I did not post any articles about the recent elections in Russia–I apologize for the oversight. The elections were a stunning repudiation of Putin (although not a defeat). Putin’s reaction, however, is an interesting attack on the West which suggests that he doesn’t really know how to interpret the results. It will be interesting to see whether this pique extends to other areas of US-Russian relations. If so, the stand-off with Iran will certainly become more complex.
Tension is clearly building in the European Union. For a variety of reasons, the tension is entirely warranted. Germany has made clear that it believes that the only solution to the crisis is to legally restructure the Union, a long-term solution that addresses none of the immediate concerns in the eurozone. Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank said that there was no plan to purchase European government debt, leaving all the sovereign debt up in the air.
Cyberwar has been going on for some time, but now it appears that hackers are interested in disrupting the world’s oil supplies. This particular article talks about a new virus called stuxnet as the culprit. Sutxnet is a virus allegedly designed by the US and Israel to disrupt the Iranian nuclear program. It would be a cruel irony if it turns out that the virus is turned against the most vulnerable point of the American economy.
Check out the photograph of the air quality in Beijing.
World Politics News 
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