SAN FRANCISCO -- The clearest sign yet of Yahoo's turnaround? People are clamoring to work there again.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said Wednesday that the company now gets 12,000 resumes a week, about a fivefold increase since she took the top job in July 2012. The tech giant currently has 12,000 employees, so "for every job we have, we get a resume each week," she said.
The increase in applications is a reflection of Mayer's efforts to make Yahoo cool again, and to return the company to growth. Employee perks like free food and iPhones -- hallmarks of her former employer, Google -- don't hurt the recruitment efforts, either.
Mayer attributed the company's latest success to a focus on four areas: people, products, traffic and revenue. Doing well in one leads to greater success in the others, she says.
"They are a chain reaction," she said in an interview on stage at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference. "You have to get the right people there before you can build the right products. Once you have that usage," it's easier to attract advertisers.
On the traffic side, Mayer said Wednesday that Yahoo has surpassed 800 million monthly active users worldwide. The surge, about a 20 percent increase since Mayer took over, is largely due to increased traffic to the company's mobile offerings. Yahoo has about 350 million mobile users. Mayer said the company is also seeing higher traffic to its email, homepage and search products. (The spike does not include the social blogging site Tumblr, which Yahoo purchased this year.)
Another sign of success: Employee attrition is down markedly, and people who left the company are coming back. Mayer said she has focused on attracting former Yahoo'ers, whom she calls "boomerangs." About 10 percent of Yahoo's hires this year have been Yahoo alumni.
The turnaround efforts are also reflected in Yahoo's stock price, which has risen 88 percent since Mayer joined. Some of the gains can be credited to the company's investments in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, and its joint venture, Yahoo Japan.
But an additional focus on the company's products helps, Mayer said. She pointed to the redesign of Yahoo News and the decision to buy the exclusive streaming rights to past episodes of "Saturday Night Live" as examples of products she's happy about.
And, as expected, she defended the company's controversial logo change after interviewer Michael Arrington asked, "What the f--- happened here?" Mayer quickly pointed out that, prior to the redesign, about "87% of our employees wanted something different."
The new logo, she said, represented the company's "scrappy" culture. Yahoo didn't hire an outside branding agency or an expensive marketing firm. Instead, Mayer hunkered down with other Yahoo employees to redesign it over a weekend.
"We really pride ourselves at Yahoo as being the world’s largest start-up," she said. "We didn’t spend millions of dollars doing it. ... We did it in a way that came from a very authentic place."
Nigerians continue to raise the ante in the international community as three individuals recently won the Global Essay Competition For Seoul Conference On Cyberspace 2013.
As part of their winnings, two members of the three-man team earned an all-expense paid return trip to Seoul where they were panelists during a youth forum where youths from different parts of the world gathered to discuss and share innovative ideas on a range of issues related to cyberspace.
Other winners in the category are: Lee Suhyoon and Koh Kyungwoong, both Koreans.
One of the winners, Akachukwu, told Channels Television that “personally it is a source of motivation and inspiration to me as an individual, not to give up on any of my aspirations.
We all can attain our goals no matter how ambitious, we just have to keep tiring, staying focused,” he said.
The Nigerian delegate’s submission will be shared at the Seoul Conference which will take place on October 17-18, 2013, where approximately 800 delegates from more than 80 countries are expected to attend.
The conference themed, ‘Global Prosperity through an Open and Secure Cyberspace – Opportunities, Threats and Cooperation’, will focus on six areas: Economic Growth and Development, Social and Cultural Benefits, Cyber Security, International Security, Cybercrime, and Capacity Building.
Almost two years after firing the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Farida Waziri, from her post, President Goodluck Jonathan has given reason for wielding the big stick against the former police commissioner.
Jonathan explained that he had to sack Waziri from the headship of the anti-graft agency because she no longer enjoyed the confidence of Nigerians as chairman of EFCC.
The President's comments are contained in a publication by EFCC entitled Zero Tolerance, to mark its first decade of existence.
