Section: The American Interest (USA)
They Brexit, You Own It
Despite polls showing an election too close to call, most observers, fooled by their own personal preferences, refused to even countenance the possibility that British voters, participating in a rare plebiscite, would prefer to leap into the unknown rather than to stay in the admittedly-flawed European Union. Yet as of June 24, 2016, Brexit is...
After Brexit, Europe’s Security Will Get Even More Complicated
The aftershocks of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union continue to rattle currency and stock markets worldwide, forcing some elites to rethink whether the European project as currently construed is sustainable. It will be months before the full impact of the British “leave” vote has been fully digested, and perhaps years...
Putin’s Banker Works the Hill
Andrey Kostin, the CEO of VTB, the largest Russian bank, 60.9 percent of which belongs to the Russian government, visited Washington DC earlier this week to meet with U.S. Congressmen and Obama Administration officials to discuss sanctions imposed on Russia, and VTB in particular.As TAI found out from a congressional aide familiar with the...
Obama Isn’t Slowing China Down At All
Writing for the Washington Post, Josh Rogin isn’t a fan of President Obama’s Asia policy: The Obama administration has never been willing to use the big tools at its disposal — for example, economic sanctions — to confront Chinese maritime aggression, and there’s no sign that reluctance will change.“If there were economic...
Ukraine’s Rectification of Names
In the 25 years since Ukraine officially separated itself from the Soviet Union, decommunization has been a slow, crawling fact of everyday life. Fairly quickly upon Ukraine’s independence, the most anti-Soviet towns, located mostly in Western Ukraine, tore down their ubiquitous statues of Lenin. But in many other parts of the country, the...
Putin Changing His Tune in St. Petersburg
Russia’s annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum ended up with an impressive financial haul—$15.3 billion in contracts, compared to just $3.6 billion last year. But more important than the investment tally was a new-look political message for the West, delivered by Russian President Vladimir Putin from the forum’s...
Will Russia Sanctions Be Extended This Month by the EU?
The EU is to decide whether or not to extend sanctions on Russia at a summit scheduled for June 28-29. The main precondition for the lifting of sanctions is the full implementation of the Minsk II agreement by Russia—something on which there has been precious little movement from the Kremlin. And yet, despite several leaks indicating that the...
The Many Faces of Putinism
Over the last two years or so, Moscow has gotten back into the international spotlight in a way that it hasn’t been since the end of the Cold War. As a result of its reckless moves, Putin’s regime has gotten a reputation in the West as dangerous and unpredictable. Nevertheless, a profound lack of understanding as to who or what we are...
The Greatness of Russia
As a newly minted U.S. diplomat in 1990, I was assigned to do consular work in Istanbul. The USSR had largely opened up by then, Soviet cruise ships were regularly stopping in Istanbul, and Russian was increasingly heard in the Grand Bazaar. The odd Soviet tourist, still acting on anachronistic Cold War reflexes, would show up from time to time...
In Russia, Survival of the Most Corrupt
Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev made headlines recently, though not the way he wanted. During a visit to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014, Medvedev tried to ignore pensioners complaining that their pensions were not keeping up with the rising cost of living.Under their relentless badgering, Medvedev...
