Category: United States, U.S.-Russian Relations
NEWSWATCH: “One of Russia’s biggest holidays is a WWII anniversary Americans don’t think about” – Washington Post
Ask any Russian about their family’s World War II experiences and the answer, almost invariably, is one of suffering and battlefield service. * * * Russian President Vladimir Putin revived the Soviet-style tank parade in 2008, seeing the day as a way to rally citizens around the flag. But despite the hundreds of missile launchers, warplanes and antiaircraft guns that […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Russia Direct: “Who will lead in Asia-Pacific – the US, China or Russia? The country that will be the first to offer an acceptable set of rules and norms for economic development will ensure its leading position in the Asia-Pacific region”
Edward Lozansky: “How to Avoid WWIII While Celebrating the Victory in WWII”
NEWSLINK The National Interest/Dmitry Gorenburg: “The Kremlin Seeks to Reestablish Washington Ties”
NEWSWATCH: “Why Russia Resents Us” – Patrick Buchanan
… a Russian SU-27 did a barrel roll over a U.S. RC-135 over the Baltic, the second time in two weeks. … the U.S. destroyer Donald Cook, off Russia’s Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, was twice buzzed by Russian planes. … Putin’s message: Keep your spy planes and ships a respectable distance away from us. Apparently, we have not received it. […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “No, Putin did not call Donald Trump ‘a genius'” – Washington Post/Glenn Kessler
“‘I think he [Russian President Vladimir Putin] said some really nice things. He called me a genius. He said Trump’s a genius. Okay. So, you know, that’s nice.’” Click here for Washington Post/Glenn Kessler: “No, Putin did not call Donald Trump ‘a genius’”
» Read moreNEWSLINK TASS: “NATO prefers to deal with Putin rather than his circle – Breedlove”
NEWSLINK Russia Direct: “Conventional arms race draws the world closer to state of brinkmanship. With NATO’s military buildup near Russian borders and signs of instability from the Middle East to East Asia, it’s no longer inconceivable that the great powers could find themselves involved in a conventional war.”
NEWSLINK Reuters/Josh Cohen: “Why Ukraine’s NATO membership is not in America’s interests”
NEWSLINK Russia Today: “‘Resurgent Russia’: New hardline NATO Europe commander raises hackles in Moscow”
NEWSWATCH: “The West needs to stop panicking about Russia’s “hybrid” warfare” – Vox/Mark Galeotti
… The fact is that Russian security discussions are dominated by an awareness of the country’s vulnerabilities to a stronger, richer, larger, more advanced West. Up to now, though, we have not let ourselves acknowledge our strengths. The greatest risk for the West is, after all, not its weakness of means but a perception of its weakness of will, both […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “NATO’s Breedlove Calls for Sharper Focus on Russia Ahead of Departure. Gen. Philip Breedlove says U.S. needs more reconnaissance satellites amid Russian threat.” – Wall Street Journal
The U.S. has too few intelligence assets focused on the threat from Russia and should concentrate its technical capabilities on Moscow’s growing military might, NATO’s departing supreme allied commander said. The U.S. has begun to build up the number of intelligence analysts examining Russia, which stood at 13,000 at the height of the Cold War before dipping to a low […]
» Read moreTRANSCRIPT: Remarks by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland at a Press Availability in Kyiv
Embassy of the United States-Kyiv Remarks by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland at a Press Availability April 27, 2016 Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv, Ukraine ASSISTANT SECRETARY NULAND: Good afternoon, everybody. Apologies for keeping you waiting. It is terrific to be back in Kyiv on this beautiful spring day, and on the eve of the […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK UNIAN: “Nuland talks: Special status for Donbas, militant amnesty, local election.”
NEWSLINK The National Interest/Loren B. Thompson, Constance Baroudos: “4 Reasons It Would Be Dangerous To Ban Russian Rocket Engines”
NEWSLINK Foreign Policy/DAVID FRANCIS, LARA JAKESA: “‘Sanctions Are a Failue…Let’s Admit That.’ With Europe debating re-opening economic ties to Russia, have U.S. sanctions on Moscow lost their teeth?”
NEWSLINK VALDAI CLUB REPORT: “NUCLEAR WEAPONS CEASE TO BE A SUFFICIENT DETERRENT. The main feature of possible future war between the great powers would be a breakaway from strict rules of war and the erosion of the boundaries between the concepts of ‘war’ and ‘peace.'”
