10 August 2012

RUSSIA : 4 Stories: Putin's Internet Dilemma; ForMin Sergei 'Nyet' Lavrov...Profiled; Generals Bash Medvedev Over Georgia War; Dmitry Warns Of Far East Chinese Threat.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/growing-russian-internet-power-both-a-boon-and-worry-to-kremlin-a-849125.html

      President Putin wants to grow his nation's internet business...but continues to crackdown on critical bloggers at home.
     Search engine Yandex is beating Google there...with 60% share...as Russia surpasses all other European nations with 70 million web users.
    AND: The West sees Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, 62...as the major obstacle to ending Syria's massacres and civil war.
     They even call him...'Mr.Nyet.'
     But the faithful career diplomat and obstinate chain smoker is just following Putin's hard line.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/06/us-russia-syria-lavrov-idUSBRE87509720120806
     ALSO: In an internet documentary...'The Day That Was Lost'...some retired generals... including a former chief of staff...take shots at PM Medvedev for indecision during the 2008 Georgian war...that 'cost many lives.'
       The new public airing may portend a growing rift between Medvedev and Putin's hardliners.
       AND : PM Medvedev warned of China's rising strength near Russia's resource rich but under populated Far East. 
       He announced that 2 nuclear subs would be sent to the Pacific fleet.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/09/russia-china-territory-idUSL6E8J98K520120809