Were Biden to indicate a desire for compromise, Putin might judge that his best bet lies with the current administration.
Analysis
MK Bhadrakumar: Putin Claims “Odessa is a Russian city”
At the year-end news conference on Thursday lasting four hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin made some key remarks on the conflict in Ukraine which throw light on the likely trajectory of the war through 2024. To be sure, Russia will not accept a “frozen conflict” that falls short of realising the objectives Putin had laid out at the commencement of the special military operations in February last year.
ACURA’s Nicolai N. Petro: Ukraine Has a Civil Rights Problem
Wartime unity hasn’t healed the wounds of the country’s past.
VIDEO: Pascal Lottaz: Neocons Believing Their Own Lies Is Killing Ukraine
On December 14, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine‘s Foreign Minister, and President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, both published accounts of what is happening in the War in Ukraine that tell us a lot about the delusion the Collective West is living in.
VIDEO: Prof. John J. Mearsheimer: Death and Destruction in Gaza and Ukraine
In this enlightening conversation between Judge Napolitano and John Mearsheimer they delve into the critical issues of Gaza and Ukraine. Professor Mearsheimer brings his expertise to shed light on the profound consequences of these conflicts and their ripple effects on the world stage.
Ed Lozansky: Zelensky’s Glory and Its Price
As the war in Ukraine drags on every day it brings new numbers of dead and wounded, additional devastation of cities, and villages plus an increasing risk of nuclear WW3.
Norman Solomon: How the U.S. Has Darkened the Nuclear Cloud Over Humanity
“I think Putin is not only thrilled by the divide over whether we continue and at what levels to fund Ukraine, I think he is fomenting it as well,” Hillary Clinton said during a PBS NewsHour interview in October. She added: “When I see people parroting Russian talking points that first showed up on Russia Today or first showed up in a speech from a Russian official, that’s a big point scored for Putin.”
Such smeary tactics aim to paralyze discourse and prevent on-the-merits discussions. The techniques are timeworn. Twenty years ago, opponents of the impending U.S. invasion of Iraq were often accused of parroting Iraqi talking points and serving the interests of Saddam Hussein. Now, in the prevalent media and political environments, the kinds of “talking points” that Clinton meant to defame include just about any assertion challenging the idea that the U.S. government should provide open-ended military aid to Ukraine while refusing to urge a ceasefire or engage in substantive diplomacy.
Connor O’Keefe: What Would Happen If the US Stopped Supporting Ukraine?
At a special summit on March 24, NATO decided not to support or approve the peace negotiations. Still, Zelensky and Putin kept at it. And on March 29, the two sides reached an agreement.
According to a draft unsealed this past June, Russia had agreed to pull its forces back to prewar boundaries. In exchange, Ukraine had agreed it would not seek NATO membership.
So why didn’t it happen?
Geoffrey Roberts: How far will he go?: Putin’s territorial goals in Ukraine
When Russia attempted to negotiate a ceasefire and a peace deal with Ukraine in March 2022 the proposal on the table was that Donetsk and Lugansk would remain independent. There was even a suggestion the Donbass rebels could eventually return to Ukrainian sovereignty, albeit with a very high degree of regional autonomy.
It was the failure of the Istanbul peace negotiations and the continuation of the war that made Russia’s annexation of the Donbass inevitable; same was true of Kherson and Zaporozhe.
Paul Robinson: A decade after Euromaidan, Ukraine more fractured than ever
During the 2004 Orange Revolution, the pro-European camp had avoided talking in terms of ‘civilizational choices.’ In 2013, they were not so cautious. In her book about Euromaidan entitled The Ukrainian Night, American academic Marci Shore recounts how one of the protestors told her: “To these people [those opposed to Euromaidan] it seems that their history, their lives, are being taken from them. Perhaps that’s so, Marci. It will seem strange to you, but we don’t feel sorry for these people at all, and we do not even want to understand them.” Needless to say, ignoring others in this way proved to be an extremely foolish attitude.
