“Funding for more weapons and ammunition is held up in fight over border policy; ‘We’re out of money’” “The Washington stalemate over U.S. [border] policy … is … reverberat[ing] on the Ukraine battlefield, where Kyiv’s troops are running out of ammunition and the Pentagon says it can’t provide more without emptying its own arsenal. … [T]he Pentagon has run out […]
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“… Zelensky’s top priority and perhaps … main contribution to the nation’s defense had been to keep attention on Ukraine and .. rally the democratic world …. Both tasks would become a lot harder with the outbreak of war in Israel. The focus of Ukraine’s allies in the U.S. and Europe … quickly shifted to the Gaza Strip. … A […]
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“The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal with Russia.” “U.S. and European officials [reportedly] have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail …. includ[ing] broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up …. Some of the talks […]
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“If he was he would find that it is cooling toward the concept of ‘as long as it takes.’” “… While the seeming shift in public opinion is … important … and should signal … that the time has come to pursue negotiations, it is clear that those whose opinions matter most — in Kiev, Moscow, and Washington — aren’t […]
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“U.S. president wants to get issue sorted until next election, say insiders, as Republican sceptics continue to cause problems” “The White House is drawing up plans to ask Congress to release its largest funding package ever for weapons and humanitarian aid, amid concern continued rows over spending could damage the president in next year’s election. … Some officials believe passing […]
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“Kyiv has fought too well to simply give up, but Russia and China will achieve their goal of splitting the West.” “[With the loss of U.S. funding for Ukraine,] … the balance on the battlefield [would] shift significantly. Ukraine [wouldn’t] simply surrender … [b]ut given how reliant Ukraine is on [U.S.] arms and ammunition … its situation [would] still get […]
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“… I don’t think [President Joe] Biden and Vice President Harris should run for reelection. … Biden … would be 82 when he began a second term. According to a recent [AP]-NORC poll, 77 percent …, including 69 percent of Democrats, think he’s too old to be effective for four more years. … Because of their concerns about Biden’s age, […]
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“But Ukraine’s president fears that some of his country’s Western backers are losing faith.” “… Having failed to overwhelm Ukraine quickly, [] Putin seems determined to exhaust the country and to wear out its partners’ resolve to keep funding and supplying it with arms. … But [] Zelensky says Russia itself is fragile. … [suggesting that Russia itself will suffer […]
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“White House says Shokin not credible, was fired for being too soft on corruption.” Fox News reports on an exclusive interview with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, set to air Saturday at 8 p.m. ET., including allegations against Joe and Hunter Biden, including allegations the then-Vice President Joe Biden used U.S. financial support to pressure then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko […]
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“… Biden was blunt … about Ukraine’s chances of joining NATO. ‘I’m not going to make it easier,’ he declared. Despite its bold fight against Russia, the country still has to prove itself: ‘Does it meet all the standards every other nation in NATO does?’ Joining the alliance … ‘is not automatic.’ America … finds itself unusually isolated in the […]
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“Despite warnings that arming Ukraine will start a world war, President Biden continues to push the Russian leader’s limits — a strategy that brings risk and reward.” “… A key reason for brushing aside Putin’s threats, U.S. officials say, is a dynamic that has held since the opening days of the war: Russia’s president has not followed through on promises […]
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“President Biden said that countering Russia is not just about protecting Ukraine, but freedom itself” “… Biden addressed the group of European nations known as the Bucharest Nine (B9) on Wednesday, stressing the need to stand up to Russian aggression and emphasizing the United States’ commitment to NATO allies. Biden’s appearance at the B9 meeting in Warsaw came as part […]
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“The Kremlin said Tuesday … it’s ready for talks with the United States on nuclear arms control even as Moscow and Washington have remained locked in a tense standoff over Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Commenting on … Biden’s statement that Washington is open for talks on a new arms control deal to replace the New START treaty after it expires […]
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“…. Russia is heading to Geneva with what amounts to an ultimatum: Unless … Putin gets security guarantees from the West, he’s prepared to invade. Biden administration officials say they want a diplomatic solution, but they’ve also been delivering warnings through public and private channels that an invasion would be bloody, protracted and extremely damaging for Russia. … The Air […]
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“In a televised address broadcast just before midnight in each of Russia’s 11 time zones, Putin said the nation … has faced ‘colossal challenges … ‘ … Russia’s state coronavirus task force has registered … about 10.5 million confirmed infections and 308,860 deaths, but the state statistics agency … [using] broader criteria … has reported nearly 626,000 virus-linked deaths in […]
