WASHINGTON D.C., February 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Srdja Trifkovic, Foreign Affairs Editor of Chronicles and Executive Director of The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies,

WASHINGTON, January 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Anthony T.

Text of report by mass-circulation Russian weekly Argumenty i Fakty on 30 July [Interview with Centre TV presenter Aleksey Pushkov by Aleksandr Kolesnichenko: "Aleksey Pushkov: "Is TV for morons or for people?"] In the opinion of Culture Minister Aleksandr Avdeyev, who was speaking at the [Russian State] Duma, our federal television channels are not meeting the state's objectives: "Television is littered with low-quality, low-morality production, which is causing harm." Politicians were no less scathing during a roundtable at the Effective Policy Foundation: Russian TV is discrediting the president.

By THOMAS IF THE CONFLICT in Georgia were an Olympic event, the gold medal for brutish stupidity would go to the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

By DAVID A MITTELL Jr WE DIDN'T NOTICE IT at the time, but the post-Cold War world changed on Oct. 1, 1999, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin used the bombing of a Moscow apartment building on Sept.