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U.S. President Barack Obama's trip to Russia.

Video: From Russia - US President Barak Obams's visit. STRATFOR's CEO George Friedman provides analysis on U.S.... more

Highr0ller
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Obama: U.S., Russia ‘not destined’ to be rivals

MOSCOW - President Barack Obama, working to drastically reshape U.S. relations with a skeptical Russia, said Tuesday the two... more

current89
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Russia's 40-decade plan for 'flying' cars

I have never heard about this, but it seems that Russian engineers had been trying ,for almost four decades, to produce the Super... more

Skyscraper08
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Preliminary Deal for Reducing Nuke Stockpiles

Barack Obama, the US president, has said the US and Russia have agreed to "reset" their relationship after the two... more

andyjoe
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Good morning from Current News! Russia, Honduras and Sarah Palin...

Hey all - I'm going to start doing a short webcam video in the mornings to highlight some stories going on out there in the... more

afitzgerald
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Obama, Medvedev OK preliminary arms deal

Only after three hours of negotiations both President Barack Obama of the United States of America and President Dmitry Medvedev... more

current89
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Obama arrives in Russia, confident of progress

President Barack Obama, opening a visit to Russia intended to mend strained relations, said on Monday he was confident of... more

karthikmns
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Obama in Russia amid fading hopes of nuclear arms deal : Medvedev seeks to tie weapons reduction tre

Barack Obama arrived in Moscow this morning for his first trip to Russia as US president, amid dwindling hopes of a breakthrough... more

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Obama in Moscow for nuclear talks

US President Barack Obama has arrived in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, focusing on further... more

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Obama Seeks New Start in Sagging US-Russia Ties

MOSCOW (AP) -- Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev end a seven-year hiatus in U.S.-Russian summitry on Monday, with each declaring his determination to further cut nuclear arsenals and repair a badly damaged relationship.

Both sides appear to want to use progress on arms control as a pathway to possible agreement on trickier issues, including Iran and Georgia, the tiny former Soviet republic. Those difficulties and others have soured a promising linkage in the first years after the Cold War and pushed ties between Moscow and Washington to depths unseen in more than two decades.

In advance of Obama's arrival, a White House official told reporters Sunday the presidents expect to announce progress on negotiations that could lead to a treaty to replace the START I agreement, which expires Dec. 5.

More broadly, the U.S. wants to use the summit to overhaul the U.S.-Russian relationship.

''It's not, in our view, a zero-sum game, that if it's two points for Russia it's negative two for us, but there are ways that we can cooperate to advance our interests and, at the same time, do things with the Russians that are good for them as well,'' Obama's top assistant on Russia, Michael McFaul, said in a presummit briefing.

Medvedev said in an Internet address that the two powers ''need new, common, mutually beneficial projects in business, science and culture. He added, ''I hope that this sincere desire to open a new chapter in Russian-American cooperation will be brought into fruition.''

Two things appear certain:

--The Russians have said they will agree to allow the United States to use their territory and air space to move munitions and arms to U.S. and NATO forces fighting Taliban Islamic extremists in Afghanistan. The Kremlin announced the deal days before the summit as a sweetener for Obama.

--A directive for negotiators to work toward a START I replacement. Both sides are agreed in principle to cut warheads from more than 2,000 each to as low as 1,500 apiece.

end of excerpt

Source: The New York Times OnlineMOSCOW (AP) -- Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev end a seven-year hiatus in U.S.-Russian summitry on Monday, with each... more

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Obama to Take On Power Equation in Russia

MOSCOW — The summit meeting here this week revolves around two men with some notable affinities. Presidents Obama and Dmitri... more

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Russia to U.S.: Compromise on missile defense

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published Sunday that the United States must compromise on plans for a... more

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6 days ago

Obama and Medvedev: the usual?

On the eve of discussions between Dmitri Medvedev and Barack Obama, that will take place on July 6th in Moscow, Russia and the... more

Ishtar56
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6 days ago

Obama has no legal authority for Afghan war

-President Obama has no legal authority either from the United Nations or the U.S. Congress under the War Powers Resolution(WPR) to escalate the war in Afghanistan, a distinguished professor of international law says.

"President Obama's surge of 21,000 troops now engaged in combat in Afghanistan comes on top of the 60,000 we already had there," says Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law at Champaign.

"The Obama Administration simply ignored Section 4(a)(3) of the WPR when it announced the escalation," Boyle noted. "U.S. armed forces are in Afghanistan originally pursuant to WPR. Its requirement that the President get Congressional consent on substantial enlargement (of forces) was put there to deal with the kind of gradual escalation we saw in Viet Nam that eventually led to 550,000 troops being there," Boyle said.

"Clearly," Boyle added, "President (George W.) Bush never had authority from Security Council in the first place to invade Afghanistan, and the WPR requires that any enlargement of U.S. troops in a foreign nation be authorized by Congress." Boyle made his comments in a telephone interview with columnist Sherwood Ross of Miami, Fla.

President Obama "has now escalated the conflict into Pakistan and has set off a humanitarian catastrophe for 2-million of its people similar to what President Nixon set off in Cambodia," Boyle said. "What Obama is doing is destabilizing Pakistan and setting off a civil war there. It's a very dangerous, illegal, unconstitutional policy," Boyle said.

The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in the first place because the Taliban government refused to allow UNOCAL oil to build the TAPI pipeline across its territory, Boyle said. He noted the route U.S.troops are taking in Afghanistan is that of the proposed pipeline. "I think
this (escalation) is about getting the oil and gas out of Central Asia by
avoiding Russia and without dealing with Iran," Boyle added.

