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.
Heinous, ideological enemy? The U.S. has been there before (Lev Golinkin)
An important article by the author of the widely praised memoir A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka writes in the Los Angles Times that “as America’s political and military leaders are engaging a new, brutal ideological enemy, I draw on the history of my adopted land to remind myself: America beat back hysteria before and can do it again.”
Paul Robinson: A Review of Luke Harding’s ‘Collusion’
I wish I could say that this book was a joke. If you were going to write a parody of the collusion story, this is perhaps what it would look like. Unfortunately, Harding is deadly serious and I suspect that a lot of uncritical readers will soak it all up…
Russian Intervention Emboldens Syrian Kurds (Wall Street Journal)
ISTANBUL—Russia’s entry into the Syrian war and its subsequent conflict with Turkey have been a boon for one other combatant in addition to the Assad regime: the Syrian Kurds.
That is the same Syrian Kurdish forces that—after Washington’s failure to bolster “moderate” Arab rebels—have also become America’s indispensable local partner in the campaign against Islamic State
Javier E. David (CNBC): Trump says Michael Flynn’s actions during transition were ‘lawful’
Ultimately, however, the case is mostly characterized by what an Associated Press report on Saturday referred to “lots of smoke, but no smoking gun.” Even the president’s sharpest detractors have been unable to find concrete evidence that his campaign may have coordinated with, or was even aware of, Russian efforts to swing the election.
Jeremy Corbyn talks common sense on nuclear weapons (Katrina vanden Heuvel)
The new leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has sparked a political firestorm by challenging the myths around nuclear weapons and Cold War deterrence.
Doug Henwood Interviews Professor Kristen Ghodsee, Author of ‘Red Hangover’
In her new book ‘Red Hangover’ Kristen Ghodsee examines the legacies of twentieth-century communism twenty-five years after the Berlin Wall fell. Ghodsee’s essays and short stories reflect on the lived experience of postsocialism and how many ordinary men and women across Eastern Europe suffered from the massive social and economic upheavals in their lives after 1989.
Russia to deploy new divisions on Western flank, form nuclear regiments (Reuters)
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will create three new military divisions on its Western flank in 2016 and bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service, Sergei Shoigu, the country’s defense minister, was quoted as saying by news agencies on Tuesday.
Harper’s Forum: Destroyer of Worlds: Taking stock of our nuclear present
Seven writers and experts survey the current nuclear landscape. Our hope is to call attention to the bomb’s ever-present menace and point our way toward a world in which it finally ceases to exist.
Oil price slide may force new Russian budget, Medvedev says (BBC)
Tumbling oil prices could force Russia to revise its 2016 budget, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has warned. He said that the country must be prepared for a “worst-case” economic scenario if the price continued to fall.
Oil was trading at less than $32 a barrel on Wednesday and has fallen by 70% in the past 15 months.
Elaine Scarry: In the United States, Just 1 Person Has the Power to Kill Millions of People
Our nuclear-weapons strategy enables one man, the president, to kill and maim an unthinkable number of people in a single afternoon.
BILD Interview with Vladimir Putin, Part 2
BILD: And what did you think when the president of the superpower USA, Barack Obama, mocked Russia as a “regional power“?
Putin: To be honest, I did not take that seriously. Of course, every head of state and government in the world is allowed to have his opinion and to voice it. Barack Obama also says America is the “chosen nation.” I do not take that seriously, either.
James Carden: William Perry Sounds the Alarm Over the Present Nuclear Danger
What will the consequences be if the bipartisan consensus on Russia continues to be almost completely untethered from reality?
BILD interviews Vladimir Putin: “For me, it is not borders that matter“
BILD: Mr President, 25 years ago, we celebrated the end of the Cold War. Now we have just had a year of more crises and wars than ever before. What went so horribly wrong in the relationship between Russia and the West?
Vladimir Putin: That is the big question. We have done everything wrong.
Adam Shatz: The President and the Bomb
Of course the threat of nuclear war never vanished. All that went away was the bipolar conflict with the Soviet Union, the theatre in which we feared the war would erupt.
How the oil collapse stole Russia’s Christmas (Reuters)
A plunge in the oil price to 12-year lows during Russia’s New Year and Orthodox Christmas break means the country returns to work on Monday with its economic recovery and once-mighty savings war chest on the line.
The equity and currency turmoil in China that rippled through world markets during Russians’ 10-day festive holiday pushed Brent crude futures to around $32 a barrel, down from $45 at the start of December…
Samuel Rubenfeld: U.S. Tightens Russia-Debt Sanctions
The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday further tightened its restrictions on certain short-term Russian corporate debt, in line with a law signed by President Donald Trump.
Donetsk Republic opposes visit of UN representatives to Donbass discussing ‘peacekeeping’ soldiers (NewColdWar.org)
The Donetsk People’s Republic is opposed to plans by political leaders in Kyiv to invite to the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine representatives of the United Nations to discuss a possible ‘peacekeeping’ mission to the region, says Denis Pushilin, the representative of the DPR to the all-party Contact Group of the Minsk-2 ceasefire process.
Pepe Escobar: Syria war, Sochi peace
Diplomatic sources confirmed to Asia Times much of the discussions in Sochi involved Russian President Vladimir Putin laying out to Iran President Hassan Rouhani and Turkey President Recep Erdogan how a new configuration may play out in a constantly evolving chessboard.
Nuclear weapons risk greater than in cold war, says ex-Pentagon chief (Guardian)
The risks of a nuclear catastrophe – in a regional war, terrorist attack, by accident or miscalculation – is greater than it was during the cold war and rising, a former US defence secretary has said.
William Perry, who served at the Pentagon from 1994 to 1997, made his comments a few hours before North Korea’s nuclear test on Wednesday, and listed Pyongyang’s aggressive atomic weapons programme as one of the global risk factors.