We post the following not to help promote perhaps the Western world’s premier self-promoter, but, rather, in a spirit of concern for Ukrainian President Poroshenko who seems to now be in thrall to the preening French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who has been wrong about nearly every single foreign policy issue since the end of the Cold War. -Editor
A letter from Sam Nunn to Presidents Trump and Putin
With relations between Russia and the West deteriorating and becoming more dangerous every day, former Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, former British Defense Secretary Des Browne, and former German Ambassador to the U.S. Wolfgang Ischinger, have written a letter to Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin urging the two leaders to use the July 7-8 G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, to work together on areas of existential common interest.
Ukraine Lobbies Lawmakers as Debt Vote Said to Risk Failure
Ukraine’s government has stepped up last-minute lobbying because of growing concern that lawmakers won’t back an accord to restructure $18 billion of foreign debt.
Government officials have met with ruling and opposition parties before a vote Thursday that’s supposed to give final approval to the debt deal, according to Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. There are risks that the legislation will fail, according to a person familiar with the restructuring, who asked not to be named because the details are private. Another person familiar with the situation put the chances of approval at 50-50.
Cold War flashback: Media’s flawed coverage of the Trump-Russia story is not helping the left (Danielle Ryan)
CNN’s terrible week was just the latest example of sloppy, hysterical Russia coverage that only feeds Trump.
Russia is not the enemy
REAL ENEMIES ARE a threat to any country, but imagined enemies can be even more dangerous. They sap resources, provoke needless conflicts, and divert attention from true challenges. The United States has constructed such a fantasy by turning Russia into an enemy.
Our current campaign against Russia was set off by what some in Washington call its “aggression” against neighboring Ukraine. Russia’s decision to aid the Assad regime in Syria has also angered us. The true reasons for anti-Russia sentiment, though, lie deeper.
Worried About Those Global Cyber Attacks? They Were Started by Washington (William Greider)
The notorious US spy agencies invented this monster, first with the Stuxnet virus against Iran—but then they lost control over it.
BREAKING: U.S. to Begin Military Talks With Russia on Syria
An actually balanced piece of reporting from Michael R. Gordon notes that “though the administration has long said that President Bashar al-Assad must go for there to be a durable solution to the Syria crisis, Mr. Kerry seemed on Friday to allow for the possibility that Mr. Assad might remain in power in the short term. Mr. Assad has had Russia’s backing throughout the conflict.”
Power, Politics, and Putin Russia’s Role in Today’s World Order (AJC Panel, feat. Stephen F. Cohen, Andrew Weiss, Julia Ioffe)
To help us understand what Russia wants and what strategies it will employ to get it, during this AJC Global Forum 2017 session hear from three experts: Stephen Cohen, Professor Emeritus, NYU and Princeton; Julia Ioffe, Staff Writer, The Atlantic; and Andrew Weiss, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
IS MINSK DEAD?
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.