The following items come courtesy of Newsweek, The Washington Post and US News and World Report. They have appeared within the last several days and are representative of the media coverage regarding NATO and Russia. The first, from Newsweek (link below), comes from the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Nolan Peterson who, for his work covering the Ukrainian civil war, was given an award by the US Embassy in Kiev by Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt.
Analysis
Russian warplanes keep buzzing the Baltics. Here’s how NATO scrambles (WaPo)
Just ahead of the U.S. presidential elections, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be pushing his conflict with the West to new heights…
Norway, Sweden and Finland are out in the cold against a rise in Moscow’s aggressive activity (US News/World Report)
Officials in Finland, Sweden and Norway are concerned about what have become almost routine acts of Russian aggression, how they can respond, and whether they could prevent an incident, or even an accident, from spiraling out of control. So now, quietly, they’re preparing for a confrontation.
What We Know About the Russia Hacks (WNYC’s On The Media)
Jeffrey Carr, a cybersecurity consultant and author of “Inside Cyber Warfare,” has been skeptical of the intelligence community’s assessment of the hacks–and the media’s coverage of this assessment–from the beginning. He talks to host Bob Garfield about his doubts, the risks of false attribution, and why we need a higher standard of evidence when making claims about cyber war.
Case Closed (Paul Robinson)
In November last year, Mikhail Lesin was found dead in a hotel in Washington, DC…Without directly accusing Putin of murder, various mainstream media outlets have implied it by including Lesin in lists of ‘opponents’ of the Russian ‘regime’ whom the Kremlin has allegedly ordered killed.
Taking a Page from Joe McCarthy (Robert Parry)
The whipping up of a New Cold War with Russia and the demonizing of Vladimir Putin extend beyond The Washington Post to virtually the entire U.S. political/media establishment which has plunged into this dangerous terrain without any more serious thought and analysis than preceded the Iraq invasion, except now the target for “regime change” is nuclear-armed Russia and this adventurism risks the extermination of life on the planet.
Blame Canada!…or Putin (Paul Robinson)
Both Russia and the US election have generated reams of silly commentary in recent months, and it’s never been sillier than when the two issues have been combined.
PODCAST: The Imperative of De-Demonizing Vladimir Putin (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Unlike most installments, which cover an array of news stories, this one focuses on a single but encompassing subject: the nearly decade-long demonization of Putin by the US political-media establishment.
Doctors’ Group: Neither Candidate Should Have Finger On Hair-Trigger Nukes (WBUR)
Control of this God-like power will soon be transferred to a new president. But do we really want to trust anyone with this situation? Not just with the power to order a nuclear strike — but the responsibility of deciding whether to do so in just minutes, on the basis of sketchy, preliminary information? There’s been scant comment this political season on why it’s still like this.
PODCAST: In Eastern Europe, saber rattling — or risky escalation? (KCRW, feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
KCRW hosts NYU and Princeton Prof. Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen, the German Marshall Fund’s Derek Chollet, the Atlantic Council’s Elizabeth Braw, and RAND’s David Shlapak to discuss the tensions on in the Baltic region between NATO and Russia.
‘A Dangerous Situation’ As U.S.-Russia Tensions Spill Over To Nuclear Pacts (NPR)
The U.S. and Russia are the world’s two mightiest nuclear powers, and yet over the years, they’ve made deals to reduce their respective arsenals.
The Abnormal Normal of Nuclear Terror (Consortium News)
Almost goofily, behind Official Washington’s latest warmongering “group think,” the U.S. has plunged into a New Cold War against Russia with no debate about the enormous costs and the extraordinary risks of nuclear annihilation, Gray Brechin observes.
What Can Russia’s Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier Do in the Mediterranean? (Haaretz)
According to Haaretz, “If tested in a showdown, Putin’s sole old smoky carrier is unlikely to prove as capable – it’s inferior, inexperienced and carries a history of mishaps. For now though, the Kremlin has one clear advantage.”
Does the U.S. government really know who hacked Democrats’ emails? (PBS)
Beyond the government’s headline assertion that Russia is to blame, “it’s important to parse the public statement pretty closely,” said Susan Hennessey, a national security fellow at the Brookings Institution. “They’re being really careful in their word choice.”
The EU’s Amateur dialogue with Russia (Peter S. Rieth)
The European Union parliament often prides itself on being a model for international intergration on a global scale. Yet, the upcomong Boris Nemstov forum, billed as exemplifying EU-Russian dialogue, does not live up to the European parliament’s lofty reputation. Rather than EU-Russia dialogue, the forum is an example of Europeans talking to themselves and failing to engage in real politics. [Read more…] about The EU’s Amateur dialogue with Russia (Peter S. Rieth)
The U.S. Can Learn From Japan’s Efforts To Improve Russian Relations (Robert Shines)
U.S.-Russian hostilities have the potential to impact the U.S.’ re-balance to the region to counter China. Despite (or perhaps because of) this, Japan has renewed its own outreach efforts to Russia. These efforts have lessons for the U.S. with respect to overcoming unproductive rhetoric and soberly recognizing shared security interests in arguably the most important geopolitical region of the future.
Totalitarian tendencies in post-Maidan Ukraine (OpenDemocracy)
In post-Maidan Ukraine, temnyky, arrests and censorship have become commonplace. What’s more, repression against dissidents and even murder have become socially acceptable…To be fair, it should be noted that justifications of violence and murder of “enemies” have not been accepted by society as a whole – only by one segment of social media, the mass media and those who call themselves “Maidan activists”
On GPS: Understanding the new Cold War (feat. Stephen F. Cohen)
Fareed Zakaria digs into heightened tensions between U.S. and Russia with ACEWA Board Member and NYU professor emeritus Stephen Cohen and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius
Germany Warns of the Danger of War (George Friedman)
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Oct. 8 that the situation between the U.S. and Russia today is more dangerous than it was during the Cold War. As he put it, “It’s a fallacy to think that this is like the Cold War. The current times are different and more dangerous.”
Turning a Blind Eye towards Armageddon: US leaders reject the nuclear winter studies (Dr. Steven Starr)
Scientists warn of the existential danger of nuclear war. Ten years ago, the world’s leading climatologists chose to reinvestigate the long-term environmental impacts of nuclear war. The peer-reviewed studies they produced are considered to be the most authoritative type of scientific research, which is subjected to criticism by the international scientific community before its final publication in scholarly journals. No serious errors were found in their studies. [Read more…] about Turning a Blind Eye towards Armageddon: US leaders reject the nuclear winter studies (Dr. Steven Starr)