A lot of pieces are in play this week in wide-ranging negotiations between the United States and Russia. Tuesday brought possible movement on one particularly thorny issue: Ukraine. On Jan. 19, an official from the Donetsk People’s Republic said the pro-Russia separatist territory was open to compromise on the issue of local elections in Donbas — a key sticking point in the implementation of the Minsk agreement.
Robert Parry: The Tangled Thread of Russia-gate
No matter how often the U.S. mainstream media asserts the suspicion of Russian “hacking” of Democratic emails as flat fact, no solid proof has yet been presented – and the claim has been denied by both the Russian government and WikiLeaks, which published the key emails.
Czechs Eye New Spec Ops Unit; Ukraine To Establish Training Center (Defense News)
WARSAW — Numerous Eastern European allies have intensified their efforts to develop special operations units following Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and the role played by hybrid warfare in Moscow’s takeover of the Crimean peninsula.
Bloomberg: It’s Official: Putin Says He’ll Run for Re-Election
At the peak of his power at home and abroad, Putin is expected to win a landslide in the contest, due on March 18, with a recent poll showing he’d get 67 percent of the vote.
Obama changes tack on Russia, calls up Putin (Asia Times)
The US President Barack Obama sprang a New Year surprise on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin by telephoning him Wednesday night. It was a double surprise since the Russian New Year Holiday Week is ending on Thursday, January 14, and Obama rarely makes such gestures; and, secondly, the call signified a virtual U-turn just a day after the US president had made some unfriendly remarks about the Kremlin’s policies and caricatured Russia as undermining the international system.
Reuters: Putin declares “complete victory” on both banks of Euphrates in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday a complete victory had been achieved over Islamic State militants on both banks of the Euphrates river in Syria.
Leaders of Qatar and Russia discuss Syria war (Al Jazeera)
The leaders of Russia and Qatar have sought to narrow their differences on Syria, a week before planned Syrian peace talks in Switzerland.
On his first visit to Moscow, Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani emphasised on Monday Russia’s role in the region during his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, and voiced hope for finding a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict
Michael Brendan Dougherty: Putin Conspiracists Often Sound Envious
The obsession with Putin can act as a kind of infantile escapism for depressed liberal elites.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
We mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by recalling his seminal antiwar speech delivered on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in Morningside Heights, Manhattan in which he urged us to “rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.”
Aaron Mate: The Trump Team Definitely Colluded with a Foreign Power, Just Not the One You Think
Why is the media paying scant attention to Michael Flynn’s admissions about Israel?
Political Responsibility in the Nuclear Age: An Open Letter to the American People (The Nation)
Throughout the world there is a false confidence that, because the Cold War is over and no nuclear weapons have been used since 1945, the nuclear dangers that once frightened and concerned people can now be ignored.
Leonid Bershidsky: President Petro Poroshenko is sacrificing Westernization to a personal political agenda
It’s become increasingly clear that Obama-era U.S. politicians backed the wrong people in Ukraine. President Petro Poroshenko’s moves to consolidate his power now include sidelining the anti-corruption institutions he was forced to set up by Ukraine’s Western allies.
Russia denies killing civilians in Syrian air strikes while threatening to reveal alleged US ‘collateral damage’ (Independent UK)
The war of words between the US and Russia has flared up again. According to this report in the Independent, with both sides accusing the other of bombing civilians.
Doug Bandow: Why Isn’t Europe Preparing for a War with Russia?
Despite the overwrought rhetoric that fills Washington, Moscow poses no meaningful military threat to the United States. Mucking around with the 2016 election was offensive, but Washington has done the same, only far more often in many more nations.
TAKING UKRAINE’S CARROT (Paul Robinson)
Ukraine, we are often told, has made a choice – to become a ‘European’ country, and in this way to decisively cut its historical ties to ‘non-European’ Russia. But what if Europe (in the form of the European Union (EU)) turns Ukraine away?
This has always been more likely than supporters of Ukraine’s post-Maidan government have been willing to admit.
Gwendolyn Sasse: High Time to End the War in Ukraine
Overall, the political conditions for a resolution of the war in Donbas are deteriorating on all sides.
Top US, Kremlin officials meet at Russian border for closed Ukraine talks (AFP)
Moscow (AFP) – Top US and Russian officials met Friday in Russia’s westernmost outpost to discuss the Ukraine crisis amid a fresh international drive to bolster a fragile truce in the east of the ex-Soviet country.
Robin Andersen: Backlash Against Russian ‘Fake News’ Is Shutting Down Debate for Real
The way fake news is being defined in this battle is an attack on alternative journalism itself.
The New US-Russian Cold War Originated in the 1990’s (Stephen F Cohen)
Nation contributing editor and ACEWA Board Member Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new American-Russian Cold War.
Robert Parry: The Scalp-Taking of Gen. Flynn
The Russia-gate prosecutors have taken the scalp of ex- National Security Adviser (and retired Lt. Gen.) Flynn for lying to the FBI. But this case shows how dangerously far afield this “scandal” has gone, reports Robert Parry.