Russia Profile Weekly Experts Panel: Time for a New Global Leader?

In a twist of fate, Russia is now emerging as a country that is ready and willing to resume the responsibilities of global leadership. In recent weeks, the Russian leadership has increasingly come to recognize its dependence on the world economy. The global financial crisis has had an impact on the Russian economy, with the Russian stock market losing more than 60 percent of its value since last May. Is President Dmitry Medvedev showing global statesmanship? Is Russia trying to position itself as a responsible global player that has the ideas and the will to lead?
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Russian and Georgian Civic Communities Try to Help Refugees to Re-Claim Their Homes in South Ossetia and Abkhazia

Just like the past conflicts, the recent war in the Caucasus produced a vast number of refugees—people who were forced to abandon their property and look for shelter in Georgia and Russia. But with the military action a thing of the past, most of the South Ossetian refugees have been able to return home, while their Georgian counterparts are still reluctant to come back, fearing retribution.
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It Is no Longer Possible to Reintegrate South Ossetia and Abkhazia with Georgia

This week Russian forces are withdrawing from the buffer zones they established around South Ossetia and Abkhazia following the five-day war, and EU observers are arriving to preserve peace. But a final settlement of the conflicts in the Caucasus will be long in coming, and will require a dramatic rethinking of European and East-West relations
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Another Attempt at Resuscitating Democracy

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and billionaire banker Alexander Lebedev have announced the formation of a new opposition party. Its organizers say the new party, to be called the Independent Democratic Party of Russia, will run on a social democratic platform and make its debut in the 2011 Duma elections.
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Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko’s Political Ship Is Sinking

When Russian forces destroyed Georgia’s army and sank its Western-donated navy during a five-day-long war in August in order to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia from Mikheil Saakashvili’s suicidal policies, many in the West argued that this would send a signal throughout the post-Soviet space that the former Soviet bloc countries should seek NATO’s protection from Russia’s aggressive policies. However, the actual message that politicians in states like Azerbaijan and Moldova are deciphering is antithetical.
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Ingush NGOs’ Critique of Russia’s Actions Is Indicative of Dangerous Tendencies in the Greater North Caucasus

On Sunday, a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev signed by the leaders of 13 non-government organizations (NGOs) from the autonomous republic of Ingushetia was published on the Internet and broadcast by the Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy radio station. The letter dismisses Moscow’s policy in neighboring South Ossetia, a separatist region of Georgia that Russia recognized as an independent state in August this year, after a brief armed conflict with Georgia. In fact, this letter was one of the first organized public protests against Russia’s campaign in South Ossetia.
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Amid the Worst Financial Crisis in Years, Russia Earmarks Half a Billion Dollars to South Ossetia

As foreign investors continue pulling money out of the Russian economy, and despite the government’s intervention, the local stock market is on a downward spiral, not in the least due to falling oil prices. Given these dire circumstances, the state’s decision to allocate $500 million in aid to South Ossetia, putting additional strain on the federal budget, is rather puzzling.
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In a Confrontation Between Russia and the West, Ukraine Will Take Center-Stage

Relations between Russia and Ukraine have reached the boiling point. Under the pretense that Russia could act with regard to Crimea the same way it did in South Ossetia, the Ukrainian leadership is pushing the country into NATO with double the vigor, while the Kremlin considers Ukraine’s membership in the alliance a threat to Russia’s very existence and entertains the idea of using military force to defend its interests. The election of a new Ukrainian president may alleviate the situation, but so far there is no compromise in sight.
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Russia Was Too Swift to Recognize the Independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia

It is natural for any nation to rally around the flag at a time of war, and to support the troops and the commander in chief. During the conflict with Georgia, Russians did exactly that. Democracies, however, have a healthy practice of going back and reviewing the way their leaders behaved in the face of animosity.
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Russian Leaders Promised to Keep their Gunpowder Dry

“Counterpropaganda on the highest level” was the way the Russian business daily Vedomosti described the meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club members with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. However, the club’s members said that the meetings were very revealing and that they had the full freedom to voice their criticisms and concerns to the Russian leaders and their Russian colleagues from the expert community and the media.
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