Largely unnoticed by the West, Vladimir Putin has just launched a radical overhaul of power in Russia. On April 5th, the Russian President formally announced the creation of a new National Guard intended to serve as an umbrella organization and coordinating body for the country's numerous "force ministries."
Kadyrov gets a stay of political execution;
The dollars and cents of Russia's Syria intervention
"I think the president would like to do it," John Roos, President Barack Obama's former ambassador to Tokyo, said the other day about a possible Obama visit to Hiroshima when he attends the Group of Seven Summit next month in Japan. "He is a person who bends over backwards to show respect to history, and it does advance his agenda."
That a visit to Hiroshima, on which President Harry Truman dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb, would advance Obama's agenda is clear. He has long envisioned a world without nuclear weapons, announced steps to pursue it in a high-profile speech in Prague in April of 2009, and continues to push for U.S.-Russian cuts in nuclear arsenals and global efforts to secure loose nuclear materials.
Green movement leader still languishes;
The JCPOA's energy dividend;
Europe becomes the Islamic Republic's lobbyist;
Iran sets its sights on India;
An Iranian General in Moscow
Jordan moves against the Brotherhood;
ISIS broadens its reach in Libya;
Rethinking the Sinai;
The West's vulnerable nuclear sector