Jonathan said in the publication, which was made available to Vanguard, yesterday, that contrary to claims that he was interfering with the work of the commission, he had no interest in doing so and would not stop any agency from exercising their duties. Farida Waziri, former Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commisssion.
The President said: "When I give you a job, I will give you time to do it. Assuming somebody, who is heading an agency that is supposed to handle corruption, is not doing that and says it is because of the President's body language, that person is not competent.
"I am one Nigerian that has the privilege of holding this office that gives these people the latitude to do their work.
Confidence in Lamorde
"I am happy that Nigerians have confidence in EFCC and in its chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde and I also have confidence in him.
"I have no personal relationship with Lamorde. He even investigated me while I was the governor of Bayelsa State. But I have confidence in him, given his track record.
"Of course, there was a lady who was there. There were lots of complaints. Some may be right, some may be wrong, but perception matters so much when handling matters like corruption.
"The confidence of the people must be there. I had to remove her and that does not mean that she is guilty of the allegations, but because I saw that Nigerians no longer had confidence in her."
Ribadu
Meanwhile, the former chairman of EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, has said that there are many other criminals in Nigeria still walking the streets free because of their smartness or connection to certain influential persons.
According to him, EFCC, which had worked assiduously to stamp out corruption within the first five years, was deliberately weakened by corrupt persons in high places, who handed over the agency to those who were brought to justice by it.
Ribadu said: "Those that were brought to justice by EFCC were the same people that EFCC was handed over to, and they did what they liked with it.
"It was the group that was worst in our country that was given back EFCC. A lot of them are in prison in Nigeria and outside the country.
"Those that even attempted to kill me are still there. Maybe if I meet one former governor today, I will hug him and shake his hands like so many others that I am doing daily now. It was never personal.
Conspiracy theory
"The attempt to destroy and mess up EFCC was a conspiracy of so many people, including those that pretend to be honest or good people now; including those that made money from EFCC, and they are so many.
"They turned EFCC into a money-making outfit, while destroying the work itself, because they are so afraid of what EFCC could do.
"They would rather have a weak or a completely compromised organisation. So if we narrow it down to that former governor alone, then we are actually underestimating the way corruption fought back."
Obasanjo lied, says Atiku
Meanwhile, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, took a swipe at former President Olusegun Obasanjo, noting that his former boss lied in an interview he granted a magazine published by EFCC.
Obasanjo reportedly claimed that Atiku risked jail if he travels to the United States of America, USA.
A statement issued, yesterday, by Atiku's Media Adviser, Garba Shehu, said: "The former President is wrong. It is widely known that Atiku didn't enter government broke.
"He declared his assets at the commencement of his tenure as Vice President and did so at the end of his term as required by the constitution, which is a sacred document to Atiku."
He noted that when the former Vice President left office shortly before late Musa Yar'Adua was inaugurated as President, Atiku spent three months in the US, adding that if they (US authorities) wanted him for anything, they would have met him.
Dwight D. Eisenhower gives a special broadcast from the Oval Office on the Little Rock crisis on Sept. 24, 1957
Barack Obama sure does like that walk down the red carpet. To get to the East Room in the White House, where the president gave his speech last night, you can duck left after walking through the North entrance, or you can step out of the Diplomatic Reception Room and walk down the Cross Hall, framed by columns, gilt chairs, and that carpet (here’s a map). A president sitting at his desk in the Oval Office is watching for the light on the camera to flash red, indicating that you are watching. He has been waiting for you. A president who walks down the Cross Hall chooses his entrance and makes you watch it. You are waiting on him.
Before the Diplomatic Reception Room had its present purpose, the room was where FDR gave his radio addresses. He had done something similar as governor of New York, but before his second such speech from the White House, a journalist at the Columbia Broadcasting System’s D.C. bureau introduced it as a “fireside chat.”Roosevelt did not dispute the name. Even for a president, the medium is the message. An “address” would have just been words from a wooden cabinet in the parlor.
