Section: The American Interest (USA)
What Lies Behinds Putin’s “Humanitarian Gesture” towards Savchenko?
Ukrainian Air Force pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, who was captured and held in Russia for two years, and who was recently convicted in a show trial for the murder of two Russian war correspondents, was granted amnesty by Vladimir Putin and returned to Kyiv today. The release was done in secrecy and became public only after President Petro...
“There is No Money. Chin Up!”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday faced angry retirees in Crimea, demanding the government index their pensions to inflation. On the news clip embedded in this article, a woman complains to the Prime Minister to about her tough life in the annexed territory: It is impossible to live in Crimea for this money, prices are insane, our...
Partial Answers to the Russia Question
As the countdown clock to the July NATO summit ticks away, the discussion in Brussels about how to deal with a resurgent Russia, though vigorous, has yet to produce a solid consensus. Ever since Russia seized Crimea and ignited war in eastern Ukraine, the countries along the northeastern frontier have called for the creation of permanent U.S....
America in a New World
A distinct and distinctive period in the history of American foreign policy, one spanning the two decades following the conclusion of the Cold War, has come to an end. A new era has begun. The international conditions in which the American government must conduct its relations with other countries, and that will therefore shape its foreign...
Turkish-German Split Widens
The future of the EU’s migration deal is very much up in the air, largely because the increasingly authoritarian and megalomaniacal style of Erdogan makes in increasingly difficult for Germany or any other self respecting European power to work with him. The Financial Times: Angela Merkel has condemned the move by Turkey’s legislature...
The Snake Eats Itself
Senators Rob Portman and Chris Murphy recently introduced the “Countering Information Warfare Act of 2016”, a bill that would create a new coordinating body, the Center for Information Analysis and Response. According to the bill, the Center, funded to the tune of $20 million, would: lead and coordinate the collection and analysis of information...
Documenting Theft on a Grand Scale
The Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative launched its Kleptocracy Archive earlier today. As of 11 am, anyone interested can search for thousands of primary source documents on corruption in authoritarian regimes at kleptocracyarchive.org. The American Interest‘s Publisher, Charles Davidson, is the founder and Executive Director of the...
The U.S. Flails Before Russia on Syria
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Vienna for another round of talks over how to bring the Syrian civil war to an end. The impasse, as it has been from the earliest days of this bloody conflict, is the ultimate fate of Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad. Bloomberg: The gains of recent months are...
Duma to Restrict Foreign Travel for Russians
A package of “counterterrorism bills” was approved by the lower chamber of the Russian Parliament at its first reading today. The bills seek to amend the Russian Criminal Code by adding severe punishments for promoting terrorism and extremist activities. Earlier this week, the Kremlin had recommended to the Duma that it pass these bills. If—or...
How Conservatives Can Save the EU
If the critics and proponents of European integration can agree on one thing, it is that the European Union has seen better days. “Not only has [Europe] not recovered from its post-2008 cold,” says President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz, “beset by multiplying crises, it is now on the verge of developing pneumonia.” The...
