TRANSCRIPT: [Putin at] Meeting on construction of Kerch Strait Bridge and Crimea and Sevastopol’s socioeconomic development

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Kremlin.ru – March 18, 2016) Vladimir Putin held a meeting on construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge and on Crimea and Sevastopol’s socioeconomic development results and their integration into the Russian Federation’s economic and legal space. President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, colleagues. Let me start by congratulating everyone on the second anniversary of Crimea and Sevastopol’s reunification with […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Don’t Fear the Russians” – New York Times/Anatol Lieven

Aerial Photo of Pentagon and Environs

Writing in the New York Times, Anatol Lieven argues for greater U.S.-Russian engagement on Ukraine and Syria. If you believe many of the commentators and policy makers in Washington … Putin … is an expansionist on the march. … he annexed Crimea and fueled a destabilizing conflict in eastern Ukraine. … intervened in the Syrian civil war and rescued his […]

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NEWSWATCH: “RUSSIAN HYBRID WARFARE AND OTHER DARK ARTS” – War on the Rocks/Michael Kofman

Europe Map

  Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, hybrid warfare has become conversational short form in the West for describing Moscow’s sneaky ways of fighting war. … a dangerous Kremlin innovation the West must learn to grapple with. … the word has mutated from describing how Moscow was fighting its war in Ukraine to incorporating all the various elements of Russian influence […]

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Dreams in Isolation: Crimea 2 Years After Annexation

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Eva Hartog – March 17, 2016) DZHANKOI, SIMFEROPOL, KERCH, Crimea – The soldiers carry assault rifles and stand guard, some of them wearing black balaclavas to protect their faces. No more than 100 meters and a bridge separate them from the nearest Ukrainian positions. There, against the gray sky, a blue and yellow flag flickers […]

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TRANSCRIPT: “Ukrainian Reforms Two Years After the Maidan Revolution and the Russian Invasion” – Senate Testimony by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

(U.S. Department of State – March 15, 2016) Testimony of Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Statement Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Washington, DC As prepared Thank you Chairman Corker, Ranking Member Cardin, members of this committee for the opportunity to join you today and for the personal investment so many of you have made […]

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Interfax: Yet another humanitarian aid convoy to be sent to Donbas on March 24 – Puchkov

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MOSCOW. March 16 (Interfax) – Yet another humanitarian aid convoy for Donbas residents is due to be sent on March 24, said Vladimir Puchkov, Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister. “We are now readying yet another humanitarian convoy. We are completing all necessary preparatory procedures, coordinating with the International Committee of the Red Cross, committees from Kyiv, a convoy is planned for […]

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NEWSWATCH: Washington Post editorial: “Russia’s latest show trial”

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The Obama administration keeps betting that Vladi­mir Putin is genuinely interested in a diplomatic settlement in Ukraine. The case of Nadiya Savchenko offers powerful evidence to the contrary. … Savchenko, 34, is a Ukrainian army officer who served with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and later volunteered for a battalion that fought Russia’s invasion of her country’s eastern provinces in […]

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Obama: Ukraine ‘Vulnerable’ To Russian ‘Military Domination’ No Matter What U.S. Does

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – March 10, 2016) U.S. President Barack Obama said that Ukraine “is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what” the United States does. In one of a series of interviews published on March 10 that formed the basis of an article in The Atlantic magazine, Obama said that Ukraine was clearly a […]

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Two Faces of Russia’s Foreign Policy

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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Maxim Trudolyubov – March 9, 2016) Originally many in the West tended to view Russia’s Syrian adventure as yet another one of “Moscow’s gambits.” Commentators described Ukraine and Syria in the same breath. But Russia is eager to demonstrate that the two projects could hardly be more different and that Moscow can be two things […]

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Russia Uses More Tools Than Just its Military to Influence, Threaten Neighbors

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

(U.S. Naval Institute – Panel: news.usni.org – John Grady – March 10, 2016) Russia’s meddling in countries along its borders “has deep roots” and likely would continue after President Vladimir Putin finally leaves the Kremlin, an expert in political risk said Wednesday. Agnia Grigas, a fellow at Occidental College and author of the newly released Beyond Crimea: The New Russian […]

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Ukraine: Hard Choices in a Forgotten War

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Voice of America – Luis Ramirez – March 7, 2016) DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE – Two years into Ukraine’s war, many of the people caught in the midst of it see the conflict as frozen and forgotten by the rest of the world. With diplomatic efforts thus far failing, many see either an escalation or the relinquishing of territory as the […]

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‘We’re Not Giving Up on Crimea,’ US Defense Official Says

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Voice of America – March 2, 2016 – Carla Babb) Nearly two years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the territory remains under Russian control, and in the eastern part of Ukraine there has been an uptick in the fighting. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb discussed the issue with Michael Carpenter, deputy assistant secretary of defense with responsibilities for Russia, Ukraine […]

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The “heroes of Novorossiya”: where are they now?

