(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, February 27, 2015) Because Vladimir Putin seeks both recognition as the leader of a superpower and a new Yalta at which he and Western leaders will partition the world into spheres of influence and because he can only move toward that goal by new acts of aggression, the Kremlin leader is likely […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – February 26, 2015) [Chart here http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-26/europe-isn-t-really-worried-about-putin?cmpid=yhoo] For all the alarmist rhetoric about Russian barbarians at the gate, NATO countries are reluctant to put their money where their mouth is. Only the countries closest to Russia’s borders are increasing their military spending this year, while other, bigger ones are making cuts. Regardless of what […]
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(John Steinbruner – Perspectives on Peace & Security – perspectives.carnegie.org – Carnegie Corporation of New York – February 2015) John Steinbruner Professor, Public Policy Director, Center for International and Security Studies at University of Maryland CUAF – School of Public Policy One year after Russia’s seizure of Crimea, the situation in Ukraine continues to drift toward active military confrontation between […]
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State Department transcript [of prepared remarks – click here for PDF of uncorrected transcript including Q&A] Remarks by Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs: “Unity in Challenging Times: Building on Transatlantic Resolve” Brookings Institution Washington, DC January 27, 2015 As prepared View more details on Brookings.edu Thanks, Fiona, for that introduction and thanks to Brookings for […]
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[“How to spot a Russian bomber” – BBC – February 20, 2015] The BBC covers recent incursions by Russian bombers into UK’s area of interest, including information on how to recognize Russian bombers. Two Russian bombers have been escorted from near UK territory – the latest in a series of similar incidents. How easy is it to spot a Russian […]
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[“Danger to UK safety: Vladimir Putin’s Russian bombers ‘put British passenger jets at risk’; Russian bombers in British airspace risk a catastrophic collision with a passenger airliner, a former Armed Forces chief warned yesterday.” – The Daily Express (UK) – Tom Morgan – February 23, 2015] The Daily Express covers recent incidents of Royal Air Force jets being scrambled to […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – bne IntelliNews – February 6, 2015) Nato has agreed to establish a new rapid reaction force, boost its troops in Poland and Romania, and establish six command and control centres in Central and Southeast Europe as part of the alliance’s response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. According to Nato’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, […]
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(Interfax – February 8, 2015) Russia hopes that the feeling of excitement inspired by NATO’s all-out support will not do harm to the Ukrainian leadership, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the press in Munich on Sunday. “Concerning Ukraine in the context of relations with NATO, and the parallels between Ukraine and Georgia, I did not draw such parallels. NATO […]
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[“Russians present in Ukraine in specialist roles: U.S. envoy” – Reuters – February 4, 2015] Reuters reports on clarifications by U.S. ambassador to NATO Douglas Lute that Russian troops in eastern Ukraine are in a command role and are operating sophisticated military equipment, while additional Russia military interventions do not appear imminent. ‘Back in August, we saw a spike in direct Russian intervention […]
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[“Prospects for NATO-Russia relations: Keynote address by NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow at the 2015 Leangkollen Conference, Oslo” – Alexander Vershbow – NATO transcript – Feb. 2, 2015] In his keynote address at the 2015 Leangkollen Conference, Oslo, NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow addressed the Ukraine conflict and challenges facing NATO-Russia relations. Vershbow holds that Russian aggression has undermined […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexei Timofeichev, RBTH – January 27, 2015) During at visit to the National Mineral Resources University in St. Petersburg on Monday, Jan. 26, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the army fighting against pro-Russian rebels in southeastern Ukraine is “essentially no longer an army, it is a foreign legion – in this case […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Bob Rigg – January 21, 2015) Bob Rigg is former senior editor with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and a former chair of the New Zealand National Consultative Committee on Disarmament. He is a freelance researcher and writer specialising in nuclear issues, the Middle East, Central Asia, and US foreign policy. In the renewed cold […]
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(RIA Novosti – January 13, 2015) Russia is carefully monitoring how NATO is reinforcing its military presence in Eastern Europe, and is ready to take action in response if necessary, Mikhail Ulyanov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department of Security and Disarmament Issues, told RIA Novosti (part of the Russian state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) on 13 January. […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 12, Issue 2 – Roger McDermott – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – January 6, 2015) President Vladimir Putin has introduced a new Military Doctrine in the context of the Ukraine crisis, deteriorating relations with the United States, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as shifts within the international security environment. […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 30, 2014) The head of the Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, has called for the start of a dialogue on forming a European security architecture on new principles, without national egoism, RIA Novosti (part of the state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) reported on 30 December. “It is in our common interests to […]
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(RIA Novosti – December 26, 2014) Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO Aleksandr Grushko has said that NATO is beginning to realize that it cannot overcome the current crisis in European security without Russia, RIA Novosti (part of the state-owned International News Agency Rossiya Segodnya) reported on 26 December. “My impression is that among many NATO member states, first of all the […]
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(Interfax – December 3, 2014) Ukrainian former President Leonid Kuchma believes Ukraine should be realistic about its capabilities and should come close to meeting the standards of the EU and NATO before speaking about membership in these structures. “We can head anywhere. We have indeed taken the course in the direction to the EU and NATO, but we should be […]
