... diplomacy and its foreign policy narrative, but also to ensure national security and the very survival of the state. The EWS in Ukraine shows that the use of force is induced by the refusal to fulfill obligations under signed international agreements, such ... ... confidence-building measures established during the Cold War. For example, the US withdrew from ABM, INF treaties and Open Skies, while NATO countries buried the CFE Treaty by refusing to ratify an agreement to adapt it to the new reality that emerged after the ...
... presidential office, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former NATO Secretary General. Whereas earlier drafts of prospective guarantees allowed for Russian participation, this is no longer an option. While security guarantees were previously seen as an alternative to Ukraine’s accession to NATO, these are now perceived as a temporary measure only, to be in place until Kiev finally emerges as a full-fledged member of the North Atlantic Alliance. Certainly, the proposed guarantees do not impose any restrictions on Kiev’s military potential....
... Russia. These included Ukraine’s formal neutrality between Russia and NATO (“
no Ukraine in NATO
”); and no deployment of US and other NATO weapons and military bases in Ukraine, as well as a ban on military exercises on Ukrainian territory (“
no NATO in Ukraine”
). While the US agreed to discuss some military technical issues dealt with in the Russian paper it rejected Moscow’s key demands related to Ukraine and NATO. Putin had to take no for an answer.
Just before the launch of its military operation,...
... interview has been edited for length and clarity.
In your articles and interviews, you have said, as President Putin has, that the armed conflict* against Ukraine is existential for Russia. Why? In February 2022, there was no more talk of Ukraine joining NATO, Ukraine was posing no economic risk to Russia, the United States was far more concerned with China and the Middle East than with Russia. Where was the existential threat that required an all-out invasion?
When the military conflict started, we saw how ...
... warned that the sweeping sanctions campaign pursued by President
Joe Biden
and his allies has backfired, instead hurting the U.S.' economy and international prestige during a dangerous period of global instability.
Moscow's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, told
Newsweek
that "the situation in Ukraine is critically tense" nearly four months since Russian President
Vladimir Putin
launched a war against the neighboring nation in the wake of failed security talks between the Kremlin and the West.
Today, Antonov warned, "More and more ...
... Russian nuclear deterrent, making even a limited Western intervention unthinkable.
China will be the main beneficiary of the Ukraine crisis. But this is not reflected in China’s
political rhetoric
which has been carefully calculated to avoid any major ... ... maintains that the territorial integrity and security interests of all parties need to be respected. China also maintains that NATO enlargement is partially responsible for the crisis.
On the economic front, China has seized the major
strategic opportunities
...
From personnel to propaganda and from strategy to statecraft, the two competing post-Soviet models are being put to the test. The outcome will have repercussions that go far beyond Europe
The military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine is not an ethnic conflict: ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Russians are fighting on both sides of the frontline. And radical nationalism is not the main motivation for Ukrainian resistance—contrary to many of Moscow’s statements. Neither is it ...
... 25 years people like myself have said that NATO expansion would lead to war. Putin said several times that if it came to Ukraine becoming a member of NATO, there would be no Ukraine anymore. In Bucharest in 2008 there was a plan of quick accession of Ukraine and Georgia to NATO. It was blocked by the efforts of Germany and France, but since that time Ukraine has been integrated into NATO. It was pumped up by weaponry and its troops were trained by NATO, their army getting stronger and stronger day by day. In addition we ...
... for development — Russia itself, writes Valdai Club Programme Director Timofei Bordachev.
Even if for Russia the events in Ukraine constitute a special military operation aimed at placing this territory in a state which does not pose a threat to its ... ... would probably be an oversimplification to believe that the European Union has now turned into an “economic department of NATO”, performing only auxiliary functions in relation to the bloc, which is the central instrument of US policy in the western ...
A former adviser to the Kremlin explains how Russia views the *** in Ukraine, fears over Nato and China, and the fate of liberalism.
A former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, Sergey Karaganov is honorary chair of the Moscow think tank the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy. He is associated with a number ...