Andrei Fedyashin

Andrei Fedyashin is a political commentator at RIA Novosti.

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Articles by Andrei Fedyashin:

Sixty Years of Elizabeth II: An Ideal Queen in a Flawed Monarchy

February 7, 2012 by

Sixty years ago, on February 6, Queen Elizabeth II was proclaimed sovereign of the Commonwealth following the death of her father King George VI. Her Majesty is the oldest monarch in Europe, and in just three years she will surpass the reign of Queen Victoria, who ruled the British Empire for 63 years. Health permitting, in the spring of 2024 she could become the world’s longest reigning monarch, breaking the record set by Louis XIV, the Sun King, who occupied the French throne for over 72 years.

Europe needs diet therapy to survive

January 10, 2012 by

The European Union, hobbled by its euro crisis and the debt of its southern members, requires some radical changes if it hopes to survive. The EU needs to undergo either a general or a local fiscal and constitutional surgery. Both options would be very painful, but this is all Brussels can do.

America enters referendum year on Obama

January 5, 2012 by

America has finally set out on the long journey that will culminate with the presidential election on November 6 of this year. Everything that has come before – the registration of candidates, television debates – have all been preludes, a warm-up for the main event. Things began in earnest in the state of Iowa, where on January 3, 2012, Mitt Romney managed to eke out a win in the Republican primary.

U.S. national debt: dancing on the brink of a world crisis

July 13, 2011 by

U.S. national debt: dancing on the brink of a world crisis

Budget and debt problems are once again racking America. Barack Obama has failed to persuade the Republican majority in Congress to raise the national debt ceiling. That much is nothing new, and similar attempts will be unlikely to succeed in the future. Since July 10, the White House has been holding daily consultations on raising the ceiling. The current ceiling of $14.3 trillion must be raised by several hundred billion, or the Department of the Treasury will run out of money by August 2.

News of the World axed

July 9, 2011 by

This may well be the biggest scandal in British journalism and politics. That is saying a lot in a country that is no stranger to scandal. News of the World, the largest tabloid newspaper by circulation in Britain and one of the largest in the English-speaking world, will be printed for the last time on July 10. Although the closing comes on the heels of accusations that the paper hacked into the phone of 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002, owner Rupert Murdoch is not closing the 168-year-old paper for ethical reasons.

Panetta to slash costs at the Pentagon

July 3, 2011 by

June 30 is U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ final day in office. He is handing the reins over to Leon Panetta, the incumbent director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this post, Mr. Panetta will be succeeded by Gen. David Petraeus, who currently leads the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Will the Greek debt drama end in tragedy?

June 30, 2011 by

Athens raised the curtain for the latest act of its euro drama on Wednesday as the Greek cabinet got a new austerity package through parliament. The adopted measures will give a welcome respite to Greece’s government. They are unlikely to relieve the nation of its mounting debt, though.

NATO and Russia: Vigilant in the skies, evasive on missile defense

June 7, 2011 by

The focus of the upcoming Russia-NATO Council meeting in Brussels will be U.S. missile defense in Europe, but the outcome is hard to predict. Some have suggested that the meeting will result in political principles for a common approach to missile defense. Moscow is not so much worried that the U.S. is currently working on a missile defense system, as Washington knows well.

The cucumber scare: Spain absolved of guilt

June 5, 2011 by

Rumor of a European vegetable conspiracy, the suggestion that the E. coli epidemic was deliberately engineered to hurt Spanish and/or other European farmers thereby boosting their own agricultural sector, is the direct result of the EU’s distorted agricultural policy. But farmers world over stand to suffer, whether or not there was a conspiracy, because the global demand for fresh vegetables is falling.

Deauville summit spotlights Internet regulations

June 2, 2011 by

The G8 summit held in Deauville, France, on May 26 and 27 achieved no major breakthroughs but was surprisingly friendly. This is something of an achievement considering the red-hot subjects on its agenda, such as Libya and the Arab revolts.

West begins to reevaluate Saakashvili

May 29, 2011 by

After Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili broke up an opposition rally in Tbilisi with rubber bullets, tear gas and clubs, Washington, which provided one billion dollars in aid to Saakashvili two years ago, was once again faced with the agonizing question of what to do with the “first democrat” of the Caucasus.

G8 clings to relevancy in Deauville

May 26, 2011 by

Since 2007 analysts have been predicting that the G8, the world’s oldest and most elite political club, would collapse under the weight of a changing world. And yet the G8 has refused to fade away.

Obama caught between two millstones

May 20, 2011 by

In a major policy address on events in the Middle East at the State Department, President Barack Obama said the United States supports a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine based on the pre-war 1967 borders. This is not something you expect to hear from a U.S. president, even less from a president up for re-election next year.

IMF seeks replacement for Strauss-Kahn

May 19, 2011 by

The arrest of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexual assault and his subsequent resignation have left the IMF without a leader and France’s Socialist Party without a strong candidate to run against Nicolas Sarkozy.

France before and after the scandal

May 17, 2011 by

Now, France has a new point of departure – before and after the alleged sex-assault scandal. Only today it is dawning on the country, its politicians and parties what a scandal occurred in New York on May 14 with 62-year-old Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director and the former chief presidential candidate from the Socialist Party.

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