Don't Sweat the Russia 'Reset'
In recent weeks, pundits, diplomats and assorted foreign policy wonks have started raising the alarm on U.S.-Russia relations, with the Obama administration's much-trumpeted "reset" seeming to be increasingly under threat. A recent travel ban by the U.S. State Department on certain Russian officials believed to be involved in the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky elicited an angry response from Moscow threatening cooperation in areas ranging from Afghanistan to North Korea. Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, has started grousing about U.S. missile defense plans again. And all of this comes against a backdrop of increasing criticism from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his factional supporters in the Russian government about U.S. policy in Libya and Syria. Predictably, this has resulted in a stream of op-eds in the Western press raising the specter of a "new Cold War." READ MORE
Why the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is Important
When the SCO emerged at the turn of the century, Western observers worried that its key founders, Russia and China, plotted an anti-NATO bloc. It turns out, however, that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s primary objective is to keep the status-quo in Eurasia. READ MORE
Thoughts on the U.S.-Russian “Reset”
It has been three years since the start of the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. The anniversary of the war’s beginning is a good occasion to reflect on how far U.S.-Russians relations fell during the Bush years, and how much they have been repaired in the last two and a half years. At present, inveterate opponents of the “reset” policy are doing their best to undermine this improved relationship. The “reset” was designed in no small part to undo much of the damage caused by Bush administration policy and the aftermath of the 2008 war, and in many respects it has been such an obvious success that its critics are usually reduced to whining about how it has failed to solve things it was never intended to fix. Russia still has a culture of “legal nihilism,” it is a one-party, illiberal authoritarian state that suppresses and criminalizes dissent, and real political opposition is not permitted. The “reset” has not changed any of this, but it was never supposed to, and there is no way that U.S. policy towards Russia can change this. READ MORE
The Militarization of the Arctic
Interview with Rick Rozoff, the manager of the Stop NATO website and mailing list and a contributing writer to Global Research.ca READ MORE
The New Power Alliance: Russia, Germany and France
Moscow is flush with cash from energy sales and arms producers in France, Italy and Germany are happy to take large chunks of it. They are busily selling Russia advanced weapons, sensitive dual-use systems and military supplies. All this indicatesunprecedented Russian openness about (and need to) buy advanced weapons systems. Moreover, Moscow-based experts say privately that the Kremlin hopes the arms deals help revive the Russian-French-German axis that began to emerge in 2003 in opposition to the US-Iraq war. READ MORE
Experts look to future of China, Russia ties
Ten years after China and Russia signed the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, diplomats and scholars from both countries gathered on Monday in Beijing to seek ways to further promote bilateral cooperation in the next decade. READ MORE
Dispatch: Energy Pipeline Politics in the Former Soviet Union
Analyst Eugene Chausovsky examines the current politics of energy infrastructure from the Caucasus region to central Europe as the European Union seeks alternatives to Russia. READ MORE
Russia eyes closer links with US and China as relations with EU cool
Despite continuing dependence on trade ties with the EU, Russia is seeking closer links with US and China and makes joining WTO a priority READ MORE
Too Special A Friendship: Is Germany Questioning Russia's Embrace?
Temperatures were approaching freezing in November 2010 when a stern Vladimir Putin delivered a trademark tirade at a business forum in Berlin's venerably posh Hotel Adlon, steps from the Brandenburg Gate. READ MORE
Landsbergis: What Kind of the EU Member it is that Violates Openly the European Law
MEP Vytautas Landsbergis considers that with respect to the decision of Austria to release Mikhail Golovatov, suspected in participation in the events of January i13th in Vilnius, they should address the European institutions urgently. READ MORE