The Polish national elections which took place on October 25 are relevant to US-European-Russian relations because, with the ascent of the right-wing Law and Justice Party, the more moderate foreign policy espoused under Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz will likely be replaced by one which will likely take an ever hardliner line toward Russia than the policy pursued under the virulently Russo-phobic former foreign minister, the Civic Platform’s Radek Sikorski. For more, see The Guardian article below – Editor.
Asia Times: The US security establishment appears to be operating in score-settling mode
In case it has escaped your notice, the diplomatic tit-for-tat between Moscow and Washington has become deadly serious.
Ukrainians fear Russian bombs in Syria are bad news for them
The following may be of interest because it gives the view of the government in Kiev regarding recent events in Syria. Please keep in mind that when ACEWA posts an article under “News” or “Analysis” it is not necessarily endorsing its contents. In the following piece, reporter Matthew Schofield notes that, “In recent weeks, as Russian bombs and missiles have started landing in Homs, Hama and Aleppo in Syria, concern has grown among Ukrainians that one of the primary targets of the barrage actually is their country.”
From the Archives: Part II of Patrick Lawrence’s Interview with Stephen F. Cohen
In part two, Cohen completes his analysis of Vladimir Putin’s inheritance and explains how he came to focus his thinking on “lost alternatives”- outcomes that could have been but were not. Most surprising to me was the real but foregone prospect of reforming the Soviet system such that the suffering that ensued since its demise could have been averted.
The Russian military has been effective in Syria
Ever since the first indications that there were Russians encamped at the airfield in Latakia, theories have proliferated around Russia’s strategy in Syria, its intentions, and questions on how far they — and others — will go.
There are lots of things that these theories get wrong.
From the Archives: Patrick Lawrence In Conversation With Stephen F. Cohen (Salon)
There’s an alternative story of Russian relations we’re not hearing. Historian Stephen Cohen tells it here…
Exit polls in Ukraine local elections show east-west split
MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Four exit polls from Ukraine’s local elections released Monday indicated the governing coalition would retain its dominant position in the west and center of the country despite widespread disappointment with the government of President Petro Poroshenko.
The Central Election Committee said it had received data from only 30 percent of the vote by Monday morning, reflecting the challenge of calculating the results of elections for more than 10,700 local councils as well as mayors. More than 130 parties fielded candidates. Complete results were expected Nov. 4.
Who Won the Cold War? (Jordan Michael Smith)
The Cold War: A World History is told chronologically, but unlike most books on the subject, it begins with the right period.
BREAKING NEWS: Iraqi parliament approves Russian air strikes against ISIL
After weeks of political wrangling, the Iraqi parliament finally agreed to allow Russia to launch air strikes against the terrorist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, paving the way for the involvement of a powerful new combatant in an already complex battleground in a move that will likely incense the US.
The Real Danger of Sending U.S. Arms to Ukraine (Brian Milakovsky)
I know many proponents of sending arms to Ukraine sincerely believe it will check Russian aggression and save lives. If the sales go forward and it indeed helps reduce violence in the frontline zone, I will be delighted to have been wrong. But if this move instead triggers escalation and subjects Donbass civilians to a new round of death and misery, will proponents still be paying attention?
Katrina vanden Heuvel Asks the Next President: Would you take us to war with Russia?
Will the next president avert a new Cold War between the United States and Russia over Ukraine? Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of The Nation, wants to know. Make the wrong move, she warns, and you risk a disaster for “women, children and other living beings.”
More Misleading Russia-gate Propaganda (Robert Parry)
The U.S. mainstream media is touting a big break in Russia-gate, emails showing an effort by Donald Trump’s associates to construct a building in Moscow. But the evidence actually undercuts the “scandal,” reports Robert Parry.
RUSSIA’S MISSING LIBERALS
Prof. Paul Robinson explores some reasons why liberal Russian political parties such as PARNAS remain unpopular at the polls. According to Robinson, while the oft-stated liberal complaint that “they suffer from a combination of state repression and constant propaganda from state-controlled media” may have some validity, Robinson speculates that, among other reasons, “it is possible that Russian liberalism is tainted because it has never been able to develop a healthy relationship with the state and with concepts of legality, constitutional process, and the like. This comes out in the obsession with street protest, the hopes for ‘regime change’, a ‘colour revolution’, and so on.”
Washington and Moscow Must Embrace Détente – Despite Trump (Katrina vanden Heuvel)
When Bill Clinton trampled upon repeated promises and began expanding NATO towards the Russian border, George F. Kennan, the architect of containment, warned of a “tragic mistake.” NATO expansion helped convince Russians that the West regards it as a permanent enemy. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency recently reported that the Kremlin apparently believes the United States seeks regime change in Russia.
Nuclear War, Nuclear Winter, and Human Extinction
Steven Starr, the director of the University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program, as well as a senior scientist at the Physicians for Social Responsibility, writes in a timely piece for the Federation of American Scientists that “While it is impossible to precisely predict all the human impacts that would result from a nuclear winter, it is relatively simple to predict those which would be most profound…
Following the detonation (in conflict) of US and/or Russian launch-ready strategic nuclear weapons, nuclear firestorms would burn simultaneously over a total land surface area of many thousands or tens of thousands of square miles.”
PODCAST: Reconsidering Russia #14: Alexander Rabinowitch Talks With Pietro Shakarian
Dr. Alexander Rabinowitch, Professor Emeritus of Russian History at Indiana University in Bloomington, discusses his life and times and the Russian Revolution.
Fallout from Obama’s Failed Syria Policy: US Military Support for Russia’s Syria Intervention
A small but vocal group of retired American military officers, including President Obama’s former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, have become so disgusted with the Obama Administration’s lack of a coherent strategy for defeating the Islamic State (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq, that they have publicly come out, supporting the Russian intervention, and calling for a US-Russian partnership to defeat ISIL, even if it means postponing the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Some of these retired flag officers retain deep ties to active duty officers, up to the level of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
For the U.S., Arming Ukraine Could Be a Deadly Mistake (Michael Kofman)
On his visit to Ukraine this week, the American defense secretary, Jim Mattis, confirmed that he favors providing “defensive weapons” to the former Soviet republic.
We Still Don’t Know How Trump’s Administration Will Handle Ukraine (Nikolas Gvosdev)
In Kiev, Mattis could provide no definitive answers to questions about what is likely to change.
US, RUSSIA, SAUDI, TURKEY MULL NEW SYRIA TRANSITION IDEAS
VIENNA (AP) — The United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey put forward new ideas Friday to revive a failed push for a political transition in Syria that could end the country’s civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday. But they remained deeply divided over the future of Syrian President Bashar Assad.