TBILISI. Aug 8 (Interfax) – The United States urges Russia to implement the ceasefire agreement of August 12, 2008, and to pull its troops stationed in Abkhazia and South Ossetia to the line that existed before the August 2008 conflict, U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Georgia Elizabeth Rood told the press on Thursday in connection of the 11th anniversary of the […]
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“Jon Huntsman, … U.S. ambassador to Russia, will resign … in early October … ahead of what is widely seen as a bid to again seek election as Utah’s governor. The 59-year-old Republican was ambassador to China under … Obama, resigned that post to run for president in 2012, then was selected by … Trump to be ambassador to Russia […]
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“… Trump … signed an executive order imposing new sanctions on Russia, responding to growing pressure from Congress to further punish Moscow after a nerve agent attack …. the second round of sanctions by the administration after a botched attempt in March 2018 to fatally poison a former Russian military intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, in … Salisbury [in the UK]. […]
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“… a U.S. Senate report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election … relayed intelligence assessments that Russian government hackers scanned electoral systems in all 50 states, looking for weaknesses …. Russian meddling reportedly continued as the 2018 midterm elections neared … [DHS indicated that there were] ‘numerous actors … regularly targeting election infrastructure, likely for different purposes, including […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – July 30, 2019) With the historic INF Treaty more than likely to terminate, and the future of New START in doubt, what guiding principles for interstate nuclear arms control can we hope for? Of eight U.S., Russian, European and Chinese experts surveyed by Russia Matters, most agree that bilateral agreements between the world’s two nuclear […]
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(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – August 1, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/russian-army-called-in-to-fight-siberia-forest-fires/30085889.html) U.S. President Donald Trump has offered to help Russia battle widespread forest fires in Siberia as he seeks to repair Washington’s fractious relationship with Moscow. Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to make the offer, the Kremlin said […]
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“[NSA] will create a cybersecurity directorate later this year as part of a wider effort to more closely align the agency’s offensive and defensive operations, U.S. officials said. Anne Neuberger has been tapped to lead the new directorate, slated to become operational Oct. 1. The creation of the directorate and selection of … Neuberger coincide with a broader fusion of […]
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“[Compared to Russia,] … China[‘s] economy is six times larger (at purchasing-power parity) … its power is growing … as Russia’s fades. … Russia is evolving into a Chinese tributary. … Russia is still a nuclear-weapons state with a permanent seat on the [UNSC]…. It has modernised its armed forces and, as in Syria, is not afraid to use them. […]
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“Russia’s central bank lowers its main rate to 7.25%” “… With signs mounting that the world economy is slowing, the [Federal Reserve] is widely expected to lower interest rates for the first time in over a decade …. The European Central Bank signaled … it is preparing to cut short-term interest rates for the first time since early 2016 …. […]
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KYIV. July 26 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker and U.S. Representative to the European Union Gordon Sondland have discussed the current situation in the area of Kyiv’s Joint Forces Operation in Donbas, including the disengagement of forces and military hardware near Stanytsia Luhanska. “The sides expressed hope that the ceasefire enacted […]
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“After so much waiting – a hundred and twenty-four days, to be precise, since Robert Mueller’s report was delivered – perhaps it was bound to be a disappointment. Still, three hours after the former special counsel took the witness stand on Wednesday to testify about his investigation of President Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election … MSNBC anchor […]
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“… Mueller said Russia’s interference is continuing and will be repeated in the 2020 presidential election. ‘Over the course of my career, I have seen a number of challenges to our democracy,’ … Mueller said. ‘The Russian government’s effort to interfere in our election is among the most serious.’ He added: ‘They’re doing it as we sit here, and they […]
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“The Mueller reports highlights many shortcomings in American democracy, but also reveals a deeper failure that informs our broader politics: the silence of the experts. Those well-positioned to comment on the investigation – academic Russia watchers, political science experts on elections, and non-partisan national security specialists – too often ceded the debate to partisans. … [T]he expert community should have […]
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“China vowed to step up military cooperation with Russia, a day after the two countries’ first joint air patrol triggered a rare confrontation over the Sea of Japan and stoked U.S. concern about the intensifying partnership …. Releasing a new defense ‘white paper’ … China accused the U.S. of undermining regional stability by strengthening its alliances, and sharpened a warning […]
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“… Russia is waging campaigns … [to influence world affairs with a] significant number of … tactics … [falling] between routine statecraft and direct and open warfare …. Americans … familiar with Russia’s disinformation efforts in the United States and its use of ‘little green men’ in Ukraine … may be less attuned to stepped-up Russian political and economic coercion […]
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“Russians still brim with pride over being the first nation to send a human into space. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin … circling the Earth in 1961[] remains a national hero whose story is taught to Russian schoolchildren. But ever since the U.S. leapfrogged the Soviet Union by landing a man on the moon 50 years ago this month, Russia has […]
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“Russia’s Foreign Ministry has … denied visas for teachers at a [Moscow] school … run by Western embassies … American officials suggested [the action] was an effort to exert political pressure on the United States by curtailing schooling for the children of diplomats. It is not clear why the Russian government denied entry to 30 teachers, about one fifth of […]
