... 2274 on Afghanistan at the UN.
REUTERS/Yves Herman
Andrey Kortunov:
How Not to Talk with Russia
Another unspoken topic of the meeting is the Turkey issue, and not in terms of the Syria crisis but regarding the issue of trilateral cooperation between NATO, Turkey and Russia. This format at ambassador level will make it possible to formulate an understanding of whether it is possible to speak of a settlement of the Russian-Turkish conflict of interests, bearing in mind that neither NATO nor Russia wants it to escalate....
... governments balk at attempts to coordinate regional refugee and economic policies. In France, a rising far-right party funded by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government may possibly come to control France in the coming years. Poland seems to be ... ... Israeli-Palestinian conflict stifles Israel’s left and drives its people further to the right. The assault on democratic norms in Turkey by its government is far worse. Still worse in that region, the Arab Spring has, in general, become a massive tragedy.
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... it seems obvious that today’s threat is bigger than it was, say, three years ago,” Kortunov warns in an interview to Russia Direct. Without the solid policy toward Turkey, Washington seems to straddle between increasing cooperation with Russia over Syria and supporting Turkey as a NATO member in its hypothetical military confrontation with Moscow. This leads to another catch-22 problem: The less certain Washington is toward Turkey, the more unpredictable and explosive the situation becomes. The prospects of a confrontation between ...
... Americans are never going to agree with Russia's actions in Syria and Ukraine, and most Russians are never going to agree with America's actions in Syria and Ukraine. But a good first step toward peace in these and all conflicts is to refrain from fighting. Russia has refrained from fighting with Turkey and thereby saved the NATO alliance from a potentially devastating existential crisis. The United States and its allies should reciprocate by canceling their economic sanctions on Russia.
Russia and the West may never be allies or even partners, but they can and should live ...
... elites and interest groups must agree on restoring them to prevent future incidents in the air between the Turkish and Russian air forces.
Third
, it is necessary to restore the NATO–Russia Council, which became defunct after Crimea became part of Russia. Today, it can safely be said that Turkey, as a NATO member, sees its air space as part of the Alliance’s air space. It is necessary to establish contacts between the militaries to be able to coordinate actions. Moreover, it is obvious that the power of a state manifests itself not only its possessing ...
... retake a portion of the rebel-controlled areas that were under attack. Following the downing of a Russian fighter jet Moscow is likely to intensify contacts with Kurds in Syria and possibly start supporting their territorial ambitions to irritate Ankara.
Turkey’s decision to shoot down a Russian fighter jet that may or may not have violated its airspace, which would normally be seen as an act of war, clearly took NATO aback. The Alliance released a low-key statement following the incident, and according to some accounts there was no unity within NATO over Ankara’s response to alleged violation of its border.
Russia’s reaction to the downing of its ...