Dwight Eisenhower gave the first televised speech from the Oval Office in 1957. It’s worth watching the first two minutes of a video of the speech to see how unfamiliar the format was at the time. Before he could talk about sending troops to Little Rock to enforce school desegregation, he had to explain that he was in his office. He had been staying in Rhode Island but felt that “in speaking from the house of Lincoln, of Jackson, of Wilson, my words would better convey both the sadness I feel today in the actions I feel compelled to make, and the firmness with which I intend to pursue this course.”
That style remained the standard for grave news; such a speech became known within the White House as an “Oval Office.” In a 2010 article for Congress & the Presidency, Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha, who teaches political science at the University of North Texas, argued that presidents give these speeches when there’s bad news that they have some control over. That is, a president is not likely to give an Oval Office to say “the economy stinks” but rather, “the economy stinks, and I have asked Congress to unstink it.” A speech from the White House says, “I know you’re freaked out. But here I am in my office, doing something about it.”
George W. Bush liked set pieces—on an aircraft carrier, in Jackson Square in the French Quarter of New Orleans—but to announce the troop surge in Iraq at the end of 2005, he returned to the same stage Eisenhower had used. As with other presidents, he was flanked by pictures of his family on a credenza behind him—it’s kind of hard to tell, but there on the right, it looks like Jenna’s graduation from the University of Texas. The pictures are not facing him; they are facing you. My office is just like yours, they say. Also, I have the Marines.
Where Bush had two pictures, Barack Obama has kept five. Obama gave his first Oval Office address in June of 2010, after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Here I am in my office, doing something about it, the stagecraft signaled. To my left, note the black and white portrait from my wedding to Michelle. Obama broadcast from the Oval Office again in 2010, to announce a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
But since then, he has preferred the East Room. Well, not the East Room, exactly, but the door to the East Room, framed by the hall. This is how he announced the death of Osama bin Laden, and then a reduction of troop levels in Afghanistan. And again last night on Syria. The East Room doorway setup looks like a press conference, and it has been used for that purpose in the past. The president is mic’d not at his chest, but at the podium; you get room tone, the echo of the hall. It looks and sounds like an open forum, a public appearance. Only there is no public.
Each time, the format is the same. Walk down the hall. Speak, centered at the vanishing point of the hall, drawing the viewer toward the center of the frame. Turn around, walk away. I am the president. You wait for me. I have said all I have to say, and now I am walking away. This is not my work. My work is back there. And I gotta get back to work.
Obama likely prefers the door to the East Room because he likes to stand. And because he likes to gesture, a choreography that’s difficult to pull off behind the battleship desk of the Oval Office. But it’s also possible that the Oval Office, which was set on fire this summer in two major studio movies, no longer summons for us the House of Lincoln. It is just as much the House of Sorkin now.
You've undoubtedly heard about reducing your "risk" in real estate, but have you ever really thought about what that means?
The risks are significant, and even though they are clearly identifiable, few home buyers do anything to understand and reduce their risk.
Here's some guidance based on the example of two different people buying a used car and how their experiences relate to real estate.
Buying a Used Car
Risky Robert, a dice rolling Las Vegan, decides it's time to buy a car. He drives to the nearest dealership, where he meets a very nice used-car salesperson. The salesperson shows Robert several cars on the lot, tells him about the great quality of each car and how the car he proposes for Robert was only driven by a grandma to church. Robert likes that tidbit about grandma and test-drives the car and likes it. The sales guy quotes the fair price, they haggle a little, Robert takes the dealership financing and he's got a new used car.
And that's risky behavior!
There Is a Better Way
Due Diligence Diane, a sensible Seattleite, starts her shopping online. She looks at Kelley Blue Book and Consumer Reports for the best value deals, car reliability information and pricing. She decides which car she wants and how much she'd like to pay before even leaving her home. She's not going to get talked into a car model she knows nothing about, and worse, from a salesperson who gets the biggest commission if he can get her to buy the dud that's been sitting on the lot for 180 days.
