March, 2008

• 4 March

  Russia renews threat to cut Ukraine gas supplies

  Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom threatened on Tuesday to cut gas supplies to Ukraine by 25 percent from March 3 over arrears, two weeks after the two ex-Soviet states agreed on how to settle the problem.

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• 4 March

  Putinism’s impact on the neighbors

  President Putin has said Russia could redirect its missiles to target Ukraine if Kyiv joined NATO. According to RFE/RL’s guest authors, that kind of talk is representative of an increasingly truculent foreign policy, which goes largely unchallenged by Russia’s political elite.

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• 4 March

  Will the Sochi Olympiad take place as scheduled?

  An offhand comment by President Vladimir Putin during his recent swing through the North Caucasus should have alerted both Russians and the world of a very serious problem: Besides some speeches and press releases filled with bravado, Moscow has done very little to prepare for the Sochi Olympics.

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• 4 March

  Nearly one-third of Moscow newborns are children of migrants

  Thirty percent of the 101,344 newborns in Moscow last year were children of migrant parents from the former Soviet republics and other foreign countries, a share far greater than these groups now form in the city’s population and one that means their percentage of its residents will increase even if …

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• 3 March

  FACTBOX: Russian energy transit states

  Russia’s relations with countries through which it ships gas, power and coal to Europe have been characterized by frequent disputes.

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• 3 March

  FACTBOX: U.S. reaction to Russia’s election

  Following is initial reaction from U.S. officials and presidential candidates to the election on Sunday of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia’s next president. Medvedev vows to continue the policies of Vladimir Putin.

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• 3 March

  Medvedev wins Russian election with 70.23 pct

  MOSCOW (Reuters) – Dmitry Medvedev has won 70.23 percent of the vote in Russia’s presidential election with 99.45 percent of the ballots counted, giving him an easy first round victory, preliminary results showed on Monday.

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• 3 March

  Russia reduces gas to Ukraine by a quarter

  MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) reduced supplies to Ukraine by a quarter on Monday, just hours after its chairman and Kremlin candidate Dmitry Medvedev won Russia’s presidential election.

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• 3 March

  Hamas claims “victory”, says Israelis pull back

  GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas declared a “victory” in the Gaza Strip on Monday after the Palestinian militant group and residents said Israeli troops had pulled back to the border from positions taken inside the north of the enclave in recent days.

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• 3 March

  Afghanistan: Mobile-Phone Towers Are Taliban’s New Target

  Local officials in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province said gunmen destroyed a mobile-phone tower in the Sangin district on March 2.

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