With 122 nations having voted last summer to adopt a treaty for the complete prohibition of nuclear weapons, just as the world has banned chemical and biological weapons, it seems that the world is locked in a new Cold War time-warp, totally inappropriate to the times…
NY Times: Gorbachev Calls Trump’s Treaty Withdrawal ‘Not the Work of a Great Mind’
President Trump’s decision to withdraw from a nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia drew sharp criticism Sunday from one of the men who signed it — Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who called the decision reckless and not the work of “a great mind.”
PODCAST: ‘On Point’ Talks with Professor Stephen Walt
According to Walt, “the relationship with Russia and China is worse than it’s been since the Cold War.”
Sarah Lazare: How Pro-War Democrats Use Russiagate To Bloat the Military
Russia became the bipartisan justification for an $716 billion defense budget and nuclear build-up.
Jacob Heilbrunn: The Ghosts of 1918
As they confront a new and dangerous era, world leaders might recall the lesson that the British historian A.J.P. Taylor drew from the carnage of World War I: “Though the object of being a Great Power is to be able to fight a Great War, the only way of remaining a Great Power is not to fight one.”
Andrew J Bacevich: So, Senator Warren: You’re Clearly Running for President
As a constituent, I have noted with interest your suggestion that you will “take a hard look” at running for president in 2020, even as you campaign for reelection to the Senate next month.
Paul Robinson: On Russian Conservatism
Many Russian conservatives in the modern era argue that the development of a multipolar world, in which nations protect their sovereignty and defend their right to a separate path of development, serves not only Russian interests, but also those of humanity as a whole.
Stephen F. Cohen: Inconvenient Thoughts on Cold War and Other News
As to which aspects of US foreign policyTrump actually controls, we might ask more urgently if he authorized, or was fully informed about, the joint US-NATO-Ukraine military air exercises that got under way over Ukraine, abutting Russia, on October 8. Moscow regards these exercises as a major “provocation,” and not unreasonably.
Lyle Goldstein: Will the ‘Bulava’ Submarine-Launched Missile ‘Save Russia’?
A return to the days of “duck and cover” in U.S.-Russia relations reflects widespread ignorance of the inherent costs and extraordinary dangers of arms racing in the nuclear age.
VIDEO: Vladimir Pozner: How the United States Created Vladimir Putin
On September 27, 2018, Yale’s Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and the Poynter Fellowship for Journalism hosted Vladimir Pozner, the acclaimed Russian-American journalist and broadcaster.
Paul Saunders: Enduring Consequences of Russia’s 1993 Crisis
Twenty-five years ago this week, a confrontation between Russia’s then President Boris Yeltsin and the country’s parliament culminated in armed standoffs that left more than 100 people dead and became unambiguously one of the most consequential events in Russia’s post-Soviet history.
Paul Robinson: The Inability to See
The policies Putin pursues can be seen as a response to Russia’s historical and domestic political context, not, as they are normally portrayed in the West…
David S. Foglesong: Putin: From Soulmate to Archenemy
Blaming the dangerous deterioration of Russian-American rela- tions on the soulless character of Vladimir Putin is simplistic, mislead- ing, and ahistorical. It obscures rather than reveals the main sources of American-Russian conflict.
Patrick Lawrence: Discerning Vladimir Putin
What is it we see when we look across at Russia and its people and the man who has led them these past eighteen years? What do we talk about when we talk about Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? These are our questions.
Nikolas Gvosdev: How to Change the Dysfunctional Relationship between Russia and the West
The current intra-Atlantic divergences (both within and between the countries of the West) on policy towards Russia stem from a basic divide—between those who see Russian transgressions as a distraction from Russia’s overall integration with the West versus those who see them as intrinsic to Russian statecraft and policy. Swinging back and forth between these two binary choices does not lead to effective policy.
Gareth Porter: The Shaky Case That Russia Manipulated Social Media to Tip the 2016 Election
The idea promoted by NYT’s Shane & Mazzetti that the Russian government seriously threatened to determine the 2016 election does not hold up when the larger social media context is examined more closely, reports Gareth Porter.
RFE/RL: Hungary Protests Ukrainian Military Moves, ‘Death List’ Of Dual Citizens
A diplomatic spat between Hungary and Ukraine has escalated, with Budapest summoning Kyiv’s ambassador to protest what it called a “death list” targeting ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine as well as military movements on their common border.
US, Russian astronauts safe after emergency landing
A booster rocket failed less than two minutes after launching an American and a Russian toward the International Space Station on Thursday, forcing their emergency—but safe—landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
FT: US-Russia tensions threaten nuclear arms curbs, says Moscow
Breakdown in relations puts treaties at risk, says Kremlin deputy foreign minister.
New Pew Research Poll: Global Attitudes and Trends
The country giving the U.S. its lowest rating in the survey, and the place where the biggest drop in U.S. favorability has taken place over the past year, is Russia. Just 26% of Russians have a favorable opinion of the U.S., compared with 41% in 2017. A 55% majority of Russians say relations have gotten worse in the past year, and the share of the public with a positive view of Trump has dropped from 53% to 19%.