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(Interfax – Moscow, December 1, 2014) The “cold war” between Russia and the West never ended, and under certain circumstances it may move into the “hot” phase, former Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Army Gen Yuriy Baluyevskiy believes. “The armed forces of the USA, of NATO in general, are “honed” today towards fighting against Russia, […]
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(Interfax – December 1, 2014) Russia does not believe the point of no return has been passed in its relations with NATO and is ready to work with the alliance, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “The point of no return has not been passed. I think it’s in the interests of both sides not to fuel tensions, but to actively […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Patrick Donahue, Arne Delfs, Ilya Arkhipov – November 26, 2014) German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is alarmed by President Petro Poroshenko’s plan to hold a referendum on Ukraine joining NATO, seeing it as a dead end that would only inflame tensions with Russia. Ukrainian membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is not on the table […]
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(RFE/RL – November 21, 2014) Ukraine’s newly agreed five-party ruling coalition has reportedly set the country’s membership of NATO as its major goal. The coalition comprises the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the Popular Front, Samopomich (Self-Rule), the Radical Party, and Batkivshchyna (Fatherland). The five pro-Western parties that passed the 5 percent threshold in last month’s parliamentary elections control a total of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber – November 20, 2014) President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Tuesday voiced what Russia wants from the West over Ukraine: guarantees that the former Soviet republic will not join NATO, an outcome that political analysts agree was already unlikely in the year-long conflict that has already claimed 4,000 lives. “We would like to hear […]
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(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, November 19, 2014) Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, says that Russian wants to receive “a 100 percent guarantee” that “no one will think about Ukraine entering NATO.” The only proper response to that outrageous example of imperial overreach is to offer NATO full membership in the alliance immediately. To do otherwise […]
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MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) – NATO is set to continue its military pressure on Russia and has held numerous exercises on Russia’s border, a senior Russian Defense Ministry official said Tuesday. “It is evident that our colleagues from NATO are set to continue military pressure on Russia, which… is unlikely to make Europe safer,” Sergei Koshelyev, the head of […]
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – November 8, 2014) The Pentagon’s spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby, says he has “no independent operational reporting” to confirm Kyiv’s claim that Russia sent an armored column into eastern Ukraine on November 6. Kirby said the Pentagon can confirm “a continued presence ” of unhelpful Russian battalion tactical groups “right across the border” in Russian territory […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer – November 7, 2014) Russian troops marched in Red Square to commemorate a World War II parade held under the noses of German invaders in 1941 two days after President Vladimir Putin defended a 1939 non-aggression pact with Hitler. Six thousand soldiers and cadets accompanied by World War II-era warplanes and other weaponry today […]
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(RIA Novosti – Brussels, November 5, 2014) NATO should be encouraging Kiev to engage in dialogue with Donbass representatives in order to demonstrate commitment to stabilization in Ukraine, permanent representative of the Russian Federation at the alliance Aleksandr Grushko has told RIA Novosti. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday [4 November] that NATO members had recently “observed Russian troops’ […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – October 24, 2014) While top Russian officials and pro-Kremlin politicians continue to paint NATO as an existential threat to Russia and even an instigator of the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has been working to strengthen the legitimacy of its own security organization: the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). But while this bundling of […]
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WASHINGTON, October 10 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine should not become a member of NATO and was never intended to become a NATO member, the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander of Europe told RIA Novosti. “We don’t need Ukraine as a member of NATO, we shouldn’t put it in NATO. It’s a different country. It was never our plan when we […]
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US Department of State October 9, 2014 Remarks at the Aspen Institute Victoria Nuland Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Berlin, Germany Assistant Secretary Nuland: It’s wonderful to be here with all of you at the Aspen Conference. Thank you to Aspen. Thank you to Microsoft for your support, this fantastic space. Thank you Rudy, and congrats to […]
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(RIA Novosti – Moscow, October 8, 2014) Russia has been ready for a long time to denounce the agreement on the stay of troops of NATO member states on the territory of the Russian Federation but one should not hurry with this, the chairman of the Russian State Duma defence committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, has said. After NATO took upon itself […]
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MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – It would be extremely difficult to revive constructive dialogue between Russia and NATO as bilateral relations have deteriorated to a great extent this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday. “The atmosphere [of bilateral cooperation] that has been respected by the alliance for a long time has dissipated in a blink of an eye. […]
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MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) – The United States is deploying some 700 troops as well as battle tanks in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland in the next couple of weeks, NBC News reported Wednesday. “The purpose is to be a very visible demonstration of commitment to our allies,” said Captain John Farmer, public affairs officer for the Ironhorse, formal […]
