From the upholstered libraries and plush dining rooms of the foreign-policy establishment, Trump’s antics elicit gasps of alarm, murmurs of disbelief, complaints of indigestion and dyspepsia.
US Officials Won’t Say If New Anti-Russia Propaganda Project Is Targeting Americans (Adam Johnson)
The newly-created Global Engagement Center’s “focus and intent” is foreign audiences, but officials won’t rule out propagandizing Americans and funding American journalists.
Influence, Persuasion, and Effects of RT (Prof. Ellen Mickiewicz)
These days the word “influence” to analyze RT (the Russian international news and discussion program at the heart of Western concerns about its “weaponized information”) in U.S. and European press and policy-making circles is, you might notice, replacing other terms, such as “effects” and “persuasion.” [Read more…] about Influence, Persuasion, and Effects of RT (Prof. Ellen Mickiewicz)
Don’t Expand NATO Again (Daniel Larison)
The main reason that advocates for continued expansion want Montenegro in the alliance is that it keeps the idea of expanding NATO alive, and the other reason is that it irks Moscow. Neither of these is a good reason.
PODCAST: The ‘Fog of Suspicion’ and of Worsening Cold War (Stephen F. Cohen)
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Now in their fourth year, previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Discussion begins with the new McCarthyism, driven primarily by Democrats, other cold warriors, and their media alleging, without any real evidence, that President Trump has been “compromised” or is otherwise controlled by the Kremlin.
PODCAST: Dr. Sergey Markedonov In Conversation With Pietro Shakarian
The Reconsidering Russia podcast is back. The fifth and latest installment features Caucasus analyst Sergey Markedonov. The discussion covers topics as diverse as the Don Cossacks, Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, Syria, NATO, Mikheil Saakashvili, Russo-Georgian relations, US-Russian relations, and Markedonov’s personal experience with the Caucasus region.
VIDEO: Russia’s Role in Ukraine (Bloomberg)
Much of the Western media has consistently portrayed Russia as the bad actor in the Ukraine conflict. Are there different ways to understand Russia’s motives? Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at Princeton University and New York University discusses Russia’s role with Bloomberg North’s Rudyard Griffiths.
Leading Putin Critic Warns of Xenophobic Conspiracy Theories Drowning U.S. Discourse and Helping Trump (Glenn Greenwald)
The Russia narrative dominates national discourse, as it has for months, and becomes progressively more removed from evidence.
Roundtable 9-12 on Return to Cold War (Robert Legvold and Others)
Since the United States, in Legvold’s view, holds a “vastly stronger hand” than Russia, it has less to lose from attempting to build sustained cooperation on what Legvold sees as the defining issues of global security today.
Damage Done: How Russia Hysteria Has Hurt U.S.-Russia Relations (Nikolas K. Gvosdev)
The Russia hysteria that is sweeping Washington, DC must end before severe and irreversible damage is done both to American domestic politics and U.S. international standing.
How US nuclear force modernization is undermining strategic stability (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
When viewed in the alarming context of deteriorating political relations between Russia and the West, and the threats and counter-threats that are now becoming the norm for both sides in this evolving standoff, it may well be that the danger of an accident leading to nuclear war is as high now as it was in periods of peak crisis during the Cold War.
Round Up the Usual Suspects, It’s Time for a Show Hearing (James Carden)
During the current crisis period in US-Russian relations (which began in roughly 2012), not a single outside voice or dissenter from the Washington foreign-policy community’s consensus view of Russia has appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
America’s Failure — and Russia and Iran’s Success — in Syria’s Civil War (John Judis and Joshua Landis)
Judis: Hillary Clinton’s argument was that if we had armed the so-called moderate rebels in 2012, as she and David Petraeus advocated, the results would have been different.
Landis: Syrian rebels were going to radicalize regardless of American largesse or arms.
Who Is Jon Huntsman? (Daniel R. DePetris)
Overall, Huntsman’s record suggests someone who is more of a political chameleon than a foreign-policy figure who is on Trump’s wavelength. Centrist? Realist? Neocon?
Contacts with the Russian Embassy (Ambassador Jack Matlock)
Our press seems to be in a feeding frenzy regarding contacts that President Trump’s supporters had with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak and with other Russian diplomats.
The Dirty Secret Behind The Jeff Sessions Mess (Vanity Fair)
With most Russia-related stories these days, especially ones in The New York Times and The Washington Post, the best initial reaction is heavy skepticism.
The Basic Formula For Every Shocking Russia/Trump Revelation (Michael Tracey)
Trump/Putin theories are increasingly the top concern that plugged-in “Resistance” types bring up at the highly-charged town hall meetings that have received so much attention of late.
Ukraine Will Blacklist Websites That ‘Undermine Ukrainian Sovereignty’ (Isaac Webb)
Ukraine’s Ministry of Information Policy is preparing a list of websites that “undermine Ukrainian sovereignty” as part of an effort to uphold the country’s new information security doctrine, signed on February 25 by President Petro Poroshenko.
“Cut Him Open, Kill!”: Another Violent Far-Right Nationalist Act in Ukraine (Krytyka Polityczna)
Far-right nationalism in Ukraine continues to spur violence against foreigners and activists. Taras Bohay, an ecological activist who was violently attacked and sustained painful injuries, recounts his experience with his attackers and police.
Reawakening Old Feuds in the South Caucasus (Pietro Shakarian)
Pietro A. Shakarian, a PhD Candidate in Russian History at The Ohio State University, spoke to John Batchelor about the recent clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh. In their conversation, Shakarian and Batchelor discuss what lies behind the latest fighting in the region, Armenia’s relations with the EU and Russia, and much else besides. A must listen for anyone trying to understand the complex dynamics at play in the Caucasus.