... a rapid modernization of its armed forces, pursuing programs of import substitution, accumulating foreign exchange reserves, expanding trade with China and deepening political and military-technical cooperation with its partners across the CSTO. The West has established various formats and mechanisms of sanctions pressure, boosting NATO’s eastern flank and increasing policy coordination both within the Alliance and within the European Union as well as military-technical assistance to Ukraine, while consistently attacking Russia in a variety of international settings ranging from ...
... Economy of Confrontation
The campaign around Russia’s alleged imminent aggression in Ukraine is also good for Washington and its Euro-Atlantic allies. It provides a distraction from their own domestic problems, allowing for cohesion within the archaic NATO and diverting attention from the ignominious flight of the Western troops from Afghanistan. By focusing on what is going on around Ukraine, the White House is trying to counter the Europe-wide perceptions that the Atlantic string of U.S. foreign policy is finally receding into the background of U.S. priorities,...
... strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Extending this step to include the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the P5) would be an especially powerful statement in the NPT context.
Step 2: Deepen U.S.-Russia and West-Russia crisis management dialogue.
Leaders should direct their respective governments to renew dialogue on crisis management—both bilaterally and multilaterally, for example via the NATO-Russia Council, or as a separate working group. In either case, the mandate should be focused on addressing concerns generated by day-to-day military events and activities, not political or strategic issues.
Step 3: 1,400 in 2021.
With New START ...
... oligarchs to move into and exploit.
The worst-case scenario would be a Polish-dependent, weak state dominated by an opportunistic, Western-oriented, new capitalist oligarchic class that would privatise state assets, close many factories and create mass unemployment ... ... there a future for Belarus as an independent nation, or must it now choose between being absorbed by the Poland—Lithuania—NATO constellation of power, or by metropolitan Russia, which is the real cultural homeland for most of its people? These are ...
... nuances determine the content of the relations between the two sides.
Twelve Steps Toward Greater Security in Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic Region. Twelve Steps Toward Greater Security in Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic Region
Put bluntly, these nuances are NATO and the European Union. Together, they form the Euro-Atlantic community, which unites most of the planet’s economically developed military powers. This contradiction was barely noticeable during the initial post-Soviet years when Russia was still ...
... we put rather important moral and ethical considerations to one side, as a long-term strategy, this route will not necessarily bring the desired results. First, it is entirely possible that the requirements for candidates may be revised at a future NATO summit. The western expert community is already actively discussing proposals to “make an exception” for Tbilisi so that Georgia can accede to the organization despite its unresolved problems with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Once this issue is resolved, nothing ...
... the USSR, and the depiction of large Russian-speaking communities as a fifth column leading to tensions that exist to this day. After a while, problems have accumulated, and Russia's unchanging attitude pushed the three Baltic republics towards the Western institutions: NATO and the European Union. In the midst of these problems, Russia has yet to change its attitude towards the Baltic states. Moscow preferred to talk to the 'old Europe' over the heads of Russia's closest Western neighbors. Russia still expects that ...
... objectives:
pursuing security and survival of the regime;
developing and maintaining great-power status;
exerting influence within the near abroad in order to pull these countries into its sphere of influence;
increasing cooperation and trade with Western Europe;
undermining enlargement of the European Union and NATO into the post-Soviet space.
It is assumed that Moscow will use “measures short of war” as a tactic. This term was introduced by George Kennan in the late 1940s to denote the hostile actions of the USSR and spanning a broad range of political,...
Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG)
Statement by the Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group (EASLG)
Today, the United States, NATO, and Russia continue to severely curtail dialogue on crisis management in the Euro-Atlantic region, depriving ourselves of an essential tool to prevent an incident from turning into unimaginable catastrophe. The lack of effective and reliable crisis ...
... Affairs Council (RIAC) held a presentation of “No Place for Russia: European Security Institutions Since 1989” written by William Hill. RIAC Website Editor Anastasia Tolstukhina discussed with the author the evolution of relations between Russia and NATO, the reasons behind the crisis between East and West, Russia’s place in the world politics and other questions. William Hill is professor emeritus of national security strategy at the National War College (Washington DC); he retired from Foreign Service after serving in various European countries,...
