... newly energized foreign policy is not so much about the world order as about Russia’s place in that order. The Soviet Union used to march around the world spending huge resources on a lost ideological cause and an outsize geopolitical ambition. The Russian Federation has learned from this. When it travels abroad, it goes for security buffers as in Ukraine, status as in Syria and mostly money elsewhere. There is no grand design, but a lot of opportunity-seeking, based on the merits of each potential engagement. Russia imposes no models on others and in its present state, hardly ...
... settlement process, the UN Security Council was identified as the main and sole implementation mechanism and tool for supporting the Special Envoy. In case of a split in its ranks, the political capital of international mediation would be devalued.
The U.S.-Russia divide was growing in interpreting the provisions of the Geneva Communique and UN Security Council Resolution 2254 related to the meaning of the transitional period and the sequence of steps. Most of the clashes were over the status and powers of the “transitional governing body” and President al-Assad’s role and position during ...
... the northeast of Syria, including a recent — and tenuous — agreement to impose a temporary cease-fire in Idlib that would help Turkey free some Syrian opposition forces for their deployment to the Euphrates area.
Grigory Lukyanov, Ruslan Mamedov:
Russia and Turkey: Approaches to Regional Security in the Middle East
The rationale seems to be that the start of Turkish military operation may in fact benefit Moscow. The calculation is that once Turkey launches its assault and the Americans are unable to provide a cover for them, the Kurds ...
... contradiction in the logic of those who advocate new agreements to reduce nuclear weapons while simultaneously promoting a “new vision” of strategic stability. Indeed, according to this logic, treaties such as the INF and START cease to meet the security interests of Russia, since they do not take into account the emergence of the above-mentioned “new factors” which give the United States an advantage. According to this logic, further reductions in Russian and U.S. strategic offensive armaments will further undermine ...
... cooperation on contemporary global issues of mutual interest and has helped promote mutual understanding".
For her part Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced that a meeting between Lavrov and his Brazilian counterpart ... ... the BRICS foreign ministers’ conference will address "the issues on the global and regional agendas, ensuring peace and security, settlement of acute international conflicts." The meeting will "focus on the issues of coordinating approaches ...
The second decade of the 21st century began with a string of explosive protests in the Middle East and North Africa, which have destabilized not only the countries that saw violent regime change but the entire region. A way out of the profound systemic crisis is yet to be found. Most countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) have launched the needed socioeconomic reforms, albeit belatedly, but outcomes are difficult to predict. In other parts of the Arab world (Syria, Libya, Yemen)...
In a wide-ranging interview, Russia’s Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov speaks about nuclear arms control, the EU elections and top jobs, the situation in Ukraine, including the MH17, and America’s bid to challenge Russian gas.
In a wide-ranging interview, Russia’s Ambassador ...
... infrastructural capabilities of countries outside the alliance are rearranged to transfer our forces and assets to our borders. The destructive military activity of the alliance is accompanied by a line for scrapping the cornerstone agreements in the field of security - the ABM Treaty, the INF Treaty, and the Founding NATO-Russia Act, the START Treaty are destroyed.
The OSCE potential, which we considered as a core role in building a “common European home,” still cannot reach its “design capacity” due to the unhealthy atmosphere established in the Euro-Atlantic ...
... Plan B.
Undoubtedly, issues of trade and economic cooperation will also be touched upon. The settlement of North Korea’s debt to Moscow in 2012 opened the way to its full-scale development. But today, this cooperation is strictly limited by the UN Security Council’s sanctions against the DPRK. Sanctions also block the implementation of such trilateral projects between Russia and two Korean states as connecting the Trans-Korean railway with Russia’s Trans-Siberian railway, building the Russia-DPRK-South Korea gas pipeline and connecting the electric power systems of the three countries.
The failure of the US-North ...
... pro-Western Russian policy (which essentially implied Russia becoming a U.S. satellite) have since been completely marginalized because they cannot explain what tangible benefits such a course would bring Russia to outweigh the inevitable losses for Russian national security and statehood in general.
Even now, the few remaining Russian liberals tend to avoid any discussions on foreign policy and national defense issues. Much to the disappointment of their Western “friends,” they make it clear by doing so that ...
