Section: The American Interest (USA)
Ukraine Losing in Shell Game
Fighting has picked up near the Russian border again (albeit not to the extent that everybody warned it would). The shelling has cut off the gas to Mariupol and the surrounding area in the southeastern part of the country.Sadly, that’s not even today’s worst news for Ukraine. That distinction goes to the decision by Royal Dutch Shell...
Obama’s Grave Miscalculations
Driving residents from their homes, imposing an iron-fisted dictatorship, looting and murder—no, this isn’t ISIS in Iraq. It’s the Shi’a militias backed by Iran and the government that President Obama has a kinda-sorta strategy for working with. The Times of London: The Iranian-backed Shia militias used by the embattled Iraqi...
Russia Hacks German Parliament
One day after a Pew poll showed only 38 percent of Germans view Russia as a threat to its neighbors (other than Ukraine), news has broken that Russia hacked the Bundestag. The Times (of London) reports: Russian hackers were accused yesterday of being behind a damaging cyberattack on the German parliament that could require a complete overhaul of...
EU Free-Rides on NATO, Russia’s Heart Belongs to Vladdy
A major new Pew survey being released today must be music to Vladimir Putin’s ears, putting into stark relief the extent to which many Europeans happily free-ride off of American defense guarantees.A majority of Germans (58 percent), French (53 percent) and Italians (51 percent) say their country should not use military force to defend a...
EU Struggles to Form a More Perfect Energy Union
Energy ministers from 13 European Union member states met in Luxembourg this week to move the ball forward on creating a cohesive bloc-wide energy policy. Incited by Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and supply disruptions to the country, through which some 40 percent of Europe’s Russian gas transits, discussions of a European energy...
Swimming with Sharks
An interesting thing happened this past week. The Western accommodationist school, which has been calling on the West to “understand” the Kremlin and stop irritating it, even as it tries (and often succeeds) to preserve its reputation as an alternative voice, suffered a humiliating setback. The Western supporters of the “let’s accommodate...
Burma in Play
Some say it is more of a “Winter Thaw” than a “Burma Spring”, but what used to be a pariah nation—the darkened house in the neighborhood—is changing. Just down the road from where Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was held prisoner in her home for more than 15 years, a luxury development with penthouses, a swimming pool, restaurants, and...
G7 To Putin: More Sanctions Possible
In a surprise display of solidarity, the leaders of the G7 issued a stern warning to Vladimir Putin: quit meddling in Ukraine, or face more sanctions. The relevant part of the G7 declaration reads like so: We call on all sides to fully implement the Minsk agreements including the Package of Measures for their implementation signed on 12 February...
Ahead of Sanctions Vote, Putin Plays Italy
At the G7 meeting in Germany over the weekend, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was conspicuously silent among his peers on the question of extending the sanctions regime against Russia for its continuing aggression in Ukraine. The silence was all the more notable given that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be traveling to Milan on...
So You Think You Can Frack…
The West has taken a very careful approach to sanctioning Russia’s energy sector in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, as Europe has wanted to avoid anything that might endanger Gazprom gas supplies, on which the continent relies for some 30 percent of its needs. Sanctions that hit Russia’s short-term energy prospects would likely...
