The four-story building at 55 Savushkina St. that housed the infamous Russian internet “troll factory” that meddled in America’s 2016 election now appears empty. 　The main trolling operation has moved to an impersonal seven-story glass office building in the distant Lakhta business district. I couldn’t enter the building due to tight security. The city’s leading business daily Delovoy Peterburg reported late last year that the operation’s workspace has tripled.　Yet, little known to Americans, th

On April 17, Bloomberg reported that China had overtaken the United States as Vietnam’s largest export market. According to figures cited by the news organization and tallied by the International Monetary Fund, Vietnam’s exports to China totaled $50.6 billion in 2017, compared to $46.5 billion in exports to the US.If these numbers are accurate, they would represent a significant shift in the triangular relationship between Vietnam, China and the US. As Bloomberg succinctly put it, the data under

The leaders of South and North Korea have agreed to actively pursue talks within this year to declare an official end to the Korean War and negotiate a peace treaty to replace a truce.　If realized, the agreement will establish peace regime on the Korean Peninsula, 65 years after hostilities ceased.　All inter-Korean issues stem from military confrontation. Unless this is resolved, peace regime are impossible.But the peace treaty, which North Korea has demanded in return for dismantling its nuclea

The leaders of South and North Korea reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula on Friday.Denuclearization is the key agenda item of the first-ever US-North Korea summit expected in late May or early June. First of all, the stipulation of the denuclearization commitment in the joint declaration issued after the inter-Korean summit can be viewed as a positive start to the establishment of peace on the peninsula. Considering the inter-Korean summit serves

President Donald Trump’s handling of the trade relationship with China poses a threat both to the US and to the world economy -- but even his harshest critics agree with him on one thing. China’s bid to dominate the high-tech industries of the future often bends or breaks the rules of liberal international commerce, and needs to be checked.What’s important, and what this administration finds so difficult, is to be smart about it.　Through its “Made in China 2025” blueprint and assorted plans and

South and North Korea held a historic summit in the truce village of Panmunjeom on Friday, taking the first step toward denuclearization and rapprochement.The summit began after South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un met for the first time at the military demarcation line in the Demilitarized Zone and vowed sincere efforts to make progress.It has more significance than the past two summits in 2000 and 2007 in that it is expected to bring about a big change in conj