Sebastian Smith
AFP White House correspondent. Previously Rio, NYC, Moscow, Tbilisi, London, Paris -- and a couple years at sea.
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/ 12 July 2006

But is Russia democratic?

A Kremlin public-relations blitz ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) summit and an apparent softening of Washington’s stance have failed to disguise an ill-tempered debate gnawing at the heart of East-West relations: is Russia democratic? By some counts, cooperation between Russia and its G8 partners is in rude health ahead of the summit.

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/ 5 May 2006

Iranian president pledges mass atomic-fuel production

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Friday that Iran would pursue its contested nuclear programme until it could mass-produce atomic fuel, and branded those trying to stop it as ”bullies”. ”We intend to continue our activity … until we manage industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel for our atomic power stations,” Ahmadinejad said.

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/ 8 March 2006

Madness of war spares few in traumatised Chechnya

Hidden from the world, deep in the endless ruins of the Chechen capital Grozny, a young man smiles at his mother through a cage door. She holds the key, but Iriskhan’s true jailer is the madness he has suffered since the war in his homeland began just over a decade ago. Iriskhan was 18, when Russian troops first laid siege to Grozny, his mother Raisa says.

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/ 25 May 2005

Enormous power outage hits Moscow

A massive power outage caused chaos in Moscow on Wednesday, stranding about 20 000 people in underground metro tunnels, disrupting traffic above ground and leaving large sections of the Russian capital without electricity. One report said effects were felt as far as Tula, 300km south of Moscow.