NATO Defense Ministers are meeting in Brussels on June 24-25. To mark the occasion we are publishing George F. Kennan’s May 1998 interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. In it, Kennan foresaw the perils of NATO expansion, telling Friedman “I think it is the beginning of a new cold war…I think it is a tragic mistake.”
US Troops Deployed To Ukraine, Without Debate (Stars and Stripes)
For three years, U.S. Army Europe has been leading an effort to bolster the capability of Ukraine’s armed forces. The effort, initially focused on developing the country’s national guard, has been expanded to include the training of regular active-duty forces.
NATO retools for a long-haul standoff with Russia
From top-level decisions like how NATO orders its troops into action to the very granular, like repainting an airfield near the Baltic Sea coast, the U.S.-led alliance is retooling for what it fears could be years of confrontation with a resurgent and unpredictable Russia.
Terrorism in America? They hate us for our freedom! Terrorism in Russia? They had it coming! (Danielle Ryan)
Mere hours after the blast, commentators were referring to the attack as “blowback” for Russia’s foreign policy. This is not a word you hear frequently in the aftermath of terror attacks on European and American cities — despite decades of Western military intervention in the Middle East, with much of it engendering intense resentment among Arabs and Muslims.
Extended EU-Russia sanctions create risky new status quo
Moscow is preparing to prolong retaliatory measures against the EU, after the bloc extended for six months economic sanctions against Russia, raising the prospect of a frozen conflict in Ukraine that analysts say will damage both sides.
Following the expected June 22 extension decision by the EU foreign ministers…Moscow ministries were instructed to draw up proposals for renewing counter-measures for submission to President Vladimir Putin.
On the Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (Katrina vanden Heuvel)
The “poetician, not politician” always seemed conscious of the Russian adage that a great writer is more than a writer—he is a second government.
U.S. Sending Armored Combat Brigade to Europe Amid Russia Tension
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter confirmed Tuesday that the U.S. will deploy one armored combat brigade to Europe, bolstering joint training exercises with NATO partners in an effort to deter Russian aggression in eastern Europe. Carter said the armored brigade will include tanks, artillery and armored vehicles.
PODCAST: The Death of Russia’s Great Poet-Dissenter and the Lack of His Civic Courage in the US Establishment (Stephen F. Cohen)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, who died last week, challenged Soviet authorities for decades while Americans at far less risk remain silent in the face of Cold War hysteria. Prof. Stephen F. Cohen wonders why established American figures — in the media, Congress, universities, cultural life, and elsewhere — have not protested the Soviet-style abuses now engulfing US politics in a wave of McCarthy-like hysteria. They have far less to lose than did Yevtushenko.
EU extends sanctions against Russia as Ukraine conflict rumbles on
The European Union has extended economic sanctions against Russia until January to keep pressure on Moscow over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, drawing a rebuke and a warning of retaliation from Russian officials. An EU statement released on Monday said the decision was taken without debate by the bloc’s foreign ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg, in response to “Russia’s destabilising role in eastern Ukraine”.
Reconsidering Russia Podcast #6: Pietro Shakarian Interviews Fred Weir
In this podcast, Fred Weir, Moscow Correspondent at The Christian Science Monitor, and Pietro Shakarian discuss Russian politics and society, US-Russian relations, the centenary of the Russian Revolution, Nagorno-Karabakh, Ukraine, the American Rust Belt, and Weir’s experiences covering Russia as a journalist, living on an Israeli kibbutz, and working as a journeyman ironworker.
Stephen F. Cohen: Lecture at Fairfield University on US-Russian Relations
In February, ACEWA Founding Board Member and NYU and Princeton Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen gave a lecture on the crisis in Ukraine and the state of US-Russian relations and the very real possibility of a new and even more dangerous Cold War between the two nations. Coming as it did in the days leading up to Minsk II it makes for relevant viewing today.
Putin Derangement Syndrome Arrives (Matt Taibbi)
Whatever the truth about Trump and Russia, the speculation surrounding it has become a dangerous case of mass hysteria.
Russia “open for world”, says Putin, with business stuck in a rut
The theme of the 2015 St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is “Time to act: shared paths to sustainability and growth”. But as Russia pushes through major economic upheavals and growing international isolation, President Vladimir Putin’s speech in the northern city on June 19 was conspicuously lacking a real action plan to re-energise the business environment.
Tell Your Senators and Representative: Escalating Rhetoric Against Russia Could Lead to Nuclear Catastrophe (RootsAction)
In 1963, the same year as his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King pointedly said: “We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
The Sino-Russian Marriage
It may be considered a singular success for Western statesmanship to have brought two old rivals for power and influence in Central Asia…The US, especially, missed opportunities to integrate both countries into a single world system, by rebuffing reforms of the International Monetary Fund that would have strengthened China’s decision-making influence, and by blocking Russia’s overtures for NATO membership. This led both countries to seek an alternative future in each other’s company.
Recurring Foreign Policy Errors and the Decision to Intervene in Russia (Daniel Larison)
The intervention in Russia’s civil war is a classic example of how the U.S. can be lured into doing something unnecessary and dangerous in a war in which it had nothing at stake to satisfy allies on the basis of shoddy information.
Newsflash, America: Ukraine Cannot Afford a War with Russia
The lobbying for arming Ukraine has been underway for several months, but the passage of time has not increased the quality of what passes for a debate on this topic. This is particularly lamentable because the parties involved (Ukraine, Russia, Moscow’s Donbas allies, the United States and the EU) could soon start down a road that leads to a deepening of the conflict.
NATO’s Neocolonial Discourse and its Resisters: The Case of Montenegro (Filip Kovacevic)
Filip Kovacevic, an Adjunct Professor at University of San Francisco, writes, that “pro-NATO discourse” has presented “NATO membership as the ultimate proof of Montenegro’s political and economic ‘development’ and ‘maturity’.”
Harsh Realities in Ukraine
Four months after the Minsk II accords, the Ukraine crisis continues to simmer, with occasional violent eruptions. The ceasefire in Donbass has not prevented some 1,000 people from losing their lives since February, adding to the previous fatality count of more than 5,000. Some of the heavy weapons that both sides should have pulled back from the line of contact are still positioned close to that line, and are active.
Diplomatic Give-and-Take Is Not a Sign of Weakness (The American Conservative)
The idea that Vladimir Putin is going to be cowed into submission by shows of U.S. military strength or abandon defending what he believes are Russian security interests is naïve.