NEWSWATCH: “Lawmakers look to get tough on Russia” – The Hill
Russian aggression will be high on lawmakers’ minds when the House Armed Services Committee meets Wednesday to mark up its annual defense policy bill. … the Russians have buzzed a U.S. Navy destroyer, barrel rolled over a U.S. reconnaissance plane and warned the United States to steer clear of its territory. … committee members say there will be plenty in […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Iran and Russia Move Closer but Their Alliance Has Limits” – Reuters
When Iran took delivery of the first parts of an advanced Russian air defense system this month, it paraded the anti-aircraft missile launchers … to mark Army Day. … the Kremlin’s decision a year ago to press ahead with the stalled sale of the S-300 system was the first clear evidence of a growing partnership between Russia and Iran that […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Newsweek: “PUTIN IS EXPLOITING MIGRANT CRISIS, SAYS OBAMA”
NEWSLINK Vedomosti/Meduza: “Opinion: Why Russians stopped loving America The West’s squandered opportunities and Moscow’s propaganda powerhouse”
Same Level of Corruption Recorded in Russian, U.S. Businesses – Survey
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 23, 2016) Thirty-four percent of respondents in Russia and and the United States agree that bribery and corruption are widespread in their country, a survey by multinational financial services company EY reported. The survey results show business professionals in both countries agreed that corruption in business was widespread in their respective nations. EY – […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Russia in Global Affairs/Ivan Safranchuk: “A Cheerless Landscape. U.S. Approaches to Russia Policy.”
NEWSLINK RBTH/Gazeta.ru: “Why Russia hopes for realism from the next U.S. president. With the election picture gradually becoming clearer in the U.S., political analyst Fyodor Lukyanov asks whether the identity of the next American president really matters in Russia, and explores the crisis of realism in U.S. foreign policy.”
NEWSLINK Russia Direct: “Inside Russian top investigator’s latest manifesto against extremism. It remains to be seen whether the Kremlin will listen to the ideas of one of the country’s top law enforcement officers to impose even greater censorship and control over Russian society as part of enhanced efforts to win the ‘information war’ with the West”
NEWSLINK Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists/Samuel Charap, Jeremy Shapiro: “U.S.-Russian relations: The middle cannot hold”
Hard Work vs. Magic
(Kennan Institute – wilsoncenter.org/program/kennan-institute – Maxim Trudolyubov, Senior Fellow, Kennan Institute. Editor-at-Large, Vedomosti Daily – April 19, 2016) Russian officials still refer to “conditions for doing business” or “quality of governance” when discussing the country’s economic performance. But the lack of gravitas in these conversations is palpable. Russia’s official economic policymakers command an excellent understanding of the country’s economic problems, […]
» Read morePoll Shows Russians Want Trump to Win U.S. Presidential Election
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 20, 2016) The majority of Russian citizens would like to see Donald Trump become the next president of the United States, according to a poll held by the Britain-based research firm YouGov. 20,000 citizens from G20 countries were surveyed and asked their opinions on the upcoming U.S. elections. Thirty-one percent of Russians gave Trump […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK The German Marshall Fund of the United States/Stefan Meister: “Isolation and Propaganda: The Roots and Instruments of Russia’s Disinformation Campaign”
NEWSLINK RBTH/Gazeta.ru: “Russian general: ‘We never send notes to the U.S. State Department.’ General Pyotr Deinekin, former chief of the Russian air force, talks about the latest incidents involving Russian warplanes and U.S. ships and aircraft”
NEWSLINK Valdai Discussion Club/Anatol Lieven: “OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY DOCTRINE. UKRAINE AND RUSSIA. PART 2”
Bilateral trade: Russia and U.S. must ‘avoid the point of no return’
Commodity turnover between Russia and the U.S. has declined by 50 percent since the introduction of sanctions However, Russia is not losing hope and is offering attractive conditions for small and medium-sized American businesses looking to invest in the country. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – ANNA KUCHMA, RBTH – April 20, 2016) [Charts here http://rbth.com/business/2016/04/20/bilateral-trade-russia-and-us-must-avoid-the-point-of-no-return_586555] With the introduction […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Washington Post editorial: “The U.S. props up Syria’s sham cease-fire. As long as Mr. Obama counts on Mr. Putin to cooperate, violence will continue.”
