American Committee for US-Russia Accord

Putin appears to be more Russian nationalist than Soviet communist, and after taking power, he originally sought improved ties with the West.

In Ian Proud’s latest conversation with Ambassador Chas Freeman, he describes what Ukraine is becoming, and what Europe will be left holding when the war ends. Ukraine will not be the keystone of a whole and free Europe. It will not be a buffer and a bridge between Russia and the rest of the continent. It will be a rump state: poorer, more corrupt, landlocked, unqualified for the EU, shut out of NATO, and dominated by western Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who will not accept defeat. Ukraine will be driven by a more virulent antagonism towards Russia than Britain, Poland and the Baltic States and feeling spurned by a Europe that egged it on to its destruction. Right now, there are no obvious upsides to Ukraine joining the EU and some restoration of relations with Russia may take a generation, if it happens at all.

The European Defence Tech Festival was held last month at a disused Nazi airfield in Neuhardenberg, some 40 miles northeast of Berlin. Billed as taking place at a ‘secret location’, the event’s organizers touted it in eye-catching terms: there would be live demonstrations of quadcopters, fixed wing drones and maybe even planes; NATO generals and Ukrainian soldiers would be in attendance; an afterparty would round out the weekend; camping was encouraged. I registered as a visitor, expecting to encounter something between an arms fair and a music festival. But pulling up to the airfield on the last day, I found a lacklustre scene. Rain meant that most of the attendees remained inside the hangar, many typing code on MacBooks. Drones bought on Amazon hummed in the air. The biggest aircraft taking off from the tarmac was no larger than a housecat.

While few in Washington would claim that Marco Rubio’s State Department is bursting with talent, the era of the ‘missions to Moscow’ by Special Presidential Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner needs to end — and soon.

One can only pity the professional doomsayers for the shortage of really inspiring stories as they try—for the umpteenth time—to sell the idea that Ukraine should suffer for just a little while longer in hopes of Russian collapse.

Why wasn’t Russia deterred from attacking Ukraine? After all, Russia did not have a large and finely tuned army, and the West had gone to substantial lengths to arm and train the Ukrainian army between February 2014 and February 2022. This was not a case of Bambi versus Godzilla. So, why did conventional deterrence fail in this case?

The role of small countries—that through their geopolitical irresponsibility can wreck great damage to the world—tends to pass under the radar.

Historian and Russia expert Prof. Geoffrey Roberts was a guest on Prof. Dr. Hasan Ünal’s Strategic Compass program on the Harici YouTube channel.

Diane Abbott has been subjected to ferocious attacks on her character for claiming on Wednesday that “the imminent threat from Russia is a Nato fiction.”

In a recent interview, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeated his denial that he discouraged Ukraine from negotiating peace in the first days of the war. “This is complete, utter nonsense,” Johnson said. He insisted that the story was just the Kremlin spreading allegations.

“It is unclear whether the Americans are bringing new proposals to the two presidents, or are pushing them to close the gap on the remaining issues, which include who will ultimately control the Donbas, Ukrainian territory that is partly occupied by Russia,” according to a New York Times report.

President Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Kyiv on Sunday for diplomatic talks aimed at resuming negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered a three-day halt to strikes on Kyiv as U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner arrived in Moscow hoping to restart stalled negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

A clear-eyed middle-aged man leans in closer, yelping in broken English: “I don’t want to die, understand? But they got me. Now I have to go.” He downs another shot of vodka.

To be sure, Russians are growing tired of Putin.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Berlin has concluded an agreement with the United States to purchase Tomahawk conventional cruise missiles and ground-based Typhon Mid-Range Capability launchers for permanent deployment on German territory…This acquisition systematically expands the strike radius of the Bundeswehr up to 2,500 kilometers, filling a critical conventional deterrence gap against regional deep-depth infrastructure without relying on combat aircraft or allied launch authority.

 

The proposal had already been discussed earlier this year, after a female drone commander wrote in favor of the idea and a dozen Ukrainian women received erroneous military summonses, sparking headlines around the country. The start of this month saw a petition filed urging the conscription of childless women, an idea backed by some military figures. That includes former Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov, who, pointing to the example of Israel, said “we can survive only if everyone accepts that they must defend Ukraine,” adding that it would “double our mobilization resource.”

Some of those cheering Ukraine’s war effort from outside the country have also embraced the idea.

In 1991, Michael McFaul felt that he was on the edge of utopia. Russia was free of communism, and America was free to usher in a new era of liberal internationalist hegemony. The arc of history had never bent so far toward justice. Over thirty years later, those dreams have crashed back to Earth. And in Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, McFaul seeks to put together how it all went wrong. His answer is unsurprising: an international movement of conservatives, led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sought to destroy democracy. With President Donald Trump’s election victories, they have nearly succeeded. Hope lies in a vigorous counterattack from the liberal internationalists.

NATO is being demilitarized by its own Proxy-War. Historian and American University of Armenia lecturer Pietro Shakarian joins Pascal Lottaz to discuss America’s “third Red Scare,” the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz, the proposed Mecca Pact, Ukraine’s future, Caucasus transit plans, and why he sees Europe’s elites as tied to US power during a shift toward multipolarity.