Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will speak in a video call Tuesday, the Kremlin said, as tensions between the United States and Russia escalate over a Russian troop buildup on the Ukrainian border that’s seen as a sign of a potential invasion.
News
Reuters: Moscow says 27 more Russian diplomats due to leave U.S. in January
Russia’s ambassador to the United States said that 27 more Russian diplomats and their families were expelled from the United States and would leave on Jan. 30…
President Joe Biden’s administration said last month that the staff of the U.S. mission in Russia had shrunk to 120 from 1,200 in early 2017 after a series of expulsions and restrictions, and it was difficult to continue with anything other than a caretaker presence at the embassy.
AXIOS: The media’s epic fail
A reckoning is hitting news organizations for years-old coverage of the 2017 Steele dossier, after the document’s primary source was charged with lying to the FBI.
Why it matters: It’s one of the most egregious journalistic errors in modern history, and the media’s response to its own mistakes has so far been tepid.
Outsized coverage of the unvetted document drove a media frenzy at the start of Donald Trump’s presidency that helped drive a narrative of collusion between former President Trump and Russia.
Reuters: Putin says West taking Russia’s ‘red lines’ too lightly
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West was taking Russia’s warnings not to cross its “red lines” too lightly and that Moscow needed serious security guarantees from the West.
In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech, the Kremlin leader also described relations with the United States as “unsatisfactory” but said Russia remained open to dialogue with Washington.
Event Announcement: Zoom Webinar: What is Russia’s National Idea?
Tomorrow, Wed. Oct 28 at 3pm the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy with convene a panel to discuss George Washington University scholar Marlene Laurelle’s new book Is Russia Fascist? The panel will be moderated by Paul Grenier and feature Professor Laurelle, ACURA’s Anatol Lieven ACURA’s Nicolai Petro as well as the University of Ottawa’s Paul Robinson.
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Reuters: Kremlin says NATO expansion in Ukraine is a ‘red line’ for Putin
The Kremlin warned on Monday that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine would cross one of President Vladimir Putin’s “red lines”, and Belarus said it had agreed to take action with Moscow to counter growing NATO activity.
Newsweek: Putin Criticizes U.S. Leaving Afghanistan, Says Fallout May Present Problems for Russia
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the United States and its allies for leaving Afghanistan, saying the withdrawal may present problems for Russia and its allies.
“There is a danger that terrorists and different groups that found a refuge in Afghanistan will use the chaos left by our Western colleagues and try to launch an expansion into neighboring countries,” Putin said. “That will pose a direct threat to our country and its allies.”
AP: John Durham Evidence presented to grand jury in Durham’s Russia probe
John Durham, the federal prosecutor tapped to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation, has been presenting evidence before a grand jury as part of his probe, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: RIP Pierre Sprey
Pierre Sprey, 84, passed away this week, leaving a gaping hole in the defense reform community…
TNI Interview with Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov: “We Have to Fight Lies and Fake News Virtually on a Daily Basis.”
National Interest editor Jacob Heilbrunn interviews Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the United States of America H. E. Anatoly Antonov.
Reuters: John Kerry, on Moscow trip, sets out U.S. climate ideas to Russia
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he viewed Kerry’s visit as a positive signal for bilateral relations and that Russia was hoping for close cooperation on climate issues ahead of the Glasgow meeting.
Federation of American Scientists: Pentagon Sees Increased Potential for Nuclear Conflict
“Despite concerted US efforts to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in international affairs and to negotiate reductions in the number of nuclear weapons, since 2010 no potential adversary has reduced either the role of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy or the number of nuclear weapons it fields. Rather, they have moved decidedly in the opposite direction,” the Department of Defense documentsaid.
VIDEO: Daniel Ellsberg: The Most Dangerous Man In America Receives Defender of Liberty Award
In his ground-breaking 2017 book “The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear Planner”, Ellsberg discloses the omnipresent harrowing danger of regional U.S. commanders given authority to use nuclear weapons offensively. That makes every day another potential Cuban Missile Crisis or worse. Ellsberg exposes the delusional mentality that the credibility of the American nuclear umbrella justifies risking nuclear winter and exterminating the species. General Thomas Power, commander of nuclear forces from 1957-1963, bugled: “If at the end of the [nuclear] war, there are [but] two Americans alive and one Russian, we win.”
AP: Ukraine, NATO launch joint Black Sea drills
Ukraine and NATO on Monday launched Black Sea drills that will involve dozens of warships, an exercise that follows last week’s incident with a British destroyer off Crimea.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: Classified docs reveal UK plan to provoke Russia in Black Sea
The docs reveal that the Brits knew very well that the Russians would respond aggressively (and they did, the extent to which is in dispute) when they sailed the HMS Defender 12 miles off the coast of Crimea in the Black Sea this week, they did it deliberately – a case that British officials have been acknowledging in the last few days.
William vanden Heuvel, Diplomat and a Kennedy Confidant, Dies at 91
A lawyer, he was an adviser to Robert F. Kennedy, led Jimmy Carter’s New York campaign and targeted jail conditions as head of New York City’s corrections board.
Open Letter: Independent American and Russian Women Speak Out On Eve of Biden-Putin Summit
CREATING LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
We are concerned women from the United States and Russia who are looking to the upcoming summit between Presidents Biden and Putin to offer a ray of light on issues of national and human security. We are grounded in the world as it is, yet aspire to live in a world where peace is the norm and is considered a freedom, even a right. [Read more…] about Open Letter: Independent American and Russian Women Speak Out On Eve of Biden-Putin Summit
Final Excerpt from ACURA’s Open Letter: A call for a new era of diplomacy and engagement between the U.S. and Russia
In the spirit of detente, a concept that launched our committee in 1974, we propose taking the following steps to build trust and facilitate dialogue… [Read more…] about Final Excerpt from ACURA’s Open Letter: A call for a new era of diplomacy and engagement between the U.S. and Russia
Announcement: A joint panel of the Quincy Institute and ACURA will discuss the Geneva Summit
The panel will feature former California Governor Jerry Brown; Katrina vanden Heuvel, editorial director and publisher of The Nation; and Joseph Cirincione, Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute. Anatol Lieven, QI’s senior research fellow on Russia and Europe and ACURA Board Member, will moderate. The discussion will take place on Thursday, June 17, at 1 pm ET.
Excerpt from ACURA’s Open Letter: A call for a new era of diplomacy and engagement between the U.S. and Russia
The Trump era continued a dangerous deterioration of the decades-long bilateral consensus on arms control that had been established between the two countries during the first cold war. [Read more…] about Excerpt from ACURA’s Open Letter: A call for a new era of diplomacy and engagement between the U.S. and Russia