Diane also checks the Better Business Bureau website to find a used-car dealership with a good rating. Also, she looks at car financing options and rates from local lenders, so she can compare those to what the dealership is offering. She still hasn't left her house, but she is now armed with a bevy of valuable information that will help her make a smart and safer purchase.
Then Diane goes to one of the BBB-accredited dealerships and test-drives one of the cars that she already knows is reliable. This salesperson too says the car was only driven to church by a grandma, so Diane demands a vehicle history report that will prove or disprove that claim. Diane also takes the car to her trusted personal mechanic for a quick look, requires that the dealer make it a certified used automobile and requests to see the prior owner's maintenance records. She haggles on price a little and laughs and then rejects the dealership's financing offer; instead taking a lower interest rate loan from the local credit union. She then buys the right car for her.
Now Robert and Diane both bought cars today, but one of them significantly reduced risk, probably bought a much better car, at a better price, with better financing and from a reputable dealership.
The Real Estate Connection
Most real estate buyers, probably 95 percent, are doppelgangers who follow Risky Robert's behavior when purchasing property. Many times this occurs because people simply do not buy real estate often, so they "don't know what they don't know." They look for houses, have a home inspection done, maybe breeze through the contract, accept the only loan financing offer they've received and don't even look at the title policy, escrow or homeowners' association documents before closing on their purchase.
That's risk — being the Risky Robert in the room and not taking every single prudent precaution that you can to mitigate the chances of something going wrong.
NEW: Rebel groups say they have yet to receive weapons
Official: "That is something we are not going to dispute"
The weapons are not American-made but are funded and organized by the CIA
They started to reach rebels about two weeks ago, the official says
Washington (CNN) -- CIA-funded weapons have begun flowing to Syrian rebels, a U.S. official told CNN. But opposition groups say they have yet to receive any.
"That is something we are not going to dispute, but we are not going to publicly speak to it," the official said.
The weapons are not American-made, but are funded and organized by the CIA. They started to reach rebels about two weeks ago, the official said.
Syrian rebels' view of a U.S. strike
Russia's view on Syria
McCaul: 50% of Syria rebels 'bad actors'
Is America too war weary?
The artillery was described as light weapons, some anti-tank weapons and ammunition.
The Syrian National Coalition and the Free Syrian Army deny they have received weapons from the United States.
"We have some promises from the U.S. administration of shipment of weapons in a short period of time, but until now we have not received any," said Free Syrian Army Political and Media Coordinator Louay al-Mokdad.
"We have logistical help, but we didn't get weapons until now. We hope that in the next short period of time we will start receiving weapons, because we have promises from EU countries and the U.S. that they will help us and support us."
The supply is in addition to the non-lethal aid that the United States has been providing the rebels since April, when the Obama administration first altered the nature of the aid to include items such as body armor, night vision goggles and other military equipment.
The official insisted the effort has been in the works for some time, and did not start as an effort to appease those calling for more rebel aid during the new diplomatic initiative with Russia.
Kerry hints at transfer
Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday during a Google+ Hangout discussion that "many of the items that people complained were not getting to them are now getting to them." He did not elaborate on specifics.
A spokeswoman for the National Security Council declined comment.
"We aren't able to inventory or provide timelines for every type of assistance we provide to the Syrian opposition," spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.
CNN could not reach members of the rebel forces early Thursday morning.
Congress approved supply
The supply of weapons was approved by Congress after the Obama administration asserted the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had used chemical weapons on a small scale. But no progress toward physically supplying the rebels had been reported since then.
"Some things have not been getting to the opposition as rapidly as one would have hoped," Kerry said Tuesday.
Obama's national security team and members of Congress have repeatedly urged the president to increase direct aid for the rebels.
They argue such a step would strengthen the hand of moderate members of the Syrian opposition, and make them less reliant on well-armed extremist elements within their ranks.
Other developments
The latest developments come on the eve of new diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Russia, which begin Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Secretary Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for two days to discuss a Moscow proposal to avert a U.S.-led strike in Syria by having the Syrian government put its chemical weapons stockpile under international control.
