One of the paranoid complaints about ‘Russian propaganda’ is that the Russian speaking minorities in the Baltic states could be manipulated into becoming a disloyal fifth column. In the report on Russian ‘information warfare’ which I reviewed last week, Ed Lucas and Peter Pomerantsev implied that the Russians were having a lot of success.
Angela Stent: What Should the World Expect from the Trump-Putin Summit?
Given the tense state of U.S.-Russian relations and the paucity of high-level contacts, there are strong arguments for Trump to hold a summit with Putin. However fractured the relationship, it makes sense for the world’s two nuclear superpowers to sit down together
Putin offers Turkey’s Erdogan closer ties (BBC)
Russia is ready to restore economic co-operation and other ties with Turkey, President Vladimir Putin has told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St Petersburg.
Nikolas Gvosdev: At the Brussels Summit, NATO Faces a Crucial Test
The July 2018 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit will test whether the trans-Atlantic alliance can produce a unified, sustainable position on Russia which, if embraced by United States President Donald Trump, would act as the defining prequel for his proposed bilateral sit-down with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vienna.
Erdogan’s meeting with Putin will tell us what the future holds for Syria (Robert Fisk)
Robert Fisk writes that if Nato and the EU believe they can rely on their faithful ally Sultan Erdogan to pursue the destruction of the Assad regime or curb refugee flows to Europe – or tolerate US jets flying out of Incirlik airbase and other former Armenian properties in Anatolia – they can think again.
Lev Golinkin: Sorry, Howard Dean, Pogroms In Ukraine Are Not ‘Russian Propaganda’
I’m going to guess the reason you went after my article is because it exposed an aspect of Kiev that is, um, inconvenient to American foreign policy.
Ukrainian hackers leak IDs, personal data of journalists (AP)
A Ukrainian nationalist website has published what it says is an email archive with copies of IDs and personal data of Ukrainian and international journalists, raising new concerns about their safety.
Stephen F. Cohen: Who’s Afraid of a Trump-Putin Summit?
If it actually occurs, never in the 75-year history of such US-Russian meetings will an American president have had so much opposition and so little support at home.
In DNC’s Russia Controversy, Finger-pointing Trumps Analysis (E. Wayne Merry)
Despite some sound and fury, the release of the DNC’s emails was a fairly minor event on the long road to the November election. Other events closer to election day could be far more important….What we learned in Philadelphia in July is that the automatic political response will be finger-pointing at Moscow, with assessment of the facts sometime later.
Intercepted PODCAST: Jeremy Scahill Interviews Seymour Hersh
Legendary reporter Seymour Hersh shares what he thinks of Donald Trump, his analysis of the Trump-Russia story, and some wild stories from his new memoir, “Reporter.” (starting at 9:15 mark).
Ukraine crisis: Blast injures Luhansk rebel leader Plotnitsky (BBC)
The leader of a self-proclaimed separatist republic in eastern Ukraine, Igor Plotnitsky, has been injured in a bomb attack, rebel officials confirmed. A blast hit a car carrying Igor Plotnitsky, head of the Luhansk People’s Republic, in the city of Luhansk. Two others were also hurt.
M.K. Bhadrakumar: Trump set to roll the dice for a summit
Why now? The fizz seems to have gone out of the Russia collusion theory.
The sham rebrand of al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front (Gareth Porter)
In the newly renamed “Jabhat Fateh al Sham,” the term “Sham” refers to the entire area that includes Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan. The real reason for the rebranding and creation of a supposedly independent organisation was the threat of a US-Russian joint air campaign against Nusra Front.
George Beebe: McFaul’s Russia
What went wrong? Stanford University Professor Michael McFaul—who served in the Obama administration first as a senior National Security Council staffer and later as U.S. ambassador to Russia—seeks to offer an answer in his new memoir.
As Turkey’s coup strains ties with West, detente with Russia gathers pace (Reuters)
As Turkey’s relations with Europe and the United States are strained by the fallout from its failed coup, President Tayyip Erdogan travels to Russia on Tuesday to meet Vladimir Putin in a trip he may hope will give the West pause for thought.
Kate Beioley: Russia scores with emerging market fund managers and football fans
Despite US sanctions, there is increasing optimism about the World Cup host.
Trump is right: It’s time to rethink NATO (Bonnie Kristian)
Trump is mocked for his foreign policy knowledge, and the D.C. establishment has reacted with horror at the idea of the U.S. pulling back from the alliance. But if we dismiss him, we miss an important point: It is time for a rethink of NATO, and the conversation shouldn’t be whether to reshape our commitment, but how.
Paul Robinson: World Cup Blog Post 2
A great but exhausting day in Nizhny Novgorod.
No First Use Policy on Nuclear Weapons (Tom Z. Collina)
President Barack Obama is reportedly considering changing U.S. policy to say that the United States would never be the first nation to use nuclear weapons. Good idea. The United States has nothing to lose from this new policy, and everything to gain. No sane U.S. leader would ever—ever—initiate the first use of nuclear weapons. So why keep the option open?
Sky News: The World Cup is peaceful – where is everyone?
A colleague texted yesterday urging me to “stay safe out there”.
You want the truth? I feel safer here than I do in London.