Section: The Atlantic (USA)
Trump’s Interests vs. America’s, Secret Service Edition
President Donald Trump’s decision to retain ownership of his business while in office means that he can profit from government entities that are obligated to patronize his properties. For the Secret Service, which sets up a protective perimeter around the president and vice president’s non-White House residences, this means paying the...
Why Europe Opposes America’s New Russia Sanctions
When President Trump on Wednesday signed into law a bill that will impose new sanctions on Russia, he simultaneously expressed his opposition to the measure. The law aims to punish Moscow for its interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and limit the president’s own ability to unilaterally lift such sanctions. “By limiting the...
Russia’s Back-to-the-80s Foreign Policy
“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” The latest round of Russian-American embassy staff hits—Russia cut hundreds of U.S. Embassy employees in an escalatory response to U.S. expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last December—recall the big Soviet-American embassy staff expulsions of 1986. Few recall the details of these Reagan-era...
Trump’s Worst Week Yet
There hasn’t been a single smooth week in the Trump presidency, but last week was, by popular consensus, the worst of them so far. Given the struggles of this president, that’s no small statement. What was remarkable was the breadth of Trump’s troubles. His top legislative priority was, once again, knocked flat. He had to...
Vladimir Putin to America: You’ve Let Me Down
Sunday night, Vladimir Putin went on national television and explained his decision to slice American diplomatic staff in Russia by two-thirds. He was retaliating for Barack Obama’s December expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats, as well as newly passed congressional sanctions, by kicking out 755 American diplomatic staff—a response over 20...
Russia Expels 755 U.S. Diplomats
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday he will expel 755 U.S diplomats by the end of the month. Earlier this week, Putin signaled he’d retaliate against a bill Congress passed that increases sanctions against Russia for its illegal invasion of the Crimea, and for interfering in the U.S. election.Putin made the announcement in an...
The Testing Ground for Trump’s Russia Policy
At the moment, U.S.-Russian relations could be thought of as a live experiment in the “Great Man” theory of history, which attributes historical change to the actions of exceptional individuals rather than impersonal forces that transcend any man or woman. If it were up to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, it seems, Russia and the United States...
Why Russia Ordered the U.S. to Reduce Its Diplomatic Staff
Russia ordered the U.S. Friday to reduce its diplomatic staff in the country to 455 and seized two American diplomatic properties, in retaliation for similar steps ordered by the Obama administration last December and a sweeping sanctions bill approved this week by the U.S. Congress.“The Russian side is suspending as of August 1 the use by the...
Fishermen’s Brexit and the Next Moon Landing: The Week in Global-Affairs Writing
Shifting Current Matthew Bremner | Roads & Kingdoms“There are now only 4,000 active fishermen in Scotland, down from 8,000 in 1970. Since 1996, the size of the Scottish fleet has been reduced by more than 219 boats, and where there were once 20 flourishing harbors scattered across its coast, there are now only three. The problem, fishermen...
Why Does the Kremlin Care So Much About the Magnitsky Act?
Let’s get something straight: The Magnitsky Act is not, nor has it ever been, about adoptions.The Magnitsky Act, rather, is about money. It freezes certain Russian officials’ access to the stashes they were keeping in Western banks and real estate and bans their entry to the United States. The reason Russian (and now, American)...