But as Russia continues to supply Bashar Al-Assad's regime with weapons while the U.S. supplies the rebels, and Putin writes a piece in the New York Times questioning the authority of Obama's call for military strikes, the baggage being brought to the negotiation table continues to pile up before talks have even begun.
The Chief Executive Officer, Gold and Co., United Kingdom, Amjad Ali, has told a United Kingdom newspaper, The Independent, that the Federal Government has ordered 53 gold-plated iPhone 5S mobile handsets from his firm as part of the memorabilia for the nation’s 53rd Independence anniversary on October 1, 2013.
The gold iphones are said to worth £2.65m (about N682m).
Each of the gold-plated iPhones costs up to £50,000, said The Independent, in its report on Wednesday.
The minimum cost of basic models of iPhone in gold or rose gold is £3,000.
The 53 special phones are to be supplied by Amjad Ali, a Bristol-born owner of Gold and Co. based in Dubai.
Ali, who told The Independent that his firm was “fulfilling an order from the Nigerian government for 53 gold-plated iPhones, added, “We will engrave them with the coat of arms, a shield and two horses. “
However, he neither disclosed when he received the order for the item nor the Federal Government agency or ministry that contracted him.
Gold and Co supplies royal families, governments, and minted customers across Russia, China and the Middle East with special phones.
Some of its customers include the Saudi royal family, which, Ali said, ordered a gold iPhone studded with hundreds of diamonds, including a giant piece that serves as the device’s “home” button.
He explained that before such phones were delivered, “We strip them down and then plate them in copper, nickel and then pure gold.”
The company, according to him, has “limited units per region and each is numbered and placed in a handmade wooden box with a certificate of authenticity and wax seal.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday said the alleged plan to purchase the iPhones showed the government’s insensitivity to the plight of its citizens.
The union, which spoke through its Ibadan zonal coordinator, Dr. Nassir Adesola, urged the Federal Government to first fulfil its electoral promises to the people before engaging in such an “extravagance.”
He said, “It sums up the insensitivity of the Federal Government. For the administration to think of doing this at a time the Minister of Finance is saying that the FG has not enough money to run the country is unfortunate. It seems that the government has gone to sleep and not in tune with the society, it is governing.
“The Federal Government should first cater for its citizens roaming the streets, and rehabilitate its collapsed industries before spending so much for phones. Any government that engages in such a frivolity and extravagance is not serious and its people should reject it.”
However, the Federal on Wednesday denied ever ordering 53 iPhones from the businessman or anybody in commemoration of the nation’s 53 independence.
The Special Assistant (Media and Communication) to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Sam Nwaobasi, told The PUNCH that the report by the foreign newspaper was a lie.
He said, “The Federal Government has not ordered for any 53 iPhones from any businessman anywhere. That is my answer to your question; it is not true, the Federal Government did not order, is not ordering for and has not ordered for 53 iPhones from anybody or anywhere,” Nwaobasi told one of our correspondents.
The state has invested huge resources in the training of medical personnel and health workers.
The Governor of Abia State, Theodore Orji, has said that the state is becoming a centre for medical tourism and a leading promoter of maternal and child health care system in Nigeria.
Mr. Orji, who spoke at the World Igbo Congress, 19th Annual Convention in Texas, USA, on Sunday noted that the state had played a significant role in the battle to roll back malaria, HIV and AIDS.
Represented by his senior adviser on Diaspora, Chijioke Nwakodo, the governor said the state had built and equipped 250 primary health centres, while the renovation of several other hospitals had began.
He also said that the state had invested huge resources in the training of medical personnel and health workers.
He added that this was evidenced by the recent upgrade and accreditation of the state’s College of Health Technology as a mono polytechnic by the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE).
Mr. Orji said that Abia State Specialist Hospital in Amachara and Abia State Teaching Hospital have also been upgraded and accredited by relevant regulatory bodies for the training of medical and health care professionals.
