U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Monday in a phone conversation that focused largely on the conflict in Syria and Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, the White House said.
Excerpt: Widely Reported Section of Vladimir Putin’s Speech on Russian Defense
I will speak about the newest systems of Russian strategic weapons that we are creating in response to the unilateral withdrawal of the United States of America from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the practical deployment of their missile defence systems both in the US and beyond their national borders. [Read more…] about Excerpt: Widely Reported Section of Vladimir Putin’s Speech on Russian Defense
Ukrainian president says Russia has agreed deal to free jailed pilot (The Guardian)
A deal has been reached with Russia to release a jailed Ukrainian pilot, Ukraine’s president, Petro Poroshenko, has said, suggesting that she will be swapped for two Russian servicemen jailed in Ukraine this week.
Scott Horton PODCAST: Ray McGovern on U.S.-Russia relations and the Deep State
According to McGovern, the U.S.-Russia relations are as frayed and combustible as they have been at any point since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
How the next U.S. president should manage Russia (Josh Cohen)
While demonizing Putin makes for good rhetoric, a real policy that seeks to further American interests is a better way to manage the relationship with Russia, writes Josh Cohen in Reuters.
NPR PODCAST: Journalists Argue Russian Interference Has Been Exaggerated
The New Yorker’s Masha Gessen and Adrian Chen have covered Russia extensively. They tell NPR’s David Greene why they think the impact of Russian election interference efforts is largely overblown.
NATO to Admonish Russia After Kremlin Planes Buzz U.S. Forces (Bloomberg)
NATO will admonish Russia over provocative military maneuvers after a spate of close calls in the Baltic Sea last week in which Russian warplanes buzzed U.S. forces. Allies plan to bring up the “unprofessional and unsafe behavior of Russian planes” in a meeting with Russia’s ambassador on Wednesday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
Lyle Goldstein: Russia’s Navy Might Be Modernizing – But It’s Overstretched
President Vladimir Putin’s speech on the first of March revealed a whole panoply of new nuclear capabilities, from cruise missiles with nearly unlimited range to unmanned undersea vehicles also operating with extraordinary range, together with unprecedented speed and depth capabilities.
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine
In Luhansk region the SMM recorded a significant increase in the number of ceasefire violations compared to the previous day with over 800 explosions in the area of Stanytsia Luhanska on the evening of 15 April.
Jackson Lears: War and Forgetfulness
Vladimir Putin is the monster of the moment. He is the center of the strange frenzy that grips contemporary Washington – and the chief current reason why peace has become passé.
It’s Time to Outlaw Nuclear Weapons (Tom Sauer)
Tom Sauer, Associate Professor in International Politics at the Universiteit Antwerpen, writes in The National Interest, “In contrast to the Cold War, when the narrative of nuclear deterrence prevailed, and in contrast to the post–Cold War period, when the paradigm of nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security dominated, this is the time to focus again on the end goal—namely, nuclear elimination.”
Paul Pillar: Unipolar Strategy in a Multipolar World
With a new Cold War developing with Russia, and perhaps another one with China, it would once again behoove U.S. policymakers to acquaint themselves with some of the doctrine dating from the earlier Cold War that stemmed from long study by political scientists and strategists.
U.S. and Russia meet on cybersecurity (CNN)
Senior cybersecurity officials from the U.S. and Russia are holding meetings this week on cybersecurity, renewing efforts to prevent the countries from mistakenly getting into a cyber war, U.S. officials say.
Mary Dejevsky: Two Views of the Syria Conflict that Seem Never to Meet
“Our” version is that Russia’s “peace efforts” are merely an attempt to keep Assad in power at all costs, and that his departure must still be a precondition for peace. “Their” version is that there can be no solution without Assad, and that his fate should be decided in elections. Meanwhile a parallel, but potentially complementary, UN peace effort is making little progress, and the blood continues to flow in Ghouta.
Ukraine prepares to mark 30 years since Chernobyl shook the world (AFP/Yahoo)
Ukraine is preparing to mark 30 years since the Chernobyl disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident whose death toll remains a mystery and which continues to jeopardise the local population’s health.
Interview with Odd Arne Westad: How the Cold War can explain our current standoff with Russia
Sean Illing (Vox): You have an unconventional view of the Cold War. What do you think it was about, and when do you think it began?
Russia’s military rejects U.S. criticism of new Baltic encounter (Reuters)
Russia’s military rejected criticism by U.S. European Command on Sunday that a Russian jet had made aggressive maneuvers near a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, a second incident in the region between the Cold War-era foes in the past week.
Reuters: Ukraine president says expects delivery of U.S. weapons in weeks
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday he expected the first shipment of weapons from the United States in the next few weeks.
New Ukraine finance minister wants wriggle room in IMF talks (Reuters)
Ukraine could ask the International Monetary Fund to revise the criteria under which it disburses loans to Kiev, the new finance minister, Oleksandr Danyliuk, said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, without providing specific.
Eleanor Goldfield: From Russia With Absurdity
Whatever comes of this Red Scare will rest squarely on our shoulders as American citizens. Not the Russians, not the Brits, but us.