<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Commentary</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><description>Commentary</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[Whose Space Center?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12489-2005Apr23.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12489-2005Apr23.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  In an April 18 letter, Bobby R. Burchfield, outside counsel to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), wrote that his client "toured a Russian space center because his congressional district includes NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston."]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[In the Vatican, a New Leader and a Strong Legacy]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3015-2005Apr19.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3015-2005Apr19.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Regarding the new pope, Benedict XVI:<br> The former Cardinal Joseph  Ratzinger is a man rich in spiritual passion, humility, self-denial, and love for the cause of God and of man.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tom DeLay's Attorney: The Rules Were Followed]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61589-2005Apr17.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61589-2005Apr17.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ The April 6 front-page article "A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny" discussed a trip to Moscow that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) took nearly eight years ago, when he was the majority whip. The April 7 news article "As DeLay Faces Ethics Questions, GOP Circles Its Wagons" said that "DeLay was hit by a fresh wave of ethical questions yesterday," apparently in reference to The Post's own story.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rising Anti-Semitism in Russia]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48185-2005Apr12.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48185-2005Apr12.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Masha Lipman is an insightful observer of the Russian Federation, but her March 29 op- ed, "Russian Politics, Playing With Fuhrer,"  did not make explicit the role that rass-roots anti-Semitic violence and propaganda play in the atmosphere of contemporary Russia.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Too Much Credit Given Pope]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42674-2005Apr10.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42674-2005Apr10.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  In his April 3 news story, "The Inspiration for a Workers' Revolution," Michael Dobbs wrote, "Some historians credit the pope with initiating the extraordinary sequence of events that culminated a decade later in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the overthrow of Communist governments from Warsaw to Prague to Bucharest, and the disintegration of the Soviet Union."]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Savior and a Hero]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21972-2005Apr2.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21972-2005Apr2.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Twenty-one years ago, I flew from Rome to New York as a refugee. Ethiopia was controlled by a military junta that had ties to the Soviet Union. I had been studying in Rome, and when I completed my education, I was afraid to return home to Ethiopia. I had brothers and cousins who had been shot to death in cold blood by the military socialist government.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tiananmen's Legacy]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61695-2005Mar23.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61695-2005Mar23.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Nearly 16 amazing years have passed since Chinese soldiers slaughtered thousands of their fellow citizens protesting corruption and misrule. The Soviet empire, wars in the Balkans and in Iraq, and a flood of dot-com billionaires and paupers have come and/or gone in that busy time.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Reassessing  Putin]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28524-2005Mar11.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28524-2005Mar11.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Russian President Vladimir Putin's siege mentality  is deepening and pushing him to take an ever-harder line against neighbors and opponents. Western plans to moderate Putin's behavior through conciliation and engagement have failed. They should now be reassessed.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A To-Do List for Putin]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2710-2005Mar2.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2710-2005Mar2.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   President Bush has now had his long-awaited private chat about Russian democracy with Vladimir Putin, followed by their awkward, grin-and-bear-it news  conference. But a larger question nags: Can the United States really do anything to promote democracy in Russia?]]></description><author> Stephen Sestanovich</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Headed  For a Fall In Russia?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45576-2005Feb22.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45576-2005Feb22.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin thinks that by eliminating the checks and balances of democratic government he can bring about order and stability in Russia. There's just one problem with this plan: It isn't working. Consolidating power in the Kremlin and putting hordes of state security officials in government positions has made Russia less manageable, not more.]]></description><author> Masha Lipman</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Before Bratislava]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42611-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42611-2005Feb21.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   The fact that President Bush will meet President Vladimir Putin during his first overseas trip so soon after Bush's inauguration illustrates the importance of our relationship. The meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, could be as significant as their first encounter four years ago in Slovenia.]]></description><author> Yuri Ushakov</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Shiites and Stereotypes]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33566-2005Feb17.