MOSCOW. July 28 (Interfax) – U.S. authorities will have to recall hundreds of employees at its missions in Russia in accordance with measures taken by Moscow in response to the bill on new anti-Russian sanctions passed by the U.S. Congress, a source with knowledge on the matter told Interfax. “We are talking about hundreds, not dozens of diplomatic and technical […]
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“The U.S. government released Monday a large trove of documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, including previously top-secret audio files and transcripts of the CIA interrogating a former Soviet spy who claimed to have intimate knowledge about the killer’s connection to Moscow. In accordance with the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which mandates that […]
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… Chinese exceptionalism is on the rise. … challeng[ing] a decades-old tenet of U.S. foreign policy … that argued exposure to the West would lead Chinese to embrace Western values. … President Xi’s signature slogan, the ‘China Dream,’ appeals to Chinese who aspire to a middle-class lifestyle and cheer China’s return to international prominence. … China’s government exercises near-absolute authority over education, […]
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“Russia risks being saddled with U.S. sanctions for decades, curbing economic growth and preventing it from regaining its status as a leading economic power, an adviser to President Vladimir Putin said …. Alexei Kudrin told Reuters that the current proposed tightening of sanctions in Washington should not have any serious impact. But he called for a major structural reform program […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ksenia Galouchko – July 27, 2017) The U.S. House has approved a bill hardening sanctions against Russia, but European resistance to some of its toughest new measures means the impact on companies will be muted, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG. As it stands now, the most negative aspect of the bill […]
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(opendemocracy.net – Moritz Pieper – July 27, 2017) Moritz Pieper is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Salford, UK. He received his PhD from the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies. He has been a visiting Research Fellow at China Foreign Affairs University (CFAU), Beijing, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Brussels, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Lena Smirnova – July 26, 2017) Top Russian officials on Wednesday slammed a U.S. House of Representatives vote in favor of fresh sanctions, with one official warning it could trigger “a new Cold War.” “Washington is a source of danger,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the state-run TASS news agency. “This is a blatant, […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 24, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. The European Commission is preparing to counteract the new sanctions the U.S. Congress may impose on Russia this week. This may sound as if Europe is […]
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KYIV. July 24 (Interfax) – United States Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker has told Ukrainian parliamentarians that the results of his trip to Donbas will be reflected in western partners’ decision on further steps towards peaceful settlement. At the start of their meeting Volker, who had just returned from the armed conflict zone in Donbas, shared his impressions […]
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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Izabella Tabarovsky, Senior Associate, Manager for Regional Engagement at The Kennan Institute – July 24, 2017) This blog is a short version of a Wilson Quarterly article Walking in Each Other’s Shoes: wilsonquarterly.com/quarterly/the-lasting-legacy-of-the-cold-war/walking-in-each-others-shoes-through-the-iron-curtain-and-back/ For interview excerpts with the guides, please see and “A Tribe of the Exhibit People: American Guides Recall Soviet Journey”: wilsonquarterly.com/quarterly/the-lasting-legacy-of-the-cold-war/a-tribe-of-exhibit-people-american-guides-recall-soviet-journey/ In my […]
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“Since [the early 1990’s] Svetlana has walked the dogs of American diplomats in Moscow. The 52-year-old Russian is not a U.S. Embassy employee but has come to this work through recommendations by American pet devotees … [she]doesn’t remember how many dogs … “… definitely under 100 … more than 60.” … what started out as a side job … while raising her children has […]
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(RAND Corporation – Christopher S. Chivvis, Andrew Radin, Dara Massicot, Clinton Bruce Reach – July 2017) This report analyzes trends in strategic stability between Russia and the United States, examines Russian views on the subject, and assesses current prospects for stemming the erosion of strategic stability between the two countries. Such prospects exist, but they would require a sustained effort […]
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“… Trump initiated the conversation without the benefit of his own interpreter or the participation of any of his national security advisers. Only … Putin’s interpreter was on hand. … Putin, after all, is an adversary, not an ally. … Spicer told reporters the dinner discussion involved ‘pleasantries and small talk.’ … Trump [said that] the two men discussed ‘Russian adoptions’ … … Lavrov told […]
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“Question: Minister, thank you very much for your time. There is a lot to talk about. There is Syria, there is North Korea, there is China, there is Ukraine, there is ISIS. But inevitably, I’d like to begin by talking to you about Russian-US relations. …”
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“Russia’s economy surely is better than it was a year ago. But, tell that to the Russians. … 45% of them believe the ‘worst is yet to come’ despite a nice 3.1% recovery in economic growth over the last 12 months ending in May, according to … VTsIOM…. Higher food prices and declining savings were the biggest concerns …. Thanks to […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 19, 2017) The appointment of reported ‘hardliner’ Jon Huntsman as the United States’ new Ambassador to Russia met with mixed reactions in Moscow on Wednesday. “It’s too early for labels,” Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko was cited as saying by the state-run TASS news agency. “[We have to] judge him by his […]
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MOSCOW. July 20 (Interfax) – Russia intends to verify reports by U.S. media outlets on President Donald Trump’s decision to phase out a covert CIA program of providing aid to the Syrian opposition, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. “We welcome all steps aimed at defusing the situation and strengthening security in the Middle Eastern region. If this is being done […]
