... anything but a last gasp for the half-century old nonproliferation regime, Presidents Trump and Putin will have to offer some hope that Washington and Moscow take their own responsibilities to reduce and disarm under the treaty seriously.
The wars in Syria and Ukraine have cost hundreds of thousands of lives, and displaced millions of people across the Middle East, Europe and beyond. Washington and Moscow each control resources and levers of influence vital for managing and ultimately resolving these conflicts....
... “compartmentalization” — i.e. to separate areas of agreement from those of disagreement — has reached its limits for instance in Syria. The new volatile and confusing strategic context in which both Germany and Russia operate is wider, bigger and fraught ... ... new strategic context, Germany’s Russia policy has to take on responsibility beyond its immediate neighbourhood — as in Ukraine — for international conflicts that involve Russia. This does not mean that relations between Germany and Russia fall ...
... reduce political-military tensions in both the Baltic and the Black Sea regions?
11
What is the best means to advance the social, economic and political development of eastern Ukraine and Crimea?
What should be done about refugee crisis from eastern Ukraine to Russia and from Syria and other countries to the European Union countries? How should Russia and the European Union respond?
Impact of rise of China
China is the elephant in the room, or as Mao might say, the monkey watching two tigers fight. Is Beijing benefiting from ...
... Council.
On June 21 Magne Barth, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (
ICRC
) in Russia, Belarus and Moldova, visited Russian International Affairs Council.
The visitor spoke about ICRC humanitarian programs in Syria and in the Eastern Ukraine, discussed the possible areas for the improvement of the international humanitarian cooperation efficiency in crisis situation, including cooperation with Russian civil society institutions.
... another elephant in the room; the modalities of Brexit procedure itself was a subject of intense debates between proponents of a “hard Brexit” and supporters of softer approaches to the defecting United Kingdom. The new balance of powers in Syria as well as potential implications of the U.S. — Iranian confrontation added some spice to the Conference deliberations.
The Ukraine-related discussion did not generate any innovative ideas. Neither had it demonstrated any visible progress on the ground. Russia reconfirmed its previous positions on major international matters clearly indicating that it is in no mood for any ...
... Russia and Assad are, with impunity, threatening whole parts of Aleppo with mass slaughter); Ukraine also saw Russian escalation.
Kerry’s talks failed because the Russians were never serious about them, much like previous negotiations on both Syria and Ukraine had repeatedly failed. After some two weeks of these Russian war crimes, the U.S. formally broke off negotiations on October 3rd; the day after, the Guccifer 2.0 APT 28 front released fake documents it claimed proved corruption at the Clinton ...
... the time of international challenges, the collaboration between Russia and US become even more important. Many experts express concerns over Trump policies and his possibility to address key international agenda issues such as protracted conflicts in Syria and Ukraine. In an interview with RIAC Director General Dr. Andrey Kortunov, Dr. Jiri Valenta, CFR member, reflects on what made the victory of Donald Trump possible and shares his perspective on US – Russian rapprochement under President Trump, cooperation ...
New threads in the Team Trump/Team Putin tangled web show Manafort and Page linked to each other as part of a Russian plot to control Ukraine and also show a mutual Russian mafia godfather linking them with each other and Trump, providing even deeper and more fertile ground on which to question Trump’s pro-Russia, Pro-Putin positions and their origins. Author's note: this ...
... world faces serious problems today: terror group Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic state of Iraq and the Levant), the war in Syria and Iraq, the migrant crisis, slow growth. But these are issues civilised nations are capable of solving one way or another.... ... policy in 2012, when the country started to focus on Eurasia. In 2014, Russia embarked on a power struggle with the West over Ukraine.
This is bad news for dealing with threats such as terrorism, which need the combined effort of the civilised world. Russia ...
... a neo-Kemalist foreign policy that focuses on national interests and respects the territorial integrity of Turkey’s neighbors.
There is no surprise that beside other issues the parties concentrated on discussing Syria. In geopolitical terms, Syria is a top priority for Turkey, just as Ukraine is of central interest to Russia. Russian decision, in late September 2015, to intervene in Syria had caused huge problems between Ankara and Moscow. After Russian SU-24 had been shot down by Turkish Air Forces, bilateral relations further deteriorated....