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33566-2005Feb17.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   President Jimmy Carter once asked Americans to abandon an  "inordinate fear of communism"  that "led us to embrace any dictator who joined us in that fear." That was back in 1977, when a standard critique of American Cold War policies was that policymakers held a simplistic, monolithic view of communism. Not all communists were stooges of the Soviet Union, as  China and Yugoslavia demonstrated. And not all national liberation movements were led by communists. More often, they were led by nationalists. Then there was the whole kaleidoscope of the global left: the socialists, the euro-communists, the trade union leaders, the advocates of a "third way" between East and West. It was a mistake to lump them all together as "communists."]]></description><author> Robert Kagan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The End of the Romance]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27622-2005Feb15.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27622-2005Feb15.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Valdas Adamkus has a problem. The 79-year-old president of Lithuania has been invited -- personally, persistently, even threateningly -- by Russian President Vladimir Putin to an event that he really, really doesn't think he should attend: the May 9 celebrations in Moscow marking the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Adolf Hitler. It's a real A-list affair: President Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder, Silvio Berlusconi, the presidents of other former Soviet republics, and a cast of thousands.]]></description><author> Richard Holbrooke</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[No 'Counterrevolution' in Kyrgyzstan]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24760-2005Feb14.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24760-2005Feb14.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Regarding the Feb. 4 editorial "Counterrevolution," I would like to address inaccuracies and provide some context for the current events in Kyrgyzstan with respect to two issues: the upcoming elections and the U.S.  and Russian military presence  there.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Shifting Atlantic Alliance]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21977-2005Feb13.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21977-2005Feb13.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   HAMBURG -- The war between "Old Europe" and America is over, but the old friendship, sonorously invoked for decades, is history, too.]]></description><author> Josef Joffe</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Russia's Next Leader]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59311-2005Feb3.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59311-2005Feb3.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   In endorsing Anders Aslund's past and present analysis of political trends in Russia ["Ukraine's Lesson for Putin," op-ed, Jan. 27], Jim Hoagland overlooked a flaw in Mr. Aslund's present views.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Unfair Comparisons for Ms. Rice]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52772-2005Jan31.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52772-2005Jan31.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[ Brent Scowcroft is sometimes described as a "mentor" to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice  [front page, Jan. 17], but  one would not think he's a happy one judging by his remark that Ms. Rice is "very good in Russia  and the Soviet Union, good in Europe,  but it tapers off after that." What an extraordinary and ungenerous, not to mention inaccurate, thing to say about a person who has had years of experience in the national security process and four years in the cockpit next to the president.]]></description><author></author></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Bush Could Fight Tyranny]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50119-2005Jan30.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50119-2005Jan30.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  President Bush now says his inaugural address outline of a global U.S. campaign against tyranny was merely an ideal, not a plan for policy. Fair enough; no one really believes an overnight reversal in American relations with Russia or China makes sense. But last week's backtracking raised a depressing possibility: that Bush will make no significant alterations in foreign relations after promising, in an address fastidiously styled for history books, "the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." If so, his second term will simply compound the damage of his first to U.S. global prestige and influence; both dictators and dissidents will conclude that America's proclamations can be dismissed as hollow and hypocritical. Bush himself will be remembered as one of the greatest blowhards in U.S. history.]]></description><author> Jackson Diehl</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Rules of Punditry]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45982-2005Jan28.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45982-2005Jan28.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Freedom of the press in Russia, in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, took on a double meaning. Journalists felt free to criticize those in power and expose their wrongdoings, which was exhilarating. But too often they also felt free to sell their services -- to print "news" on their front pages, for example, that sang the praises of businesses or politicians who paid a going price.]]></description><author> Fred Hiatt</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ukraine's Lesson for Putin]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40072-2005Jan26.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40072-2005Jan26.html?nav=rss_world/europe/easterneurope/russia/commentary</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 11:08:20 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   A revolt of "the millionaires against the billionaires" helped fracture Ukraine's corrupt power structure and lift Viktor Yushchenko to the presidency there. A similar upheaval may be bubbling next door against Russian President Vladimir Putin.]]></description><author> Jim Hoagland</author></item></channel></rss>