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“Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman will be nominated as the U.S. ambassador to Russia … The White House confirmed in March that it would name [him] … to the Russia post. [b]ut … delayed formally naming Huntsman and sending the nomination to the Senate for confirmation as the United States waited for the Kremlin to approve his selection. … amid what could be […]
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“… U.S. authorities secretly surveilled all the spies for years, bugging the Guryevs’ house and even secretly searching it when they weren’t around. The FBI told CNN’s original series “Declassifed” that the Guryevs tried so hard to blend into American society that they didn’t even speak Russian inside their own home. Eventually, the United States cracked a secret code the […]
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MOSCOW. July 18 (Interfax) – Moscow is against linking the Russian diplomatic property seized in the United States to the provision of a land site in St. Petersburg for the construction by Washington of a new general consulate, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “As to the Russian diplomatic property, we rule out any connection between this issue with […]
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“… Like a stack of Russian nesting dolls, the number of people attending has increased from five to eight, while new characters have emerged – including Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American DC lobbyist with a penchant for opera, fine wine and imported orange bicycles. …”
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ilya Arkhipov – July 17, 2017) Russia stepped up pressure on the U.S. to return seized diplomatic compounds in one of the first tests of whether Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin can convert the personal rapport of their initial meeting into improved relations. The country houses outside New York and Washington must be returned unconditionally after […]
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(Kremlin.ru – July 14, 2017) [Complete transcript here http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/55052] On the eve of Steelworker Day, Vladimir Putin visited the Lebedinsky GOK ore dressing plant that is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and watched the launch of the third sponge iron production shop. The President visited the viewing platform of Lebedinsky GOK, learned about the production process and observed the launch of […]
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MOSCOW. July 17 (Interfax) – Franz Klintsevich, first deputy head of the Federation Council committee on defense and security, has called actions taken by Washington, which sets conditions for the return of Russian diplomatic property seized in the United States, strange and said he hopes for the settlement of the situation. “It is possible that the current U.S. administration now […]
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“… Russian cold war veterans say that efforts to maintain positive diplomatic dialogue have always been hostage to daily headlines and adverse geopolitical events. But today, they say, channels of communication appear woefully inadequate and there is no preexisting set of rules to fall back on – straining basic, practical communication between the US and Russia. … The mood in […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 13, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. U.S. politics as an extension of the Russian-Ukrainian war theater sounds mildly ridiculous — but, as partisan U.S. forces push competing stories of the post-Soviet nations’ […]
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BRUSSELS. July 13 (Interfax) – Information briefings even at the level of ambassadors in the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) are not sufficient for a serious talk about de-escalation of the military situation in Europe; what is needed is a restoration of interrupted military contacts, Alexander Grushko, Russia’s Permanent Representative to NATO, said after a NRC meeting on Thursday. “If someone is […]
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(WASHINGTON – July 11, 2017 – Article ©2017 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – Mike Eckel – also appeared at rferl.org/a/us-russia-fraying-ties-erode-arms-control/28611015.html) The U.S. Congress is moving decisively to start dismantling some of the bedrock agreements of U.S.-Russian arms control, reflecting the dangerous state of relations between Washington and Moscow and raising the specter of a new arms race. […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 11, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. In stories about her meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Natalia Veselnitskaya, the unlikely celebrity in the latest installment of the Trump-Russia story, is often described as […]
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(PBS Newshour – July 11, 2017 – also appeared at pbs.org/newshour/bb/inside-russias-propaganda-machine/) “For years, the Kremlin and the media it controls have waged a multifaceted information (and disinformation) campaign inside Russia and pointed at its perceived adversaries, including the U.S. As part of our week-long series Inside Putin’s Russia, special correspondent Nick Schifrin and producer Zach Fannin report on the information […]
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“… Trump finally had the opportunity to meet … Putin for more than two hours … at the G-20 summit …. The meeting was newsworthy mainly because it happened …. for a bilateral relationship that had degraded to a more dangerous kind of postmodern Cold War since the Russian seizure of Crimea more than three years ago, and a vicious whirlwind […]
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“As Donald Trump spoke with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Hamburg … his State Department announced the appointment of a tough-minded former NATO ambassador to serve as Washington’s new point man on Ukraine. His mandate is to help implement the Minsk agreements. Kurt Volker is widely respected as an accomplished diplomat, but in Ukraine he confronts his greatest challenge yet. […]
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“… Officially, besides his native Russian, Putin speaks English and German – a language he used on a daily basis in his past career for the Soviet security services (KGB) while deployed in the city of Dresden in East Germany during the 1980s. …”
