Word: russian
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...Kremlin regards countries like Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus as vital buffers between Russia and the West. Like Russian rulers for the past two centuries, Putin "equates security with well-defined zones of interest," says James Sherr, an Eastern Europe specialist at Oxford Uni-versity. Those zones have shrunk in recent years as the Baltic states and Georgia turned sharply toward the West. Putin doesn't want to see the same thing happen in Ukraine...
...hand. If he were seen to be encouraging the east in its secessionist plans, the protests could turn violent. As the Ukraine Supreme Court weighs its decision, there will be opportunities for Russia to stir up separatism. Whether that happens will depend on Putin's ability to reconcile traditional Russian interests and fears with the reality of modern Europe, says Michael Emerson of the Center for European Policy in Brussels. "The more Putin pushes realpolitik," he says, "the more Ukrainians will want to go in the other direction...
...embraced Iran's nuclear aspirations. The regime has won some key diplomatic victories, such as Europe's formal acknowledgment in the Nov. 14 agreement that Iran has the right to peaceful nuclear technology. This affirms that under IAEA supervision, Tehran is technically entitled to operate facilities, including its two Russian-built light-water reactors in Bushehr, a pilot enrichment facility in Natanz, a future uranium-conversion site in Isfahan and a heavy-water production plant in Arak...
VLADIMIR PUTIN, Russian President, opposing a decision by the Ukrainian Supreme Court to hold a new runoff election between the two candidates for Ukraine's President, after allegations of fraud in the first balloting...
...runoff, scheduled by the supreme court after it threw out last month's rigged results, the diagnosis may help consolidate his support and make it more complicated for his opponents to take advantage of his condition. When it was still a mystery, Yanukovych had his top Russian press handler warn voters on TV that if they elected such a sick man, "the very next day Yushchenko will be admitted to hospital." --By Julie Rawe. Reported by Paul Quinn-Judge, Andrew Purvis and Yuri Zarakhovich