Ted Snider: It’s Unanimous: Ukrainian Neutrality Could Have Brought Peace
A leading Ukrainian politician said in a November 24 interview that as early as April 2022, Russia was “prepared to end the war if we agreed to…neutrality.”
Vladimir Putin: Address to the Plenary session of the World Russian People’s Council
In light of the recent and not unexpected announcement by Russia’s Vladimir Putin that he will once again seek the presidency in 2024, ACURA is publishing a transcript of a wide-ranging address Putin delivered to the World Russian People’s Council on November 28. The topic of the forum was the ‘Present and Future of the Russian World.’
Walt Zlotow: Rep. Quigley’s Plea for Endless Billions for Lost Ukraine War Is Preposterous
In his Chicago Tribune op-ed (‘If we don’t approve more aid for Ukraine, the conflict in Europe will grow), Illinois 5th District Congressman Mike Quigley offered every national security state trope for squandering an additional $61 billion in weapons for Ukraine’s lost war with Russia.
The title offers the first one with Quigley’s false claim that lack of US aid will fuel growing conflict in Europe. That is nonsense. Any credible political scientist would school Quigley that Russia’s aims are limited to keeping Ukraine neutral and out of NATO, in addition to ending Kyiv destruction of the largely Russian cultured populous of Donbas. That is it.
ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: The Best and The Brightest, Redux
Well-heeled and highly credentialed, the proteges of powerful political patrons with ties to New Haven, Cambridge, Oxbridge and corporate America occupy the highest councils of government and advise a sitting US president who, while blessed with long experience as a US Senator, hails from rather less-exalted circumstances than his own advisers. These advisers, with their degrees and pedigrees, stir within their chief a toxic combination of envy, resentment and insecurity which manifests itself through occasional outbursts of bad temper.
The president’s advisers believe (or say they do) in a theory of international relations called the Domino Theory, which means, in the shortest of shorthand, that should a democratic country fall to a hostile authoritarian state, then others will soon meet a similar fate. Hence it is imperative that the United States, beacon of goodness and protector of democracy, stave off the darkness, no matter the cost.
Yet as the course of the war proceeds, it becomes clear to many that victory, once assured, has slipped further and further from reach. In the face of an increasingly skeptical public, the president, who also believes in the Domino Theory (or says he does), urges Congress to stay the course.
If this sounds familiar, it is because it is. [Read more…] about ACURA ViewPoint: James W. Carden: The Best and The Brightest, Redux
John Mearsheimer: The Myth that Putin Was Bent on Conquering Ukraine and Creating a Greater Russia
There is a growing body of compelling evidence showing that Russia and Ukraine were involved in serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine right after it started on 24 February 2022 (see below). These talks were facilitated by Turkish President Recep Erdogan and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and featured detailed and candid discussions on the terms of a possible settlement.
ACURA’s Jack Matlock: What has happened to America?
ACURA’s Nicolai N. Petro: Could Russia play a role in Ukraine’s reconstruction?
VIDEO: ACURA’s Nicolai N. Petro: Neocons Still Can’t Believe Russia Defeated Them
Nicolai N. Petro, Professor of Political science at the University of Rhode Island, published just a year ago, “The Tragedy of Ukraine: What Classical Greek Tragedy Can Teach Us About Conflict.” He spoke with the superb Neutrality Studies podcast last week about Russia, Ukraine and this tragic and unnecessary war.
Jeffrey Sachs: The Real History of the War in Ukraine: a Chronology of Events and Case for Diplomacy
The American people urgently need to know the true history of the war in Ukraine and its current prospects. Unfortunately, the mainstream media ––The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, MSNBC, and CNN –– have become mere mouthpieces of the government, repeating US President Joe Biden’s lies and hiding history from the public.
PODCAST: An Interview with Professor Paul Robinson Author of Russian Liberalism
Professor Paul Robinson talks about his new book Russian Liberalism.