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.
Sam Husseini: Questions at Doomsday Clock Event
Journalist Sam Husseini asked about Russiagate and Israel’s nuclear arsenal at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock event Thursday at the National Press Club.
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.
James Carden: Stumbling Toward Doomsday
With the Doomsday Clock now set to 100 seconds to midnight, elder statesmen and scientists urge action.
Daniel Larison: U.S.-Russia Relations: In Need Of Emergency Resuscitation, Stat!
U.S.-Russian relations are worse than at almost any point since the end of the Cold War, and debate over any policy related to Russia has become more toxic than it has been in decade.
Daniel Larison: New START Has One Year Left
The administration’s feigned interest in a much more ambitious arms control treaty is a transparent attempt at distracting from their desire to let the last remaining major arms control agreement wither and die.
David C. Hendrickson: Robert Kagan: Machiavellian in Liberal Disguise
In 1946, when Winston Churchill warned of an Iron Curtain falling over the historic capitals of Central and Eastern Europe, the former Prime Minister also expressed “strong admiration and regard for the valiant Russian people.” How could he not? To them, in fact, is due the chief honor of defeating the beast.
Victor Gilinsky and Henry Sokolski: The Loophole in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
The State Department should use the upcoming conference as an opportunity to concentrate on its most immediate concern: closing the gap in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty system which makes possible the overly lax provision for a withdrawal and eliminating the uncertainties about the continuation of IAEA inspections.
Fred Weir: On Christopher Steele
A painful hobble down memory lane. [Read more…] about Fred Weir: On Christopher Steele
Lucy Komisar: Mikhail Khodorkovsky: the Man, the Myth, the Movie
Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky, MBK in his homeland, is the most famous Russian “oligarch,” the name given by their compatriots to a handful of men who, when communism fell, turned it into gangster capitalism.
Paul Robinson: The Myth of Central Control
Anyone with the slightest knowledge of Russia can only scream in despair.