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WASHINGTON, September 29 (RIA Novosti) – US President Barack Obama has excluded the possibility of military confrontation between Russia and NATO over the Ukrainian crisis in his interview to CBS Monday. “No, I don’t think there’s going to be a military confrontation between NATO and Russia, although we have worked very hard to reassure that Article Five of the NATO […]
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From: Ira Straus (IRASTRAUS@aol.com Subject: re JRL-2014#201 (Adomanis) Date: Sept 23, 2014 Re: 11. Forbes.com: Mark Adomanis, Ukrainians Still Don’t Want To Join NATO. It is disappointing to see such a misleading article, from one of the few pro-Russia writers still around who has generally been accurate and had a grasp of reality. The article actually does not say anything […]
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MOSCOW. Sept 10 (Interfax) – Russia knows about the agreements reached by Ukraine and some NATO countries on direct supplies of weapons to Kyiv and suggests thinking about the consequences of the implementation of such decisions. “We believe that all questions on this matter, including relating to the responsibility for the consequences of such a step to peace in Ukraine, […]
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MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – Berlin will neither increase its military spending at the request of NATO on account of the crises in Ukraine and Iraq, nor decrease it, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview with ARD. “Currently, the Bundeswehr is well equipped and is fully prepared for participation in military actions”, Germany’s Spiegel […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – September 8, 2014) As West’s Cold-War-era military alliance cranks its belligerence levels up to 11, NATO’s historic enemy, Russia, is rejigging its own military thinking in response. In response to the harder stance confirmed at NATO’s summit last week in Wales, Russian officials are revisiting the country’s war doctrine, mulling its nuclear […]
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From PBS, Jeffrey Brown interviews Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Nicholas Burns, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, about unfolding events in Ukraine and the Western response. Click here for transcript: pbs.org/newshour/bb/will-cease-fire-ukraine-russian-separatists-last/
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(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Robert Coalson – September 6, 2014) Czech President Milos Zeman sparked a testy exchange with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt this week at the NATO summit in Wales, declaring that Prague had not yet seen “clear proof” of Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. “President Zeman should ask his own people,” Bildt retorted. “I don’t know if the Czech Republic […]
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MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) – The crisis in Ukraine has become an excuse for NATO’s long nurtured plans of eastward expansion and the build-up of its forces on the Russian border, Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday commenting on the NATO summit in Wales. “The summit adopted a line towards NATO’s eastward expansion and build-up of its presence near Russia’s […]
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NEWPORT, September 5 (RIA Novosti) – NATO and Ukraine did not discuss the possibility of the Eastern European country’s membership in the military alliance, a NATO official said Friday. “In regard to membership, no, that question wasn’t raided and wasn’t discussed,” the official said on conditions of anonymity. On Wednesday, the Ukrainian government approved legislation to change the country’s “non-bloc” […]
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(NATO – nato.int – September 2, 2014) “NATO and Russia: a new strategic reality” Remarks by NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow at the conference on “NATO after the Wales Summit”, Cardiff University Thank you, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, for that kind introduction. I’m grateful for the invitation to be here on the eve of the NATO Summit. We’ve been preparing […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Gevorg Mirzayan, special to RBTH – September 3, 2014) NATO will hold its first summit since the start of the conflict in Ukraine on September 4-5. According to information leaked to the media, the alliance is planning to adopt several measures aimed at deterring Russia from military action against European nations. Analysts polled by RBTH […]
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(RIA Novosti – September 2, 2014) Russian politicians and pundits have expressed support for the announcement that Russia will update its military doctrine. The deputy secretary of the Russian Security Council, Mikhail Popov, said today in an interview with RIA Novosti news agency that Russia will make changes to its current military doctrine before the end of 2014 to account […]
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(Interfax – August 28, 2014) Question: Ambassador Grushko, it is clear from statements by NATO leaders what kinds of decisions on Russia and in response to events in Ukraine may come at the alliance’s forthcoming summit. If the proposals announced to date are adopted in Wales, will it start a new Cold War between Russia and NATO? Will the “divorce” […]
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BRUSSELS. Aug 28 (Interfax) – NATO’s intention to adopt “a readiness action plan” as part of its recent steps near the borders with Russia under the pretext of some threats coming from the East is unjustified and will only serve to further complicate relations between Russia and the alliance, Moscow’s Permanent Representative to NATO Alexander Grushko has said. “Certainly, we […]
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WASHINGTON, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – A week before the September 4-5 NATO summit in Wales, a number of allies started to fear that the readiness action plan to increase the alliance’s military presence along Russia’s border would be provocative, a Center for Strategic and International Studies representative told RIA Novosti. “The allies have already fully anticipated a very strong […]
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MOSCOW, August 28 (RIA Novosti) – NATO allies do not intend to discuss the status of their relations with Ukraine or take the responsibility for the country’s protection, but will announce consulting and financial aid to Ukrainian military, a high-ranking NATO official told journalists. “In Wales, there will be an announcement on the form of military consultations and financial support […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – August 28, 2014) NATO will set up new bases in Eastern Europe in an attempt to deter President Vladimir Putin from meddling in the internal affairs of countries that used to be under Moscow’s control, the organization’s secretary-general told journalists in an interview published Wednesday. The move effectively returns the state of […]
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