By Vestnik Kavkaza
Today’s world press is discussing the annual year-end news conference of Vladimir Putin, held on Thursday, the 14th. Washington Post published an article runs “Putin predicts economic recovery but warns West against pressuring Russian ‘bear’”. Commenting on the words of president The Washington Post says that “Putin defiantly blamed Russia’s turmoil on the West, saying that it was targeting his nation as part of a long-standing geopolitical effort to limit Moscow’s influence”
The newspaper writes that Russia’s economic difficulties, and that the price decline had “maybe, maybe not” come as a result of collusion between the United States and Saudi Arabia to make life difficult for Russia and Iran, two countries with large oil reserves.
The New York Times in its turn adds that “Vladimir V. Putin, claimed that economic sanctions were not primarily a response to the annexation of Crimea but part of a long-running plot by Western powers to weaken his nation and steal its natural resources. As evidence, Mr. Putin cited first what he called “direct and fully fledged support for terrorism in the North Caucasus” in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union’s demise.”
Daily Mail published an article called “Arguing over Russian reserves: $400 bln or half that?”, trying to estimate the financial situation in Russia.
“Defending the rouble has cost Russia around $80 billion this year, and depending on who's doing the calculations, its usable hard currency reserves are now either starting to run low, or at a healthy $400 billion-plus.
The article quotes the words of Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington DC, who says that “in each of 2015 and 2016, Russia has net external debt payments equal to $100 billion after subtracting its current account surplus. In other words Russia's liquid reserves would be finished after two years. The central bank appears helpless.”
Iran is also appearing in today’s world newspapers. The New York Times published an article called “Iran Criticized for Executing Drug Offenders” , claiming that Iran is executing more prisoners than any other country, except China. “Under international law, Iran and other countries with the death penalty are required to impose it only for the “most serious crimes,” which do not include drug offenses.”
Iran, a conduit for opium trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan, has one of the world’s harshest drug laws. It imposes mandatory death sentences for making, trafficking and possessing specified quantities of opium, opiates and other drugs, like methamphetamines.
The Guardian writes that prosecutor has asked a Turkish court to issue an arrest warrant for US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who President Tayyip Erdoğan accuses of trying to overthrow him, but no court decision has been made, a government official said on Friday. Gülen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has been in open conflict with Erdoğan since a corruption investigation targeting the then-prime minister’s inner circle a year ago. Erdoğan said in April he would ask the United States to extradite Gülen, but such a move can only be made after an arrest warrant is issued and evidence of a crime produced.
In dealings with the West, Erdogan holds all the cards, says another article in The Daily News. “President Tayyip Erdogan's tightening grip on power is likely to meet little more than symbolic resistance from the West next year, as Turkey's G20 presidency and the fight against Islamic State trump concerns about a slide towards authoritarianism.”
Being criticized at home and abroad , Erdogan is called in article “as an increasingly unpredictable leader, bent on a more powerful presidency and revenge on his political enemies. They fear he is taking Turkey ever further from Western standards on rule of law and free speech.”
