On more than one occasion I have complained about the all-too prevalent habit of smearing people as ‘Kremlin proxies’, ‘Russian agents’, and the like, simply because they happen not to share the belief that Russia is at the root of all the political turmoil recently experienced by Western states.
Analysis
Zack Brown: New START: Why An Extension Is In America’s National Interest
Failing to renew the New START arms control treaty with Russia “is not a wise direction of travel,” said Rose Gottemoeller, a former Deputy Secretary General of NATO who ranked as one of President Barack Obama’s top nuclear security experts.
Lyle Goldstein: Russiagate Regrets
Washington, Moscow and the world will be harvesting the foul fruits of the Russiagate debacle for decades.
Ted Galen Carpenter: Why The U.S. Should Keep Its Distance From Belarus
Some will be pushing us into a standoff with Putin over this, but the last thing our leaders need is another Ukraine.
Aaron Mate talks with Professor Stephen F. Cohen
At the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, chief Democratic prosecutor Adam Schiff has claimed that the US is arming Ukraine “so that we can fight Russia over there so we don’t have to fight Russia here” and called Russia a “wounded, dangerous animal.” Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton University, says that Schiff’s rhetoric is “ignorant and debased.
David C. Speedie and Krishen Mehta: Russiagate and the New “Conspiracism”
David Speedie writes that, “the sage advice of John Quincy Adams two centuries and more ago about not going forth seeking monsters to destroy, the United States, or at least its political leaders, seem in need of an external threat to tackle and defeat.” His full article here: [Read more…] about David C. Speedie and Krishen Mehta: Russiagate and the New “Conspiracism”
William Rutger: Why Americans Want a President Who Ends Endless Wars
A new poll shows that the U.S. public supports a more realist foreign policy and wants its leaders to focus more on pressing domestic needs than overseas projects.
Daniel Larison: Pompeo’s Petty Despotism
It is unacceptable for the Secretary of State to retaliate against a news organization because he happens to dislike the questions from one of their reporters.
Shorenstein Center: How Russian Media Reported the Coronavirus Pandemic
In a new Shorenstein Center report, “Conveying Truth: Independent Media in Putin’s Russia,” Ann Cooper, a Spring 2020 Joan Shorenstein fellow, describes the origins and evolution of independent media in Russia from the late Soviet era to the coronavirus crisis of 2020. While Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin holds “a Soviet-like grip on Russian TV,” Cooper writes, “today’s Russian media is not a Soviet-style monolith.”
Michael Lind: The debunked “Russian influence” nonsense is infantilizing liberals
It is no doubt emotionally satisfying for members of the embattled managerial overclass to identify antiestablishment populism with pro-Russian treason, fascism, or both. But this kind of paranoid demonological thinking has the potential to be a greater danger to liberal democracy in the West than any particular populist movements.
Andrew C. McCarthy: Connecting Dots in Clinesmith’s Russiagate Guilty Plea
Some interesting things to note about the false-statements charge which former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith is pleading guilty to.
Mary Dejevsky: Maybe the theory of a power-hungry Putin is correct. But it is not the only explanation…
It is hard to imagine what more Russia’s president could have done to confirm that he was leaving office – yes, really leaving office – when his current term expires in 2024 than what he said in his state-of-the-nation address this week.
Nikolas Gvosdev: Belarus in Crisis: What Happens Now?
Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’s long-serving leader, gambled that his attempt to do the “Eurasian shuffle” would allow him to secure yet another installment in power. He seems to have miscalculated—and is hoping that brute force can keep his regime from being overthrown.
Paul Robinson: Civilizational Choice
As perceptive readers will have realised, I’m hedging my bets about the outcome of the crisis in Belarus.
Liza Featherstone: Adam Schiff, the liberal hero of impeachment
Schiff’s bellicosity is extensively funded by arms manufacturers and military contractors.
Jason C. Ditz: What Will It Be Like With No U.S-Russia Nuke Limits?
The end of the New Start Treaty approaches, and will leave the two countries to their own devices for the first time since 1969.
Tucker Carlson: Adam Schiff practices his theatrics
Rep. Schiff rants about fighting Russia, prays for the soul of our nation.
Gordon M. Hahn: All Too Little, All Too Late: On the Open Letter ‘It’s Time to Rethink Our Russia Policy’
The first Cold War directly and indirectly corrupted our political culture in many disparate ways. The new cold war will drive the country to a bitter end.
Daniel Lazare: Adam Schiff’s Very Scary Warmongering Speech
All the usual suspects are praising Adam Schiff’s marathon two-and-a-half-hour Senate speech on Wednesday to the skies. Neocon columnist Jennifer Rubin calls it “a grand slam” in the Washington Post. Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin describes it as “dazzling” on CNN. New York Times columnist Gail Collins says it was “a great job” and that Schiff is “a rock star” for pulling it off.
Marshall Auerback and James Carden: Who will salute Trump’s man in Berlin?
Unfortunately, NATO has, in the decades following the fall of the Berlin Wall, transformed itself into a global policeman, and a reckless one at that: the disasters of Iraq, Libya and Syria have not only undermined regional stability, they have also hampered efforts by Trump to make peace with North Korea and come to a modus vivendi with Russia.