Washington’s NATO buildup on Russia’s borders, its refusal to cooperate with Moscow in Syria and Ukraine, and its anti-Putin propaganda form an ominous pattern, says Nation contributing editor and ACEWA Board Member, Stephen F. Cohen.
TNI: Misplaced Fears Over Nord Stream 2
Nord Stream 2 provides another reliable route for transporting gas to Europe, nothing more, nothing less.
A Stark Nuclear Warning (Gov. Jerry Brown)
I know of no person who understands the science and politics of modern weaponry better than William J. Perry, the US Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997. When a man of such unquestioned experience and intelligence issues the stark nuclear warning that is central to his recent memoir, we should take heed.
Stephen F. Cohen PODCAST: America’s Collusion With Neo-Nazis
The previous 40-year experience taught that Cold War can corrupt even American democracy — politically, economically, morally. There are many examples of how the new edition has already degraded America’s media, politicians, even scholars.
Paul Robinson: Thought For The Day
In the past few years I have noticed something of a pattern. Those who complain the loudest about Russian ‘disinformation’ are often the most inaccurate in their own depictions of reality.
US Senators Press EU to Renew Russian Sanctions (Defense News)
As European leaders met Monday, six key US senators wrote to press them to continue sanctions on Russia to force Moscow to adhere to the Minsk ceasefire deal.
Brian Milakovsky: A frontline factory, an embattled oligarch and Ukraine’s industrial drift
For the future of this chemical plant in eastern Ukraine, trade policy with Russia looms large.
Is the Pentagon Hyping the Russia Threat? (The American Conservative)
While most of our foreign-policy attention is focused on the Middle East, a new danger lurks. According to a number of high-ranking Pentagon officials, that danger is not Russian aggression but rather their own colleagues, who are inflating the threat Russia poses in an effort to boost the Defense Department’s budget.
FT: Putin looks at mending fences with west to revive Russia’s economy
Aide Alexei Kudrin considered for lead role in easing tension and restoring growth.
Russia the Eternal Enemy Quotations (Patrick Armstrong)
Patrick Armstrong brings us this gem from The Economist, Nov 1996: Still, a big worry is that, even under Mr Primakov’s relatively sophisticated tutelage, Russia seems unable to break free of its view of the world as a sort of zero sum game in which countries become strong only by making other countries weak. [Read more…] about Russia the Eternal Enemy Quotations (Patrick Armstrong)
DEBATE: WEDNESDAY MAY 9 IN NYC: STEPHEN F. COHEN AND MICHAEL MCFAUL
Please join The Harriman Institute and New York University’s Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia for a debate between Stephen F. Cohen (Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University and Princeton University) and Michael McFaul (Professor, Department of Political Science, Stanford University) on “The New U.S.-Russian Cold War: Who is to Blame?”
Major Allegations Against Russian President Now Being Questioned (Part I)
Today we feature three items which challenge the now entrenched narrative of President Vladimir Putin-as-villain. The first of these, below, is an open letter to the British Home Secretary by the London-based academic Julia Svetlichnaja which challenges the findings of the Owen’s report which found that Vladimir Putin “probably” approved Litvinenko’s killing. [Read more…] about Major Allegations Against Russian President Now Being Questioned (Part I)
A Note from ACEWA Board Member Sharon Tennison, President of the Center for Citizen Initiatives
Dear Friends,
While the situation continues to worsen between U.S. policymakers, the U.S. media and Russia, we at CCI still maintain the hope and the commitment to another breakthrough, as happened in the 1980’s –– one that will prevent an all-out war between these two nuclear superpowers, ourselves and Russia. [Read more…] about A Note from ACEWA Board Member Sharon Tennison, President of the Center for Citizen Initiatives
Major Allegations Against Russian President Now Being Questioned (Part II)
A new film by a longstanding critic of Vladimir Putin about the campaign to pass the Magnitsky Act by wealthy fund manager Bill Browder premiered in the US last Tuesday and conclusively demonstrates that the foreign national Browder played the US Congress and European Parliament for dupes.
Nicolai N. Petro: The Surprising Allure of Russian Soft Power
Russia sees itself as that part of the West that perceives liberal fundamentalism as futile and seeks to establish a framework of global leadership around the values that the West shares with non-Western states. Prominent political theorist Boris Mezhuev has dubbed this approach “civilizational realism.”
Major Allegations Against Russian President Now Being Questioned (Part III)
Why was everyone so willing and ready to take CrowdStrike’s claims that the Russians hacked the DNC without an ounce of skepticism in the first place?
Nicolai N. Petro: The Values Trap (from May 2013)
Our animosity toward Russia did not arise from communism, the late Martin Malia notes, so there was no reason for it to disappear with communism’s collapse. It stems, rather, from a stunted view of history that overlooks the contributions that Byzantium and Eastern Orthodoxy have made to Western civilization.
Fareed Zakaria’s Interview With Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Plenary session moderator, CNN host Fareed Zakaria: …President Putin, let me ask you a very simple question. Since 2014, you have had European Union sanctions and US sanctions against Russia. NATO has announced just this week that it is going to build up forces in states that border Russia. Russia has announced its own buildup. Are we settling into a low-grade, lower-level cold war between the West and Russia? [Read more…] about Fareed Zakaria’s Interview With Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Pietro Shakarian: The Significance of Armenia’s ‘April Revolution’
Analysts outside of Armenia scrambled to make sense of the April Revolution. Was it a “color revolution” or a Ukrainian-style Maidan? Was it a “blow to Putin” as the pages of The Washington Post suggested? Ultimately, calling this movement a Maidan or framing it as an anti-Putin movement obscures our objective understanding of it as observers.
A Nuclear Weapon That America Doesn’t Need (NY Times Op-ed)
PRESIDENT OBAMA spoke last month in Hiroshima about charting a course to a future free of nuclear weapons. He discussed the “persistent effort” necessary to eliminate the threat of nuclear war. To advance that goal, the president should reconsider the Defense Department’s effort to develop a new nuclear weapon called the Long-Range Standoff Weapon.