When Andropov came to power after the death of Leonid Brezhnev and launched a real crusade against

MOSCOW( Reuters)-President Vladimir Putin's foreign intelligence chief said in a video released on Friday that Russia's spies should make every effort to prevent any foreign meddling in the March presidential election.... They say that Putin has restored order and some of the clout Russia lost during the chaos that accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.... StarPicks Malaysia ‘going beyond’ with leadership on climate action( Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Gareth Jones

Was the USSR doomed tocollapse under Gorbachev? Could anyone stop him? Alas, the “staff culture” ofthe Central Committee was such that “collective leadership” was afiction. The principle “the boss isalways right” dominated, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Oleg Barabanov.

Legendary blind soothsayer Baba Vanga has shared a chilling World War 3 warning that will be the end of Europe.... The warning claims the end times are likely to commence in 2025, which will devastate the continent’s population. Vangelia Pandeva Gushterova, popularly known as Baba Vanga or “ Nostradamus of the Balkans ”, was born in 1911 and had alleged prophetic abilities. Blind since childhood, the Bulgarian clairvoyant claimed she was able to see into the future," powers" she attributed to a

The Soviet Union’s disintegration is the history of a red tape society’s collapse. Experts in Russia and the West fear what they could unearth by studying this phenomenon.

Alot depends onhow clearly peaceful interaction inCentral Asia and around itwill bere-established, inaway that’s acceptable for all parties, writes Yuri Vasilyev, Special correspondent for the Vzglyad business newspaper. There isone ofthe main questions for Uzbekistan asone ofthe main partners ofRu

Russian society is surprisingly passive in the struggle for its rights in the early 21st century. It seems the people haven’t yet overcome the slavery of the 1930s.

To mention the Soviet Union on most of its former territory evokes pleasant nostalgia, not revulsion. However, no one, beginning with President Putin, is planning its second coming.

In October the former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, at the meeting of the Valdai Club, made a rather surprising statement: ‘China and Russia are closing the gap with the West in the media. And it is the good news’.

Millions of American children have been fascinated by the folktale The Little Engine That Could, which has circulated in numerous media forms since the early 1900s. It is about a small locomotive that succeeds in pulling a heavy train up a steep hill.