Two Russian military pilots have died after their helicopter crashed near the central Syrian city of Homs. The aircraft, an M-28H attack helicopter, was not shot at, Russia’s defence ministry said.
Matt Taibbi: #Russiagate Skeptics Take a Beating
We don’t know for sure where the Mueller probe is going, but don’t dare say that out loud.
Russia suicide bombing: Three attackers target police station in Stavropol region (The Independent)
Three men including at least one suicide bomber have attacked a police station in Russia’s Stavropol region near the north Caucasus.
Patrick Lawrence: Why Russia Is Emerging as the World’s Indispensable Diplomatic Power
Moscow, working in concert with others, has set courses toward the diplomatic resolution of several key conflicts.
Syrian PM says Russia to back new Aleppo attack; opposition says truce near collapse (Reuters)
The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying on Sunday, and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse.
Jackson Lears: Russiagate Revisited
The anti-Russian hysteria in Washington has slipped beyond self-parody.
Ukrainian PM Yatseniuk resigns, paving way for new government (Reuters)
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk tendered his resignation on Sunday, paving the way for Western-backed coalition parties to nominate an ally of President Petro Poroshenko to try to form a more stable government.
VIDEO: GLENN GREENWALD AND JAMES RISEN DEBATE THE TRUMP/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION
JAMES RISEN AND GLENN GREENWALD have both won Pulitzer Prizes. They both have found themselves in the crosshairs of the U.S. government for their journalism. And they both write for The Intercept. But Jim and Glenn have taken very different approaches to covering the Trump/Russia story.
Obama Was Not a Realist President (Stephen Walt)
Obama deserves low marks for his handling of Russia. I’m no fan of Vladimir Putin, but U.S. officials erred by openly siding with the demonstrators seeking to oust former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych…The result was a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, an embarrassment for the United States, and a more precarious situation in Europe, which hardly needed another problem on its agenda.
Ronald Katz: We Need a Better System for Addressing Olympic Doping
A bungled response to Russian doping allegations shows that our regulatory patchwork is disorganized and unjust.
PODCAST: Should the West Engage Putin’s Russia?
To mark the release of the new book Should the West Engage Putin’s Russia?: The Munk Debates, we are posting the Youtube video of last year’s debate in Toronto. Arguing for the proposition was ACEWA Board Member and Nation contributor Stephen F. Cohen and Vladimir Pozner. Arguing against was Anne Applebaum and Garry Kasparov.
Lyle Goldstein: Status-6: What Russia Is Saying About Its 100-Megaton Nuclear Torpedo
The “collateral damage” of the Russia investigation becomes ever more apparent.
The Dutch Referendum on the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement: Legal options for navigating a tricky situation (Guillaume Van der Loo)
In an advisory referendum held in the Netherlands on April 6th, over 61% of the voters rejected the ratification of the Association Agreement (AA) between the EU and Ukraine. If the Dutch government were to act on the outcome of the referendum, which had a low turnout of 32%, an unprecedented situation would emerge…
P.N. Loukianoff: Re-imagining Russian-American Relations: A Pragmatic Business Perspective
In our current political climate, each nation blames the other for meddling in domestic and international affairs. Foreign malfeasance cannot be tolerated, but should the United States not seek bona fide deals with Russia for the sake of America’s national interests?
Amid new cold war, memorial recalls a time of U.S., Russia coming together (Washington Times)
At a low point in post-Cold War U.S.-Russian relations, a monument is going up this month in the heart of Moscow to celebrate one of the high points of cooperation between the U.S. and the bad old Soviet Union.
Robert Zaretsky: What We Owe to Others: Simone Weil’s Radical Reminder
While Weil was responding to the crisis of Western democracies confronting the challenge of fascism, her essays can also help us think about our own crisis of political governance and legitimacy.
Why Autonomy? The Making of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region 1918–1925 (Arsène Saparov)
What are the origins of the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute? Why was a majority Christian Armenian region assigned to Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan? Some commentators frequently assert that Stalin, then the Commissar of Nationalities, personally made the decision to assign Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan as part of an imperial “divide and rule” scheme in the Caucasus. In fact, Arsene Saparov, a historian of the Caucasus and Russia, contends that the reasons for assigning the territory to Soviet Azerbaijan were more complex, based on who-controlled-what-territory at the time. The decision was not motivated by any sinister imperial machinations and Stalin played only a minor role.
Stephen F. Cohen: ‘Russiagate’ Is Revealing Alarming Truths About America’s Political-Media Elites
Its allegations and practices suggest disdain for American institutions, principles, best interests, and indeed for the American people.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE PUTIN CORRUPTION STORY (Paul Robinson)
The big news today is the publication of millions of pages of leaked documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca…No doubt these revelations will spark a flurry of vigorous debate about whether the documents really do show that Putin is corrupt. What interests me more, though, is what impact this story is likely to have on Russian-Western relations.
Rich Lowry: The Russians didn’t do anything to us that we weren’t already doing to ourselves
If only Joe McCarthy had lived to see this moment, when it’s suddenly in vogue to attribute large-scale events in American politics to the hand of Russia and to inveigh against domestic subversion.