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“… Putin is a gambler. Russia’s population is shrinking, its real-terms wages and gross national income per head are tumbling, it has failed to create successful industries and services and is blighted by entrenched corruption – and yet its president behaves like a poker player with a royal flush. … form[ing] a close relationship with [China’s] President Xi Jinping … […]
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BRUSSELS. July 17 (Interfax) – Russia urges the United States and other NATO countries to store their nuclear arsenals only in their national territories. “Russia deploys and stockpiles all its nuclear weapons exclusively on the national territory. We call upon U.S. and NATO to follow this practice,” Russian Permanent Representative to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said on Twitter […]
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MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) – Russia and the United Stated do not have much time left to draw up a new nuclear arms treaty, which should be comprehensive and should not be worse than the 2011 New START Treaty, First Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee Vladimir Dzhabarov said. “It seems to me that the architecture […]
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“India and Russia have agreed on a new payment method through their national currencies for multi-billion-dollar defense deals … [seeking] to avoid risks created by the U.S. threat of sanctions and banking restrictions. … [and to] enable India to pay the first installment … for two warships … Russia is building for its navy …. Defense contracts will be settled […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Nicholas Trickett – July 11, 2019) Nicholas Trickett is editor in chief of BMB Russia and an associate scholar with the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He specializes in the domestic and international political economy of the Russian energy and infrastructure sectors and Russian foreign policy, and is currently finishing an MSc in international political economy […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – July 12, 2019) New Russian payment system laws could lead the world’s largest credit and debit card companies Visa and Mastercard to exit the country’s market, the Kommersant business daily reported on Friday. U.S.-based Visa and Mastercard stopped servicing bank cards in annexed Crimea after the United States imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014. Russia […]
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(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, July 9, 2019) The decision of Moscow and Washington to dispense with arms control agreements, the attitude behind that which holds that the most powerful countries must not be constrained by such accords, and the lack of understanding among the leaders in both capitals about the nature of war all make a […]
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“New report reveals that Mueller’s investigation missed key evidence to support its central claim that Russia was 100% responsible for election interference.” “… Mueller’s [Special Counsel] report lacks substantiating evidence supporting the central claims of Kremlin interference in the 2016 election, according to … RealClearInvestigations. … discrepancies over the timeline, details, and conflicts of interest from key players in the […]
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“During a single visit to Asia … Trump embraced not one, not two, but three dictators. He became the first American president to set foot in North Korea, where he praised his ‘great friendship’ with North Korea’s despotic leader, Kim Jong Un; he held another cringe-worthy press availability with … Putin, where Trump joked about Russia’s electoral interference; … he […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Paul Saunders – July 3, 2019) Paul Saunders is the chairman and president of the Energy Innovation Reform Project and a senior fellow in U.S. foreign policy at the Center for the National Interest. This op-ed is written in response to “The Osaka Meeting: Is the Tide Turning in US-Russian Relations?” by Thomas Graham. [russialist.org/the-osaka-meeting-is-the-tide-turning-in-us-russian-relations/] […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Thomas Graham – July 1, 2019) Thomas Graham, Managing Director at Kissinger Associates, was the senior Russia expert on the National Security Council staff during the George W. Bush administration. To the consternation of his bitterest opponents and to the surprise, and relief, of many, U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin […]
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“A divided America is failing to counter Moscow’s efforts to undermine democracy and cast doubt on U.S. alliances, says the report, which warns of a surge in ‘political warfare.’” “…. The more than 150-page white paper, prepared for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and shared with POLITICO, says the U.S. is still underestimating the scope of Russia’s aggression, which includes […]
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MOSCOW. July 1 (Interfax) – Moscow and Washington have reached substantial understanding on strategic stability, and Russia expects dialogue at the expert level to be resumed soon, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “Strategic stability was one of the two areas on which substantial mutual understanding was reached in Osaka,” Ryabkov said at the Valdai Discussion Club on Monday […]
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“… [regarding] U.S. deployment of land-based missile systems near Russia’s borders …. ‘If things get as far as an actual deployment on the ground of these sorts of systems, then the situation won’t just get more complicated, it will escalate right to the limit,’ RIA news agency quoted [Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei] Ryabkov as saying. ‘We could find ourselves […]
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(Carnegie Corporation of New York International Peace and Security News – Deana Arsenian – June 19, 2019) Subject: Whiskey and Vodka: Distilling U.S.-Russia Relations Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2019 From: Deana Arsenian <communications@carnegie.org> Carnegie Corporation of New York International Peace and Security NEWS The stakes between the U.S. and Russia are greater than at any point since the Cold War. […]
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“… top [Trump] Russia adviser [Fiona Hill] is leaving … in August … [to] be succeeded by … current … National Security Council … nonproliferation [head] Tim Morrison …. Hill, a … staunch [Putin] critic has held the position since March 2017 …. Hill had just assumed [the role] … when … Trump invited Russia[n] foreign minister … Lavrov[] and […]
