Anatol Lieven
Security, Eurasia
The statements and exchanges at the conference regarding relations with the West were of the “he said, she said” variety that have become so drearily familiar over the years.
The Valdai Club conference this year took place in an immense, usually empty hotel in the Caucasus Mountains above the town of Sochi. The hotel was built to host the 2014 G8 Summit, which (due to the Ukrainian crisis that year) never happened. That is why although the hotel is surrounded by beautiful mountains and forests, its patrons cannot enjoy them because they are restricted by security fences. In …read more
Source: The National Interest