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MOSCOW. July 11 (Interfax) – Moscow plans to expel about 30 U.S. diplomats and freeze a number of U.S. properties in Russia, the newspaper Izvestia said on Tuesday citing a knowledgeable source with the Russian Foreign Ministry. “Washington’s decision not to return the embassy property seized in December 2016 may prompt Russia to take those measures. The problem was not […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – July 10, 2017) Leonid Bershidsky is a Bloomberg View columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru. One of the many challenges of dealing with Donald Trump is that he sometimes misunderstands things. The fallout from Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
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“… Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has campaigned against Western-imposed sanctions on Russia, met with Mr. Trump’s closest advisers: his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.; his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and the Trump campaign chairman at the time, Paul Manafort. The meeting was suggested, as The Post reported Monday, by a Russian pop star whose family has business ties both to the […]
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“It is perhaps ironic and at the same time just that the first meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin occurred in Germany at the G-20 summit in Hamburg. After all it is there that the Cold War began to unwind with the peaceful fall of the Berlin wall. It is also there in a […]
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“In his readout of the first meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson praised the desire of both presidents to forget about the past — and move on. Regarding Putin’s denial of interfering in our 2016 president elections, Tillerson stated, ‘I think what the two presidents, I think rightly, focused on is how do we […]
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“… On Sunday, before Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged that there was a Clinton-related aspect to the meeting, Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, was on Fox News suggesting that the Veselnitskaya episode was “a big nothingburger” for the Trump campaign. …”
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“… The main focus inside the United States was the meeting with President Putin, which lasted over two hours, much longer than anticipated. There was great anticipation about what this first meeting might produce …. Resumption of relations has been delayed by the domestic debate in the United States about Russia’s actions during the 2016 election campaign. It turned out to […]
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“The ceasefire in three Syrian provinces announced Friday after the Trump-Putin meeting in Hamburg is the first step in the right direction that the United States has taken in the Middle East in more than 20 years. The Syrian deal should be understood in the context of President Trump’s address in Warsaw the day before, a challenge to Russia to […]
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“The long awaited meeting between America’s and Russia’s presidents finally occurred at the G-20 summit. They got along great, said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, connecting ‘very quickly,’ and talked for more than two hours. Even First Lady Melania Trump couldn’t drag her husband away after the first hour. …”
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“… The DNC’s reluctance to share its server probably stems from an awareness of lingering antagonisms within the FBI – the natural inference is that there’s presumably something on it that they don’t trust some FBI agents to keep to themselves once seen. Still, the failure to turn over the evidence is just the sort of lever on public opinion […]
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“The first face-to-face meeting of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump finally took place on 7 July 2017 at the G20 summit in Hamburg. Not since the days of superpower summits during the Cold War has a meeting been more eagerly anticipated, or so assiduously impeded by its opponents. In the context where normal practices of diplomacy have so far degenerated, […]
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(Kremlin.ru – July 8, 2017) President of Russia Vladimir Putin answered journalists’ questions on the results of the two-day G20 Summit. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Allow me to skip any statements and monologues. You have seen and heard everything, a great deal. Let us get straight to questions. Go ahead, please. G20 summits Question: Mr President, both […]
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“… No doubt some senior Russian officials and businessmen are unsatisfied with Putin, but they’re not so unsatisfied that they will cooperate with the U.S., EU or NATO in unhorsing him, especially given our chronic inability to keep a secret. Despite all that ‘mafia state” chatter, Russia’s leadership will, if they need to, close ranks and clean house to protect […]
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U.S. Department of State July 7, 2017 Press Briefing on the President’s Meetings at the G20 BY SECRETARY OF STATE TILLERSON AND SECRETARY OF TREASURY MNUCHIN ON THE PRESIDENT’S MEETINGS AT THE G20 Hamburg Messe Hamburg, Germany SECRETARY TILLERSON: Thank you, Steve, and thanks for staying with us late these evening. President Trump and President Putin met this afternoon for […]
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“… It is not an honor to sit down with the leader of a regime that invades peaceable neighbors, covertly interferes in the elections of democratic nations, and orchestrates and tolerates the assassination of domestic political opponents and journalists. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to meet. As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after the leaders ended two-plus hours of conversation, it is crucial for […]
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“Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin were scheduled to meet for only about thirty minutes, but they remained closeted together for over two hours … on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, the first face-to-face meeting of the two presidents, even longer than the ninety minutes that George W. Bush and Putin had during their initial meeting. After the […]
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“The much anticipated first face-to-face meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin has taken place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. The two presidents met for over two hours, with only translators and their respective chief diplomats—Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov—joining them. Despite its length, the meeting’s narrow agenda, which […]
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