“Our investment in the health care of our people has attracted the commendation of no less a person than the minister of health. These include the new equipped world class diagnostic centres in Umuahia and Aba. It is being managed with international partners,” he said.
The governor however, advised political leaders to govern their people by respecting their aspirations and furthering their welfare.
“We have outlined a comprehensive agenda to attract good jobs and economic growth, create a world-class education system that prepares the next generation for the future,” Mr. Orji said.
President Goodluck Jonathan has reshuffled his cabinet, dropping nine ministers.
The ministers affected are Ruqayat Rufai (Education); Zainab Kunchi (Power, [state]); Buka Tijani (Agriculture [state]), Shamsudeen Usman (National Planning; Ita Okon (Science and Technology); Olugbenga Ashiru (Foreign Affairs); Ama Pepple (Lands) and Hadiza Mailafia (Environment).
President Jonathan had long been expected to rejig his lackluster cabinet which has largely failed to deliver services to the Nigerian people.
But while the expectation mounts, Mr. Jonathan repeatedly dispelled speculation that he had plans to fire non-performing ministers.
Last August, he unveiled a rating procedure known as Performance Contract Agreement for ministers but said he would not use the result of the assessment in considering who to fire.
Mr. Jonathan said the assessment would only appraise his administration’s performance and delivery of targets to Nigerians.
“I read all kinds of thing in the media, that the president wants to assess the ministers so that he would know who would go and who would stay. That is not the purpose of this.
“We would have done it probably in the first week when we came on board, but the key thing is that we have given ourselves points that we think we will get at, we believe that if we get at those points or even if we achieve 70 per cent of that, at least it will be better off for our own country,” the president said.
According to the president, the exercise was to ensure enhanced performance, transparency and accountability in governance, adding that it is not a witch-hunting exercise.
“I want to assure every one of you who has taken part in the exercise that this is not a witch-hunt targeted at anybody,” the president said in his remarks after the signing ceremony.
Michael Klimentyev / RIA Novosti / Kremlin / Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets candidates who won regional and local elections across Russia at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow on Sept. 10, 2013
Previously, Syria’s chemical weapons, which are largely based on Russian or Soviet technology, helped defend the Assad regime. “They have served as a certain deterrent against Israel,” says Leonid Kalashnikov, a member of the foreign-affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament. Though Israel has conducted at least one air strike against Assad’s forces during the civil war, the presence of chemical weapons would likely discourage Israel or any other foreign armies from using ground forces in Syria. But after Aug. 21, when the Syrian military was accused of using these weapons against its own people, including hundreds of women and children, they became a major liability — allowing the U.S. to justify its own proposed intervention in Syria.The notion of Syria giving up its chemical weapons, or at least putting them under foreign control, has long been on the table in the consultations between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and his allies in Moscow. In the course of the civil war that has been raging in Syria for more than two years, “we discussed this possibility many times from many different angles,” says Russian diplomat Andrei Klimov. But it was only in the past week that both Russia and Syria realized that it was in both of their best interests.
Russian diplomats say this changed their calculus on Syria’s chemical weapons dramatically. From Moscow’s point of view, a U.S. military strike on Syria would not only cripple its long-standing ally, but it would also undermine Russia’s biggest trump card on the international stage — its veto power in the U.N. Security Council. In the past few days, world leaders have decried the ineffectiveness of the Security Council, which has been unable to pass any meaningful resolutions on Syria because of repeated vetoes from Russia and China. “Two and a half years of conflict in Syria have produced only embarrassing paralysis in the Security Council,” U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at a press conference on Monday, Sept. 9. This echoed the frustration of U.S. and European leaders, as well as their allies in the Arab world, who jointly vowed last week to take strong action against Syria even if it means circumventing the U.N.
