Section: The American Interest (USA)
The Mirror of Justice in Russia
Few would argue with the propositions that Russia is an authoritarian, personalized, and centralized state managed through corroded and changeable structures. If, as again most observers, Russian or not, suppose, President Putin secures a further term in the Kremlin in March 2018 and therefore in principle remains the linchpin of the present...
The Validator-in-Chief
Whether or not the FBI discovers serious and intentional (rather than just aspirational) collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, President Trump’s relentless dissembling and attacks on America’s free press—along with his attacks on the courts, independent pollsters, U.S. intelligence agencies, the Congressional Budget...
The Paradoxes of Trump’s Russia Strategy
It has been a full week since Donald Trump met Vladimir Putin in Hamburg at this year’s G20 meeting—and what a week it’s been. The revelations regarding a meeting the President’s son had with a shady Russian lawyer this past year have cast a pall over his Administration. At the very minimum, the campaign betrayed a profoundly...
Georgia’s Dilemma
While the nadir in post-Soviet Russo-Georgian relations passed with the defeat of the United National Movement by the Georgian Dream coalition in the 2012 parliamentary elections, the subsequent Georgian governments have nevertheless maintained the country’s goal of NATO and EU membership. Over the past few years, however, both polling data...
How To Read the Trump-Putin Meeting
As the first clips of Putin and Trump’s face-to-face meeting emerge, ahead of their sit-down at 9:45 AM EST, the commentariat is ready to pounce: Now in video. “I *LOVE* this guy!” https://t.co/E9SukZZUHn— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 7, 2017This is but the beginning of what is sure to be a day of obsessive body language analysis and a...
Reading Putin in Hamburg
George W. Bush famously looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and “found him very straightforward and trustworthy.” That’s the “business pragmatism”—and naïveté—Russia’s ruler undoubtedly hopes for when he meets President Donald Trump at the G20 summit in Hamburg this week. John McCain says when he looks into Putin’s eyes he sees “a...
Russia Still Has Many Friends in Europe
It’s been a good year for Russian influence abroad, if you believe the polls. First this year came the annual Arab survey, showing a notable increase in Russia’s prestige in the Arab world. Now, a recently released Pew Research survey of Orthodox-majority countries in Europe shows broad support for a Russian role to balance against...
Why Talking to Putin Won’t Work
White House national security adviser General H.R. McMaster told reporters last week that there was “no specific agenda” for the upcoming meeting between President Trump and Russian President Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany. Trump will emphasize “whatever the president wants to talk about,” McMaster said.Press reports indicate...
Russia, the Last Colonial Empire
When the Soviet banner was lowered over the Kremlin on December 25, 1991, and replaced by the old Russian flag, it was widely celebrated as the fall of communism. Many assumed that this would lead to the “end of history” and to the dawn of a new world order based on the principles of political democracy and economic freedom. But the end of a...
Who Are These Russian Bankers?
In the middle of December, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met the CEO of Russian Vnesheconombank (VEB), Sergei Gorkov, in New York. He had kept this meeting secret, but in March the New York Times revealed that it had in fact happened. Some of the speculation in the media focuses on the possibility that Kushner met with...
