With President Bashar al-Assad of Syria facing battlefield setbacks, diplomats from Russia, the United States and several Middle Eastern powers are engaged in a burst of diplomatic activity, trying to head off a deeper collapse of the country that could further strengthen the militant group Islamic State.
Retired US Diplomat E. Wayne Merry Talks to Tucker Carlson (Fox News)
Merry warns that Russians are referring to the political climate in the US as “schizophrenic.” Carlson observes that what Jared Kushner is accused of doing, in attempting to set up a ‘back-channel’ with the Russians, is perfectly legal, while Merry notes that every new US administration contacts foreign governments before taking office.
2015 UNHCR regional operations profile – Europe
The latest report from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees notes that “Large-scale displacements in Ukraine have called for urgent responses to growing humanitarian needs. As of mid-September, the number of IDPs in Ukraine stood at over 275,000. External displacement is also on the rise.”
Jared Kushner was right to seek private channels with Russia (Mary Dejevsky)
Trump critics are treating the latest revelation as further evidence of Russian collusion, but given the constant stream of leaks coming from the intelligence agencies, it may have been the best option to improve relations with the Kremlin.
Ukraine blacklists Russian artists for rebel support
Ukraine has named 14 Russian singers and actors, including French-born Gerard Depardieu, whose work will be banned from TV, radio and cinemas.
Ukraine said they were a “threat to national security” for supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea and pro-Russian separatists in the east.
The Trump-Russia Story Starts Making Sense (Holman W Jenkins)
The Kremlin seems to have bet big on the willingness of U.S. intelligence agencies to leak.
Canadian journalist writes from Ukraine praising extreme-right paramilitaries
One of Canada’s well known journalists was in Ukraine last month on reporting duty. Readers of mainstream media in Canada will be surprised to read Diane Francis’ observations of her visit. She has penned several articles in the World Post praising the extreme-right and neo-Nazi paramilitary forces that are allied with the Ukrainian government in waging civil war in the east of the country.
The Russian economy on the eve of the Macron-Putin summit (Jacques Sapir)
The stakes are high for both men, even if they are not at the same level for both. It is fitting at this point to examine the present situation of Russia and of the Russian economy. Russia is emerging from the 2015-2016 recession. Yet, the circumstances of this emergence remain blurry.
US adds remote Russian gas field to sanctions list
The US government has expanded its punitive sanctions against Russia by forbidding the export of American wares or technology to an offshore oil and gas field in eastern Siberia controlled by Gazprom.
Fighting the Politicized, Evidence-Free ‘Collusion with Russia’ Narrative (NR)
The ‘Russian collusion’ scandal is manufactured — but like all good subterfuge, it is premised on a kernel of truth.
Putin’s Asia-Eurasia Pivot: ‘Isolation’ from the West Spurs Eurasian Integration and Russian Globalization
Western hopes of sufficiently alienating Russia in order to break the Kremlin’s will on Ukraine and/or bring down Russian President Vladimir Putin have failed. Over the last year, Moscow has achieved a series of foreign policy successes on both multilateral and bilateral levels outside of the West. What has been called Russia’s ‘Asia pivot’ is much grander.
Is NATO Getting Too Big to Succeed? (Charles Kupchan)
…publicly declaring the prospective closing of NATO’s open door would resign Georgia, Ukraine and the other states located between NATO’s eastern frontier and Russia to a strategic gray zone. But the prospect of NATO membership only fuels false hopes and encourages Russian intervention to forestall their westward course.
Cleaning-up unexploded ordnance in eastern Ukraine
Every year, unexploded ordnance and landmines kill or injure thousands of people throughout the world. In eastern Ukraine, after a year of armed conflict, large areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are left with deadly military remnants.
“Explosive remnants of all kinds, including unexploded ordnance and explosive devices were left behind in devastated towns and villages, threatening the people of Ukraine. Something needed to be done,” said Alexander Savelyev, OSCE Vienna-based Associate Project Officer
Trump chastises fellow NATO members (Washington Post)
Trump’s packed schedule in a city he once called a “hellhole” took him from one meeting to another with partners and allies who wondered which president would show up: the disciplined script-bound leader who has made mostly conventional public remarks during his international trip, or the one who has kept them in the crosshairs.
Russia’s Lavrov says U.S. must work with Assad to fight Islamic State
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the United States should cooperate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to fight Islamic State and that this required an international coalition uniting all those for whom the jihadists are “a common enemy”.
A Special Prosecutor for Criminal Leaks (Patrick Buchanan)
President Trump has the authority to declassify security secrets. And in sharing that intel with the Russians, who have had airliners taken down by bombs, he was trying to restore a relationship. On fighting Islamist terror, we and the Russians agree.
Mikhail Gorbachev: US Military an ‘Insurmountable Obstacle to a Nuclear-Free World’
In a SPIEGEL interview, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev discusses morals and politics in the nuclear age, the crisis in Russian-American relations and his fear that an atomic weapon will some day be used.
Amb. Jack Matlock: The End and the Beginning
Jack Matlock, the last US ambassador to the USSR presented a talk entitled “The End and the Beginning” at a conference entitled END OF TRANSITION: Armenia 25 Years On which was organized by the USC Institute of Armenian Studies in Yerevan, on May 23-24.
Reaching the endgame in Ukraine
Over the last several weeks, the 15-month-old Ukraine crisis took fresh steps toward resolution in a series of teleconference calls by the Normandy Four — the heads of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine.
Beginning July 10, French President François Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and Ukrainian parliament chairman Volodymyr Hroisman to comply with all the terms of the February 2015 Minsk 2 agreement.
New Cracks in Russia-gate ‘Assessment’ (Bob Parry)
President Obama’s ex-intelligence chiefs admit they limited input into the Russia-gate “assessment,” which was handled by “hand-picked” analysts, raising the specter of politicized intelligence, Robert Parry reports.