When Russia sent shells raining down on Georgia, it seemed initially as if Vladimir Putin was savagely pursuing what he saw as Russian national interests. Moscow claimed Georgian aggression against Russian loyalists in South Ossetia and has objected to both Georgia's bid to join NATO and the Pentagon's arming and training of the Georgian military. But a closer examination of the run-up to Putin's inexcusable invasion suggests that Russia's action had as much to do with its wounded pride as ...

Star cellists are a lot rarer than piano or violin virtuosos. A brilliant and virtually unknown cellist made an appearance in East Berlin last week that left listeners surprised and breathless. Soviet Russia's Daniel Shafran, 34, turned out to be a sometime prodigy who today may have no equal among the younger generation of cellists.Almost too slight-looking for his muscle-straining art, Shafran handled his instrument as if it were no bigger than a fiddle. In two programs he ranged from the Khachaturian cello concerto to ...

For almost all major politicians, life is never private. Silvio Berlusconi is a fine example. Even if one wanted to, it would be hard not to know the latest about his family life, indeed his various dalliances. Politicians across the western world usually just have to deal with life in a fishbowl. Except for one: Berlusconi's old friend and vacation mate, Vladimir Putin, who has managed to impose an information blockade around his private life that most ...

On Friday, before an audience of military officers from around the world, Russia's top generals made a startling admission of weakness. After 2015, they said, Russia may no longer be able to launch a nuclear strike against the West, because the planned U.S. missile shield over Europe would by then be advanced enough to blow Russian rockets out of the sky. This eventuality, which Russia's top brass have never admitted before, would finally dislodge the Cold War ...

A taciturnity without beginning, without end, shrouds the purpose and achievements of Josef Vissarionovitch Dzhugashvili, Dictator of Russia, called Stalin .

Not unto glamorous "Holy Russia" but into the drab, mechanized Soviet Union came last week the first Reigning Sovereign to enter Moscow since the days of Tsar Nicholas the Last. The visiting potentate was His Majesty, King Amanullah of Afghanistan, styled by his Moslem subjects, "The Peace of God." Accompanied by his Queen, Thuraya, "The Starry One," he is now completing a tour of the Occident which has taken him on state visits to Rome, Paris, Berlin, London and ...

After seven days of fighting, the German High Command was convinced its armies had defeated Russia's. The German High Command has, to most of the world's misfortune, not yet been wrong. The first seven days were days of mystery. Citizens of the outside world could only ponder the oddities of totalitarian propaganda; look at German pictures of happy byplay in captured villages; muse on Russian geography—Dvinsk here, Pinsk there, Minsk in between; and take their pick between diametric optimism. "A ...

United Nations-backed nuclear inspectors on Sunday visited a newly disclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Qom, Iranian media has reported.That proposal calls for low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to be sent abroad for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is ...

International officials arrived in Iran on Sunday to inspect a newly disclosed nuclear facility near the city of Qom, state media reported. Tehran is studying the draft proposal and will have an answer next week, Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh said on state-run Press TV. Iran informed IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei that it is "considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs until the middle of next week to provide a response," according to ...

Whether I was squeezing myself into a crowded subway car or admiring the fall leaves around at Tsaritsino Park, I was constantly learning new Russian words during my two-week study trip to Moscow last October. When I came back from my trip, I had vague notions of continuing my linguistic education through classes and books. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any convenient classes, and the textbooks didn't hold my attention for long. I had basically given up when, ...