Former Republican Secretary of State George Shultz on Thursday warned Congress against embracing the Trump administration’s consideration of new nuclear weapons with smaller explosive yields – as proposed in a draft of the Pentagon’s pending Nuclear Posture Review.
Ukrainians rally to demand Russia release Savchenko (AP)
About 2,000 people have rallied on Independence Square in Kiev to demand that Russia release Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: It is now two minutes to midnight
The year just past proved perilous and chaotic, a year in which many of the risks foreshadowed in our last Clock statement came into full relief.
U.S. military spending vs. the world (National Priorities Project)
The U.S. outpaces all other nations in military expenditures. World military spending totaled more than $1.7 trillion in 2013. The U.S. accounted for 37 percentof the total.
Peter Hitchens: Is there Really a Russian Threat to Britain?
Silly media reports contrive to suggest that Britain is ceaselessly ‘confronting’ or ‘escorting’ Russian ships or planes which fly through international waters or airspace near our islands. But read them carefully.
Ukrainian foreign minister Klimkin says no breakthrough in Ukraine talks (DW)
With the Minsk peace accord more than a year old, France and Germany say little has been done to implement it. Although violence has wound down, social and economic reforms remain neglected, Berlin says.
Stephen F. Cohen: The American Bipartisan Policy Establishment Declares Its ‘Second Cold War’ vs. Russia After Years of Denying It
The most influential US foreign-policy membership society has issued a report affirming the new Cold War and its eagerness to fight it.
Obama Prolongs Sanctions on Russia Over Ukraine Crisis (ABC News)
President Obama has extended for another year U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine, according to a White House statement.
Obama signed an executive order to prolong the raft of measures that target senior Russian officials and businessmen connected to President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, as well as a number of key Russian state companies, blocking them from visiting or holding assets in the United States, as well as doing business with some U.S. companies.
Eugene Rumer: Our national obsession with Russia is preventing sane debate
We have developed a national obsession with Russia. Hardly a day goes by without many column inches and much airtime being devoted to yet another Russian transgression.
Russia Slams Top NATO General’s Remarks On Moscow ‘Weaponzing’ EU Refugee Crisis (IBT)
Top NATO General Philip Breedlove told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that Russian airstrikes against Syrian rebels and Islamic State group targets are leading to an increase in the number of asylum-seekers from the region.
Paul Robinson: Backtracking on Information Warfare
It’s interesting to witness somebody backtracking from a long-held opinion without actually admitting it. This thought came to mind when reading an article by Peter Pomerantsev…
In Russia, an Energy Freeze Comes With Strings Attached (STRATFOR)
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 2 that his country’s major oil producers had reached an agreement to freeze production at January’s levels. This confirms that Russia will cooperate with a general production freeze agreement made in February by major producers both in and outside OPEC.
Gordon Hahn: Russian Propaganda: Much Ado About Little Compared with Western Stratcomm
Much is being made about the ostensibly omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Russian propaganda machine.
PODCAST: The Syrian Cease-Fire Is Under Attack From Within the Obama Administration (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US–Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com). While in Ukraine, the political epicenter of the new Cold War, the US-backed Kiev’s government’s crisis grows worse, Cohen emphasizes that the US–Russian brokered ceasefire in Syria presents an opportunity to deal a major blow to the Islamic State, greatly diminish the Syrian civil war and generate cooperation between the two proxy powers in Ukraine.
The agreement is, however, under fierce attack on many fronts. US “allies” Turkey and Saudi Arabia are threatening to disregard the ceasefire provisions by launching their own war in Syria. In Washington, Secretary of Defense Carter and his top generals informed the White House and Congress that Kerry’s agreement with Moscow is a “ruse” and that Putin’s Russia remains the “No. 1 existential threat” to the United States—charges amply echoed in the American mainstream press.
In this context, Cohen makes three additional points. The “Plan B” proposed by Carter apparently means a larger US military intervention in Syria to create an anti-Russian, anti-Assad “safe zone” that would in effect partition the country. This, Cohen adds, would continue the partitioning of political territories that began with the end of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the 1990s and now looms over Syria, Ukraine and even the European Union. Second, though today’s severe international crises get scant attention in the ongoing US presidential campaigns, Mrs. Clinton has a potentially large and highly vulnerable stake in the Syrian crisis. As documented by a two-part New York Times investigation, then Secretary of State Clinton played the leading role in the White House’s decision to topple Libyan leader Gaddafi in 2011, which led to a terrorist-ridden failed state and a growing bastion of the Islamic State today. Clinton’s campaign statements suggest that she does not support Kerry’s initiatives but instead a replication of the Libyan operation in order to remove Syrian President Assad—a version, it seems, of Carter’s “Plan B.” Third, Cohen, pointing to the familiar (and meaningless) accusation that Putin has “weaponized information,” wonders whether the coverage of these events by US mainstream media is more misleading than Russian media coverage or about the same. Or, as Russian political intellectuals like to say when presented with two bad alternatives, “Both are worst.”
Leonid Bershidsky: A New Peace Effort Is Needed in East Ukraine
A new Ukrainian law recognizes the demise of the Minsk agreements. This shouldn’t be the end of the road.
US and Russia in partnership over Syria (BBC)
Syria’s “cessation of hostilities” is making a difference – whatever the arguments about early violations, the level of violence across the country has fallen – and with this fragile modicum of progress, the United States and Russia find themselves in harness after years in which Syria was a forum for their rivalry.
Ray Acheson: We Need a Complete Nuclear-Weapons Ban
The terrifying incident in Hawaii proves that nuclear disarmament is as important as ever.
Germany says credibility of Minsk peace deal for eastern Ukraine at stake (Reuters)
The credibility of the Minsk peace deal for eastern Ukraine will come under threat unless both sides in the conflict make faster progress in implementing the agreement, Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday.
Valery Chalidze, Soviet Dissident Forced Into Exile, Dies at 79
With his wife, he edited and published a translation of the Federalist Papers, which President George Bush presented to the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev as a gift during a summit meeting in 1990.
Ukraine bans officials from criticizing government (Reuters)
Ukraine banned government officials on Tuesday from publicly criticizing the work of state institutions and their colleagues, after damaging disclosures last month that highlighted slow progress in fighting corruption. The move immediately drew criticism from some civil servants who saw it as a blow to freedom of speech at odds with the embattled government’s Western-backed reform drive.