Putin Sees Warmer Relations With US

Russian leader leaves opening to derail march toward new Cold War

(NEWSER) - President Dmitry Medvedev is signaling that Russia and the US could have a less contentious relationship under Barack Obama, and Obama should heed the call, Pat Buchanan writes in the American Conservative. “Russia does not want the Cold War II that the departing neocons wish to leave on his plate,” Buchanan writes of Obama, and two recent acts by Medvedev bear this out. More»

US encouraged Georgian bluster; provoked Russian paranoia

(NEWSER) - The Georgian war crystallizes the failure of the Bush administration's foreign policy, writes HDS Greenway in the Boston Globe. Besides the ready-made justification the Iraq war provides to any invading country, America has stoked Georgian boldness, "and now America's client is wiping blood from its nose," he writes. "The wreckage of Georgia's towns and countryside, however, is not as complete as the ruin of Bush's policies." More»

Zeituni Onyango granted asylum

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama's aunt, has received permission to stay in the US. An immigration judge granted Zeituni Onyango's plea for asylum today, agreeing with her lawyer's arguments that she would face tribal violence if she returned home to Kenya. Oyanga was not well known to her nephew, but she became a focus of attention during the 2008 campaign after she defied a deportation order and filed for asylum, the Boston Globe reports. More»

(NEWSER) - People the world over are investing their hopes in Barack Obama's warm, intelligent persona, but the president-elect is destined to disappoint, Matthew Parris writes in the London Times. Like any pop star or religious icon, he represents more myth than reality. The turning point will come when "Yes we can" meets the "No you can't" of global politics, a moment when Parris hopes Obama "will let us down gently.” More»

New fury at Russia's formal recognition of breakaway states

(NEWSER) - The West is preparing to crank up diplomatic pressure on Russia after its challenging move formally recognizing breakaway Ossetia and Abkhazia in the wake of its invasion of Georgia. The US, Europe and NATO have condemned the action, but Russia remains defiant. "We are not afraid of anything, including a new cold war," said Russian President Dmitri Medvedev after formally recognizing Georgia's restive states. "If Europeans want a worsening in relations, they will get it of course." More»