…details are spilling out, and they are not bolstering the intelligence community’s conclusion. Indeed, the most recent revelation suggests they don’t understand who has influence in Moscow.
Want to escalate U.S.-Russia tension? Arm Ukraine.
Washington’s legion of escalation argues for “raising the costs” to Russia by increasing the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine…This rationale is logical on its face, but in practice does not account for the gap between the Russian and American stake in Ukraine. Kiev’s geopolitical orientation is supremely important to Russia, while American interests’ via-a-vis Ukraine are peripheral at best. It’s a case of “must have” for the Russians, versus “nice to have” for the United States.
It’s time for Democrats to drop the Russia ‘shtick’ (Michael Tracey)
Given Trump’s clear impulsivity and belligerent tendencies, the last thing Democrats ought to be doing is incentivizing him to take a needlessly hostile stance toward Putin – or any other world leader, for that matter.
China and Russia: the world’s new superpower axis?
Forget euro summits and G7 gatherings: for the countries that like to style themselves as the world’s rising powers, the real summitry takes place this week in central Russia, where Vladimir Putin will hold court.
Leaders of the Brics countries (Brazil, India, China and South Africa) will meet Putin in Ufa on Wednesday, then make way for the Asian powers grouped in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
Behold the Master Conspirator (Holman Jenkins)
Mr. Schiff and Mr. Page are fitting sharers of the stage in this episode, with a certain indefinable insubstantiality in common.
Saudi Arabia to invest $10B in Russia
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is to invest up to $10 billion in Russia over the next five years, in a move signalling a thawing in relations between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the country’s sovereign wealth investment vehicle, agreed on Monday to invest $10 billion over the next five years approximately in the Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a government-run investment fund.
The Coming Crisis With Iran (Trita Parsi)
President Trump has flip-flopped many times during his first months in office. But none may be as consequential as his decision on April 18 to certify that Iran is abiding by the nuclear deal of 2015, paving the way for further waiving of sanctions.
ACEWA Founding Board Member John E. Pepper on the US, Russia and Ukraine: The Danger Escalates
As we all know, it is hard for an individual or nation to view the world or a particular situation through the eyes of another person or nation. I have never seen this more true than what is transpiring now over the Ukrainian crisis as it is viewed by the United States and Russia.
This is a subject of deep concern because the security of our world is threatened and we risk losing the need for collaboration on such transcendent issues as nuclear proliferation and terrorism in Iran and Syria. [Read more…] about ACEWA Founding Board Member John E. Pepper on the US, Russia and Ukraine: The Danger Escalates
American, Russian arrive at International Space Station (ABC News)
A Soyuz space capsule delivered an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station on Thursday.
Interview: Thomas Pickering on diplomacy, Iran, Korea, Russia, realpolitik, and the ethics of war
Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering recently gave a comprehensive interview to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in which he touched on arms control issues with an eye toward the situations in Iran, North Korea and Russia. Regarding the current crisis in relations with Russia, he noted, “When the Soviet Union went out of business, they thought there would be no NATO enlargement…And they are still concerned about NATO enlargement and encirclement, especially about the prospect of NATO enlargement to Ukraine.” Read the whole thing here.
PODCAST: Why the New Cold War Is More Dangerous Than the Preceding One (Stephen F. Cohen)
Nation Contributing Editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. Cohen recalls that in 2014, when the Ukrainian crisis erupted, he warned that the new Cold War might be more dangerous than was its 40-year predecessor for several reasons. The political epicenter of this Cold War was on Russia’s borders, first in Ukraine, then in the Baltic region, whereas previously it had been in far-away Berlin.
Toward a Rational US Strategy
The ultimate madness of today’s U.S. foreign policy is Official Washington’s eager embrace of a new Cold War against Russia with the potential for nuclear annihilation. A rational strategy would seek alternatives to this return to big-power confrontation, writes ex-U.S. diplomat William R. Polk.
Bomb First: David Bromwich On The Implications of Trump’s Syria Strike
It looks as if the relentless Democratic strategy of pinning Trump to Russia has turned back to plague its inventors.
Putin Sends Obama an Independence Day Message
Russian President Vladimir Putin called for dialogue based on equal treatment and mutual respect with the United States on Saturday in a congratulatory message to President Barack Obama marking U.S. Independence Day.
Putin said U.S.-Russian relations remained important for solving global crises. The two countries have disagreements over the conflict in Ukraine, defense matters and democracy.
The West must react with equal outrage when it is Shias that are the victims of terrorism (Robert Fisk)
No-one should question the brutality of the Assad regime. Nor its torture. Nor its history of massive oppression. Yet there are, in fact, some grave doubts about Bashar’s responsibility for the 4 April attack – which he has predictably denied – even among Arabs who loath his Baathist regime and all it stands for.
Ukraine crisis: Rally in Kiev urges war on eastern rebels
About 1,000 Ukrainian pro-government fighters and far-right supporters have marched through the centre of the capital, Kiev. Many burned tyres and wore balaclavas; some carried white supremacist flags. They called on the government to end the Minsk ceasefire accord and declare war on pro-Russian rebels in the east.
Flashback: April 2014: The Red Line and the Rat Line (Seymour M. Hersh)
The full extent of US co-operation with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar in assisting the rebel opposition in Syria has yet to come to light. The Obama administration has never publicly admitted to its role in creating what the CIA calls a ‘rat line’, a back channel highway into Syria.
Root of tattered US-Russia ties dates back decades
The fundamental hopes and fears lurk in the collective minds of the Russian and American nations despite the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly a quarter-century ago. That puts their world views at odds, with the crisis over Ukraine the latest and biggest confrontation.
That dismal relationship more often than not can be linked to the eastward expansion of the NATO alliance and Moscow’s refusal to believe America’s promises that it does not threaten Russia.
Flashback: May 2013: UN Sources Say Syrian Rebels Used Sarin Gas (The Atlantic)
A member of the United Nations commission of inquiry announced on a Swiss-Italian television show that they believe the Syrian rebels have used chemical weapons on Assad’s troops.
One Day in the Life of ‘Ukrainian Democracy’
Samantha Power’s delusions notwithstanding, due to the inordinate presence of non-democratic elements and outside the Maidan government, ‘Ukrainian democracy’ remains a distant dream. We learned from the shortcomings of early ‘transitology’ in the 1990s that free and fair elections do not a democracy make.