Epstein Secrets

A display of supremacy In December 2011, members of the Russian opposition obtained video evidence of ballot stuffing committed by operatives from Vladimir Putin's United Russia party in that month's parliamentary elections. A series of unusu- ally large protests ensued. Putin weathered the furor and went on t

n authoritarians. Again, Russia has taken the lead, with the state's asser- tion of authority over history textbooks and the process, encouraged by Putin, of reassessing the historical role of Joseph Stalin. • The hiring of political consultants and lobbyists from democratic countries to represent t

hinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing. 2016. Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

ely is the main guarantor of the security of the Russian world."4 In 2014, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Putin dredged up the tsarist-era term Novorossiya to de- scribe a large swath of southeastern Ukraine that he hinted might be annexed. Suddenly, the Novorossiya idea began appearing in Russian medi

stinian— Israeli peace talks Barakat El-Farra Article 4. Foreign Affairs The Czar of Brinkmanship Cynthia A. Roberts Article S. Al Jazeera Is Putin going all the wav in Ukraine? Peter Zalmayev Article 6. Project Syndicate The Techno-Political Transformation Klaus Schwab Article 7. Bloomber

master in the Kremlin may go all the way in his Ukrainian adventure and there is little stopping him; and 2) Ukraine is a crucial battleground for Vladimir Putin's emerging new doctrine and a decisive test of the western resolve. To the last point, I would add that Putin's emerging "New Russia" doctrine serves

o discern the precise limits to Russian President Vladimir Putin's willingness to escalate the crisis in Uk

nst Georgia in 2008. Now Putin also implies that Russia would begin to treat a broad swath of southeastern Ukraine -- a region historically called Novorossiya (New Russia) that was transferred to Ukraine by Soviet authorities -- as a Russian protectorate. But tough talk on Ukraine doesn't signal a prefere

. To some, Ukraine has become the geopolitical faultline between the liberal democratic West and authoritarian, neo-imperial Russia under President Vladimir Putin. Foreign policy luminaries in Washington openly discuss the current state of affairs as a new Cold War. Beneath the political divisions of the pre

mpire, to find their fortune -- sometimes as hired muscle. The first major center of the "Rus" was at Kiev, established in the 9th century. In 988, Vladimir, a prince of the Kievan Rus, was baptized by a Byzantine priest in the old Greek colony of Khersonesos on the Crimean coast. His conversion marked t

an coast. His conversion marked the advent of Orthodox Christianity among the Rus and remains a moment of great nationalist symbolism for Russians. Putin invoked this older Vladimir in a speech last December when justifying his annexation of Crimea. Successive Mongol invasions beginning in the 13th c

iver. Russia's advance continued a century later, during the rule of Catherine the Great, who imagined her domains along the Black Sea constituted "Novorossiya," or "new Russia" -- a term revived by the pm-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. Back then, the Russian court harbored dreams of collapsing the

ern authoritarians. Again, Russia has taken the lead, with the state's asser- tion of authority over history textbooks and the process, encouraged by Putin, of reassessing the historical role of Joseph Stalin. ¢ The hiring of political consultants and lobbyists from democratic countries to represent th

represent undue interference in their domestic affairs and a violation of national pre- rogatives. 3. Dictatorship of law: Initially articulated by Vlad- imir Putin, this phrase has come to signify the adoption of laws that are so vaguely written as to www.freedomhouse.org HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019241 --- PAGE BREAK

o cast ballots than it is for Hungarian citizens who are tempo- rarily working in Europe or elsewhere. ¢ Asa matter of high priority, both Orban and Pu- tin have secured domination over the judiciary with the goal of removing its role as a check on their power. ‘Law and Justice’ in Poland Like Hungary,

ernment. ls Orban a Central European version of Putin? Orban's domestic critics have often compared his governing style to that of Russian president Vladimir Putin. On the surface, the comparison seems unfair. Hungary is still rated Free by Freedom House. It still has genuine opposition parties, however we