Why was everyone so willing and ready to take CrowdStrike’s claims that the Russians hacked the DNC without an ounce of skepticism in the first place?
Nicolai N. Petro: The Values Trap (from May 2013)
Our animosity toward Russia did not arise from communism, the late Martin Malia notes, so there was no reason for it to disappear with communism’s collapse. It stems, rather, from a stunted view of history that overlooks the contributions that Byzantium and Eastern Orthodoxy have made to Western civilization.
Fareed Zakaria’s Interview With Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Plenary session moderator, CNN host Fareed Zakaria: …President Putin, let me ask you a very simple question. Since 2014, you have had European Union sanctions and US sanctions against Russia. NATO has announced just this week that it is going to build up forces in states that border Russia. Russia has announced its own buildup. Are we settling into a low-grade, lower-level cold war between the West and Russia? [Read more…] about Fareed Zakaria’s Interview With Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Pietro Shakarian: The Significance of Armenia’s ‘April Revolution’
Analysts outside of Armenia scrambled to make sense of the April Revolution. Was it a “color revolution” or a Ukrainian-style Maidan? Was it a “blow to Putin” as the pages of The Washington Post suggested? Ultimately, calling this movement a Maidan or framing it as an anti-Putin movement obscures our objective understanding of it as observers.
A Nuclear Weapon That America Doesn’t Need (NY Times Op-ed)
PRESIDENT OBAMA spoke last month in Hiroshima about charting a course to a future free of nuclear weapons. He discussed the “persistent effort” necessary to eliminate the threat of nuclear war. To advance that goal, the president should reconsider the Defense Department’s effort to develop a new nuclear weapon called the Long-Range Standoff Weapon.
Dmitri Trenin: US Hybrid War Arrives to Replace Cold War
An analysis of the most recent spike in tensions leads to the following conclusions: US President Donald Trump’s administration is fully determined to use military force to discipline challengers and reassert US global primacy.
Russia says agrees with U.S. to improve military coordination in Syria (Reuters)
Russia said on Sunday it had reached an agreement with the United States to improve coordination between their military operations in Syria, where they are backing opposing sides of a civil war and launching air strikes.
Ben Aris: Russio delenda est
The US imposed new sanctions on Russia on April 6 that have ended in a Pyrrhic victory as they seem to have done as much damage to US business interests as Russian.
Germany slams NATO ‘warmongering’ on Russia (AFP/Yahoo)
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has criticised NATO for having a bellicose policy towards Russia, describing it as “warmongering”, the German daily Bild reported. “What we should avoid today is inflaming the situation by warmongering and stomping boots,” Steinmeier told Bild in an interview to be published Sunday.
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould: Turning on Russia
In this first of a two-part series, Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould trace the origins of the neoconservative targeting of Russia.
A Peace Journey to Russia (Kathy Kelly)
The dangers from a new Cold War between the U.S. and Russia have prompted American peace activists to reach out to the Russian people and to fellow Americans to urge a step back from the cliff, as Kathy Kelly describes.
Anatol Lieven: Don’t Fear the New Nationalism
The chauvinist hysteria now being directed at Russia by supposedly internationalist liberals has its roots not only in the Cold War but in the fact that, after the Cold War, developments in Russia were the first to reveal the emptiness and impracticality of the combination of American imperialism with liberal internationalism.
Ukraine’s struggle with the past is ours too (Open Democracy)
What happens in Ukraine does not stay in Ukraine — uncritical glorification of Ukrainian nationalism is the west’s problem too.
Raymond Smith: Yes it is a New Cold War, So What is to be Done?
What a Cold War looks like depends to some extent on where you sit.
Ukraine furious over remarks on Russia by U.N. chief Ban (Reuters)
Asked about the criticism, Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined to comment in detail. “The fact is … the Russian Federation is a permanent member of the Security Council and has a critical role to play,” Dujarric said. “We’re not going to walk back what we said.”
Edward Lozansky: The reality of Cold War 2.0
Politicians and experts still debate whether the United States and Russia are in a new cold war. Let’s end the suspense. Cold War 2.0 is a reality.
The Case for Offshore Balancing (Walt and Mearsheimer)
Offshore balancing is a realist grand strategy, and its aims are limited. Promoting peace, although desirable, is not among them. This is not to say that Washington should welcome conflict anywhere in the world, or that it cannot use diplomatic or economic means to discourage war.
Ted Snider: Accusing Russia and Listening to History
The prophet Cassandra’s curse was that when she told the future, no one listened. Many are cursed because they don’t listen to history either.
Millionaire Tries to Stop Documentary Claiming to Tell the True Story of Russia’s Missing $230 Million (FP.com)
Russian filmmaker and Putin opponent Andrei Nekrasov tells Foreign Policy magazine that his experience dealing with Hedge Fund manager Bill Browder “has been a bit depressing, to be frank.” “What I discovered is how easy it is — if you have a lot of money — to basically gag somebody,” Nekrasov said.
Paul Robinson: Book Review: The Road to Unfreedom
Timothy Snyder doesn’t like Donald Trump. Really, really doesn’t like him. He fears that under Trump, American (and also European) democracy may collapse into some sort of nasty fascist tyranny. And he wants us all to know who is to blame for this terrible state of affairs, so that we can defend ourselves against it while there is still time. And who is to blame? You know the answer, of course. It’s Russia.