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Two years ago, a separatist movement in southeast Ukraine brought war and tragedy to the whole country. Though the crisis continues, the movement’s first leaders have gone their separate ways. (opendemocracy.net – Alexandr Litoy – March 2, 2016) Alexandr Litoy is a Moscow-based journalist, specialising in socio-political issues and youth extremism. He began his career at Novaya Gazeta, before moving […]

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NEWSWATCH “Ukraine will not join EU, NATO for another 20-25 years, Juncker says” – DPA

EU Map

The push for closer ties between Ukraine and the EU lies at the heart of the current crisis … triggered by protests in 2013 over a failed attempt to finalize … EU-Ukraine free trade …. The agreement has since been signed and implemented, while the EU is paving the way for Ukrainian citizens to be able to visit the bloc […]

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NEWSWATCH: “In Ukraine Towns Ravaged by War, Evangelical Missionaries Find Fertile Ground” – New York Times

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Maryinka, a Ukrainian-held town of apartment blocks and one-story homes outside … Donetsk, has become a hot spot … for fighting … also for saving souls. … Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists carry on an almost forgotten fight in half-deserted towns like this one … several well-organized evangelical groups are staging a campaign of their own. Based on their accounts […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Russia Achieves Tactical Success in the Middle East, But No Strategic Victory; Russia needs good ties with the West more than short-term gains in Ukraine and Syria” – Thomas Graham/YaleGlobal Online

File Photo of Kremlin Tower, St. Basil's, Red Square at Night

… From the beginning of its military operation in Syria, Moscow has operated on the now indisputable proposition that … rampant unrest in the Middle East and … mounting challenges to the unity of the European Union are inextricably linked. The wager was that Europe would eventually seize an offer of cooperation in Syria to constrict the migrant flow and […]

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Continuation of Western Sanctions on Russia Increasingly Depends on Ukraine, Ogryzko Says

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, February 29, 2016) The maintenance of Western sanctions is contingent upon Ukraine’s willingness to reform itself, according to former Ukrainian foreign minister Vladimir Ogryzko. If Ukraine does not act, the West will ultimately lift the sanctions; and Ukraine will have only itself to blame for its resulting isolation. In a commentary today, […]

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The Gun To Ukraine’s Head

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – The Daily Vertical: Brian Whitmore – March 1, 2016) So, don’t look now, but while we were all watching Syria, Moscow has stepped up its aggression in Ukraine. Pro-Moscow separatists have increased their attacks this week near Luhansk and have intensified their shelling of four villages near the front lines in the Donetsk region. The separatists […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Over 2,600 Ukrainian servicemen killed, around 9,000 wounded since Feb 2014” – Interfax-Ukraine

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

Over 2,600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed and over 9,000 were wounded since the beginning of the Russian aggression in February 2014, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said. * * * … Russia-formed, equipped and financed army in a number of 40,000 under the command of Russian officers during their aggression against Donbas. * * * The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also noted that […]

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The Great Manipulator

Kremlin and River

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – February 24, 2016) Dmitry Medvedev recently played a telling little head game. When the Russian prime minister said at the Munich Security Conference that Moscow and the West had “slid into a new Cold War,” he essentially created a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation. “If the West agrees that it is a new Cold War, then […]

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TRANSCRIPT: House Hearing on Understanding and Deterring Russia: U.S. Policies and Strategies – Oral remarks of Dr. Fiona Hill

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

House Armed Services Committee February 10, 2016 Hearing on Understanding and Deterring Russia: U.S. Policies and Strategies Oral remarks of Dr. Fiona Hill Fiona Hill is director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She is also co-author of the second edition of “Mr. Putin: […]

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Why Russia Stopped at Crimea

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Leonid Bershidsky – February 22, 2016) President Vladimir Putin has boasted that Russia took over Crimea “without a single shot being fired.” There’s even a propaganda movie that presents the operation as the result of brilliant Kremlin planning and seamless execution. A document published on Monday shed new light on why the annexation was bloodless — […]

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Ukraine Deserves Better

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(RFE/RL – rferl.org – The Daily Vertical: By Brian Whitmore – February 22, 2016) Two years ago today, a revolution climaxed. Two years ago today, a corrupt and incompetent tyrant was deposed. Two years ago today, a nation’s civil society came of age. On February 22, 2014, everything seemed possible in Ukraine. Today, of course, things look quite different. Much […]

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Post-Soviet parliamentarian drama: a view from ‘the gods’ in Kiev

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The political history of Russia’s neighbours can be described in terms of one long conflict between a presidential authoritarian tendency and democratic parliamentarianism. Parliaments are the key. (opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Minakov – February 22, 2016) Mikhail Minakov is Associate Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and President of the Foundation for Good Politics, Kyiv. He is also director of the Krytyka Institute, […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Truce Unravels as Fighting Picks Up in Ukraine” – New York Times