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(Whitehouse – Via Teleconference – Dec. 30, 2021) 5:41 P.M. EST MODERATOR: Thank you. Good evening, everyone. And thanks for joining us. A reminder that this call will be on background, attributed to a “senior administration official,” and the contents are going to be embargoed until the conclusion of the call. We will have an official readout of the call […]
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Biden, who is at his home in Delaware for the New Year’s holiday, reportedly will stress in his call with Putin that Washington is looking for a “diplomatic path” out of the crisis […]
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“Don’t dare try another Crimea, he warns Russian president.” “… Biden has warned … Putin that the West will target Russian gas exports and deploy more troops to eastern Europe if [Putin] orders an invasion of Ukraine. … [T]he U.S. national security adviser[] said … this … likely … include[d] stopping … gas … through … Nord Stream 2 …. […]
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The Russian and U.S. leaders talked about rising tensions for two hours, but the path forward for both sides, and Ukraine, remains unclear […]
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Russia, as well as fellow major polluters China and India, did not sign the U.S. and EU-led Global Methane Pledge to cut methane emissions 30% by 2030 …. [but] the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter[] did join over 100 countries … promising to end deforestation by 2030 […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Nicolai N. Petro – Sept. 9, 2021) Nicolai N. Petro is a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, specializing in Ukraine and Russia. His latest book, “Ukraine in Crisis,” was published by Routledge in 2017. Ahead of this month’s visit to Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy gave a sense of his […]
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Russian market could benefit from geopolitical calm, but Black Sea skirmish shows Russia has a habit of delivering negative surprises […]
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(Paul Goble – Window On Eurasia – Staunton, June 19, 2021) Since the Geneva summit, some Russian liberals and some Ukrainian patriots have insisted Joe Biden betrayed their causes, forgetting that the US president swore “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and not in any case promising to defend democracy in Russia or Ukrainian independence, […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Nikolas Gvosdev – June 18, 2021) Nikolas Gvosdev is a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and a senior fellow for Eurasia at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Most media reaction to the meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva focused on the optics: analyses of handshakes, body language, smiles […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – June 15, 2021) Five of America’s top Russia experts consider prospects for the June 16 meeting between presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in Geneva. Thomas Graham, Nikolas Gvosdev, Paul Kolbe, Olga Oliker and Angela Stent share their thoughts on stabilizing the U.S.-Russian relationship, low-hanging fruit, concrete steps to take and what can go wrong. […]
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… Biden and Putin have only had one long one-on-one meeting, on March 10, 2011. It was a flop. …
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“… Biden has invited … Zelenskiy to meet at the White House in July …. Zelenskiy says he learned through the press – not … the State Department – that … Biden … decided to stop trying to block a Russian pipeline that Ukraine sees as a dire national security threat. … [Zelenskiy, in a news interview,] spoke of his […]
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… More than a decade has passed since that meeting in Russia, and there are no indications that Biden’s and Putin’s views of each other have become less dim […]
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There can be no accommodation unless and until Russian aggression ends and it returns to the rules-based order […]
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“Better western relations are high on the wishlist at annual St. Petersburg forum, the country’s answer to Davos.” “… Biden and Putin will meet in Geneva … June 16 … at a summit pitched at ‘normalising’ relations between the west and Moscow. Ties have steadily eroded … the past seven years because of allegations of Russian election meddling, tit-for-tat sanctions […]
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“Completion of pipeline would be ‘victory for Russia’ and a ‘personal loss’ for Biden, says Zelensky.” “Ukraine has stepped up … pressure on Washington over the contentious Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, appealing to … Congress to maintain sanctions against the project. The Ukrainian parliament … overwhelmingly backed a resolution calling on U.S. lawmakers to override […]
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Russia’s ambassador to the United States plans to return to Washington soon following talks in Moscow on the future of bilateral ties after … Biden called … Putin a “killer” […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Thomas Graham – March 18, 2021) In its first two months, the Biden administration has made two central planks of its Russia policy crystal clear: It has no interest in a reset, and Russia is not a priority. The sharp break with President Donald Trump’s aspirations was plainly intended as a message to both the […]
