The uprising in Syria is the most serious threat the ruling Assad dynasty has faced since it first came to power more than forty years ago. With the violence against civilians in Homs, the Syrian government is being criticized by much of the international community. The exception is Russia who has long been an ally of Syria in the Arab Middle East. Nikolas Gvosdev, a professor of national security studies at the U.S. Naval War College, spells out the relationship between Russia and Syria and the ties that bind them.

Over the weekend, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have supported an Arab League peace plan for Syria, claiming the plan would have violated Syria’s sovereignty. On Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed the veto during a speech in Sofia, Bulgaria, stating, "Faced with a neutered Security Council we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future."

The standoff between President Bashar al-Assad and Syria's opposition seems poised to spiral into a full-fledged civil war. In the wake of a failed intervention by the Arab League, protests have spread from Homs and Hama to the capital, Damascus. In a televised speech last week, al-Assad said "We will defeat this conspiracy without any doubt." There have also been reports of Russia supplying arms to the Syrian government. 

This week brought the end of the Iraq War and a Russia in turmoil after recent disputed elections. Also, the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucus was last night on Fox News. Joining The Takeaway for a look at this week's big stories are Jeff Yang, writer of the Tao Jones column for The Wall Street Journal and bloger for WNYC's It's a Free Country, and Farai Chideya, journalist and blogger at Farai.com.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hopes to return to the president's office in Russia, but he never really gave up any of the power that went with the office. Putin rules Russia with an authoritarian hand and has never been shy about raising it against his enemies, or those he perceives as enemies. William F. Browder knows that perhaps better than anyone.

A week after allegations of election fraud sent thousands of Russians into the streets chanting "Russia without Putin," two prominent men have stepped forward to challenge Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in next year's presidential election. Mikhail Prokhorov, a billionaire oligarch best known to Americans as the owner of the New Jersey Nets, and Alexsei Kudrin, a former finance minister who was fired after publicly clashing with President Dmirti Medvedev, have both announced their candidacies. Prokhorov, who said the decision to run was the most serious of his life, said he would offer his political platform in coming weeks.

Protesters amassed for a second night on Tuesday in Moscow to denounce the results of last weekend's parliamentary elections, which are widely believed to have been rigged. Chanting "Russia without Putin," several hundred demonstrators gathered in the same square where over 5,000 people protested the alleged electoral fraud on Monday. Riot police officers arrested 250 people, bringing the total number of arrests from both protests to around 600, and pro-government activists attempted to drown out the protesters' cries.

As many as 5,000 protesters flooded into central Moscow on Monday night, furious over voting irregularities in Sunday's parliamentary elections. Chanting slogans like "Putin is a thief," protesters accused the prime minister's United Russia party of rigging the election. Monitors say they observed blatant fraud, including ballot box-stuffing. Two prominent opposition figures were jailed, along with 300 other protesters.

After an eventful weekend, GOP presidential candidates are gearing up for the influential Iowa caucuses. Democrats on Capital Hill hope to pass a payroll tax cut in the face of Republican opposition. Abroad, the euro debt crisis continue to loom over the world economy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are meeting ahead of the Brussels summit on Friday to discuss greater fiscal coordination between European countries, and Italy's new government looks to pass austerity measures to ease their debt.

In Russia, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced that he'll run again for president next year. Over the weekend at a party convention in Moscow, current Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said he would step aside for Putin. Presidential elections are scheduled for March. Edward Lucas for The Economist and author of "The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West" joins us to talk about the developments.

Alaskan waters remain off-limits to drilling, much to many oil companies' dismay. But Exxon has decided to hop over the Bering Strait, and make a deal with Russia to explore for oil in the Arctic Ocean in their territory. This deal may show how lucrative climate change has become to the oil business, since more oil is becoming available as Arctic ice recedes.

Twenty years ago, the communist Soviet government in Russia launched a coup against then-President Mikhail Gorbachev. Their attempt to oust the Western-leaning president failed, but lead to the collapse of the U.S.S.R. just a few weeks later. How much has the former Soviet state changed in the last two decades?

When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, he won't just be speaking to the American people; he'll be speaking to the world. From Iran to Afghanistan to Russia, world leaders and ordinary citizens will listen carefully to Obama's words. For a look at the geopolitical landscape facing Obama on the eve of his address, we talk to George Friedman, author of "The Next Decade: Where We've Been and Where We're Going."

Russia’s closely watched trial of former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky revealed a lot more than just the business dealings of one of the country’s most powerful and prosperous men. For many Russians, the court's ruling exposed a crack in the political unity that keeps Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev comfortably in power. Is Russia's rule of law suffering manipulation by executive power?  

Is the Russian government interfering with the delivery of justice, in the case of a man who has proven a dissident? Questions have arisen after an oligarch seems to be suffering trumped up charges. 

Yesterday we discussed which nuclear weapons will be affected by the New START agreement, which was ratified by the Senate. Today we examine another worrisome type of nuclear material — the unaccounted-for kind, which terrorists have the best chance of acquiring.

A final vote on the New START Agreement is expected this week, after 67 Senators — exactly the two-thirds majority necessary to ratify the treaty — voted yesterday to break a GOP filibuster of the bill. The treaty would significantly decrease the number of nuclear weapons held by the United States and Russia. We're looking at which specific classes of nuclear weapons would be decreased by START, and why we worry about these weapons instead of others.

A rocket carrying three satellites destined for Russia’s global positioning system, GLONASS, crashed into the Pacific Ocean yesterday. Russia has spent $2 billion developing its own equivalent to the U.S. GPS system and other countries are following suit, including China's COMPASS and the E.U.'s GALILEO. Why is it so important for countries like Russia to develop their own Global Positioning Systems? Why does Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insist on his country's "satellite navigation sovereignty?"

Contents of thousands of confidential embassy cables obtained by WikiLeaks have been steadily released by our partner, The New York Times. In the past week, we've heard some unusually candid exchanges between diplomats in Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran. Today, with the help of Andy Lehren from The New York Times, we'll find out what the diplomatic communiques said involving Russia, and its Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. It's not an entirely pretty picture.

A new version of the venerable START arms control agreement (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), which was signed by President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in April of this year, is the grandchild of the bilateral nuclear arms reduction treaty that ended the Cold War. But while the fighting between the superpowers may be on hold, a war of words is on between Democrats and Republicans. The Obama administration is pushing the lame-duck Congress to ratify the new bilateral treaty. But the lead Republican negotiator, Sen. John Kyl of Arizona, has declared that there is not enough time to reach an agreement this year on his preferred treaty component: a nuclear modernization program for which the Obama Administration has committed $84 billion.