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The Tussle Over Syria

Putin’s Syrian intervention was limited to areas around the port of Tartus and the Latakia air base, both heavily upgraded by Russia. His aim was not a full occupation, but a gradual expansion of a strategic corridor from Damascus to Aleppo. He did not fear US repercussions. Obama’s 2013 red line back-step had convinced him the president would be passive in the face of aggression. One hour before the intervention began, Obama was haughtily advised to clear the air spaces. Putin did not attempt to...

Опубликовано:
07.12.2017 18:17:04

“Rocket Man” Kim Jong-Un

“Rocket Man” Kim Jong-Un surely believes we are doing what Abe most feared! So does Vladimir Putin. In an article written two weeks ago but published only yesterday by the BESA Center for Strategic Studies and Linkedin, we made two points about North Korea. 1. That the president’s coercive diplomacy against North Korea worked temporarily....

Опубликовано:
29.11.2017 16:38:36

Are Americans Destroying Themselves from Within, as Lincoln Feared?

... Trump’s impeachment grow. Where is the US headed? Flickr / Elvert Barnes Trump and Putin’s Joint Statement on Syria Among the accomplishments of Donald Trump’s just completed Far East tour was a joint statement on November 11 with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Syria. (Their planned Danang summit was canceled, however. As prominent advisor to the Russian foreign affairs ministry Andrey Kortunov explained, “Putin is presently toxic for Trump;” i.e., any contact with him harms Trump at home....

Опубликовано:
29.11.2017 16:22:01

Russiagate: Another Watergate?

Executive summary: Just as occurred during the Watergate crisis of 1973-74, America – the world’s indispensable power – is again facing a constitutional crisis, with a paralyzed president writhing beneath the Damoclean sword of Russiagate.  New evidence sheds fresh light on the origins and making of both “gates,” as does a closer exploration of the Nixon-Brezhnev and Trump-Putin bromances. Russian leaders have always closely followed US presidential elections, yet they have only twice attempted...

Опубликовано:
17.08.2017 14:23:22

Washington and Moscow: Confrontation or Cooperation?

... open. Seeking answers requires a fundamental reexamination of Washington’s 21st century Middle East wars, where at every turn Russian-American relations formed the hidden context. The story began in 2001-2002, when new presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin formed a successful partnership during the post 9/11 war against Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan – only to see it unravel over the course of the two superpowers’ interventions in the Middle East and Russia’s interference in Georgia ...

Опубликовано:
26.06.2017 10:26:33

JVLV: MR. PRESIDENT, STOP LEGITIMIZING BLOODY DICTATORS, By Jiri and Leni Friedman Valenta

... the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte.  If NSA General H.R. McMaster and Secretary of Defense General James Mattis, already told you this, you should have listened. Finally, you should not be afraid of being critical of Russia’s authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin when he deserves it, although he is one leader with whom you should meet. But be sure if you meet him that you are really well briefed! You cannot wing it. You are a very energetic leader with great business experience. But in your heart ...

Опубликовано:
02.05.2017 21:54:35

Declassified

Does anyone know if Putin or others in Russian elite understand the importance of the Battle of Brandywine as it pertains to today's times? The same question in regards to the Battle was asked to previous American administration, none have yet answered correctly. Current administration has yet to be asked. This was the question given to Reagan by top assessment personnel to counter all those who preferred to keep the Cold War going and was the catalyst for Reagan to have the courage to go against...

Опубликовано:
02.05.2017 11:09:03

Is Vladimir Putin a dictator or not?

... real dictatorships, thousands or even tens of thousands disappear, and are tortured or killed. Criticism of the regime can be picked up by the secret police and can lead to the worst of consequences. This bears no relationship to the regime over which Vladimir Putin presides in Russia. In addition to the aspects of life Daniil mentions, there are other features that distinguish Putin’s Russia from real dictatorships. Daniil doesn’t have to have the slightest worry about making critical ...

Опубликовано:
25.09.2016 03:39:00

Will Erdogan resort to regional nuclear blackmail?

... normalize relations with fellow NATO member Turkey at the earliest opportune moment. This will assuredly happen after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan determines the extent of Russian geopolitical concession, if any, during an Aug 9 meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Everyone is playing a game of waiting, or more specifically, a “game of chicken” which incidentally was a Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) scenario developed during the Cold War. Hardly any mainstream Western writer or ...

Опубликовано:
02.08.2016 15:11:00

Is the UN relevant anymore to Greater Eurasia?

... backdrop of US-sanctioned neo-Nazi thuggery in Ukraine, and a pandemic rise in anti-Semitism all over Europe. Did someone say “Never again!”? Perhaps, the growing chasm between Western rhetoric and reality was a reason why Russian president Vladimir Putin called for the creation of “a non-aligned system of international security to counter global terror” during his May 9 V-Day speech. He warned off the “double standards” and “short-sighted indulgence to those ...

Опубликовано:
10.05.2016 00:35:00

Russia's Future: Deadlock or Competitive Politics (reply to Whitmore)

http://www.rferl.org/content/brezhnevs-children/24765431.html Russia is not the Soviet union. The regime in Russia has little in common with the Soviet regime. To imply that the process of reforming Russia represents a continuation of attempts to reform the Soviet regime, as Whitmore does, distorts reality beyond recognition. Failures of reform under the Soviet regime were mostly due to features of that regime which have disappeared: (1) the commando-administrative economic system, (2) the ideological...

