The peace agreement signed in Minsk in February 2015 prescribed a path towards a permanent settlement of the war in Ukraine by the end of this year. To date not one of its clauses has been fully put into effect. While the scale of the fighting is much reduced compared with the start of the year, there is still not a complete ceasefire; Kiev has not passed a law providing the promised amnesty; prisoner exchanges have taken place but are incomplete; and the Ukrainian government has not restored social and economic connections between government and rebel-held territories (indeed it has done the opposite by tightening its blockade of the latter).
Edward Kline, ‘Silent Partner’ in Aiding Soviet Dissidents, Dies at 85 (New York Times)
Edward Kline, a Yale math major who, bored with the department store chain he inherited, devoted his career to supporting Soviet dissidents in Russia and promoting their cause abroad, died on June 24 in Manhattan. He was 85.
Ukraine’s Poroshenko says rebel elections threaten peace deal, extends sanctions
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on Wednesday to extend sanctions on over 400 individuals and 90 legal entities in response to a decision by separatist rebels to set a date for what Kiev sees as “illegal elections”.
Violence is at its lowest ebb since the Minsk ceasefire agreement was signed seven months ago, but the latest altercation highlights how far the two sides are from finding common ground and a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Ukraine’s Downward Spiral (Kenneth Courtis)
Kiev had an eventful week. On Wednesday, a global cyber attack, launched from Ukraine, spread like wildfire globally. While all of this was happening the head of the Kiev regime’s counter-intelligence was blown to pieces as his car passed through an intersection in the center of the city.
PM Zakharchenko says local elections to proceed in DPR on Oct 18
Prime Minister Aleksandr Zakharchenko gave a press conference on September 12, 2015 to explain the plans of the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic to hold district and municipal elections on October 18…according to Zakharchenko “Local elections are planned in accordance with the Constitution and legislation of the Donetsk People’s Republic. These totally and completely comply with the letter and spirit of the Minsk agreements.”
‘Let’s Get Back to Russia’: Media’s Interest in Narrowing the Trump Story (Eoin Higgins)
A recent Harvard Harris poll found a majority of Americans want the government to concentrate on issues like healthcare and the economy, rather than the endless Russia investigations spawned from the media frenzy.
NYT asks: Are Western values losing their sway?
Steven Erlanger in the New York Times, asks: Are Western Values Losing Their Sway? Here’s my two cents:
The problem with our “Western values” is not the values in themselves, although some are certainly questionable. The real problem is the triumphalism that came with them after the West’s ‘victory’ at the end of the Cold War, a dangerous triumphalism that continues today. We have utterly convinced ourselves that everyone else wants what we have and we will use any methods, from the most bloody and overt, to the most quiet and covert, to pass them on.
The Real Ukrainian Solution Is Federalism (Nicolai Petro)
As anyone who has ever visited Lviv can attest, events glorifying those who collaborated with the Nazis are deemed perfectly normal there. They are even widely commercialized.
BREAKING: US to Begin Training Ukraine’s Active-Duty Military
U.S. paratroops will soon begin training members of Ukraine’s active-duty military, expanding a program in western Ukraine that began by providing support for the country’s newly formed national guard.
Troops with the Vicenza, Italy-based 173rd Airborne Brigade will train up to five battalions of Ukrainian soldiers as operation Fearless Guardian enters a second phase in November, U.S. Army Europe said.
Ukraine: A New Plan (Hall Gardner)
A general settlement with Moscow that results in Ukrainian neutrality, but allows self-defense forces and permits Moscow to retain sovereignty over Crimea, will not necessarily result in a full “capitulation”—even if Washington must lower its sights as to what can and cannot be negotiated in Moscow’s view.
Russia’s Nabiullina named central bank governor of 2015 by Euromoney
Russia’s Elvira Nabiullina was named central bank governor of 2015 by Euromoney magazine on Wednesday for helping stabilise her country’s economy at a time of collapsing oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.
Under her leadership, the central bank rolled out a series of emergency measures late last year to deal with turmoil on Russian financial markets, including an overnight interest rate hike and refinancing tools to help out dollar-starved banks.
The Washington Post, Russia, and Trump (Gordon Hahn)
Ever since the defeat of their preferred candidate in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, the Washington Post has been engaged in an extensive ‘hissy fit’ and disinformation campaign that greatly exaggerates and even outright manufactures the story of significant Russian influence in the campaign.
Why Russia’s Actions in Syria Are No Shocker
A recent New York Times editorial castigated Russia for arming the embattled Assad regime and deploying military personnel to Syria. It’s increasingly evident that the Kremlin is deepening its military presence in Syria to prop up a Syrian government that hovers near collapse and has lost control of large parts of its domain.
Yet the editorial’s assessment of Russian conduct in Syria is suffused with naiveté and conceit.
Understanding Russia Doesn’t Mean Liking Moscow; It Means Making America Safer (Paul Saunders)
One of America’s biggest problems in dealing with Russia today is the pressure on policymakers to decide on a course of action without a good understanding of our rival and its motives, goals and priorities.
Washington’s “group think” blames Russia’s Putin for the Syrian crisis
Sen. Lindsey Graham may have been wrong about pretty much everything related to the Middle East, but at least he has the honesty to tell Americans that the current trajectory of the wars in Syria and Iraq will require a U.S. re-invasion of the region and an open-ended military occupation of Syria, draining American wealth, killing countless Syrians and Iraqis, and dooming thousands, if not tens of thousands, of U.S. troops.
PODCAST: Media Contempt for Facts Grows Along With the Dangers of War With Russia (Stephen F. Cohen)
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen is increasingly alarmed that as Washington and Moscow drift toward military conflict, the US political-media establishment remains obsessed with “Russiagate”—allegations that Russian President Putin ordered the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 to abet Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and that Trump’s associates, possibly the new president himself, “colluded” in this “hijacking of American democracy.” No actual evidence has ever been made public regarding either the purported hacking or the collusion.
The Obama Administration Rejects Russia’s Offer to Form a New Military Coalition vs. ISIS in Syria
Nation contributing editor and ACEWA Founding Board Member Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Pointing to the torrent of American political and media denunciations of Russian President Putin’s increasing of Moscow’s longstanding military support of the Assad regime in Syria, along with Putin’s dramatic offer to join the US-led air war against ISIS in Syria, Cohen concludes that Washington seems to prefer an Islamic State takeover of Damascus to any cooperation with Putin’s Russia.
Russia-gate Is No Watergate or Iran-Contra (Robert Parry)
Many comparisons have been made between Russia-gate and the earlier scandals of Watergate and Iran-Contra, but the similarities are at best superficial, explains Robert Parry.
Russia’s Syria Surprise (And What America Should Do about It)
Russia’s ongoing military buildup in Syria poses a serious challenge to American policy in the region. What response will best advance American interests in Syria and, more broadly, in the Middle East? That depends in large part on what Russia hopes to achieve.
PODCAST: Vladimir Pozner discusses his life with Pietro Shakarian
This wide-ranging interview includes discussions of Mr. Pozner’s parents’ activities in the French Resistance in World War II, the Pozner family’s emigration to the USSR, the Khrushchev Thaw, the reaction of Soviet society to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika, space bridges between American and Soviet societies….