Forbes (September 29)
Vladimir Putin might “move against the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia” in an attempt to further weaken NATO. “Given the West’s responses to Russia’s invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, Putin may well be tempted to make a series of probes, after slicing and dicing Ukraine. He won’t send in troops and armor, as he’s done in Ukraine, but he’ll see what unrest he can create to start ‘softening up’ the Balts to become political vassals of Moscow.”
Tags: Baltic, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moscow, Nato, Putin, Russia, Troops, Ukraine, Unrest
Financial Times (August 18)
With the momentum of the Solidarity movement, Poland broke free of the Soviet Union on August 24, 1989. “Twenty-five years on, a generation of Poles has grown up with no personal experience of communism. Poland is a sovereign democracy, an increasingly prosperous market economy and a proud member of Nato and the EU— a nation transformed from the dreadful era of one-party rule, dismal living standards and subservience to Moscow. Poland, you could say, has never had it so good.”
Tags: Communism, Democracy, EU, Market economy, Momentum, Moscow, Nato, Poland, Solidarity, Soviet Union
Forbes (March 24)
“Vladimir Putin has made a strategic blunder that could rival the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Moscow, counting on Western weakness, may, in the short term, succeed in carving up the country or ending the 22-year existence of an independent Ukraine. But it has set in motion forces that will severely damage Russia, as well as Putin’s own reign.”
Tags: Afghanistan, Blunder, Damage, Moscow, Putin, Russia, Soviet Union, Ukraine, Weakness, West
Wall Street Journal (February 21, 2014)
“Americans are only waking up to the crisis” in the Ukraine, “but they should care how this turns out. The U.S. should want to pull Ukraine into the Western orbit as a matter of human dignity and strategic interest.” If the Ukraine leans toward Europe, it will “join the company of free nations and fulfill the aspirations of its people. A Ukraine tilted toward the corrupt authoritarian regimes allied with Moscow will be a source of regional unrest at best, and part of a revived Russian empire if Mr. Putin has his way.”
Tags: Authoritarian, Crisis, Europe, Human dignity, Moscow, Putin, Regimes, Russian empire, Strategic interest, U.S., Ukraine, Unrest
New York Times (October 10)
A study at the University of Hawaii finds that “by 2047, plus or minus five years, the average temperatures in each year will be hotter across most parts of the planet than they had been at those locations in any year between 1860 and 2005.” The researchers calculated the expected “climate departure,” the year when a location exceeds its historic temperature range, as 2046 for Beijing, 2047 for New York and Washington D.C., and 2063 for Moscow. Climate departure will come even earlier for tropical areas.
Tags: Beijing, Climate departure, Moscow, New York, Planet, Temperature, Tropics, University of Hawaii, Washington D.C.
Financial Times (December 22)
Moscow will “resume old habits and exploit Europe’s debt-driven disunity.” Despite the economic crisis, the EU must form a united foreign policy front and “seek a constructive relationship with its neighbour. But it should do so without deluding itself about the prospects for Russian reform after Mr Putin’s return to the presidency.”
Tags: Debt crisis, EU, Foreign policy, Moscow, Putin, Russia
Forbes (March 9)
Worldwide there are now a record 1,210 billionaires. Combined, they are worth $4.5 trillion. You’re most likely to meet one in Moscow, but the world’s richest billionaire remains Mexico’s Carlos Slim who added $20 billion to his wealth, currently estimated at $74 billion. The U.S. hosts 413 billionaires. In China, the number of billionaires doubled to 115. Meanwhile, Japan is home to 26 billionaires, ranging from Masayoshi Son ($8.1 billion) to Yusaku Maezawa ($1 billion).
Tags: Billionaires, Carlos Slim, China, Japan, Mexico, Moscow, U.S.
