Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists, in a gesture to shore up a tenuous ceasefire, agreed on Wednesday to strive for an end to all truce violations from next Tuesday, the OSCE and rebel representatives said.
Oliver Stone Talks to ‘The Nation’ About His New Documentary ‘The Putin Interviews’
As the intelligence community, Congress, and the press investigate alleged Russian tampering with the US presidential election, Stone shows Putin’s side of the story.
Ukraine’s largest lender PrivatBank investigated for diverting $1.8bn of IMF funds
PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest lender partly owned by controversial oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, is under criminal investigation by the authorities for fraudulently diverting around what was then about $1.8bn, the bank has confirmed.
“We are aware of the existence of criminal proceedings. PrivatBank fully cooperates with the investigators and provides all the information and documents necessary to establish the objective truth of the case,” a bank spokesperson told bne IntelliNews on August 20.
Is the Old NATO Dead? (Salvatore Babones)
In the twentieth century, NATO served its purpose admirably. The twenty-first century may feature the same old challengers, but the challenges have changed. Germany is no longer the fault line of Europe. Ukraine is the new fault line, and Ukraine is unlikely to gain NATO membership anytime soon.
Russia’s Lavrov says U.S. signals it wants to mend ties
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday the United States has been sending “signals” that it wants to start mending ties with Moscow, badly strained over the past year and a half by the conflict in Ukraine.
The United States and European Union slapped economic sanctions on Russia last year after its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
NBC’s Kelly Hits Putin with a Beloved Canard (Ray McGovern)
To prove their chops, mainstream media stars can’t wait to go head-to-head with a demonized foreign leader, like Vladimir Putin, and let him have it, even if their “facts” are wrong, as Megyn Kelly showed and Ray McGovern explains.
BREAKING: U.S. sending top-line F-22 jets to Europe
The New Cold War is ratcheting up a notch: According to CNN the U.S. Air Force will soon dispatch its most advanced fighter jet, the F-22 Raptor, to Europe in a show of solidarity with allies that have concerns about Russian actions in Ukraine, Air Force leaders said Monday.
Reconsidering Russia Podcast: Pietro Shakarian Interviews Professor Paul Robinson
In this podcast, Dr. Robinson discusses US-Russian relations, Canadian-Russian relations, Boris Johnson, Aleksei Navalny, Russian conservatism, Russian Eurasianism, Russian Orientalism, avant-garde Soviet science fiction, and the origin of the name of his blog Irrussianality.
The danger of ‘Foreign Policy by Bumper Sticker’
Important column in the Washington Post by Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel on the distorting effect the American triumphalist narrative has on the conduct of American foreign policy, especially with regard to issues involving Russia and the Middle East. According to vanden Heuvel “without facing meaningful consequences for reckless triumphalism, politicians have little incentive to break with the prevailing orthodoxy, especially when questioning America’s “indispensable” role inevitably results in attacks on their patriotism.”
The Russians Are Here….(Paul Robinson)
Good thing I checked…
Ukraine leader accuses Russia as Western powers press truce
The intense war of words between Ukraine and Russia continues, this time with Ukrainian Oligarch-President Petro Poroshenko accusing Russia supplying rebel troops in the East. From AFP: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday accused Russia of sending major military backup to pro-Moscow rebels, as he met with the French and German leaders on the recent resurgence of violence.
Russia says tells US not to strike Syrian pro-government forces again (Reuters)
Russia said on Saturday it had told the United States it was unacceptable for Washington to strike pro-government forces in Syria after the U.S. military carried out an air strike on pro-Assad militia last month.
Pulling Russia and Ukraine Back from the Brink of War
The simmering fighting in Ukraine has led to a false sense of complacency in the West that this conflict might be drifting into a frozen state. It is far from intractable, but the past several months have imposed a fog of cognitive dissonance that will be rudely pulled back, either when Moscow loses patience, or perhaps worse, control. If the West does not return its attention to Ukraine and take an active role in managing the conflict, a resumption of the war is likely.
NYT’s New Syria-Sarin Report Challenged (Robert Parry)
An MIT national security scientist says the New York Times pushed a “fraudulent” analysis of last April’s “sarin” incident in Syria, part of a troubling pattern of “groupthink” and “confirmation bias,” writes Robert Parry.
Ukraine crisis: Soldiers accuse commanders of lying as both warring sides make repeated claims of victories and broken ceasefires
Rebels and government soldiers in Ukraine have both accused their respective commanders of lying about one of the most significant battles to erupt on the front line in months.
As violence continues to escalate in the country’s restive east and the war’s official death toll surges towards 7,000, Kiev said that hundreds of pro-Russian fighters, supported by tanks and heavy artillery, launched a pre-dawn attack near the small town of Starohnativka last week. Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed its own forces launched a counter attack and seized strategic rebel positions – purportedly the first territorial gains made by the government since the ceasefire was signed in February.
Paul Robinson on Canadian Foreign Minister Freeland’s Recent Address
This is not an encouraging speech. It lacks humility and self-reflection. In this respect, it is exactly what one would expect from a politician: self-reflection isn’t patriotic; it certainly isn’t a vote winner.
Bringing Ukraine Back Into Focus
This article first appeared as part of the Bow Group’s research paper titled “The Sanctions on Russia.”
Britain’s foremost expert on Russian and European politics, Professor Richard Sakwa, has precisely articulated why all attempts to resolve the crisis in Ukraine have ended in failure:
“The Ukraine conflict is the child of the cold peace. Although there are profound internal contradictions in the Ukrainian model of state development, these would not have assumed such disastrous forms if the geopolitics of post–Cold War Europe had been sorted out earlier.”
Back in the USSR (William Astore)
Jump into your time machine and let me transport you back to another age.
It’s May 2001 and the Atlantic Monthly has just arrived in the mail. I’m tantalized by the cover article. “Russia is finished,” the magazine announces.
The Interview: Henry Kissinger
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sat down with The National Interest magazine for a wide ranging interview in July. Kissinger notes that, with regard to the Ukraine crisis “One has to analyze how the Ukraine crisis occurred. It is not conceivable that Putin spends sixty billion euros on turning a summer resort into a winter Olympic village in order to start a military crisis the week after a concluding ceremony that depicted Russia as a part of Western civilization.”
Hey Intercept, Something is Very Wrong with Reality Winner and the NSA Leak (Peter van Buren)
An NSA document purporting to show Russian military hacker attempts to access a Florida company which makes voter registration software is sent anonymously to The Intercept. A low-level NSA contractor, Reality Winner, is arrested almost immediately. What’s wrong with this picture? A lot.