As Vladimir Putin's international image continues to decline, his domestic popularity has, paradoxically, reached an all-time high. The most recent poll by the Moscow-based Levada Center reports a staggering 89 percent approval rating for the Russian president, in spite of a stumbling economy, declining living standards, rampant corruption and deepening international isolation.
China muzzles media amid economic crisis;
Controversial China oil rig returns to South China Sea
India, Pak to join SCO;
U.S. drone strikes kill in IN leaders;
India to supply more power to Bangladesh;
Modi, Sharif meet after a year;
India abstains on UN HRC vote concerning Gaza
Abuses, impunity in Crimea;
The Islamic State comes to Russia
Even before it was formally published late last month, Michael Oren's memoir of his time as Israel's envoy to the United States had ignited a firestorm of controversy, and for very good reason. His book, Ally: My Journey across the American-Israeli Divide, provides the most damning account to date of a "special relationship" that, on President Obama's watch, has deteriorated to an almost unthinkable degree, with the White House coming to view Israel and its often-pugnacious premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, as more of a problem than Iran's nuclear ambitions, Palestinian corruption, or the Syrian civil war.