(Interfax – April 10, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that he believes that US congressmen, who uphold an anti-Russian position, for example over events in Ukraine, are thus trying to undermine US President Barack Obama’s positions, privately-owned Russian news agency Interfax reported on 10 April. “A huge number of facts point to the idea that those who […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – US and EU energy companies would not tolerate the delays in payment by Ukraine that Russia has faced, an economist at the London Vanguard investment firm told the Voice of Russia radio station Friday. “Historically, since the end of the USSR, Ukraine has repeatedly failed to pay for its Russian gas. This is an […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. April 10 (Interfax) – A member of the Human Rights Council, a Kremlin advisory body, has defended Moscow’s decision not to renew a contract to broadcast Voice of America in Russia. “Russian officials were not proactive in this situation. In this information war, which hasn’t been unleashed by Russia, it’s Moscow that’s been behaving in a gentlemanly way, and […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Viktor Litovkin, special to RBTH – April 10, 2014) The START III Treaty on arms reduction came into force in 2011 and is not due to expire until 2021. How effective is the agreement as a measure to limit the strategic offensive capabilities of Russia and the U.S., and do recent political differences threaten […]
» Read more
(US Department of State – April 9, 2014) Testimony Victoria Nuland Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Statement Before the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) Washington, DC April 9, 2014 As prepared Thank you, Chairman Cardin and Co-Chairman Smith, for inviting me to testify before you today on the situation in Ukraine. It is […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Peter Hobson – April 10, 2014) U.S. fast food giant Burger King plans to expand its chain into Crimea, filling the vacuum left when McDonald’s pulled out of the peninsula last Friday, citing unspecified supply issues. Burger King currently has no outlets in Crimea, which has been at the center of tensions between Russia and […]
» Read more
(RIA Novosti – Novo-Ogarevo, April 9, 2014) Russia has not yet received a clear explanation from the USA about the activities of employees of the Greystone company in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists on Wednesday [9 April]. Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern over the fact that additional forces of the Ukrainian army, which include representatives […]
» Read more
(The Heritage Foundation – heritage.org – Daniel Kochis – April 9, 2014) President Obama’s former Ambassador to Russia and self-described author of the Russian reset policy Michael McFaul today admitted the obvious: the reset is dead. In a radio interview with the Flint Report in Montana, McFaul stated, “The reset ended, the reset ended a long time ago.” McFaul is […]
» Read more
KYIV. April 8 (Interfax) – Ukraine’s acting chief of the presidential administration Serhiy Pashynsky has denied claims that foreign mercenaries are involved in the Interior Ministry’s operations in east Ukraine. “I responsibly declare: there is no Right Sector, let alone U.S. security forces, in Kharkiv, Donetsk or Luhansk,” Pashynsky said. He joked, pointing at himself and Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. April 9 (Interfax) – Russia is not conducting any unusual or unplanned military activities on its territory in the area of the Ukrainian border, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “The U.S. and Ukraine have no reasons for concerns. Russia has said many times that it is not conducting any unusual or unplanned activities significant in terms of military issues […]
» Read more
(Interfax – April 9, 2014) Andrey Klimov, deputy head of the international affairs committee of the Federation Council, has said the US State Department statements about unrest in eastern Ukraine being sponsored by Russia are absurd, Russian privately-owned news agency Interfax reported on 8 April. “Such statements are absolutely groundless and absurd. If Americans use these methods in their work […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 9, 2014) A major reason the crisis in Ukraine is now so dangerous, Georgy Mirsky says, is that “neither [Russian President Vladimir] Putin nor [US President Barack] Obama wants to go into history as the politician who ‘lost’ Ukraine, although [that country] does not belong to either the one or the […]
» Read more
(Stratfor.com – George Friedman – April 8, 2014) George Friedman is the Chairman of Stratfor. Ever since the end of the Cold War, there has been an assumption that conventional warfare between reasonably developed nation-states had been abolished. During the 1990s, it was expected that the primary purpose of the military would be operations other than war, such as peacekeeping, […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 8 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow is prepared to consider multilateral negotiations on the situation in Ukraine involving the US and EU, but a date has not yet been agreed on for the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. US Secretary of State John Kerry proposed holding talks on the crisis-hit country within the next 10 days […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. April 8 (Interfax) – Washington has announced it is halting financing of work on improving the security of Russian nuclear facilities, citing its disagreement with Moscow’s actions in regard to Ukraine, national daily Kommersant reported on Tuesday. The U.S. has suspended all work on physical protection of nuclear facilities in Russia, National Nuclear Security Administration representative Anne Harrington said, […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Alexander Panin – April 8, 2014) As the worst standoff since the Cold War emerges, energy and economic diplomacy are the tools the West applies to contain Russia, expecting them to be more effective than military confrontation. Business executives and energy industry analysts, however, were doubtful that these tools had any commercial value added to […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, April 7, 2014) The domestic consequences of Moscow’s Crimean policy combined with Russia’s weakening economic prospects will drive ever more young Russians to seek work and possibly permanent