The Londoner

One of the early calls that Vladimir Putin took following his expected victory in the Russian presidential election last weekend was from Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. He congratulated Putin on his success and  invited  him to visit Islamabad in September which the Russian leader accepted, according to newspaper reports citing an official statement. It would be the first visit by a Russian head of state to Pakistan which stood on the other side of the Cold War, peaking in its emergence as the staging ground for the U.S. campaign  to defeat the Soviet Union’s occupation of Afghanistan.  Read the full story here.  

By  Robin Lustig   Perhaps I should start with a statement of the blindingly obvious: Russia is not Egypt . Yes, there were thousands of anti-government protesters out on the streets of the capital this week. And yes, the security forces responded with great brutality. And yes again, online social networks played an important role in galvanising the protests and giving a voice to the protesters. But no, an autocrat is not about to be toppled. And no, Vladimir Putin is not Hosni Mubarak . So I suspect any references to a "Russian spring" (in December, for goodness sake?) should be taken with a very large pinch of salt. Let's rewind a few days. Last weekend, Russian voters went to the polls to choose a new parliament. This is not an event that normally excites much interest, because there is rarely any doubt about who is likely to win. But this time was different. It was the first test of public opinion since Vladimir Putin (currently prime minister) and

AS the powerful Communist Party chief of Guangdong Province waited in an ornate conference room last week for the arrival of the new American ambassador, Gary Locke , the banter with his aides naturally turned to Mr. Locke’s Chinese roots. Mr. Locke had stopped in Guangzhou to talk to the party chief, Wang Yang, en route to a visit to his ancestral village. Mr. Wang put a quick end to that topic. “He’s no hometown folk,” he told aides as they shifted in a reception line. “He should clearly realize he is an American.” Just a few months ago, some Chinese media outlets were offering Mr. Locke as a role model for China’s stuffy political leaders — an American bigwig who flew economy class and shunned having a retinue of underlings, like those who attend to the needs of politicians here. Read the full story here.

Is China making an unprecedented leap to the top of the global economic hierarchy? Yes, Martin Jacques asserts confidently in his buzz-generating When China Rules the World. He sees the country, which recently passed Japan to become the world's No. 2 economy, rising smoothly to the top spot by continuing to follow a thoroughly distinctive, Confucian-tinged development path. No, say China skeptics like economist John Markin and hedge-fund honcho James Chanos, with equal self-assurance. They predict that bursting bubbles will lead to a Chinese equivalent to Japan's "lost decade" of the 1990s. To them, as George Friedman pithily puts it in his best-selling The Next 100 Years, which is sometimes displayed near Jacques' tome in airport bookstores these days, China is just "Japan on steroids." While we're too aware of how regularly — and speedily — bold forecasts about China are proved wrong to offer one of our own, our research into 19th century America a

By  Jeremy Warner   Here’s a finding that will have any red-blooded American spluttering into his cornflakes. According to the Conference Board, a highly respected economic research association, China will overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy by 2012, or within two years. OK, so in dollar terms, that’s obviously not going to be the case. It will be a lot longer than two years before China overtakes the US on that measure. But in terms of purchasing power parity, according to  the Conference Board’s latest world economic outlook , China is already nearly there, and by 2020 will have reached a size of output which is nearly half as big again as the US. Here’s the Wkipedia link explaining what PPP is , but broadly speaking the idea is to measure output according to the volume, not the price of goods and services produced. The assumption made is that identical goods will have the same price in different markets. In practice, this is obviously not the case. A taxi ride in Beijin

From Daily Telegraph Mr Gorbachev, who pulled Russian troops out of Afghanistan in 1989 after a 10-year war, said the US had no alternative but to withdraw troops. "Victory is impossible in Afghanistan. [Barack] Obama is right to pull the troops out. No matter how difficult it will be," he told the BBC. Mr Gorbachev added that as the Soviets prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan, the US was training militants, "the same ones who today are terrorising Afghanistan and more and more of Pakistan". He said that because of this, withdrawal would be more difficult. "But what's the alternative - another Vietnam? Sending in half-a-million troops? That wouldn't work." His comments came amid news that Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, will attend a Nato summit next month, to discuss plans for Russian forces to return to Afghanistan. Nato officials said Russia had agreed to sell helicopters to Afghanistan and provide training. Moscow will allow

