Wilkerson says the latest Ukraine crisis, in which Russia is holding Ukrainian navy boats, was foreseeable and likely, given NATO’s constant encroachment on Russia’s border region
Analysis
Oleg Barabanov: Ruxit: Russia without Europe?
It is no longer possible to influence the European mainstream in any meaningful way, while the “friends of Russia” remain what they are and Russia does not need a Council of Europe to contact them.
Fred Weir: Behind Ukraine-Russia naval tensions, a more brutal economic war
Russia’s conflict with Ukraine is back in the headlines after Russia seized three Ukrainian military vessels and their crews near Crimea, triggering a declaration of martial law in Ukraine and a fresh escalation of tensions between the two formerly friendly neighbors.
William Hartung: America’s Post-9/11 Wars Have Cost $5.9 Trillion
The increase in Pentagon spending in the past two years alone is greater than the entire military budget of Russia…
Lev Golinkin: Incentives for Ukraine Crisis
If losing hundreds of soldiers a day wasn’t enough to declare martial law, why are they doing it now?
Paul Robinson: Poking the Bear
What sort of guy thinks that it is a good idea to deliberately provoke a nuclear-armed power? Answer: the sort of guy who writes for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA)…
Stephen F. Cohen: Russian Diplomacy Is Winning the New Cold War
Washington’s attempt to “isolate Putin’s Russia” has failed and had the opposite effect.
Lyle J. Goldstein: “Great Power Competition” and the Harsh Lessons of World War I
Having mobilized against Austria in August 1914, Czar Nicholas II helped to set in motion the world war that would thoroughly destroy the Russian Empire…
Paul Robinson: Are Masha and The Bear Working for Putin?
It’s said that if you want to win people’s hearts and minds you should ‘get them while they’re young’. It’s a lesson that the Russian state seems to have learnt….
Kimberley Strassel: Doubling Down on Mueller
What will Democrats (and Jeff Flake) do if the probe finds no collusion evidence?
David Cortright: The Peace Movement Won the INF Treaty. We Must Fight to Preserve It.
In the 1980s, millions of antinuclear activists took to the streets, forcing Western governments to respond to our demands. We can do the same now.
Gordon Hahn: Putin’s Ratings Fall: Back to the Soft Authoritarian Normality of His ‘Sistema’?
Much has been made in Russian and Western media about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declining approval ratings.
Nicolai N. Petro: Russia’s Mission
A decade ago, influential Russian analysts concluded that the emergence of a multipolar world was inevitable, and that Russia could benefit from this transition by adopting a strategy that combined great power realism and “traditional” Russian values.This strategy, first elaborated in Vladimir Putin’s Valdai Speech of 2013, has since come to be known as “civilizational realism.” This essay describes how, through civilizational realism, Russia hopes to forge a new, and more ‘congenial’ world order.
Russia Reflections by Michael Abkin
The Russia we saw is not the Russia you read or hear about. Not by a long shot… I traveled to Russia in September 2018 as part of a group of about 25 self- appointed U.S. citizen diplomats. Organized by Sharon Tennison and her Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI), our mission was four-fold…
Fred Weir: US midterms make Putin’s rocky road to Trump even rockier
Americans weren’t the only ones closely watching US midterm results. Much of the world was too, including Russia. A Democratic House will complicate Vladimir Putin’s efforts to cut deals with President Trump.
Nikolas Gvosdev: The Lessons of World War I Still Haunt Russia Today
In 2018, as in 1918, the Russian leadership remains concerns with the possibility of state collapse brought about either by internal factors or through the machinations of external enemies.
James Carden: Why Liberal Hegemony?
Three new books make the case against a failed grand strategy.
Tom Collina: Dem-led House Can Return Sanity to Debate on Nuclear Weapons
Since the election of President Donald Trump two years ago, advocates of sane nuclear policy have been faced with a serious deficit of enlightened political leadership in key positions of power.
Paul Robinson: The liberal international order
The Holy Roman Empire, it’s often said, was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire. The same might be said about the so-called ‘liberal international order’…
Marlene Laruelle: Russia’s Mediterranean call: from Kerch to Palmyra, but without Constantinople?
Orthodoxy also plays a pivotal role in Russia’s new Mediterranean entrenchment.