residence abroad, an “exodus” that will hurt the country far more than any of the sanctions announced so far, according to Yevgeny Gontmakher. In […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – American gas cannot become an alternative to the Russian fuel in Ukraine for the lack of “vacant export objects” in the foreseeable future, said Sergey Kupriyanov an official spokesperson for Gazprom in his interview with TV-channel Rossiya 24 Saturday. He stressed that the claims of Ukranian authorities about possibly importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) – The United States has completed payments under a historic agreement providing for the import of Russian highly-enriched uranium for electricity production, Russia’s state-owned uranium producer and trader Techsnabexport said Monday. “We received the final payment from the United States Enrichment Corporation in March,” the company said, adding that its obligations under a contract for […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Fyodor Lukyanov, special to RBTH – April 4, 2014) Fyodor Lukyanov is the chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy. Western politicians now understand that, for the first time, Russia has decided to act as it sees fit, leaving no space for compromise. But what changes will we see in U.S.-Russian […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Mark Silva – April 4, 2014) President Vladimir Putin, left, greets President Barack Obama during an official welcome of G20 heads of state and government, heads of invited states and international organizations at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg on Sept. 5, 2013. Photographer: Guneev Sergey/Host Photo Agency via Getty Images As international tension was rising […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Xenia Grubstein, special to RBTH – April 2, 2014) For many Ukrainian-Americans and Russian-Americans, the crisis in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea are political but also deeply personal. Russians and Ukrainians in the diaspora and abroad are connected; their lives and those of their friends and families are intimately intertwined. RBTH asked […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) – The actions by the United States to curb ties with Russia may force a number of responses by Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday. “We aren’t curtailing anything, but it’s clear that the situation that our [US] partners are creating in bilateral relations, may force a number of decisions that Washington […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) – The Pentagon’s recent talk of suspending anti-missile consultations with Russia is hot air, as the negotiations lost their significance long ago, experts have told RIA Novosti. The Russia-NATO missile shield talks have been treading water for years, ever since the two agreed at a 2010 Lisbon summit to cooperate on the European project. The […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, April 3 (RIA Novosti) – Washington’s decision to freeze cooperation between the NASA space agency and its Russian counterpart on a slew of joint projects will hurt global space partnership but won’t be the end of the Russian space program, Director of the Space Policy Institute Ivan Moiseyev told RIA Novosti Thursday. NASA issued a statement saying it put […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) – Signals are being received from Washington that the United States intends to put its dialogue with Russia on hold even in areas in which contacts between the two countries benefit the U.S. itself, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. “In recent days we have been flooded by signals from Washington that in light of […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax) – Russia will keep a close eye on how the United States and Turkey follow the principles of the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits, which set the rules for warships’ presence in the Black Sea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “We have the Montreux Convention, which introduces absolutely clear-cut criteria that restrict […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – April 3, 2014) The number of Russians and Americans who view each others’ country negatively has soared during the Ukraine crisis, while more than four in 10 Russians believe the NATO countries have reason to fear Russia, recent poll results have shown. According to a survey released Wednesday by independent pollster Levada […]
» Read more
BERLIN, April 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Ukraine should be brought to a single negotiating table and Ukraine’s political stability should be in the interest of Russia, the EU and NATO member states, expert Cathryn Cluvier of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs said in response to comments by the German Foreign Minister on Wednesday. “I don’t […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Nora FitzGerald, RBTH – April 2, 2014) Suzanne Massie is ‘the greatest student of the Russian people’. The United States and Russia have hit a new nadir in relations, and jokes about Cold War II are familiar fare on Late Night television. Suzanne Massie’s long-anticipated personal memoir, “Trust But Verify: Reagan, Russia and […]
» Read more
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Dmitry Babich, special to RBTH – March 31, 2014) As tensions ease, economic rapprochement with Europe will increase but security comes first for Moscow, discovers Voice of Russia political analyst Dmitry Babich Following last Sunday’s talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris, which while […]
» Read more
ASTANA. Apr 1 (Interfax) – The only way to resolve the Ukrainian crisis lies through diplomacy and defusing of military tensions in the region, United States Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Nisha Desai Biswal said. Today the world is watching the events in Ukraine with great concern. The U.S. and the international community advocate the […]
» Read more
(Stratfor.com – George Friedman – April 1, 2014) During the Cold War, U.S. secretaries of state and Soviet foreign ministers routinely negotiated the outcome of crises and the fate of countries. It has been a long time since such talks have occurred, but last week a feeling of deja vu overcame me. Americans and Russians negotiated over everyone’s head to […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 1, 2014) A mere four kilometers separate Russia’s Big Diomede Island from Alaska’s Little Diomede Island in the Bering Strait. This boundary between two feuding powers – known as the “Ice Curtain” during the Cold War – is likely the only place from which former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin could really see Russia. But […]
