The Guardian newspaper commented on the recent Party Congress of ‘United Russia’ and its results in an article headlined ‘Vladimir Putin's comeback spells gloom for Russia and the west’. According to its author, there is no prospect now of any UK-Russian thaw, and Russia itself faces a long period of political and economic stagnation. Many observers have plausibly argued that Putin is tired of being leader. So why did he come back? The Kremlin, of course, is more prestigious than the prime minister's office, and gives Putin an international platform. However, the author believes that, most importantly, it allows Putin to protect his own alleged secret assets and those of his team, US diplomats believe. And it allows him to avoid potential law-enforcement prosecution – which is inevitable, once he steps down from power.
The same news agency published material on the US hikers’ case. Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer told a press conference about the difficult prison conditions and the surprise of their sudden release. According to them, Iran pressed charges against them merely because they were American citizens. Declaring that they were detained because of their nationality, not their actions, the two American hikers, held for more than two years in an Iranian prison, came home on Sunday, ending a diplomatic and personal ordeal with a sharp rebuke of the country that accused them of crossing the border from Iraq. Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, both 29, were freed last week under a $1m (£640,000) bail deal and arrived on Wednesday in Oman, greeted by relatives and fellow hiker Sarah Shourd, who was released last year. Their saga began in July 2009, with what they called 'a wrong turn into the wrong country.' The three say they were hiking together in Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish region along the border with Iran when Iranian guards detained them. They always maintained their innocence, saying they might have accidentally wandered into Iran.
The two men were convicted of spying last month. Shourd, to whom Bauer proposed marriage while they were imprisoned, was charged but freed before any trial.
According to the Hurriyet Daily News, ‘no more talks will be held with PKK terrorists’, Turkish PM Tayyip Erdoğan said, vowing to continue the fight until the militants lay down their arms. He said the fact that the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, was striking at places nearly every day and causing a rise in the number of dead soldiers was inevitably more important than what went on in New York. “As far as I am concerned, they are now seeking revenge, as they incurred serious losses in [military] operations ... Our border units will step up in March. They will be more effective, as they will be permanently based there. [Some] 5,000 people have been recruited; they are now undergoing training .. Special operations [units] will also enter [the scene] in cities,” he said. The Minister also commented on sanctions against Syria. According to the media agency, Turkey’s sanctions against the Syrian government mainly target bilateral economic, military, political and banking ties, in order not to affect its people. The sanctions will likely be announced in early October.
According to the Washington Post, a group of defectors calling themselves the Free Syrian Army is attempting the first effort to organize an armed challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, signaling what some hope and others fear may be a new phase in what has been an overwhelmingly peaceful Syrian protest movement. For now, the shadowy entity seems mostly to consist of some big ambitions, a Facebook page and a relatively small number of defected soldiers and officers who have taken refuge on the borderlands of Turkey and Lebanon or among civilians in Syria’s cities.
