Critics of Russia often complain that state control of the media leads to an absence of different viewpoints on key issues. Yet what we see here is that in parts of the Western world, there is an almost absolute conformity of belief among the ruling elite, a conformity so total that it’s doubtful that even a totalitarian state could match it.
Andrei P. Tsygankov: American Russophobia in the age of liberal decline
Since 2012 at the latest, it has become common to hear American and Russian media accusing the leaders of their respective countries not only of violating international law, but also of developing political systems based on cynicism, injustice, and disregard for human dignity.
Bloomberg: Kremlin Sours on Trump After His Repeated Putin Snubs
Ties ‘far worse’ than if Clinton had won, Russia lawmaker says.
Ted Galen Carpenter: Ukraine Doesn’t Deserve America’s Blind Support
In reality, the Kerch Strait incident involves a complex mixture of factors.
Matthew Lenoe: Why it’s time to give the Soviet Union its due for World War II
Paying tribute to the overwhelming contribution of Soviet men and women to victory in World War II and commemorating their losses would go a long way to soothing that sense of grievance and improving Russian-American relations.
Leonid Rogozin: Wag the dog in Ukraine?
What was the Kerch incident really about?
Mary Dejevsky: Something has to change with Russia and Ukraine
In the crucial matter of getting its story out, Ukraine’s achievement may be second to none…
Stephen F. Cohen: New Cold War Dangers
The Russian-Ukrainian military conflict in the Kerch Strait illustrates again how this Cold War is more dangerous that was its predecessor.
Mikhail Gorbachev and George P. Shultz: Abandoning the INF threatens our very existence.
More than 30 years have passed since the day the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, meeting in Geneva, adopted a joint statement declaring that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
VIDEO: Stephen F. Cohen: Russia probe hysteria endangers national security
The ongoing intense focus on the Russia collusion investigation is preventing President Trump from dealing freely with President Putin, says Princeton and NYU professor emeritus Stephen Cohen, author of ‘War with Russia? From Putin and Ukraine to Trump and Russiagate.’
Paul Robinson: Casting Blame
If we look at current Russian-Western tensions, the problem, it seems to me, is that both sides are trapped within discourses which encourage them to frame events in terms of blame, conflict, and threat and not in terms of mutual misunderstanding.
Politico: Trump wants ‘meaningful halt’ in arms race with Russia, China
President Donald Trump on Monday expressed hope that he and the presidents of China and Russia might jointly agree to scale back defense spending…
Stephen F. Cohen: War With Russia?
War With Russia?, like the biography of a living person, is a book without an end. The title is a warning—akin to what the late Gore Vidal termed “a journalistic alert-system”—not a prediction. Hence the question mark. I cannot foresee the future. The book’s overarching theme is informed by past and current facts, not by any political agenda, ideological commitment, or magical prescience.
Patrick Buchanan: Why is Ukraine’s Kerch Crisis Any of Our Business?
Why are we letting ourselves be dragged into everyone’s quarrels—from who owns the islets in the South China Sea, to who owns the Senkaku and Southern Kurils; and from whether Transnistria had a right to secede from Moldova, to whether South Ossetia and Abkhazia had the right to break free of Georgia, when Georgia broke free of Russia?
Lyle J. Goldstein: Russia Stands to Gain from Trump’s Handling of the Khashoggi Crisis
The nexus of interests uniting Moscow, Tehran and Beijing grows ever stronger, so it seems, as the temperature of the new Cold War grows colder with each passing week.
Robert Legvold: Nightmare: How the War in Ukraine Could Go Regional
At a minimum, these events should remind everyone that the small-minded and lethargic approach that now characterizes all players’ approach to the Donbas impasse is not as tolerable or risk-free as they appear to believe.
Washington Post: George H.W. Bush was a steady hand while Soviet Union collapsed
Konstantin Kosachyov, a Russian lawmaker who heads the foreign relations committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, described the Bush era as “probably the peak of trust between our two states.”
Mikhail Gorbachev Speaks To Center for Citizen Initiatives
CCI’s Sharon Tennison writes, “We are honored to have had a two-hour meeting with President Mikhail Gorbachev on September 4, 2018. This event was prior to our delegation of U.S. ‘citizen diplomats’ traveling across Russia…”
Doug Bandow: Ukraine Should Not Be a Member of NATO
The incident in the Kerch Strait should remind us that we are lucky (or blessed) President George W. Bush failed in his effort to add Kiev (and Georgia) to NATO.
Lyle Goldstein: Russia’s Relationship With China Will Change Northeast Asia
Beijing and Moscow are building up trade, infrastructure, and living standards in long-neglected regions.