, Russian companies were buying up assets all over the world. Russian tycoons were boasting of vanity purchases like soccer clubs and racehorses. And President Dmitry Medvedev was talking about turning Moscow into a global financial center.
Russia has not withdrawn its troops from Georgia. It has not, as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev claimed on October 9, "fulfilled all obligations." And it has certainly not honored an EU-backed cease-fire deal to end hostilities between Moscow and Tbilisi.
Russia has for the most part pulled its troops out of so-called buffer zones around Abkhazia and South Ossetia as stipulated by an EU-brokered cease-fire. But as displaced persons warily return to their homes, Georgian officials say Russia is still violating the agreement by keeping troops inside the breakaway regions.
Russia's leaders point to the fledgling middle class that has emerged in the wake of the country's oil boom as one of their main accomplishments. But with global financial markets in turmoil, credit drying up, and demand falling, the small- and medium-sized businesses that are the backbone of Russia's new middle class could be in peril.
Eyewitnesses say South Ossetian militias have been systematically burning down Georgian villages in the separatist province. Georgian officials say it's an attempt to prevent ethnic Georgians from ever returning to their homes.
Georgia is continuing its campaign to convince the world that Russia instigated the armed conflict that broke out between the two countries in early August. Tbilisi made its case again this week at an OSCE meeting.
With NATO sharply divided on Georgia's future membership prospects, the Tbilisi session was a reminder that Georgia is just a small country caught in the middle of a global, high-stakes game.
Georgia's war with Russia gave President Mikheil Saakashvili a brief respite from his critics at home. But that wartime unity is fading -- and a Russian withdrawal may speed the process. Saakashvili survived a Russian invasion. Can he survive what comes next?
If a new Cold War is really revving up, then is Georgia turning into the new West Berlin, a little Western-protected enclave located on the tense front of a global struggle, constantly teetering between run-of-the-mill ordinariness and lurking Armageddon?
Some in Tbilisi argue that by pushing things this far, Moscow is baring its intentions for all the world to see -- and in the process is waking up the West and the rest of the international community. Others saw Medvedev's announcement as proof that Moscow is intent on subjugating Georgia once and for all -- whether the West likes it or not.
An eyewitness says that before this month's armed conflict Russian journalists were being shuttled into South Ossetia and South Ossetian authorities were evacuating children north to Russia. Is this further evidence that Moscow was preparing an assault on Georgia in advance?
Russia says it entered Georgia to protect its citizens in South Ossetia from "ethnic cleansing." But there is mounting evidence that Moscow planned to invade Georgia months ago, and was simply waiting for the right moment to act.
In demonstrating just how far it is willing to go to assert its influence on its borders, has Russia changed the post-Cold War international paradigm?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Russia's announcement of an end to hostilities "the news that we have been waiting for." Is it wishful thinking?
As Russia expands its offensive, Georgia is increasingly sensing that its very existence as an independent state is at risk. The result has been a surge in nationalism and overwhelming political unity as former enemies put aside their differences.
Is South Ossetia destined to become the first front in a new conflict between Russia and the West? Georgia's president certainly seems to think so, but it's unclear how far the U.S. and EU are prepared to go to confront Moscow.
How much impact can one book have? If that book is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago," quite a bit.
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