On Thursday, in his annual state of the nation address, Putin said he hoped to mend US-Russian relations after years of bitter disagreement, economic sanctions and conflict via opposing factions, as in Syria and Ukraine.
In April 2010, however, a federal appeals court ruled that the FCC did not have the legal authority to sanction Comcast a bitter blow for the FCC's chairman, Julius Genachowski, who had hoped the issue would set a legal precedent that could be used to thwart further erosion of the net-neutrality rule.
"Sanctions were a bitter experience for Iran," he told the Guardian.
Those sanctions are causing bitter pain, yet a surprising number of Iranians seem to largely blame their own leaders for the woes.
Some are still shocked and confused by what happened, others express bitter hostility towards the government that sanctioned the repression.
Iran's leaders, buffeted by the new sanctions, a collapsing economy and increasingly bitter infighting among the political elite, may have welcomed a chance to change the subject, analysts said.
Fractious relations have obscured the Arab point of view on issues like the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and Iraqi sanctions, and Arab citizens have become bitter and frustrated, with no confidence in themselves or their future, he said.
His unambiguous statement, made in the aftermath of Nelson Mandela's death, has fuelled a bitter debate on the legitimacy and efficacy of sanctions over Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Sanctions had at last worked, and a bitter Smith bowed to them, to the increasingly effective guerrillas and to his own total isolation.
Other prominent MPs involved in the IFF included Sir George Gardiner, a right-wing politician who was a bitter critic of the ANC and an opponent of economic sanctions against South Africa.
