Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

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Australian Prime Minister Abbott shakes hands with Russian President Putin as he officially welcomes leaders to the G20 summit in Brisbane. (Reuters)

Opinion: Putin is losing his luster

by Amir Taheri | Dec 5, 2014 | Opinion

One of the myths woven around Vladimir Putin’s personality cult is based on the narrative of his first visit to “the Holy Land” as a young man, where he is supposed to have been inspired to assume “a special mission” in the service of Mother Russia. The...

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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to give his annual state of the nation address in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on December 4, 2014. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service)

Putin defends Russia’s foreign policy

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Dec 4, 2014 | World

Moscow, AP—In an annual speech ranging from economy to school tests, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evoked religious imagery and defended the Kremlin’s aggressive foreign policy as necessary for his country’s sheer survival. Russia annexed...

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New Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko review Ukrainian honour guard during the flag raising ceremony after his inauguration in Kiev, Ukraine, 07 June 2014. (EPA/Alexey Furman)

Poroshenko sworn in as Ukraine’s president

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jun 7, 2014 | World

Kiev, AP—Ukraine’s new president on Saturday called for dialogue with the country’s east, gripped by a violent separatist insurgency, and for armed groups to lay down their weapons but said he won’t talk with rebels he called “gangsters and...

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Obama offers military help to E. Europe allies worried by Russia

by Asharq Al-Awsat | Jun 3, 2014 | World

Warsaw, Reuters—US President Barack Obama promised on Tuesday to beef up military support for eastern European members of the NATO alliance who fear they could be next in the firing line after the Kremlin’s intervention in Ukraine. Under fire from critics at...

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Pro-Russian rebels of the Battalion Vostok take positions outside the local administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, on May 29, 2014. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)

Ukraine separatists down army helicopter, 14 killed

by Asharq Al-Awsat | May 29, 2014 | World

Donetsk, Reuters—Pro-Russian separatists shot down a Ukrainian army helicopter on Thursday, killing 14 soldiers including a general, as government forces pressed ahead with an offensive to crush rebellions in the east swiftly following the election of a new president....