Liberation from Soviet rule would not bring about the end of history in the sense of the completion of Western achievement. Instead it would accelerate the erasure of opposition to the financialized and increasingly surreal economy of the Western world.
Excluding Russia from the Council of Europe would be a big mistake (German MP)
An escalation of the conflict between NATO/the EU and Russia and the East-West divide of Europe is not in the interests of the people of Europe. The Council of Europe can play a key role by supporting documentation and dialogue in a way that goes beyond intergovernmental relations and brings together parliamentary and civil society actors.
PODCAST: Stephen F. Cohen on Here And There with Dave Marash
Donald Trump keeps saying he wants to be Vladimir Putin’s friend, but Trump’s renunciation of the nuclear arms agreement with Iran won’t help the relationship, and neither will Israeli attacks on Iranian forces fighting on Russia’s side in Syria. Scholar-analyst Stephen F. Cohen of NYU and Princeton and The Nation on why the US and Russia aren’t getting along. Cohen says one reason is the US News Media and its addiction to stories that put Putin in a bad light.
The United States and NATO Are Preparing for a Major War With Russia (Michael T. Klare)
For the first time in a quarter-century, the prospect of war—real war, war between the major powers—will be on the agenda of Western leaders when they meet at the NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland, on July 8 and 9.
Lev Golinkin: Violent Anti-Semitism Is Gripping Ukraine, And The Government Is Standing Idly By
Poroshenko became president following the bloody Maidan uprising of 2013-2014, in which ordinary Ukrainians died for the right to live in a democratic, Western nation. But at best, Poroshenko’s government has ignored the anti-Semitism problem in its midst; at worst, it has actively encouraged it.
There Are 15,000 Nuclear Weapons Still Posing an Intolerable Threat to Humanity (Mayor Frank Cownie)
The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM), at its recent annual meeting in Indianapolis, unanimously adopted a strong resolution put forward by members of Mayors for Peace, warning that “the nuclear-armed countries are edging ever closer to direct military confrontation in conflict zones around the world,” writes Mayor Frank Cownie of Des Monies, Iowa.
Glenn Greenwald: The FBI Informant Who Monitored the Trump Campaign, Stefan Halper, Oversaw a CIA Spying Operation in the 1980 Presidential Election
AN EXTREMELY STRANGE EPISODE that has engulfed official Washington over the last two weeks came to a truly bizarre conclusion on Friday night.
To Crush ISIS, America Needs All the Allies It Can Get (Ed Lozansky)
…The Obama administration, for all its ballyhooed goal of defeating ISIS, is still more concerned about thwarting Moscow and Tehran and overthrowing Assad.
Paul Robinson: Richard Pipes 1923-2018
Richard Pipes was one of the most pre-eminent and controversial English-speaking historians of Russia.
ANNOUNCEMENT: Film screening The Magnitsky Act: Behind the Scenes
On July 12, at 18:00, the Brussels Press Club Europe will screen the investigative reporting cum documentary by Andrei Nekrasov which puts in question the story underpinning the 2012 US law known as the Magnitsky Act.
NY Times: Richard Pipes, Historian of Russia and Reagan Aide, Dies at 94
Richard Pipes, the author of a monumental, sharply polemical series of historical works on Russia, the Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik regime, and a top adviser to the Reagan administration on Soviet and Eastern European policy, died on Thursday at a nursing home near his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 94.
Is NATO necessary? (Stephen Kinzer)
When NATO leaders convene for a summit in Warsaw on Friday, they will insist that their alliance is still vital because Russian aggression threatens Europe. The opposite is true.
Gordon Hahn: Russia’s ‘Brain Drain’ and the Propspects for Regime Transformation
One of the main drivers of revolutionary forms of democratic regime transformation, according to contemporary social science, is the lack of sufficient social mobility for middle class youth that often emerges in authoritarian countries…
Turkey Makes Up With Russia; America Also Needs To End New Cold War With Moscow (Doug Bandow)
Reducing tensions between the two is good for them and the region. As well as for the U.S. and NATO. A conflict between Moscow and Ankara over the Syrian civil war would be simple madness.
Lyle Goldstein: The Russian-German Relationship Is in Free Fall
…the Washington-Berlin-Moscow triangle is mired in such a dysfunctional set of tribulations that its parlous state is severely undermining global security.
Merkel Urged to Temper NATO’s Belligerence (Common Dreams)
U.S. intelligence veterans are calling on German Chancellor Merkel to bring a needed dose of realism and restraint to the upcoming NATO conference, which risks escalating the dangerous new Cold War with Russia.
Mary Dejevsky: The UK’s obsession with the Russian bogeyman doesn’t stack up
The head of MI5 has joined the security establishment’s anti-Putin onslaught. But his organisation agrees that Moscow is not the greatest threat.
What Should America Do at the NATO Summit? (Peter S. Rieth)
Many of NATO’s anxious Eastern European members are hoping that the United States pledges permanent American boots on the ground during the Alliance’s upcoming summit in Warsaw, Poland.
Rich Lowry: The Russia Temptation
…left-wing cable personalities, much of the mainstream press, and the Democratic base are much too vested in Russia to ease off, and the amount of attention they devote to it is overwhelming.
The Imperative of a US-Russian Alliance vs. International Terrorism (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation contributing editor and ACEWA Board Member Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) The focus of this discussion is the growing threat of international terrorism, from the Middle East, Europe, and elsewhere to American homeland security.