That would be a dangerous precedent for Russia. Kalashnikov, a lawmaker from the Communist Party, compared it to the incident in 1939 when the League of Nations kicked out the Soviet Union, a permanent member of the organization, in response to the Soviet attack against Finland. This not only hurt the aims of Soviet diplomacy but also precipitated the collapse of the world’s then most powerful intergovernmental organization. “Today you can draw this analogy, because the U.N. and its Security Council can already be called useless,” says Kalashnikov. “That is awful for Russia,” he says, because the Security Council is still Moscow’s main tool in achieving “parity, or at least balance, with the West. And rupturing this balance is not in Russia’s interests.”
With that in mind, Russia set about making itself as useful as possible in the Syrian crisis over the past week, so that it could not be dismissed and sidelined as a spoiler on the international stage. (Indeed, some U.S. experts have begun suggesting the creation of a new club of world leaders that would leave Russia and China out.) The result was this week’s proposal to have Syria put its chemical-weapons stockpiles under international control or even to destroy them. The Russians pushed hard on the Syrian government to accept such a move. “When the Russian side announced it [on the morning of Sept. 9], as far as I understand, our Syrian partners were not yet sure to what extent they were ready to confirm this. But everyone was interested in a quick resolution of this issue,” says Klimov, who has traveled to Syria numerous times during the civil war in his role as chairman of the foreign-affairs committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament.
That same day, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem was in Moscow for talks — a piece of fortunate timing that Klimov claims was “a coincidence” — and that evening, Muallem held a hastily assembled press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to announce their willingness to discuss Syria giving up its chemical weapons. U.S. President Barack Obama said the proposal could be a “breakthrough,” and on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Muallem announced that Syria had accepted the Russian proposal to hand over control of its chemical weapons in order to “derail the U.S. aggression.” Both sides seemed to be stepping back from the verge of an international conflict.
From Russia’s perspective, this outcome also offers other benefits. Securing Syria’s chemical-weapons stockpiles, let alone dismantling them, would be a time-consuming and difficult process that would only begin after the sketchy details of the proposal are clarified and approved by all sides. These delays, which could take months, would give Assad more time to crush the rebellion against him, says Konstantin Sivkov, a Russian military analyst who worked from 1995 to 2007 as a strategist for the Russian General Staff. President Vladimir Putin and his top officials have long maintained that a Syria without the Assad regime would be more dangerous than one with it.
In the past two weeks, while the U.S. and its allies were preparing a military intervention in Syria, “Assad was forced to pull his forces away from the regions that had no antiaircraft cover to regions where they would have cover,” says Sivkov, who has also traveled to Syria during the civil war to consult with local officials. “That was, of course, a temporary retreat, and he’s regrouping. As soon as the threat of American intervention eases a little, he will finish [the rebels] off with artillery, tanks and air power. But for now he’s been forced to worry about the security of his own military forces.”
Acting as a mediator between Syria and the West also raises Russia’s prestige on the world stage. But Klimov, who is a member of the ruling party of President Putin, says this was a secondary concern. “The subject of prestige does come up,” he says. But more important, “we will just breathe a sigh of relief when we are able to resolve this crisis near our borders.” Unlike the U.S., Russia does face the risk of Syria’s civil war spilling dangerously close to its territory, especially if the U.S.-proposed intervention leads to Assad’s downfall and a regional conflagration. “We’re right nearby. We have the Caspian Sea right there. We have our fellow citizens around that area. We have tens of thousands of tourists in Cyprus and Turkey. And those rockets will fly over the heads of our citizens,” Klimov says. “So we are protecting thousands of our citizens, whom fate has left in the vicinity of these strikes. We are not simply trying to cast Obama in a bad light.”
Indeed, some Russian officials are enjoying their chance to help Obama find a way out of the Syrian crisis, which has caused the White House plenty of trouble at home and abroad. After the chemical-weapons attacks near Damascus on Aug. 21, “I think Obama regrets that he reacted so belligerently,” says a former officer of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, who holds the rank of major general. “He’s losing face. So this is a chance for the Americans to step back from some of their threats,” he says, asking to remain anonymous. So for all the acrimony between the U.S. and Russia over Syria in recent months, the interests of all three sides may finally have come into alignment.