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“Moscow’s move follows a critical U.S. intelligence report about Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.” “… [Russian Ambassador to the United States] Anatoly Antonov[‘s] … summon[ing] to Moscow came … after a U.S. intelligence report … accus[ing] … Putin of … a wide-ranging influence operation to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election …. Antonov was … previously […]
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“The Biden administration has to decide whether to alienate Germany … continuing … Trump administration[] sanctions on companies building Germany’s gas pipeline from Russia. … Hundreds of feet below the surface of the Baltic Sea is an enormously long pipeline, snaking from northern Russia to Germany. … Nord Stream 2 … [would] roughly double Europe’s energy supply when … finished. […]
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(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org – Ingrid Burke – Feb. 19, 2021) Ingrid Burke is a fellow at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. As President Joe Biden settles into the Oval Office, he has filled the upper echelons of his new administration with officials who have vocally supported sanctions against Russia. While it is difficult to predict specific […]
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(Interfax – Feb. 9, 2021) U.S. President Joe Biden recently gave his first speech that was formally devoted to the country’s foreign policy, its goals and ways to achieve them. As usual, everyone has their take on the substance of such speeches. Our special correspondent Vyacheslav Terekhov spoke about this issue with Russian Academy of Sciences Academic Sergei Rogov and […]
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“… the White House said … it wanted a straight extension of [New START for five years,] a nuclear arms control agreement … fac[ing] imminent expiry …. even as incoming officials have condemned … the Kremlin’s [reputedly] most aggressive anti-western actions in years. … U.S. security services [recently] uncovered a massive cyber-espionage attack on U.S. government computers … blamed on […]
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… Biden, Russians will remember, pushed hard for the US to back Georgia in 2008 and has always shown more interest in the South Caucasus than any other senior American official […]
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… Putin said there was no hidden motive in his decision to not congratulate … Joe Biden … insisting the Kremlin was merely waiting for an “end to the domestic political standoff”[…]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 9, 2020) Russia will not yet recognize Joe Biden as President-elect of the United States, the Kremlin said Monday as world leaders rushed to congratulate the Democratic Party challenger after U.S. television networks declared him the winner. “We believe it’s correct to wait for the official results of the elections to be announced,” Kremlin […]
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Despite the differences, analysts say … prospects for warmer ties are faint … that relations – which sunk to post-Cold War lows following Moscow’s interference in Ukraine … and may have declined further since … – could get worse, regardless of who wins […]
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“The FBI and Justice Department concur with DNI Ratcliffe that the laptop is not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.” “The FBI … possess[es] … [Hunter Biden’s purported] laptop … contain[ing] emails revealing … foreign business dealings, including … in Ukraine and China [according to senior administration officials] …. emails … first obtained by the New York Post … reveal[ing] […]
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“At the very least, analysts expect that a victory for Biden would increase tensions between Washington and Moscow, and would raise the probability of new sanctions on Russia. The country is already operating under international sanctions on some key sectors and Russian officials close to Putin, for actions including its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, interference in the […]
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… [A] sampling of Biden’s and Harris’s statements on what U.S. policies they advocate on key Russia-related issues, as well as their views on Russia itself … expressed since U.S. President Donald Trump’s election in November 2016 […]
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“Last year, intelligence officials gathered to write a classified report on Russia’s interest in the 2020 election. An investigation from the magazine uncovered what happened next.” “… the O.D.N.I. at last acknowledged publicly that Russia ‘is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate … Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia “establishment.”‘ … also assert[ing] for the first […]
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“In the wake of Western efforts to develop a cooperative post–Cold War relationship with Russia, the country has reemerged as a top U.S. rival and an object of mistrust and suspicion. … * * * Donald J. Trump (R – Incumbent) Trump has cultivated cordial relations with … Putin and dismissed accusations that his campaign cooperated with Moscow’s interference in […]
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The candidate struggles to field softballs from friendly media. … It’s well past time … Biden was asked … what he knew about … serious malfeasance by [Obama administration] officials [in the Russiagate investigation targeting the Trump campaign]. … We know … Biden was kept abreast of … the investigation […]
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