Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

Russia Suspends Military Cooperation With Turkey

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Russia’s defence ministry has announced suspension of military cooperation with Turkey and Sergey Lavrov, foreign minister, has cancelled a planned trip to Turkey following the downing of a Russian warplane near the Turkey-Syria border on Tuesday.

 

The Russian Sukhoi Su-24 warplane was shot down for violating Turkish airspace, angering Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who compared the incident to being “stabbed in the back”.

Russia also warned its citizens not to travel to Turkey, saying it was unsafe, and deployed a warship to the coastline near where the plane crashed.

 

The plane crashed in Syrian territory in Latakia’s Yamadi village.

 

Russia has confirmed one of the pilots has died.

 

A Russian helicopter was also shot at as it took part in the search for the two pilots near the Turkish-Syrian border, opposition groups in Syria said.

 

Turkey, Russia and their respective allies have entered a war of words after the incident, raising tensions in a region struggling to cope with the ongoing Syrian conflict.

 

Putin sharply criticised Turkey for establishing contact with NATO to discuss the incident, prior to contacting Russia.

“Today’s loss is linked to a stab in the back delivered to us by accomplices of terrorists. I cannot qualify what happened today as anything else,” Putin said in televised comments.

“Our plane was shot down over the territory of Syria by an air-to-air missile from a Turkish F-16 jet. It fell in Syrian territory four kilometres from the border with Turkey. Our pilots and our plane did not in any way threaten Turkey.

“Instead of immediately establishing contacts with us, as far as we know Turkey turned to its NATO partners to discuss this incident – as if we had hit their plane and not the other way around,” he said.

 

Credit : Al Jazeera

Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s Alleged Girlfriend Pregnant?

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Alina Kabaeva, a former gymnast and alleged girlfriend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, sparked renewed pregnancy rumors in domestic and social media outlets this week when she wore a “billowy” dress to a youth gymnastic event, a report said Thursday. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied persistent speculation that Putin and Kabaeva are in a relationship, as well as rumors the pair have children together.

“Comments on Russian social media point out that 32-year-old Alina Kabaeva, the former champion gymnast-turned-politician, appears to have gained a few pounds,” CNN reporter Matthew Chance said. “The contrast with her athletic and glamorous youth is hard to miss.”

Shortly after the youth gymnastic event, which was attended by Russian veterans of World War II, local media outlets suggested Kabaeva looked “tired,” “overweight” and “older,” the New York Post reported. But neither Kabaeva, Putin nor the Kremlin have addressed the pregnancy rumors.

This isn’t the first time that rumors have swirled that Kabaeva was pregnant with Putin’s child. When the normally media-friendly Russian president disappeared from the public eye for more than a week last March, various outlets posited that Putin had eschewed appearances to support Kabaeva as she gave birth. The rumors gained momentum when a report by Swiss newspaper Bild said Putin was journeyed to Switzerland to be at Kabaeva’s side, the New York Daily News reported.

The Kremlin categorically denied that Putin’s absence was due to the birth of a child. “Information that a child has been born to Vladimir Putin is not true,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Forbes Russia in March, as quoted by Agence France-Presse. “I am planning to appeal to people who have money to organize a competition for best journalistic hoax,” he joked.

Putin finalized a divorce from Lyudmila Shrebneva, his wife of 30 years, in April 2014, the BBCreported. He has two adult daughters with Shrebneva.

Credit: ibtimes

Vladimir Putin Threatens West with Russia’s 5,000 Nuclear Warheads

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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has threatened the West with his country’s 5,000 nuclear warheads.

Putin has raised the specter of nuclear war for the third time in the past two months as he and Western countries such as the United States clash over the Ukraine conflict, which has been bringing to light other deep-seated animosity.

Putin made his latest comments while en route to the annual Asia-Europe Meeting in Milan, a summit of 50 nations.

“We hope that our partners will realize the recklessness of attempts to blackmail Russia, and will remember the risks that a spat between major nuclear powers means for strategic stability,” Putin told Serbian newspaper Politika.

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Garry Kasparov: Putin is ‘the most Dangerous Man’ in the World and a Bigger Threat to the U.S. than the Islamic State

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Garry-Kasparov1

World’s best chess player ever, Garry Kasparov is on a new mission to convince the world that the biggest threat to global unrest is not the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda or North Korea. Instead it is Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president from 2000 to 2008 and then again from 2012 to today.

In an interview with Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga, Kasparov outlined his reasons for believing that Putin should be what keeps the world up at night. He chided President Barack Obama for being too late in addressing Putin’s aggression in Ukraine — ultimately annexing Crimea. And while he views the president’s speech at the United Nations — calling Russia’s invasion into Ukraine  and ideology of “might makes right” backward —he still believes that actions speak louder than words. Kasparov has extremely harsh words for what he views as European indifference to Putin’s actions, and he compares the world’s complacency with the lead-up to World War II.

Kasparov calls the Islamic State militant group (also known as ISIL and ISIS) a diversion for the world to focus on. He finds it hypocritical that the U.S. and other Western allies have agreed to supply Syrian rebels opposed to IS, while refusing Ukraine’s similar request.

Regarding the current sanctionsimposed onRussia, Kasparov believes that at some point they will hurt not only the Russian economy, but also Putin and his inner circle. However, for that to happen, he believes the sanctions will have to be in place through at least March 2015. He adds that Putin will use Russia’s vast supply of natural gas as leverage ahead of what he calls the “upcoming cold winter,” threatening to shut down supplies to Europe and other former Soviet republics and satellite nations. Kasparov fears that the threat will be enough to persuade an easing of sanctions. He also believes Putin is telling his inner circle of Russia’s richest and most powerful business leaders, who are facing the ramifications of stiff sanctions that the western governments “will blink.  As before, they will capitulate.  We’ll get what we need.” Kasparov believes that Putin is calling the world’s bluff. “He is playing poker while everyone else is playing chess.”

Kasparov, who once expressed interest in running in the 2008 presidential race and who has in recent years become an anti-Putin activist, avoided the question of whether or not he would seek public office. Instead his response was a sobering one: “We should forget about power in Russia changing hands throughout the election process. I’m afraid it will be not a very lawful process and it may eventually end up with the collapse of the country.”

His political views have affected his professional career and aspirations. Just last month Kasparov losthisbid for the presidency of the World Chess Federation, to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a controversial billionaire who had ties to Saddam Hussein, Moammar Gadhafi and Bashar Assad. (Ilyumzhinov also believes that not only was the game invented by aliens, but that he too was abducted by alien years ago. “Of course it was,” Kasparov answered when asked if the election was rigged.)

As for the future, Kasparov sees dark days ahead as long as Putin is in office. He believes that the 2018 World Cup, now currently set to take place in Russia, should be relocated to another country. But that is down the line, Kasparov says, adding that he is currently focused on the upcoming “cold winter.”