"Iran will not accept these sanctions – it will respond," an article with such a headline was published today by The Guardian. "The (Iranian) regime is desperate to protect its nuclear ambitions, and will manipulate the west's fears of its irrational behaviour to do so," Tom Rogan, the author of the article believes. According to him, for Iran's leaders attaining nuclear power is non-negotiable. From the regime's perspective, a nuclear Iran would effectively guarantee the ongoing Islamic revolution. With nuclear weapons, Iran's clerical leadership believes it would be free to engage in more forceful, overt support for theologically-rooted Shia political movements across the region. This means that the latest sanctions foreshadow a major escalation in tensions, the author says.
Today Hurriyet Daily News published an article by Semih Idiz, headlined "Turkey has no time to waste." "Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) is turning into a two-faced Janus, with one face looking to the future and another to the past. I say this because the situation in the country displays the positive and negative developments taking place at the same time," the author says. According to Idiz, the ruling party contributed much to Turkey's democratic development, meaning the recent law suit against senior military officials, who once carried out a coup d'état. At the same time, the AKP is responsible for numerous human rights violations and abuses of freedom of speach.
The Moscow Times published an article entitled "Putin Says Nationalism a Danger to the State." Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out on Monday at nationalists who call for cutting off government funding to the North Caucasus, as well as those who want to create regional separatist parties, saying their positions could lead to the collapse of Russia. According to the author, Putin’s own record on national policy is somewhat mixed. While he has always distanced himself from hard-line groups, he once called himself and Medvedev, “nationalists in the good sense of the word.” At the same time, Putin has stated previously that he saw the notion of’ “Soviet nationality” and the uniting of different republics under one umbrella as a positive model for modern Russia.
The same newspaper published an article headlined "Kadyrov Says Protesters Should All Be Jailed." Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said on Tuesday he would throw all the protesters who recently took to the streets in Moscow into jail, as they represent the "enemies of Russia." Kadyrov has also called opposition figure Alexei Navalny, a popular blogger and an organizer of the protest march in Moscow, a "chatterbox who doesn't know what he is talking about." Navalny, a self-described national-democrat, is known for using harsh language when talking about Chechnya and other North Caucasus states, accusing them of subsisting largely off government largesse. In particular, Navalny popularized the slogan "Stop feeding the Caucasus," which has become a clarion call among nationalists.