» Read more
(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists – thebulletin.org – Pavel Podvig – March 27, 2014) A physicist trained at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Podvig works on the Russian nuclear arsenal, US-Russian relations, and nonproliferation. … Over the years it has become cliché for commentators on US-Ru ssian affairs to observe that the relationship between the two countries has […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. March 29 (Interfax) – Interaction between Moscow, Western countries and Kyiv to settle the crisis in Ukraine is becoming more tangible, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “Anyway, we are bringing our approaches closer together. My last meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in The Hague and my contacts with Germany, France and some other countries show […]
» Read more
(The White House – whitehouse.gov – Office of the Press Secretary – For Immediate Release – March 28, 2014) President Putin called President Obama today to d iscuss the U.S. proposal for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, which Secretary Kerry had again presented to Foreign Minister Lavrov at the meeting at the Hague earlier this week, and […]
» Read more
(Kremlin.ru – March 29, 2014) Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President of the United States of America Barack Obama. The two leaders continued exchanging views on the crisis in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin drew Barack Obama’s attention to continued rampage of extremists who are committing acts of intimidation towards peaceful residents, government authorities and law enforcement agencies in various […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – The slump in US President Barack Obama’s approval rating is not surprising and the President’s hawkish stance encourages disenchantment among Americans, experts believe. The situation in Ukraine has simultaneously led to both the steep decline for the US president and a sharp rise in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating, which has […]
» Read more
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – March 27, 2014) U.S. spying could cost software companies said Communications and Mass Media Minister Nikolai Nikiforov, in a message attached to an Instagram shot of a recent Wall Street Journal article detailing renewed U.S interest in spying on Russia. “U.S. security services have put an end to the further use of U.S. computer software […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. March 27 (Interfax) – Russia is ready to continue working together with the United States on the settlement of the Syrian crisis, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bodanov said. “We are prepared to carry on the coordinated work with our American partners on the basis of the earlier agreements. The entire Geneva negotiating process was launched on the basis […]
» Read more
(The White House – Office of the Press Secretary – For Immediate Release – March 25, 2014) On the occasion of the third Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the United States and Ukraine today reaffirm their strategic partnership and emphasize the important role of nuclear nonproliferation in that relationship. The United States values its 20-year partnership with Ukraine on […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. March 26 (Interfax) – Despite the U.S. sanctions against Russia, the two countries are continuing to share intelligence concerning drug trafficking, says Russian Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov. “Exchange of information is under way,” Ivanov said in an interview with Interfax. Ivanov is among the Russians against whom the U.S. recently imposed sanctions because of the situation […]
» Read more
MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Tensions between Moscow and Washington will not derail the two countries from signing an agreement on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA, Russia’s Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov said Wednesday. “It will be all right. We will undertake all necessary steps for our banks to provide information about American taxpayers,” Siluanov said. […]
» Read more
(The White House – Office of the Press Secretary – For Immediate Release – March 24, 2014) 1. We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission met in The Hague to reaffirm our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and […]
» Read more
(Window on Eurasia – Paul Goble – Staunton, March 25, 2014) The Kremlin’s anti-Western mythology is now so widespread that many in Moscow and some in the West accept it as a given and fail to understand how it reflects a specific political program and how dangerous and self-destructive it is for those who are putting it about, according to […]
» Read more
The Charlie Rose Show covers unfolding events in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, including occupied Crimea. Rose talks with Stephen Sestanovich, Stephen Cohen and Ian Bremmer.
» Read more
(Business New Europe – bne.eu – Chris Weafer, Macro Advisors – March 24, 2014) “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear the most” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment The threat is more important than existing sanctions. The sanctions announced so far do not directly cause any material disruption to the economy. But the actions taken […]
» Read more
MOSCOW. March 22 (Interfax) – Moscow restaurants are introducing sanctions against U.S. President Barack Obama. Notices saying an “entry ban” has been imposed on Obama have been put up at the entrances to Dolma restaurants in central Moscow, an Interfax correspondent reported. The manager of a Dolma restaurant, Lasha Churgulia, said that, “the ban only applies to Obama for now.” […]
» Read more
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – By Albert R. Hunt – March 19, 2014) Albert R. Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. Michael McFaul, who recently stepped down as U.S. ambassador to Russia, says President Vladimir Putin is riding “an ugly nationalistic fervor that’s off the charts,” and is likely to escalate tensions with the U.S. and Europe over Ukraine. McFaul, who […]
» Read more