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

… overshadowed by the war in Syria, fighting in eastern Ukraine has picked up sharply in recent weeks … The resumption of hostilities in Ukraine, with exchanges of machine gun and mortar fire across the front line up to levels not seen since last summer, suggests a willingness by Russia, which supports the rebels in eastern Ukraine, to sustain two […]

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NEWSWATCH AP: “UN Says Conflict in Ukraine Has Affected 580,000 Children”

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

The conflict in Ukraine has ‘deeply affected’ 580,000 children close to the front lines and in areas in the volatile east not under government control, the U.N. children’s agency said … Ukraine remains locked in conflict with Moscow, which annexed the Crimean Peninsula and has supported a pro-Russian insurgency in the east. Fighting there has killed more than 9,000 people […]

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Chaos in Ukraine Is Making Putin Stronger

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Volodymyr Verbyany – February 17, 2016) Two years after Ukrainians shed blood on the streets of Kiev to crush a Kremlin-backed kleptocracy, the country of more than 40 million people is back on the brink of failed-state status. The government’s long descent into chaos reached a new nadir this week, when amid reform delays […]

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NEWSLINK: “Living and loving on Ukraine’s front line. It’s a year since an agreement was signed in Minsk that was supposed to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine. But the fighting continues – and civilians continue to suffer. The BBC’s Fergal Keane went back to the village of Pisky to talk to a couple determined to stay in their home, come what may.” – BBC

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Russian Nationalists Oppose Moscow’s Plan to Resettle Ukrainian Refugees in Far East

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(Paul Goble – Staunton, February 16, 2016) Duma deputies are proposing and the Russian Ministry for Far Eastern Development has come out in support of a plan to resettle as many as 50,000 Ukrainian refugees who had fled their country because of the fighting but have not yet found permanent residences in the Russian Federation. This plan reflects the convergence […]

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The rise of Azov; War in the east, political and economic crisis in Kyiv – these are ideal conditions for Ukraine’s far right to capitalise on their frontline successes.

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

(opendemocracy.net – Denys Gorbach, Oles Petik – February 15, 2016) Denys Gorbach is a leftist activist and researcher working on the Ukrainian labour movement. Oles Petik is an anarchist volunteering as an editor and translator at a Kyiv-based grassroots publishing cooperative. Strange it may seem, but Ukraine’s far right and Russia’s propaganda machine share a common fantasy: a radical right-wing […]

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Ukraine’s constitution: reform or crisis?

Maidan Square in Kiev, Ukraine

Constitutional reform was supposed to put post-Maidan Ukraine on a firmly democratic footing. This process, however, has gone seriously off track. (opendemocracy.net – Mikhail Minakov, Maryna Stavniichuk – February 16, 2016) Mikhail Minakov is Associate Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and President of the Foundation for Good Politics, Kyiv. He is also director of the Krytyka Institute, and editor-in-chief of the […]

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TRANSCRIPT: Dmitry Medvedev’s interview for Handelsblatt, Germany

Dmitry Medvedev file photo

(Government.ru – February 11, 2016) Ahead of the Munich Security Conference, the Prime Minister answered questions from Editor-in-Chief Sven Afhüppe and international correspondent Mathias Bruggmann. Question: Mr Prime Minister, thank you for finding the time to meet with us. You will come to Munich to attend the Conference on Security. Handelsblatt will cover the proceedings and primarily your participation in […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Weak Oil Prices Fuel Ukrainian Hopes of a More Conciliatory Russia” – Wall Street Journal

Oil Well file photo

The Wall Street Journal covers Russian economic vulnerability amidst falling oil prices and its possible impact on efforts to resolve the Russo-Ukrainian conflict . Ukraine’s political elite is hoping that plummeting oil prices will restrain neighboring Russia’s interventionist ambitions—and give Western sanctions on Russia a bit more bite. … diplomatic overtures have raised hopes in Kiev that Moscow—which annexed Crimea […]

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TRANSCRIPT: DIA Statement for the Record – Worldwide Threat Assessment [excerpt re Russia]

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

(Armed Services Committee, United States Senate – Vincent R. Stewart, Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency – February 9, 2016) RUSSIA Moscow continues to devote major resources to modernizing its military forces, viewing military power as critical to achieving key strategic objectives: acknowledged great power status, dominating smaller regional states and deterring NATO from military action in […]

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TRANSCRIPT: DNI – Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community [excerpt re: Russia] – Statement for the Record

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

(Senate Armed Services Committee – James R. Clapper, Director of National Intelligence – February 9, 2016) Leading Threat Actors Russia. Russia is assuming a more assertive cyber posture based on its willingness to target critical infrastructure systems and conduct espionage operations even when detected and under increased public scrutiny. Russian cyber operations are likely to target US interests to support […]

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