Опубликовано:
30.04.2016 20:15:00

Has there been "rollback" of democracy in Russia under Putin?

... regimes can survive in the long run only if they are supported by society, or at least if there is not sufficient support for resistance. Has there been a rollback of democracy in Russia? Was Boris Yeltsin more of a democrat than Mikhail Gorbachev or Vladimir Putin? In 1993, Yeltsin illegally dissolved the Supreme Soviet, and shelled the Russian White House, resulting in the deaths of 187 people. He unconstitutionally scrapped the existing constitution, and temporarily banned political opposition....

Опубликовано:
16.02.2016 05:08:00

Kremlin policy: Strategic or like the music of a jazz group?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/opinion/what-the-west-gets-wrong-about-russia.html According to Gleb Pavlovsky, the Kremlin is "still enigmatic, but no longer strategic." Kremlin policy is now "fashioned rather like the music of a jazz group; its continuing improvisation is an attempt to survive the latest crisis." Pavlovsky thinks Putin "lost interest in day-to-day decision making" after the accession of Crimea to Russia when he won the support of more than 80 percent...

Опубликовано:
25.01.2016 08:12:00

Who are the real "Realists?" International Relations Realists or Cold Warriors?

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/d%C3%A9tente-plus-how-should-west-deal-russia “Leslie Gelb speaks for much of the US foreign policy establishment, writes Walter Laquer, “when he says that ... ‘It is totally unrealistic . . . to think that the West can gain desired Russian restraint and cooperation without dealing with Moscow as a great power that possesses real and legitimate interests, especially in its border areas’.” In contrast to Gelb, Cold Warrior...

Опубликовано:
13.11.2015 03:39:00

Russia’s need to be recognized as a Great Power

Dear Amar, http://www.indiandefencereview.com/... Your article fleshes out several aspects of the Syria crisis of which I was not much aware. I'm tired of the simplistic one- and two-dimensional explanations that we get from our mass media. For example: The Russians don't want to lose their naval base in Tartus. They don't want to let their ally, Assad, fall. They don't want to lose income from weapons sales to Syria. They want to embarass the Americans, etc. Your...

Опубликовано:
30.10.2015 08:45:00

US and Russia: Competing agendas in Syria

On October 14, the White House dismissed a proposal by President Putin to send Prime Minister Medvedev to the United States to discuss military cooperation in Syria. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the proposal a sign of "desperation." Said Earnest: "We&#39;re not interested in doing that, as long as Russia is not willing to make a constructive contribution to our counter- effort," <http://www.rferl.org/content/white-...> But where is the evidence of Russian...

Опубликовано:
22.10.2015 02:52:00

Putin’s portrait or why the West should not hope for a “kinder” Russia

Putin is one of the favorite topics in the Western media. While in office, the Russian president has been put under the microscope from different angles. Many attempts at creating his psychological portrait and discovering his identity have been undertaken in order to understand what is to be expected from Putin’s Russia. The most popular and obvious detail is Putin’s past as a KGB officer. It can go like this: “In the mind of Putin, a former KGB officer, a country that was once...

Опубликовано:
07.10.2015 15:45:00

Brinkmanship for useful idiots

... the United States since 2008 has been at work creating the image of Russian president Vladimir V. Putin as an unstable leader with a genetic history of mental illness. If one is to believe CBS, the leaked study claims that all decisions made by Vladimir Putin reflect the need for “extreme control” because the Kremlin leader suffers from a controversial behavioral disorder discovered by Hans Arsperger, a pediatrician in Nazi-era Austria, who linked childhood autism with an inherited ...

Опубликовано:
10.06.2015 10:01:00

Letter to a young political science colleague in Russia

Of course, I understand what you write about the sorry state of affairs in Russia. I am far more optimistic than you about Russia, but can&#39;t disagree with most of what you say. Most discouraging is that I wonder what can feed the hopes of your generation, on which the future of the country depends. Of course, there is much about Russia that is good, and which gives grounds for hope. Yet, this does not negate your arguments. To be sure, there has been enormous progress in the last twenty...

Опубликовано:
16.03.2015 15:56:00

Should democracy have the same meaning in every country?

... influenced by big money and criminalized elites as they are, at least to some extent, in the former Soviet republics, or in the boss-dominated politics of earlier stages of American democracy? On the other hand, it seems odd to label such leaders as Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenka (Belarus) "undemocratic." Despite whatever falsification of elections has taken place, independent polls show them to have continually maintained remarkable approval ratings for over ten years. True, the ...

Опубликовано:
23.10.2014 12:08:00

 

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Poll conducted

  1. In your opinion, what are the US long-term goals for Russia?
    U.S. wants to establish partnership relations with Russia on condition that it meets the U.S. requirements  
     33 (31%)
    U.S. wants to deter Russia’s military and political activity  
     30 (28%)
    U.S. wants to dissolve Russia  
     24 (22%)
    U.S. wants to establish alliance relations with Russia under the US conditions to rival China  
     21 (19%)
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