[“Ukraine’s Ancient Hatreds” – The National Interest – Nikolas K. Gvosdev – June 25, 2014] The National Interest examines the Western response to the crisis in Ukraine, as well as various historical contexts for Russia, Ukraine and the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced a “triune people/one people” concept disputed by outsiders, even as it impacts Kremlin policy. In his public remarks, Putin […]
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[“How Obama Is Driving Russia and China Together” – The National Interest – Dimitri K. Simes – June 24, 2014] The National Interest examines President Barack Obama’s handling of the Ukraine crisis in the light of historical experience: President Barack Obama likes to say that America and the world have progressed beyond the unpleasantness of the nineteenth century and, for that matter, much of […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – June 23, 2014) The State Duma on Friday passed legislation allowing Russian banks to pass information on their U.S. clients to the U.S. tax service, as demanded by FATCA, a law that drags banks around the world into the U.S. fight against tax evasion. But lawmakers were not keen to bend over backwards for the […]
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ST. PETERSBURG, June 20 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow intends to refer the issue of unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the West to the World Trade Organization, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Friday. “When the United States imposed on Russia sanctions that create negative consequences for foreign trade, we decided to challenge them in the World Trade Organization. […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – June 18, 2014) United Launch Alliance, or ULA, the leviathan of the U.S. Space launch industry, has answered a congressional call to end the U.S.’s dependence on Russian space technology for launches of military and intelligence satellites by signing development contracts with multiple domestic firms to develop a next-generation engine by 2019, the […]
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(RIA Novosti – June 17, 2014) Head of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Aleksey Pushkov believes that it is time for Russia to admit a total divergence of opinions with the USA about the meaning of human rights, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on 17 June. “It is time to record our complete dissociation from the USA […]
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(Interfax – June 17, 2014) First deputy director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Sergey Smirnov, has expressed hope that the events in Ukraine will not disrupt cooperation between the Russian and US security services, privately-owned news agency Interfax reported on 17 June. “We have always been cooperating, though sometimes, when some events are taking place, cooperation calms down. We […]
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MOSCOW. June 16 (Interfax) – The United States hopes to carry on the International Space Station (ISS) cooperation project with Russia after 2020, Izvestia wrote on Monday, quoting NASA ISS Flight Program Manager Sean Fuller. Fuller told the newspapers the partners had built a remarkable orbital laboratory and hoped to continue using it after 2020 for the sake of further […]
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Subject: Washington DC: 34th Annual U.S. – RUSSIA FORUM 2014 Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 From: Edward Lozansky <lozansky@gmail.com> 34th Annual U.S. – RUSSIA FORUM 2014 Advancing a Constructive Agenda for U.S. – Russia Relations June 16 – 17, 2014 Washington, DC The current crisis in Ukraine, which many see as the beginning of a new era of U.S. – […]
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US Department of State June 13, 2014 State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf: “We assess that separatists in eastern Ukraine have acquired heavy weapons and military equipment from Russia, including Russian tanks and multiple rocket launchers.”
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Press Digest: Darya Lyubinskaya, special to RBTH – June 10, 2014) RBTH presents a selection of views from leading Russian media, featuring cautious optimism for a military de-escalation in Ukraine’s east, analysis of the effectiveness of Kiev’s military campaign, and news of a $48 million pledge from the U.S. to tighten Ukraine’s borders. Kommersant […]
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WASHINGTON, June 10 (RIA Novosti) – It isn’t too surprising that the US refuses to even look into the fact that the government in Kiev is responsible for committing atrocities against civilians in eastern Ukraine, said Michael Hughes, a Washington D.C.-based journalist and foreign policy analyst. “The administration and State Department continue to redefine reality on the ground to justify […]
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MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko prove that Russia is involved in the independence movement in the eastern regions of Ukraine, according to The New York Times. During a meeting in Poland on Wednesday, Kerry asked the newly elected president to provide evidence of a connection between Moscow […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – June 5, 2014) As diplomatic tensions reached a boiling point over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, President Vladimir Putin was rejected in March as host of the Group of Eight summit in Sochi, while his country was excluded altogether from the group of leading industrialized nations. But Putin’s arrival in Normandy on Thursday […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – James G. Neuger, Thomas Penny, Kateryna Choursina – June 5, 2014) The U.S. and its allies embarked on two days of contacts with Russian leaders in a bid to resolve the crisis in Ukraine, giving the Kremlin another chance to cut support to pro-Moscow rebels seeking to break up the country. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron […]
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MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart, John Kerry, are due to meet in Paris on Thursday to discuss Syria and Ukraine, two countries that both have recently held presidential ballots amid what is largely described as a civil war. The two foreign policy officials have a long history of talks, having […]
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(Interfax – June 5, 2014) The attitude of Russians towards the United States, the European Union and Ukraine is cooling amid the Western sanctions, and Belarus and China are liked much more, Levada Center told Interfax, quoting May poll statistics. Only 18 percent of Russians speak well of the United States now. The numbers stood at 43 percent in the […]