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(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Pavel Koshkin – wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/michael-calvey-case-revisited-corporate-hit-bargaining-chip) Pavel Koshkin is a research fellow of the Institute of U.S. and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ISKRAN) and a contributor to Forbes Russia The American investor Michael Calvey, who was detained in February in Moscow on fraud charges, is back in the news again. Calvey, who has […]
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(Article text ©2019 RFE/RL, Inc., Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty – rferl.org – June 6, 2019 – article text also appeared at rferl.org/a/putin-says-russia-prepared-to-drop-arms-control-treaty-if-u-s-not-interested-in-renewal/29984790.html) In a far-ranging discussion on foreign policy, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is prepared to drop the New START arms control treaty if the United States is not interested in renewing it. Speaking on June 6 at […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Ben Aris – May 30, 2019) Ben Aris is editor in chief of bne Intellinews. He has been covering Russia as a journalist since 1993. While Moscow has been aggressively advancing its interests on the international stage, Russia’s stagnating economy means the country risks gradually falling behind the rest of the world and possibly facing […]
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(Oilprice.com – Nick Cunningham – May 23, 2019) There is a growing push in the U.S. Congress to slap sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The pipeline under construction would carry Russian natural gas to Germany, and has been a lightning rod of controversy both in Europe and across the Atlantic. Many governments and officials from Eastern Europe fear […]
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[scroll down for video] “… the Department of Energy … [has] touted the expansion of [a] liquid natural gas … facility … by saying that it would spread ‘freedom gas’ to the world. … giv[ing] ‘America’s allies a diverse and affordable source of clean energy’ …. Not only has the U.S. become largely energy independent … the shale boom has […]
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(Fred Weir, Christian Science Monitor Correspondent – Facebook post – May 30, 2019 – facebook.com/fred.weir/posts/10218476254873823) “Here is one of those stories, in this case a huge NYT exclusive, that make my jaw drop with disbelief. I don’t know much about the intelligence biz — it’s not really my beat — but I do know that there is virtually no chance […]
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“Top U.S. and Russian diplomats discussed step-by-step implementation of a 2012 roadmap to U.N.-supervised elections in Syria that could allow a Syrian government ‘to move back into the international community’ … [Ambassador James Jeffrey] said … indicat[ing] a new U.S.-Russian engagement on efforts to end the eight-year Syrian conflict that has killed over 400,000 people …. But Jeffrey cautioned that […]
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MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) – Moscow will deeply regret Iran’s potential withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), but there is still a chance to avert this negative scenario, Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan said in an interview published in the newspaper Izvestia on Thursday. “Doubtlessly, Iran’s […]
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(PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo – Ivan Kurilla – May 28, 2019 – Ivan Kurilla is Professor at the European University at St. Petersburg) Relations between Russia and the United States have been known to change, for the better or for the worse, within a relatively short period of time. Drawing on historical examples, I analyze cases when relations improved and […]
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“Intelligence assessment marks first time U.S. has said Kremlin failed to observe Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty commitments” “Russia has likely been secretly carrying out very low-yield nuclear tests to upgrade its nuclear arsenal, according to a new U.S. intelligence assessment, challenging Moscow’s claims …. the first time the U.S. has said the Kremlin has failed to strictly observe its […]
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(Oilprice.com – May 23, 2019 – Tsvetana Paraskova) While nuclear power plants in the U.S. are retiring as they face stiff cost competition from cheap and abundant natural gas, America has also been struggling to keep its leadership on the global nuclear power market as state-sponsored programs in China and Russia have started to dominate the world’s nuclear plant construction […]
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“… Russian intelligence organizations … could manage entirely on their own to hack e-mail accounts, line up cutouts such as WikiLeaks to disseminate damaging material, impersonate Americans on social media, and study elementary research available in open sources about battleground states and swing voters. * * * … The sections of the report that treat what Russia intended and achieved […]
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“[In an interview to air Sunday,] … Trump hinted to Fox[] … that he authorized a cyber attack against Russia …. ‘It’s been reported this year that you personally authorized a cyber attack on Russia around the time of the midterms last year in order to stop them meddling in the midterm election,’ [Steve] Hilton asked referring to a report […]
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“… Carnegie Moscow Center director Dmitri Trenin says U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to Sochi this week was about reducing misunderstandings and miscalculations in Russian-American relations, not developing full-fledged cooperation …. [carnegie.ru/commentary/79133] Trenin says Pompeo’s meetings with … Lavrov and … Putin were the latest steps in the White House’s push to reestablish high-level contacts. … “What each […]
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“‘I am here because President Trump is committed to improving this relationship,’ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the start of his May 14 talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and, later that day, with President Vladimir Putin. …”
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“… Never has up-to-date data about Russia been more crucial. … Join a delegation of 100 Americans … who will question Russian VIPs in Moscow, travel in two or three-person mini-groups to 30 Russian cities across 11 time zones …. as ‘citizen diplomats’ listening, learning, collecting impressions to bring back to city/state officials and to the U.S. Congress. ….”
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“… the special counsel investigation of Russian election interference now complete, the Trump administration cautiously offered a fresh start with Russia … as the two countries find their interests colliding on a range of international issues. … Trump dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with … Putin, bearing a message that the United States is ready to renew […]
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