I contend that Vladimir Putin has all along seen the Crimea not as a prospective fruit of conquest or consolation for loss of the Ukraine but as a bargaining chip for ensuring the interests of the substantial populations of Russian nationals and Russian speakers in East Ukraine, the Crimea and the Odessa region are formally taken into account by the constitutional arrangements of the country. Read on….
Continue reading “Vladimir Putin, Clausewitz and Sun Tzu: Grammar lessons for today”
Regrettably, the latest, 28 February online issue of Foreign Affairs magazine shows that this iconic forum of America’s foreign policy establishment has descended into puerile, cartoon like depictions of the most serious international issues of the day, in this instance the unfolding developments in Ukraine. Read on..
Continue reading “Foreign Affairs magazine as a cartoon strip: the 28 February online issue”
Take a close look at post-Sochi Russia, this new teddy bear or Mischa. And if the unfolding events in Ukraine evoke alarmist remarks about the Kremlin’s encouragement of separatism or designs on Crimea, I advise Western politicians to consult the mirror and reconsider how they are overplaying their hand by spurning Russia’s proposed three-way cooperation in Ukraine. Read on…
The greatest lesson of the Belgian experience in governance is that divorce is utterly thinkable and possibly preferable to a bad marriage of peoples who have aspirations, cultural orientation and economies as different as East Ukraine and West Ukraine have today. Read on…
In the rapidly evolving New Cold War, not all Russian responses to the psychological warfare coming from America are healthy. Their mass media and, in particular, state television, show a steadily rising level of propaganda, pushing aside entertainment or news reporting to save the nation’s soul from the falsehoods being disseminated by both Western and home-grown enemies. Read on….
Continue reading “Russian State Television and the Information War”
Paradoxically, the vile propaganda offensive directed against Russia in US and European media these past few weeks has had a positive outcome in the emergence from their relative silence and defensive postures by some of America’s most responsible, experienced and well-informed thinkers on Russia. In this essay I join their dialogue with some related observations.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland’s remark “Fuck the EU” let drop within the context of her strategy discussions for Ukraine with Ambassador to Kiev Geoffrey Pyatt, has made the rounds of world media today bringing to the fore the mindset of arrogant world puppet-masters which has defined Barack Obama’s foreign policy team from the very start of his presidency five years ago. The ill wind from Washington heralds only rancor and divisive international relations ahead.
Continue reading “Victoria Nuland: whence the ill wind blows”
In his showcasing the Great Famine in Ukraine of 1932-33, we see how Snyder the scholar (and not just Snyder the pundit dealing with current affairs) plays into the hands of those many American ideologists who conflate Stalinism with Communism, Communism with Great Russian imperialism, and Great Russian imperialism with Putinism. Read on…
Continue reading “Timothy Snyder: American Intellectual Discourse on the Holocaust and Much Else”
Kauffmann’s op-ed essay shows that she deals in platitudes and makes foolhardy mistakes of fact and interpretation which, due to her august position in mainstream media, few if any call out. In this brief critique, I will break that silence…
The grim expressions on the faces of Russian ministers seated in the front rows of the Kremlin hall where Vladimir Putin and Viktor Yanukovich announced their agreement on rapprochement yesterday, sealed by $15 billion in loans and a steep discount on natural gas, indicated skepticism that many ordinary Russians also share over the generous handout to their dodgy southern neighbors. Has Putin got it right? Read on…
Continue reading “Ukraine-Russia Rapprochement, 17 December 2013: Point, Set, Match”
Gilbert Doctorow 