Tag Archives: Russia

As a number of participants (including myself) pointed out, compared with these existential threats to existing states, the issues currently dividing Russia and the West are likely to seem to the historians of the future (if there are any) so minor as to be almost insignificant. One hundred years from now, our descendants are likely to look back on disputes over Crimea, the Donbas and Syria with the same combination of incomprehension and contempt with which we regard the European elites...

Ha ha. What former finance minister Alexey Kudrin thinks is a bug is actually a feature.Sanctions will result in Russia having to rely one its power as a sovereign currency issuer, which it should have been using from day one. According to ex-minister, the country will be forced to widen the use of the national currency in payments. "This sanctions story creates huge risks for transactions in more stable currencies. This will trigger the use of the ruble even if it turns out more...

What, then, is US policy in the Middle East—under Trump, Obama, Bush and Clinton (and even earlier)? When all the rhetoric has been stripped away, we can identity quite clear, precise, and fairly consistent major strategic policy positions. First, Washington accedes to almost anything that Israel wants. This is an untouchable posture, a third rail, beyond any debate or discussion lest we anger the powerful Zionist lobby of AIPAC and end up being labelled “anti-Semitic.” The New York...

Security versus privacy and censorship. It is necessary to improve the security of the Russian Internet (known colloquially as Runet). This was stated by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting of the Russian Security Council . For this he proposed to adopt additional normative acts. At the same time, the head of state stressed that it is not about limiting access to the internet and not about "total barriers and filters" for citizens."We must fight against those and those who use the...

The significance of this article lies not in the title, which is basically clickbait. The significance lies rather in the admission that NATO leaders are well aware that Russia is not planning to attack the Baltics. The military build up required that is not taking place now would alert NATO of the impending operation.The article goes on to say that Russia has no need of the Baltic countries, since it is building replacement ports on Russian Territory in the vicinity of St. Petersburg....

In this essay we will examine two aspects of the same issue: the strategic partnership between Russia and China which is fast becoming a foreign policy, commercial and military alliance.... Meanwhile, our International Relations experts, who are generalists by definition, lack the in-depth knowledge of Russia to say something serious and valuable for policy formulation. The whole field of area studies has atrophied in the United States over the past 20 years, with actual knowledge of...

An article written for the hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution, to be read in Beijing today. Socialism a century ago seemed to be the wave of the future. There were various schools of socialism, but the common ideal was to guarantee support for basic needs, and for state ownership to free society from landlords, predatory banking and monopolies. In the West these hopes are now much further away than they seemed in 1917. Land and natural resources, basic...

This article is the first in a trilogy examining how the West’s biases and wishful thinking have led to unrealistic and unmet expectations of imminent regime collapse in Russia. I follow this stuff and am gobsmacked at how Western liberal "experts" generalize their own worldview in analysis. It's not only Russia, but everything, and it is not only political and military analysts, but included most experts on just a bout everything.This is a consequence of assuming that liberalism is the...

US-Russian relations continue hanging in the balance with NATO's expansion in Eastern and Central Europe and the Pentagon's controversial actions in Syria. While the US continues portraying Moscow as an adversary, the standoff is unlikely to translate into a nuclear conflict, American academic Vladimir Golstein told Sputnik.The US and the NATO are no longer hiding their goals, they are beefing up their military presence on Russia's borders, Vladimir Golstein, Associate Professor of Slavic...

Well-reasoned analysis from an cryptocurrency advocate's point of view:  A win for cryptocurrency and a win for Putin that will be a win for Russia. Gold Goats n GunsRussia’s Crypto-Ruble Just Changed the Game Tom Luongo also The DuranCrypto-Rouble: Russia to launch first state sanctioned cryptocurrency in the worldAdam Garrie