The easiest way to do that, he said, is to construct pipelines south through Afghanistan, into Pakistan and then out to the Arabian Sea. The oil and natural gas resources of Central Asia, Boyle noted, are reported to be the second largest in the world after the Persian
Gulf.

In his new book, "Tackling America's Toughest Questions,"(Clarity) Boyle wrote, "What is going on now in Afghanistan is not self-defense. Let's be honest. We all know it. At best this is reprisal, retaliation, vengeance, catharsis. Call it what you want, but it is not
self-defense. And retaliation is never self-defense."-President Obama has no legal authority either from the United Nations or the U.S. Congress under the War Powers Resolution(WPR)... more

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6 days ago

Russia Opens Route for U.S. to Fly Arms to Afghanistan

The Russian government has agreed to allow American troops and weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory, providing an important new corridor for the United States military as it escalates efforts to win the eight-year-old war, officials from both sides said Friday.

The agreement, to be formally announced when President Obama visits here on Monday and Tuesday, represents one of the most concrete achievements of the effort to rebuild a relationship severely strained by last year’s war between Russia and Georgia. The new transit route will give American forces more alternatives as they encounter increasing trouble elsewhere.

“Afghanistan is one of the areas where we must cooperate,” Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of Parliament, said in an interview. Russia understands, he said, that the United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan are effectively defending Russia’s southern flank.

Until now, Russia has allowed only restricted use of its territory for the Afghan war, permitting shipments of nonlethal supplies by train. Under the new agreement, American officials said, military planes carrying lethal equipment as well as troops will be allowed to make thousands of flights a year through Russian airspace.

As Mr. Obama prepared to leave Sunday for his first visit here since taking office, negotiators were trying to work out a preliminary agreement on nuclear arms cuts that he could announce along with President Dmitri A. Medvedev. But officials said they were still divided on important elements and not sure whether they would make a breakthrough in time.

If successful, the two leaders hope to lay out a range of possible limits for warheads and delivery vehicles as well as address issues like the verification of conventional arms. The so-called framework agreement under discussion would lay out the parameters of a treaty to be drafted by the end of the year to replace the expiring cold war Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

But Russia wants to tie the negotiations to the dispute over American plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. While Washington maintains the system is intended to defend against a future threat from Iran, Moscow sees it as aimed at itself and wants the agreement that Mr. Obama and Mr. Medvedev sign to link limits on offensive and defensive weapons.

The agreement on Afghanistan was a high priority for Mr. Obama, who has ordered an additional 21,000 American troops to join the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda there. Supply routes through Pakistan have become complicated by that country’s increasing volatility, while Uzbekistan evicted American troops from a base a few years ago and Kyrgyzstan threatened recently to do the same. American negotiators recently persuaded Kyrgyzstan to change its mind by increasing payments for the base there.The Russian government has agreed to allow American troops and weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory,... more

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7 days ago

Identical twins marry Identical twins. Lets play spot the difference. VIDEO.

In a one of the weirdest wedding ceremonies in Russia, a pair of male identical twins, married a pair of female identical twins.... more

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7 days ago

Andrei Tarkovsky - Greatest Filmmaker Ever?

In this show the great director Andrei Tarkovsky is discussed, (includes an interview with Dmitry Trakovsky - director of new doc... more

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7 days ago

The Hurt Locker, My Sister's Keeper, & Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: The Rotten Tomatoes Show

In the this episode of The Rotten Tomatoes Show, hosts Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox lead ensemble reviews of "The Hurt... more

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7 days ago

Top 5 Villains Against America in Movie History

In honor of the Independence Day, we celebrate the Top 5 Villains Against America in Movie History. The Rotten Tomatoes Show is... more

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8 days ago

All Bets Are Off: Russia and Ukraine Ban Gambling

The neon lights are no longer flashing; the roulette wheels have spun their last turn. Casinos across Russia closed their doors on Wednesday as a sweeping ban on gambling came into effect, less than a week after a similar ban hit neighboring Ukraine. Lawmakers in both countries say the bans were necessary to bring under control spiraling addiction and a notoriously shady business. But critics say the moves will leave hundreds of thousands out of work and force the industry underground. Until June 25, the River Palace was one of the most popular casinos in Kiev, buzzing with customers trying their luck in rooms awash with the sounds of pinging bells and clicking roulette balls. But now the place is deserted, filled only with an eerie silence. The timing couldn't have been worse for Olha Stupak, who was one of the casino's senior supervisors. With a child about to enter university, car loan repayments to meet and rent to pay, she's going to struggle to get by on her savings and unemployment benefit. "I'm looking for work, but it's difficult because of the crisis," she says, looking round at the empty tables. "I know all about roulette, poker and blackjack. But other jobs require different work experience." The ban — which affects not only casinos, but also slot machines and bookmakers — is set to push up unemployment levels in one of the regions already hardest hit by the economic crisis. In Russia, an estimated 400,000 will be out of work and in Ukraine, "overnight, 200,000 workers have been left without a job," says Hryhoriy Trypulsky, vice president of the Ukrainian Association of Gambling Operators. "The legislation has been rushed through without any thought of the consequences."

Russia had been planning its ban for some time, with parliament passing legislation in 2006 which would restrict gambling to four remote areas from July 1 this year. But Ukrainian lawmakers were slower off the mark, and only sprang into action in May after nine people were killed in a fire at a slot machine hall in Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine. After the fire brought national attention to an industry that was already widely frowned upon, lawmakers pounced. The legislation they passed places a temporary ban on gambling while plans are drawn up to restrict gambling to special zones, most likely in Crimea on Ukraine's southern Black Sea coast.The neon lights are no longer flashing; the roulette wheels have spun their last turn. Casinos across Russia closed their doors on... more