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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release June 04, 2014 Remarks by President Obama and President-elect Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine After Bilateral Meeting Warsaw Marriott Hotel Warsaw, Poland 10:45 A.M. CET PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, it is a great pleasure for me to have the opportunity to have my first extended meeting with President-elect Poroshenko and to […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Henry Meyer, Volodymyr Verbyany, Daria Marchak – June 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin offered the first face-to-face talks with Barack Obama since pro-Russian separatists unleashed an insurgency that’s claimed almost 200 lives in Ukraine. The Russian leader, who rejected accusations his military is present in Ukraine, said he’s ready to meet Obama this week in France […]
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(Interfax – June 4, 2014) Russia and the United States may soon announce new joint projects regarding the International Space Station (ISS), Izvestia wrote on Wednesday quoting First Deputy Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medical and Biological Problems Oleg Orlov. “Roscosmos has set a task to intensify the ISS scientific program. We are prepared. For instance, […]
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MOSCOW. June 2 (Interfax) – Former CIA analyst Edward Snowden will have to ask for extension of his temporary asylum if he decides to stay in Russia, Vladimir Volokh, the head of the Public Council of the Federal Migration Service, told Interfax on Monday. “He has to request an extension of his temporary stay. No additional documents are filed if […]
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[“Why the US should keep cooperating with Russia on nuclear security” – The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists – Peter E. Davis, Siegfried S. Hecker – May 29, 2014] Stanford University’s Peter E. Davis and Siegfried S. Hecker consider U.S.-Russian cooperation on nuclear security in the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of occupied Crimea: We were surprised that without exception every one of our Russian […]
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MOSCOW, May 30 (RIA Novosti) – The decision by organizers to reject Moscow’s application to attend next month’s international conference on missile defense signals that the West is suspending talks with Russia on this issue, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday. “We point that this step fits in the general trend aiming at folding dialogue with Russia on missile defense […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – May 30, 2014) The risk that the U.S. and European Union will slap further sanctions on Russia over Ukraine is subsiding, but the threat of a recession still looms over Russia, a Bloomberg poll of economists found. Half of the 32 economists questioned for the poll, released on Tuesday, said the Russian economy would slide […]
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(Voice of America – James Brooke – May 28, 2014) The American confrontation with Russia over Ukraine has caused relations between Moscow and Washington to plummet to the lowest level in a generation. American school children singing the Star Spangled Banner in the ballroom of Spaso House, the neoclassical ambassador’s residence in the heart of Moscow, seemed to signal that […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – INVISIBLE HAND – Liam Halligan in London, Editor-at-Large of BNE – May 28, 2014) The St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), now in its 18th year, was less well attended than usual. The absence of various US and Western Europe CEOs, responding to pressure from their governments following sanctions on Russia, was heavily commented […]
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Anatol Lieven, Chair of International Relations in the War Studies Department of King’s College London, and senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., addresses recent developments in the Ukrainian crisis, and a series of long-neglected problems impacting unfolding events. The presentation took place in Milan, Italy, on May 14, 2014 under the auspices of the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
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The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release May 25, 2014 Statement by the President on Elections in Ukraine On behalf of all Americans, I congratulate the people of Ukraine for making their voices heard by voting in their presidential election today. Despite provocations and violence, millions of Ukrainians went to the polls throughout the country, and […]
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ST. PETERSBURG. May 25 (Interfax) – President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will not agree to an abstract role in cooperation with the United States when Moscow is allowed “to simply sit alongside” and that mutual interests should be taken into account. “Instruments are good only when they are really applied. If we have set up some venues for […]
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ST. PETERSBURG. May 23 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Western sanctions imposed over Crimea so far concern the people from his close entourage, and that he would have started a legal action if he were in their shoes. “But for now all these sanctions boil down to picking someone close to me from my personal entourage, and […]
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MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – The West should not rush to impose further sanctions against Russia as they could have an extremely negative effect on the global financial system, Chair of the Government Department at Harvard University Timothy Colton told RIA Novosti. “The West should think twice, think very carefully about extending the sanctions, because it could end up […]
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ST. PETERSBURG, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – The future of US-Russia relations largely depends on the development of the situation in Ukraine, Chair of Harvard University’s Department of Government Timothy Colton told RIA Novosti on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. “A lot depends on what happens in Ukraine. If things start to settle down – gradually, […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Margaret Talev, Jonathan Allen – May 23, 2014) Turmoil in Ukraine has sparked a boomlet of lobbying in Washington, with an almost five-fold increase in the number of companies and organizations weighing in with lawmakers and officials. The subject is so sensitive that the lobbyists even more than usual want to be heard and not seen. […]
