Even in the current period of stagnant economy or mild recession, the Russian consumer is not being asked to make great sacrifices, and the commercial classes are not taking advantage of the crisis.
The Donald’s Foreign Policy Team: Campaign tactics must not be allowed to ‘trump’ strategy
The incoming Trump administration in January 2017 should arrive in office with well-defined plans for resuming arms control talks and negotiating a new security architecture for Europe…
EU on the road to nowhere: Mogherini on its 5 guiding principles for dealing with Russia, 14 March 2016
Beware the day before the Ides of March
An Open Letter to Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust
Carry on, Harvard, in spreading shadows rather than light, in addressing phony issues instead of existential ones….
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‘Foreign Affairs’ magazine: security analyses tailored to politically expedient solutions
The problem with describing Russia to suit policy recommendations rather than actually studying Russia and then designing policy is that risks and threats which may actually exist in relations with the subject country are wholly overlooked.
The US-Russian Communique on Syria Ceasefire: All the News That’s Fit to Print?
In its article today’s Guardian describes the pending ceasefire in Syria as an “agreement brokered between the two superpowers….” In his many recent public appearances, Vladimir Putin has explicitly denied Russia’s aspirations to be reckoned as a superpower. However, the reality of the present situation in Syria speaks for itself to savvy observers.
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Whence the EU compromise with David Cameron on Britain’s “special status”?
David Cameron explicitly, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite implicitly tell us that the deal struck yesterday on Britain’s relationship with the EU and the EU’s overall prospects for the future hang on one issue: the consensus view on Russia.
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Making sense of the BBC’s ‘World War Three: Inside the War Room.’ Preparing the British public for collective suicide? Or a voice of reason in a world gone mad under US-Russian confrontation?
The Russians and all of ‘progressive humanity’ have been jumping up and down about this pseudo-documentary film. The sound bite from one War Room participant that “I wouldn’t mind killing tens of thousands of Russians” has been trumpeted as a major provocation. Baltics politicians on both sides of the issue are furious. However, seeing the film through to its unexpected ending, one is left with big questions about the intentions of its producers and of its high level participants that so far no one has addressed.
Paul Moreira’s Canal+ documentary ‘Ukraine: The Masks of Revolution’ as a significant political event of our times
The activities of aggressive nationalist and neo-Nazi armed movements in present-day Ukraine are the focal point of Moreira’s documentary. Their existence is not denied by any of his leading critics in France even if they try to find excuses. Meanwhile, the ability of these same nationalist extremists to control parliament on the key questions of war and peace even if their own electoral support is tiny by using intimidation and violence makes a mockery of Ukrainian democracy.
Sergey Lavrov: “On one thing we agree with our Western partners – there will be no more ‘business as usual’”
Our Western colleagues sometimes declare with passion that there can no longer be ‘business as usual with Russia. I am convinced that this is so and here we agree: there will be no more ‘business as usual’ when they tried to bind us with agreements which take into account above all the interests of either the European Union or the United States and they wanted to persuade us that this will do no harm to our interests. That history is over and done with. A new stage of history is dawning which can develop only on the basis of equal rights and all other principles of international law. (From Lavrov’s opening remarks to his press conference, 26 January)
Gilbert Doctorow 