... difference. The mechanisms ... to manage the risks of escalation that existed in the past no longer seem to be present” (pp. 188-189) [
3
]. Cohen cautions that the new Cold War is “more fraught with the possibility of a hot war”—on three fronts: Ukraine, Syria, and the Baltics (p. 67)—and that the only way to avert a hot war or “another prolonged Cold War” is through a new U.S.-Russia “détente,” i.e. the expansion of cooperation and radical reduction in the possibility of violent and potentially nuclear conflict (p. 26).
Cohen claims that today’s U.S. dealings with Russia, as opposed to the détente talks between U.S....
... relations with Vladimir Putin
Analysts, journalists and bloggers love to compare the Russian and Turkish leaders. And to be fair, there are a number of obvious parallels... ... all to see five years ago following the downing of the Russian Su-24 on the Turkey–Syria border. For a moment, it looked like Russia and Turkey were about to go to war... ... crisis in Russia–Turkey relations.
Expansion of military-technical cooperation with Ukraine
. Russia and Turkey have always had fundamentally different views on Ukraine...
... Donbass did not presage a policy of reconquering Eastern Europe, as many in the West feared, but it clearly set Ukraine and other former Soviet republics off limits to any future NATO enlargement. The security buffer was back. If the use of force in Ukraine, from the Kremlin’s standpoint, was essentially defensive, Russia’s intervention in Syria in 2015 was a risky gambit to decide geopolitical outcomes in the Middle East — a famously treacherous area for outsiders vacated by the Soviet Union at the time of the Persian Gulf war of 1991. Since then, the results of the military operation ...
... action today is for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to regain control over northern Syria”.
Regardless of what one thinks of Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela... ... continue to complement country’s further domestic instability.
Andrey Kortunov:
Russia Is Winning, but Here’s the Catch
China, another country where instability was... ... Anthony Rowley
affirms
, such an attitude makes little sense, if any.
The
situation
in Ukraine emerges as a true pinnacle of such inconsistency and unpredictability. The United...
The “Russian issue” will not budge unless the slogans of the European Union are converted into detailed “road maps” and concrete ... ... matters is barely audible.
As far as we can tell, the tentative steps taken by Paris and Berlin to open a dialogue with Moscow on Syria have not led to any practical actions. Also, it would seem that the “selective engagement” between Europe and Russia ...
... 2019 in Moscow, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) together with Institut Montaigne (France) and with the assistance of the Embassy of the French Republic in the Russian Federation held an international seminar "Conflict Resolution in Syria and Ukraine: Russian and French Approaches". The event was held in the framework of cooperation between the two organizations in a series of seminars.
The meeting included two sessions, one devoted to the settlement of the Syrian crisis, and the other — to ...
... modernization — including a continued buildup of forces stationed along the border with Ukraine in order to give Moscow more instruments for intervening in the course of the... ... European (northwestern) theater, despite the mutually belligerent rhetoric by NATO and Russia, and the growing U.S. military presence in Europe.
Judging from the new State... ... programs have effectively been pushed back to the mid-2020s or even beyond 2027.
In Syria, Putin will keep trying to convert the military success of the Russian intervention...
... create acceptable and attractive foundations for a new start in Syria. Also, some politicians in the EU will like to see Russia fail in Syria. And also, the EU will have problems working fully with Russia, until the security-situation in the Baltics and Ukraine is solved (ref above). All the EU’s hesitations about Russia in Syria can be overcome, but this will take more time, and Russian results in Syria must be demonstrated first.
Russia and Iran in Syria are now confronted with a hen-and-egg situation: “
if you have no hens, you will get no eggs – if you have no eggs,...
... Studies (CSIS).
On October 2–4, 2018, Washington DC hosted a regular seminar in the framework of the joint project between Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The seminar focused on the approaches of Moscow and Washington to the situation in Ukraine and Syria, and Euro-Atlantic security issues.
Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General; Ivan Timofeev, Director of Programs, Associate ...
... and beyond. Washington and Moscow each control resources and levers of influence vital for managing and ultimately resolving these conflicts. Although officials have sought to negotiate small steps, such as implementation of the Minsk agreements in Ukraine and getting the Syria talks in Geneva back on track, political will is lacking, and a meeting between the U.S. and Russian presidents is by far the best opportunity for each to signal their commitment to progress.
Finally, in the aftermath of years of sanctions and counter-sanctions, policies of mutual isolation have atrophied relations between ordinary Americans ...
