NYU and Princeton Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen argues media malpractice and an obsession alleged Russia collusion scandal has demonized any attempt by the U.S. to work with Russia.
Analysis
The Doomsday Clock Remains at Three Minutes to Midnight (James Carden)
At a press conference held by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Tuesday, former Defense Secretary William Perry pointed out there is a very real danger of an accidental nuclear war between the United States and Russia. This is all too true given the fact that US and Russian forces are operating in close proximity in the skies over Syria, where they are operating in the absence of a unified command.
PODCAST: Opponents of a US-Russia Detente Take The Offensive (Stephen F. Cohen)
Shane Savitsky: The media’s Russia probe meltdown: 3 screwups in one week
The media is having a rough week when it comes to reporting on the federal government’s multiple ongoing Russia investigations. Three stories in the past seven days have crumbled under greater scrutiny.
AUTONOMY V. SOBORNOST (Paul Robinson)
Vladimir Putin recently shocked a lot of people with an unscripted denunciation of Lenin. This should not have come as such a surprise. Although Western commentators often describe Putin as an ex-KGB agent keen to restore the Soviet Union, in reality he has repeatedly made it clear that he regards communism as a failed model of development…
Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor: Media Malpractice Is Criminalizing Better Relations With Russia
Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at Princeton and NYU Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War.
THE UKRAINIAN LEFT DURING AND AFTER THE MAIDAN PROTESTS (Volodymyr Ishchenko)
PODCAST: Peter Hitchens and Kate Maltby go toe to toe over Britain’s releationship with Putin’s Russia
From the UK – Peter Hitchens says that Britain should work with Russia on issues were the interests of both countries align. The Spectator’s Kate Maltby wants a tougher line after an inquiry found that the Russian state ‘probably’ ordered the killing of Alexander Litvinenko.
Listen as the pair had a lengthy debate on Britain and Russia’s relationship.
Jeremy Kuzmarov: Oklahomans Should Oppose Arming Ukraine
Oklahoma’s Congressional delegation is adamantly opposed to Big Government, except when it comes to subsidizing Big Oil and expanding U.S. military operations.
REPORT: The Russian-American ‘Reset’, NATO Expansion, and the Making of the Ukrainian Crisis (Gordon Hahn)
An emerging myth–one being put forward by both present and former U.S. government officials, the DC think tank community, and the media–is that NATO expansion had nothing to do with the making of the Ukrainian crisis and civil war. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Peter Zalmayev: Is Ukraine on the brink of another Maidan?
There is an increasingly widespread perception among Ukrainians that their government lacks the political will to fight corruption, which has plagued the country ever since it declared independence in 1991.
Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal: Media or Cult? CNN Buries a Massive Russiagate Gaffe
What we witnessed on this really remarkable episode of Reliable Sources hosted by Brian Stelter was a window into a cult that’s been created around Russiagate. And we’ve seen the research on cults that when the millennial promise by the cult leader of deliverance is discredited or the cult leader is exposed as a fraud, the cult members deepen their conviction instead of falling into disillusionment.
How Russia Sees the World (Vladimir Lukin)
America’s collective unconscious (and therefore its political behavior at home and abroad) has certain features that raise strategic concerns. I mean specifically the deep-rooted, almost religious, sense of uniqueness and exclusiveness, some kind of belief in a global mission their country must carry out no matter what.
What mission is that? It could be described in one word: democracy.
Nicolai Petro: Congress Has Chosen the Wrong Strategy to Deal with Russia
A recent editorial in the Economist magazine simultaneously reveals both the intellectual shallowness of the new Cold War and its source of inspiration.
Paul Robinson: Colluding With Hitler
Here’s the thing. You can create just about any sort of thesis if all you do is take one example and imagine that it personifies some general truth. But it’s not good history.
Patrick Buchanan: The Loose Cannon the Neocons Wanted in NATO
Do we really want to cede to folks of the temperament of Mikhail Saakashvili an ability to instigate a war with a nuclear-armed Russia, which every Cold War president was resolved to avoid, even if it meant accepting Moscow’s hegemony in Eastern Europe all the way to the Elbe?
Daniel Larison: Is Rapprochement with Russia Still Possible?
Trump can’t make a move without being seen as a bag man for Putin.
America Should Get Its Nuclear House in Order (Lawrence J Korb)
…The United States must recognize that its own policies have played a role in enabling the North Koreans to conduct four nuclear tests over the last decade. Specifically, there are three examples of U.S. policies that have undermined our credibility on the issue of nuclear proliferation.
Edward and Tatiana Lozansky: Deplorables and Useful Idiots for Peace
According to the current political vocabulary the “deplorables” are people who are rooting for Trump, while the “useful idiots” are those who believe that for the United States it is much better to have Russia as a friend rather than a foe.
By Bread Alone: Why Poor Russians Aren’t Protesting (Andrei Kolesnikov)
In November 2015, the index of positive consumer sentiments, as calculated by the independent Levada polling center, dropped to 64 percent of its record high it reached in March 2008. In a survey conducted in the same month, two thirds of respondents said they expected the economic crisis to last more than two years. The same proportion said they expected annual inflation to reach 30 percent. (It was just 13 percent in 2015.)