By Sikander Hayat  I saw with wonder that the same countries which lobbied for sale of nuclear technology to India (a non-signatory to NPT) are now trying to stop a similar nuclear deal between Pakistan & China. I smell hypocrisy here and so should these countries who are playing the role of the hypocrite. According to Financial Times newspaper “ China signed an agreement with Pakistan about the two additional nuclear reactors in 2003, although when Beijing a year later joined the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the body that establishes rules for nuclear commerce, the deal was put on hold. However, China revived its interest in the Pakistan deal after the US signed its civil nuclear deal with India in 2008 and lobbied other members of the NSG to give the arrangement their blessing. Chinese officials argue privately that if US companies can sell reactors to India – which, like Pakistan, has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty – then China should be allowed to fulfil its agr

By Sikander Hayat Viktor F. Yanukovich was the loser 5 years ago in the “Orange Revolution” and now he is looking likely to win according to the polls in advance of a presidential election and drawing large crowds in all parts of Ukraine. He has talked about a lifeless economy and the Western friendly Orange leaders who are fighting each other. Five years ago these leaders were put in power by a massive campaign funded by the West. He has asked Ukrainians whether the Ukraine is in a better shape than it was 5 years ago. Corruption is still there, mismanagement and bad governance have taken roots. People are disillusioned with the current set up. In recent weeks, polls have shown Yanukovich leading by 10 or 15 percentage points but due to ethnic differences in the Russian and Ukrainian speaking parts of Ukraine, it is not possible to predict the outcome completely. But the mere fact that the same man who was demonized as a Russian stooge is making a huge comeback is a defeat for the pe

By Sikander Hayat Islam is by no means the only religion to have flourished in Central Asia and the Caucasus. Prior to the Arab arrival in the seventh century, this region was the main locus of Zoroastrianism. This fundamental religion of both East and West gave the world the concepts of both Heaven (paradise) and Hell, and also of saints, and thus directly inspired Judaism, Christianity and Islam itself. Central Asia was also a great center of Buddhism, the region where that faith was consolidated and codified in a way that enabled it to be transmitted to China, Korea, and Japan. Absorbed into this world, Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus took on several distinctive features. First, it had a strong and consistent practical streak. The traders who adopted Islam naturally favoured the Hanafi school of law, Islam’s most pragmatic and worldly system of regulating conduct. Second, it possessed a strong analytical streak that interacted easily with classical and secular learning. Thank

By Sikander Hayat Is democracy really necessary for the development of a country and if that is the case than why China and Russia are surging ahead. China is set to become the 2nd largest economy of the world after United States by 2010 and Russia is no longer the weak country it was in the early 90s. Vast oil & gas revenues have changed the face of Russia in over a decade and one man who oversaw this transformation is Vladimir Putin . Putin is now serving as the prime minister of Russia and may come back as the President of the country he once ruled with an iron fist. Mind you, he is not far from the corridors of power while being the prime minister of Russia, he still has connection with the oligarchy/establishment of the country. He chose the current president Medvedev himself and campaigned for him in the presidential elections which West regards as fraudulent and far from free. Similarly, China in the last sixty years has surged ahead and especially in the last twent

BY NASIM ZEHRA - THIS April was a month of strategic reaffirmation for two of Asia’s strategically most significant countries- Pakistan and China . While the strategic parameters of the Pakistan-China relationship have long been set, there are regular additions in its content. Leaderships of the two countries reviewed and also enhanced the existing level of cooperation. Some new projects and proposals were discussed during the politically controversial President general Parvez Musharraf’s six day and the Chinese Foreign Minister Yong Jiechi’s two day visit to Pakistan. New bilateral undertakings give the Pak-Sino bond its dynamism keeping this half a century old relationship current and crucial for both partners. For example five Chinese universities are now jointly initiating a Pakistani-Chinese engineering and technology college in Islamabad beginning this September. Also to ensure systematic and regular exchanges between key policy-making and policy implementing institutions,