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(Jack Matlock, U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991 – jackmatlock.com – May 18, 2014 – http://jackmatlock.com/2014/05/granville-on-poker-with-putin/#more-723 – reviewing “[PDF] The Folly of Playing High-Stakes Poker with Putin: More to Lose than Gain over Ukraine” by Johanna Granville) Dr. Johanna Granville, a professor at the American University of Bulgaria who has resided in Western Ukraine for the last two years, has written […]
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(Interfax – May 20, 2014) The payment systems Visa and MasterCard will continue operating in Russia, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Interfax on Tuesday. “We can’t abandon these systems since over 90 percent of those who use payment systems work with them,” he said. He did not say how the problem would be resolved with security deposits that Visa and […]
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(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Ryan Chilcote, Henry Meyer and Olga Tanas – May 20, 2014) Russia is being pulled into a new Cold War with the U.S. and its allies, who are using economic warfare reminiscent of the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said. Russia has prepared a raft of retaliatory steps in response to […]
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(Business New Europe, MOSCOW BLOG – bne.eu – Ben Aris in Moscow – May 19, 2014) The shouting match between west and east continues, but the Russian stock market was surging on May 19, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to arrive in China, where he is expected to sign a string of massive investment deals. Some […]
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(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Liam Halligan in London – May 19, 2014) Liam Halligan is Editor-at-Large of Business New Europe “That the Cold War ended in our lifetime without a general war and a nuclear exchange is the greatest shared boon, a true miracle of our own times. Nothing beats that – it is the thing that trumps […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – May 15, 2014) As a tit-for-tat sanctions war vaporizes U.S.-Russian space cooperation, the Russian government has boosted the budget of its Federal Space Agency by 1.8 trillion rubles ($52 billion) to modernize and expand its existing infrastructure and capabilities by 2020. The new program for Russian space activities through 2020 was quietly […]
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MOSCOW, May 15 (RIA Novosti) – A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council has denied German media reports that claim hundreds of well-trained US mercenaries are involved in the Ukraine conflict, the LifeNews agency reported. The news came after the German newspapers Bild am Sonntag and Der Spiegel said last week some 400 elite commandos from the notorious […]
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(Voice of America – Cecily Hilleary – May 14, 2014) U.S. forces are conducting large-scale nuclear “deter and detect” drills this week, just days after Russia conducted similar military exercises simulating retaliatory strikes to a hypothetical U.S. or NATO nuclear attack. Their timing – during the tense standoff over Ukraine – combined with Cold-War-era rhetoric coming out of Moscow, have […]
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WASHINGTON, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – The rift between Russia and the West over Ukraine could bring the BRICS five major emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – closer together, according to Dmitry Beskurnikov, an official with Russia’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the US. “My feeling is that many emerging economies, apart from BRICS, […]
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(Interfax – May 14, 2014) The suspension of the operations of GPS ground stations on Russian territory could affect the accuracy of U.S. precision weapons throughout the world, a source from the Russian rocket industry told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday. “The shutdown of these 11 stations would affect GPS accuracy around the world, and this concerns primarily U.S. precision weapons. However, […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Matthew Bodner – May 14, 2014) Two weeks after warning the U.S. that sanctions on Russia’s space industry would have a “boomerang” effect, Deputy Prime Ministry Dmitry Rogozin announced that Russia was rejecting a NASA proposal to extend cooperation on the International Space Station and would limit exports of its rocket engines to the U.S. […]
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MOSCOW, May 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will be obliged to take retaliatory measures if the West continues its sanctions policy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday. “If the West continues these absolutely non-professional hysterical policies, we would have to think what we can do in return,” Lavrov said during an English-language interview with Bloomberg. The minister, however, emphasized […]
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WASHINGTON, May 13 (RIA Novosti) – A Chinese plan to build a high-speed rail line connecting China to the United States via Russia and Canada is entirely feasible, but it remains to be seen if the US and Russia can cooperate amid the Ukrainian crisis, US rail expert Hal Cooper told RIA Novosti. Cooper, of the Cooper Consulting Company in […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – May 9, 2014) For the majority of Russian citizens, international brands are a must: As far as cars are concerned they prefer the Korean Hyundai or KIA, but when it comes to phones they opt for Samsung. Muscovites, unlike the rest of Russia, prefer Apple and Volkswagen products. German and American quality According […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – May 8, 2014) Despite the White House’s calls for major firms to boycott the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian officials said Wednesday that the forum would go on as U.S. CEOs bow out but send their deputies. The most prominent international economic meeting in Russia, chaired by President Vladimir Putin, the […]
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Hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee “Ukraine – Countering Russian Intervention and Supporting a Democratic State” Testimony by David J. Kramer President, Freedom House May 6, 2014 Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Corker, Members of the Committee, it is an honor to appear before you once again, this time to discuss what I consider to be the greatest global challenge […]
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(RFE/RL – Luke Johnson – WASHINGTON, May 6, 2014) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina from the Pussy Riot art collective walked out of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting room to the snapping of cameras from the major television networks as around 20 reporters waited to hear them speak. “We have to talk about these people, we have to talk […]
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