NEWSWATCH: “‘But I love Russia, and I love Russians’; Former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul speaks to Meduza”
First … it is true that the United States … from the very beginning, has had allies that are autocratic regimes. Our first … was France, a monarchy and a dictatorship. … Without the French, we would have lost the war against the British. … then there was the French Revolution, and there was a debate … about whether we […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics. Putin Returns to the Historical Pattern.” – Foreign Affairs/Stephen Kotkin
For half a millennium, Russian foreign policy has been characterized by soaring ambitions that have exceeded the country’s capabilities. Beginning with … Ivan the Terrible … Russia managed to expand at an average rate of 50 square miles per day for hundreds of years, eventually covering one-sixth of the earth’s landmass. * * * Throughout, the country has been haunted […]
» Read morePolish Minister Says Russia More Dangerous Than Islamic State
(RFE/RL – April 15, 2016) Poland’s foreign minister has said that Russia is an “existential threat” to European countries and is more dangerous than the Islamic State (IS) militant group. Speaking at a conference in Bratislava on April 15, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said “Russia’s activity is a sort of existential threat because this activity can destroy countries.” The migration […]
» Read moreU.S.-Russia Baltic Sea incident: Was there a risk of a military clash?
The “buzzing” of an American destroyer in the Baltic Sea on April 11 and 12 by Russian Su-24 bombers led to a stormy reaction in the U.S., with Washington stating that the ship had the right to shoot down the Russian warplanes. Would this have led to a full conflict? RBTH answers this and other questions about the incident. (Russia […]
» Read moreBen Aris : JRL#71 response/Brian Whitmore
Subject: JRL#71 response/Brian Whitmore Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2016 From: Ben Aris <baris@bne.eu> (Ben Aris, editor-in-chief – bne IntelliNews – bne.eu) I would like to respond to item #9 in JRL #71 of April 15 “What I learned on Russian TV” by Brian Whitmore. I should do a ripose entitled “what I learned from reading this piece”, but I am […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK New York Times: “Russian Enclave Seen as a Fault Line of East-West Tensions” [Kaliningrad]
NEWSLINK Financial Times: “Western sanctions ‘pushing Russia towards closer ties with China.’ Western sanctions are pushing Russia to explore deeper financial links with China, according to Moscow’s deputy finance minister”
Ford Mulls New Russia Investment as Quarterly Sales Jump 93%
(Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – Andrey Lemeshko, Yuliya Fedorinova – April 14, 2016) Ford Motor Co., which spent more than $1.5 billion with a partner in the past five years to build cars and engine factories in Russia, is studying new investments in the country in a bet on economic recovery. The national car market could still become Europe’s biggest, and […]
» Read morePutin doesn’t expect Western sanctions to be lifted soon, says Russia to keep countersanctions in place
MOSCOW. April 14 (Interfax) – Russian President Vladimir Putin does not expect the Western sanctions to be lifted from Russia in the near future. “I don’t think our partners will decide to lift the restrictions and limitations from our country in the near future,” Putin said during a Q&A session on Thursday. “Even though the Minsk Agreements on southeastern Ukraine […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK The National Interest/Alexander Decina and Eugene Steinberg: “How to Play Putin’s Game in Syria. Moscow wants prestige. That means the conflict is not as zero-sum as it may seem.”
NEWSLINK RBTH/Izvestia: “Russian experts: U.S. can’t do without Russia in Syria. Russian and American servicemen are secretly working together in Syria as part of the fight against ISIS, say Russian analysts, who argue that cooperation is unavoidable”
Russia’s Inability to Deal with Its Past Imperils Its Future, Inozemtsev Says
(Paul Goble – Window on Eurasia – Staunton, April 7, 2016) Russians love to compare themselves and their country with others and especially with the United States and to ask why others have done better than they have, Vladislav Inozemtsev says; but in general, Russians focus on differences in economic, legal or belief systems rather than on the critical problem […]
» Read moreRussia’s Military Budget Ranks Fourth Worldwide – Report
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 5, 2016) Russia no longer ranks among the top three spenders on defense, dropping down to fourth place, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported Tuesday. The United States remained the leader by far, accounting for 36 percent of all military spending in the world, according to the SIPRI report. In 2015, Washington […]
» Read moreNEWSWATCH: “Mikhail Lesin’s Strange Death in U.S. Follows a Fall From Russia’s Elite” – New York Times
It took more than four months for the city’s medical examiner to announce the cause of death … not a heart attack … but rather ‘blunt force injuries.’ But the autopsy left the manner of death undetermined. … fuel[ing] speculation … Lesin might have been murdered, presumably by a financial or political rival …. *** police … continue to treat […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Newsweek.com/Ben Nimmo: “PUTIN’S PARANOIA IS DRIVING HIS FOREIGN ADVENTURES”
TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT: Remarks by the President at the 2016 Toner Prize Ceremony [excerpt re: Putin]
(White House – March 28, 2016) The White House Office of the Press Secretary March 28, 2016 Remarks by the President at the 2016 Toner Prize Ceremony. (excerpt re Putin) THE PRESIDENT: I’ll tell you — I probably maybe shouldn’t do this, but what the heck, I’m in my last year. (Laughter.) I had an in-depth conversation with President Putin […]
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