Clashes continue unabated along the contact line in all major hotspots. OHCHR reports some 129 casualties among civilians since the beginning of the year (as of 12 March). The highest record so far was in February, with 73 civilian casualties reported.
Russia and America: Stumbling to War
AFTER THE Soviet Union collapsed, Richard Nixon observed that the United States had won the Cold War, but had not yet won the peace. Since then, three American presidents—representing both political parties—have not yet accomplished that task. On the contrary, peace seems increasingly out of reach as threats to U.S. security and prosperity multiply both at the systemic level, where dissatisfied major powers are increasingly challenging the international order, and at the state and substate level, where dissatisfied ethnic, tribal, religious and other groups are destabilizing key countries and even entire regions.
When ‘Disinformation’ Is Truth (Robert Parry)
Democrats and liberals have climbed into bed with the neocons to push the “Russia-did-it” conspiracy theory as a way to “get Trump,” but this New McCarthyism has grave dangers, writes Robert Parry.
Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault
According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe. In this view, the ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 merely provided a pretext for Putin’s decision to order Russian forces to seize part of Ukraine.
Russian special forces sent to back renegade Libyan general – reports (The Guardian)
Deployment may be in support of Khalifa Haftar, whose forces have retaken two oil ports as fighting breaks out again in Tripoli
Report on European Activities, December 2014 – May 2015
My activities are in two locations: Brussels, the capital of the European Institutions – EU Commission, Parliament and European Council – and Berlin, which exercises the preponderant political will within those Institutions.
The activities themselves are of two kinds:
- Fact-finding, through face to face meetings with representatives of all political parties, right, left and center, in order to determine on the ground the voting calculus in the European Parliament/German Bundestag on Russia and Ukraine related issues
- Seeking co-sponsors and jointly organizing panels and debates before mixed audiences of parliamentarians, journalists, think tank officers, academics and the general public devoted to the Ukraine crisis and East-West relations.
[Read more…] about Report on European Activities, December 2014 – May 2015
Angels and Demons in the Cold War and Today (Stephen Boykewich)
What’s surprising is how far back America’s evangelizing approach to Russia goes — and how it continues to distort our thinking today.
Amnesty Says Torture of Ukraine Prisoners Is Rife
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Both warring sides in eastern Ukraine are perpetrating war crimes almost daily, including torturing prisoners and summarily killing them, the Amnesty International rights group said in a report Friday.
A Disaster In The Making: The Long-Term Consequences Of Russia Hysteria (Michael Tracey)
MSNBC hosts continue to lead their TV shows with overwrought, BREAKING NEWS about Russia, instilling in their viewership the notion that this is the most acutely important issue facing the country. MSNBC viewers and Democratic stalwarts have repeated to me over and over again that so long as the “Trump/Russia connection” matter remains unresolved, no real legislative or policy work can be done.
The Russians Are Coming! (Paul Robinson)
Macleans magazine, which, roughly speaking, is Canada’s equivalent of Time or Newsweek, has published a couple of articles this week on the topic of the day – Russia.
The huge risk of small nukes (Philip E. Coyle and James McKeon)
Defense hawks argue that new, small nuclear weapons deployed in Europe would further deter Russian aggression in the region — and that they are critical for “winning” a nuclear war. This is a profoundly flawed argument.
VIDEO: Adversarial Relationship With Russia Result of Decades of US Provocation (Col. Lawrence Wilkerson)
The Real News talks to Lawrence Wilkerson, retired United States Army soldier and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, on the state of US-Russia relations. Col. Wilkerson says that from the expansion of NATO to the Western-led plundering of the former USSR, the US has given Russia enough reason to feel threatened
Diplomats warn of Russia hysteria (The Hill)
Former U.S. ambassadors to Russia and Foreign Service diplomats are angered by what they view as a “witch-hunt” pursuing Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, warning that “hysteria” over Russia in Congress and the media will undermine U.S. interests abroad.
The Truth Behind the Trump-Russia Mess (T.A. Frank)
Let’s never forget a simple fact about nearly all of these Russia-related stories: they’re based on unverifiable information from unseen sources with unknown goals. Anyone who takes this and runs with it in order to depose Trump is at risk not just of getting things way wrong, but also in creating a host of unintended consequences.
Dreams of ‘Winning’ Nuclear War on Russia (Jonathan Marhsall)
Official Washington’s anti-Russian hysteria has distorted U.S. politics while also escalating risks of a nuclear war as U.S. war planners dream of “winning” a first-strike attack on Russia, reports Jonathan Marshall.
Foreign-Policy Elites Have No Answer For Trump (Robert Borosage)
From the upholstered libraries and plush dining rooms of the foreign-policy establishment, Trump’s antics elicit gasps of alarm, murmurs of disbelief, complaints of indigestion and dyspepsia.
US Officials Won’t Say If New Anti-Russia Propaganda Project Is Targeting Americans (Adam Johnson)
The newly-created Global Engagement Center’s “focus and intent” is foreign audiences, but officials won’t rule out propagandizing Americans and funding American journalists.
Influence, Persuasion, and Effects of RT (Prof. Ellen Mickiewicz)
These days the word “influence” to analyze RT (the Russian international news and discussion program at the heart of Western concerns about its “weaponized information”) in U.S. and European press and policy-making circles is, you might notice, replacing other terms, such as “effects” and “persuasion.” [Read more…] about Influence, Persuasion, and Effects of RT (Prof. Ellen Mickiewicz)
Don’t Expand NATO Again (Daniel Larison)
The main reason that advocates for continued expansion want Montenegro in the alliance is that it keeps the idea of expanding NATO alive, and the other reason is that it irks Moscow. Neither of these is a good reason.
PODCAST: The ‘Fog of Suspicion’ and of Worsening Cold War (Stephen F. Cohen)
Princeton and NYU Professor Emeritus Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Now in their fourth year, previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Discussion begins with the new McCarthyism, driven primarily by Democrats, other cold warriors, and their media alleging, without any real evidence, that President Trump has been “compromised” or is otherwise controlled by the Kremlin.