American Committee for US-Russia Accord

Today humanity’s existence is threatened by the danger of nuclear war and the destruction of our natural environment, which is resulting in “climate chaos” and widespread pollution.  The purpose of this essay is to clarify the implications of this reality, what humanity must do to preserve itself, and in particular the role that the people of the United States must play, because we are  writing from the United States. [Read more…] about ACURA ViewPoint: Dr. Eli Schotz and Krishen Mehta: Partners in Survival: Reviving the “McCloy-Zorin Agreement”

On May 3, University of Ottawa Professor Paul Robinson testified before the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development on the human rights situation in Russia and Ukraine. A transcript of his remarks are below. [Read more…] about Paul Robinson’s Testimony Before the Canadian Parliament on Human Rights Violations in Ukraine

On May 19, ACURA hosted a panel discussion with Katrina vanden Heuvel (The Nation), Anatol Lieven (Quincy Institute), Marlene Laruelle (George Washington University) , Pietro Shakarian (American University of Armenia) and James W. Carden (Asia Times) sponsored by the American Committee for US-Russia Accord. Russia experts vanden Heuvel, Lieven, Laruelle and Shakarian discuss the effect Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine is having on Russia’s political trajectory. How do Russians view the war? What has been the extent of Putin’s crackdown on dissent? What does the war mean for the future of Russian politics?

Italy presented a four-point peace plan this week to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to end the conflict in Ukraine.

“We are working with partners and allies, including Ukraine, on a peace plan,” said a spokesman for the Italian Foreign Ministry, declining to give further details. A spokesman for Mr. Guterres declined to comment on the proposal.

This past Friday, in a federal court in Washington, Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook testified that the false accusation of a nefarious connection between the Trump campaign and Alfa Bank originated with operatives bought and paid for by  the Clinton campaign.

In September 2019, Stephen F. Cohen asked: ” How will mainstream media treat the Barr-Durham investigation and its findings? Having driven the Russiagate narrative for so long and so misleadingly—and with liberals perhaps finding themselves in the incongruous position of defending rogue intelligence agencies—will they credit or seek to discredit the findings?”

It seems we are about to find out.

For the full story: https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-we-still-do-not-know-about-russiagate/

 

The Clinton campaign created the Trump-Alfa allegation, fed it to a credulous press that failed to confirm the allegations but ran with them anyway, then promoted the story as if it was legitimate news. The campaign also delivered the claims to the FBI, giving journalists another excuse to portray the accusations as serious and perhaps true.

Most of the press will ignore this news, but the Russia-Trump narrative that Mrs. Clinton sanctioned did enormous harm to the country. It disgraced the FBI, humiliated the press, and sent the country on a three-year investigation to nowhere. Vladimir Putin never came close to doing as much disinformation damage.

On Tuesday, April 23, 2019, the Jordan Center at NYU hosted a book talk with Stephen F. Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University and Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies and History at New York University. Commentary was provided by Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations at Columbia University.

What does it mean to be Ukrainian? Struggles within Ukraine about the answer to that question create an opening for other states to intervene, argues our guest, with some (primarily in Ukraine’s north and west) favoring a more ethnic nationalism and others (primarily in Ukraine’s east and south) favoring a more civic nationalism.

In World War I, World War II, and the present day, outside powers have backed one vision or another to advance their interests. Only a process of truth and reconciliation – of catharsis leading to understanding – can heal Ukraine. Nicolai N. Petro is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island. He was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine 2013-2014 and the author of the forthcoming book The Tragedy of Ukraine: What Classical Greek Tragedy Can Teach Us About Conflict Resolution.

This conversation between the Russian newspaper Kultura and Paul Grenier was originally published, in Russian, under the title, “Russia Shouldn’t Waste Time Knocking on a Locked Door,” (Kultura, April 28, 2022, 8 – 9).  The conversation was led by Kultura editor and correspondent Tikhon Sysoev.

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something,” Upton Sinclair observed, “when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” Between the late 1990s and the 2010s, it was prudent for Americans who wanted a career in public policy, politics, or prestige journalism in Washington and New York to pretend to be persuaded by illogical, unsupported, and often openly preposterous arguments, because those were the arguments of the bipartisan establishment.

Brimming with overconfidence after Putin’s serial failures, Washington, London and Kyiv are now in the process of switching places with Moscow when it comes to expectations of military victory, though nobody seems to know what would constitute a victory. Would this mean Russia returning to pre-February lines, its total eviction from Ukraine or regime change in Moscow?

Jeffrey Sachs on the West’s “proxy war” in Ukraine and America’s failure to support post-soviet Russia. He thinks America forgot Keynes’s lesson on the long-term costs of humiliating a defeated enemy.

 

They don’t need the protection, but it will be the nail in the coffin of European autonomy and any future relations with Russia.

It is vital to step back from the emotions stirred by this conflict and assess our real security priorities.

Painting neo-Nazi paramilitaries with an extensive record of war crimes as patriots helping refugees, all while working with a “disinformation” group that turned out to run interference for violent neo-Nazi formations—that’s the experience Biden’s new disinformation czar brings to the table.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended his invasion of Ukraine, saying it was a necessary blow against NATO. His remarks came during Russia’s annual Victory Day celebrations on May 9 marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are increasingly describing the fighting in Ukraine as a proxy war between the U.S. and Russia. ACURA and the Quincy Institute’s Anatol Lieven, says the war can only end through negotiations, and aggressive U.S. rhetoric risks prolonging the fighting. “That is a recipe for this war going on essentially forever, with colossal suffering for Ukraine,” says Lieven.

The discourse of peace – in media, politics and research – has been disappeared.

The Russian war on Ukraine has seen ‘the Blob’ reassert itself with a vengeance in the 11 weeks since Russia announced the commencement of hostilities on February 24.

Like the public boasting of U.S. intel agents over our role in the sinking of the Moskva and killing of the Russian generals, the effect is to disqualify the U.S. president from any role in negotiating a truce or an end to this war.