“Russia” on The Daily Caller

After spending more than two decades drilling in the coldest place on Earth, Russian scientists have finally broken ice on Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake believed to contain water sealed frozen for more than 15 million years. (more)

Vladimir Putin, once viewed as an adept politician, is stunningly out of touch. His close confidants are fleeing in droves, revealing the systemic corruption in his government. His poll numbers are dropping, raising the possibility that he may not win on the first vote in the upcoming (and rigged) presidential elections. And on Saturday, a record number of Russians defied freezing temperatures and threats of persecution to call for his removal. (more)

MOSCOW (AP) — The head of Russia’s space agency says that a manned launch to the International Space Station is being postponed from March 30 because of faults found in the Soyuz capsule. (more)

First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told a reporter on Sunday that the government estimated at least 1 trillion rubles ($32 billion) had left the country last year, Ria Novosti reports. (more)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday that government officials must crack down on migrant workers who break the nation’s laws by failing to register or get work permits, and on companies that profit by hiring them. (more)

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A newly found Swedish document shows how the KGB intervened in the early 1990s to stop an investigation into World War II hero Raoul Wallenberg’s fate, two U.S.-based researchers said Monday. (more)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s space agency has adjusted its forecast for the crash of a failed spacecraft, saying it may shower its fragments into the south Atlantic. (more)

MOSCOW (AP) — Tens of thousands of Russians jammed a Moscow avenue Saturday to demand free elections and an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule, in the largest show of public outrage since the protests 20 years ago that brought down the Soviet Union. Gone was the political apathy of recent years as many shouted “We are the Power!” (more)

MOSCOW (AP) — The sinking of a floating oil rig that left more than 50 crew dead or missing is intensifying fears that Russian companies searching for oil in remote areas are unprepared for emergencies — and could cause a disastrous spill in the pristine waters of the Arctic. (more)

In 2011, the United States’s sleepy free trade agenda finally got a shot of caffeine, but if the U.S. wants to seriously bolster its economy in 2012, policymakers ought to anchor their boats to the quay of an aggressive free trade agenda. (more)

If you haven’t viewed the VICE documentary guides to various third world basket cases, you are really missing out. (more)

MOSCOW — The billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets became one of the first public figures to try to take advantage of Russia’s suddenly transformed political landscape, declaring Monday that he would run for president against Vladimir Putin in March. (more)

President Dmitry Medvedev ordered an investigation Sunday into allegations of fraud in Russia’s parliamentary election, one day after tens of thousands of protesters demanded it be annulled and rerun. (more)

MOSCOW — The shot opens at the top of a flight of stairs and zooms in shakily on a gray-haired man, who sits at a desk furtively checking off what appear to be ballots — a stack of them. (more)

When John McCain proclaimed in 2008, “Today, we’re all Georgians,” unfortunately he was not talking about the Southern state. No, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee was declaring his — indeed, all of our — support for the nation of Georgia, which that year became involved in a brief military conflict with neighboring Russia over who had claim to the region of South Ossetia. Which country’s soldiers fired first became a matter of international dispute, but the Bush administration made clear that this would not become America’s dispute; there would be no military response by the United States. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stressed that America had successfully avoided a shooting war with Russia during the Cold War and he saw “no reason to change that approach today.” (more)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator is blocking President Barack Obama’s nominee to become ambassador to Russia over suspicions the U.S. might provide Moscow with sensitive missile defense information. (more)

Neoconservatives, the old saying goes, are liberals who have been mugged by reality. Though it is doubtful that President Barack Obama will ever quite fit that description, there are signs that his foreign policy views have changed in the three years since his election. (more)

MOSCOW, Nov. 24 (UPI) — A Russian TV station said it has dismissed a news anchor for flipping the bird while reading an item about U.S. President Barack Obama. (more)

Tuesday night’s CNN debate offered Republican presidential contenders the opportunity to prove they are ready to navigate the murky waters of international affairs. The primary season’s twelfth debate focused entirely on national security and quickly set a tone that was in stark contrast to the “rah-rah” atmosphere of the previous debates. The crowd of Washington insiders and think tank employees offered a much more subdued response to the candidates than the primary voters who have been filling the debate halls to this point. But boisterous crowd reactions were not the only things missing from Tuesday night’s debate. There were also some notable geographic and political voids in the debate’s content: (more)

The United States said Tuesday it would no longer provide data to Russia on conventional weapons and troops in Europe, citing non-compliance by Moscow with a two-decade old treaty that governed the information exchange. (more)