Russia

Peace possible in Syria as political landscape changes. The terrible butchery could end now that the US and Russia both want to finish the war

By Patrick Cockburn, THE INDEPENDENT Gloomy predictions precede this week’s Geneva II peace talks aimed at ending the three-year-old war in Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry says the meeting is about a mutually agreed political transition in Damascus, while the Syrian government insists it should focus on how […]

Russia’s new terror threat: Ethnic jihadis

Source: TOI MOSCOW: The suspected involvement of converts to Islam in Russian suicide bombings points to the growing reach of jihadists far beyond the Muslim provinces of Chechnya and Dagestan, where insurgency and separatism have simmered for two decades. Russian news media say the authorities suspect an ethnic-Russian convert to Islam may have been […]

Russia’s Osama bin Laden.

Source: NY Times: Twin terrorist attacks in the city of Volgograd within 24 hours injected new urgency on Monday into Russia’s long, ruthless effort to contain a diffuse Islamic insurgency on its southern border, one nominally led by a veteran, battle-scarred Chechen often called Russia’s Osama bin Laden. More: