Though Ukraine’s not-quite cease-fire is far preferable to the summer’s heavier fighting, it is far from clear that it will lead to a sustainable settlement between Kiev and eastern Ukrainian separatists, Moscow and Kiev, or the United States and Russia.  A recent presentation at the Center for the National Interest by Andranik Migranyan, a well-informed […]

PARIS, Nov 9 (Reuters) – Even as tension in Ukraine mounts anew, veteran diplomats are starting to think quietly about a way out of the worst East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War. It may seem a poor time to imagine a revamped security architecture for Europe when a frail ceasefire in eastern […]

The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as […]

Instead of alienating Russians, we should be pulling them in The U.S. needs Russia. This may sound peculiar coming from a person who spent 25 years at the NSA, almost half of those fighting communism. But our approach to Russia since the end of the Cold War has been unimaginative and aggressive. Politicians in Washington […]

After the Soviet Union ended, Washington switched without a second’s delay from an anti-USSR policy to an anti-Russia policy. This included extending NATO to Russia’s borders in violation of earlier false signals and assurances that it would not, and it included Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. It included U.S. support of […]

There have been at least two countries in Europe in recent history that undertook ‘anti-terrorist’ military operations against ‘separatists’, but got two very different reactions from the Western elite. The government of European country A launches what it calls an ‘anti-terrorist’ military operation against ‘separatists’ in one part of the country. We see pictures on […]

Exclusive: Given the very high stakes of a nuclear confrontation with Russia, some analysts wonder what’s the real motive for taking this extraordinary risk over Ukraine. Is it about natural gas, protection of the U.S. dollar’s dominance, or an outgrowth of neocon extremism, asks Robert Parry. By Robert Parry A senior U.S. diplomat told me […]

Ukrainians are traitors, it is their own fault [that Nazism reins over the country now] – such is the opinion frequently expressed in the comments on my page. Let us nose into bureau drawers. When the Congress of the People’s Deputies of the Russian Federation headed by Yeltsyn was adopting the Decree on the sovereignty, […]

The Kiev military has been making relative gains in its ‘anti-terrorist operation’, having recently retaken the stronghold of Slavyansk and surrounded those of Donetsk and Lugansk. The former has been under Kiev’s control for nearly a month now, and what is happening serves as a dire warning for what will happen in the latter if […]