This book represents a fresh contribution to the contemporary academic debate regarding the determinants of current Russian foreign policy assertiveness. More precisely, it addresses the ways in which perceived security threats have been used by Russia to legitimize its interventions in the former Soviet Space. It is argued here that the security dimension has been successfully used by the Kremlin for the domestic justification of its aggressive actions in neighbouring countries, and that the narrative of the ‘besieged fortress’ was applied to both the war in Georgia and the intervention in Ukraine. Bringing together a number of authors from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Germany and the UK, the volume presents both local, regional and Western European perspectives on the various events analysed here. It will appeal to a wide range of students and professors specialized in Russia and the former Soviet space in the fields of international relations, international law, foreign policy analysis and security studies, as well as to think tanks and policy makers.

Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced is a vibrant and modern course designed to help students achieve advanced proficiency in Russian. Offering a flexible modular approach structured around contemporary themes, the course further develops reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills while also expanding the student’s cultural literacy. Key features include: Structured chapters presenting a wide assortment of readings that include blogs, forums and surveys as well as opinion pieces and commentaries. Each text is accompanied by assignments with increasing levels of difficulty. Authentic and up-to-date readings, video and audio excerpts covering a range of relevant social and cultural topics, including Demography, Youth Culture, Politics and Society, Economics and Globalization. Video clips from news programs that are used not only to develop listening comprehension but also introduce students to contemporary Russian society. Particular attention to helping students acquire advanced vocabulary and the ability to converse, discuss and argue about issues with extended paragraph-length discourse. Special focus on the development of strong listening and reading comprehension skills, ensuring that students understand the ideas and supporting details in narrative and descriptive texts and connected discourse. A free companion website at http://www.russian.ucla.edu/AdvancedRussian/ offering student and instructor video and audio resources, sample syllabi and tests as well as additional materials. Written by a highly experienced author team that has co-authored the first year Russian textbook Beginner’s Russian (2010) and the second-year textbook V Puti (2005). Russian: From Intermediate to Advanced will be an essential resource for undergraduate students in their third and fourth year of Russian language study. It is also suitable for heritage learners of Russian who have mastered literacy and are familiar with the grammatical structure of Russian.

One of the most widely used texts for 14-16 year old students of Spanish, this course offers solid grounding in the language In print for over 30 years, this classic Spanish course has been an effective and enjoyable tool for thousands of students through its motivating and non-patronising approach. The book contains a great variety of exercises - the content is broken down into 45 well structured lessons each focussing on specific grammar and vocabulary, with follow up exercises to consolidate learning. Key vocabulary and verbs are also covered in the appendices.

Russian Cases Made Simple is a practical guide designed to help Russian language learners to master one of the most complicated subjects of Russian language - grammatical cases. Written by a native speaker for those who want to learn Russian, this book contains explanations of each grammatical case and all ways of use. The teaching material is practically oriented - all instructions and explanations are followed by many examples. This book can be helpful to any learner of Russian language, for a beginner and an advanced level, for a student, amateur, a polyglot. Grammatical cases are usually the most difficult part of Russian language learning, and this book was written to help you to master them. Do you want to understand Russian cases? was it your biggest struggle in learning Russian? Do you want to improve your vocabulary? Then this is the book you need to read. For using this book you should know the basic grammar of Russian language. What's inside this book? Instructions on declensions of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, participles and numerals by cases; Descriptions of each case; A lot of examples; Exercises; Additional Russian cases which you probably didn't hear about.

Procter & Gamble, maker of Tide detergent and dozens of other leading household and personal products - Pampers, Crest, Pantene, Olay, to name a few - was one of the first and most successful Western companies to operate in Russia when it openedfor free-market business two decades ago. Here is the story of how P&G swept across the vast Russian landscape with its brands. How it achieved this success and the key factors that made it possible are a tribute to P&G's outstanding people and partners and a valuable lesson to any business involved in entering an emerging market today.