Section: The Huffington Post (USA)
How Did A Weak Russia Ever Become A Great Power Again?
These days seem so familiar to Americans of a certain age. Everywhere the talk is of Russia again. Russia has hacked into the DNC server. Russia is on the march in Ukraine and Crimea. Russia is thinking of threatening nearby Estonia or other Baltic states. The Russians are on the march in the Middle East. In Syria the Russians are battling for a...
When It Comes To Donald Trump’s Russia Ties, It’s All About The Aides
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claims he has no investments in Russia ― but he sure keeps a lot of people with financial and political ties to the country close at hand. Trump’s roster of advisers and campaign donors is filled with people who are either directly or indirectly connected to Russia. Paul Manafort, chairman of...
Putin’s Invisible Wall
Rebecca Tinsley and Yulia Andreeva-FreimonIn Russia’s upcoming elections, Vladimir Putin could teach Donald Trump a thing or two about building walls and manipulating fear of foreigners. Since resuming his presidency in 2012, Vladimir Putin has created a siege mentality more potent than any physical wall. As Russia heads to the polls on...
We need to unfreeze traffic between Poland and Kaliningrad
The small border traffic (a visa-free regime) between Russia’s Kaliningrad region and several northern counties in Poland was hailed as a success of the former Polish government of Donald Tusk working jointly, among others, with the city of Gdansk for rapprochement between people of both nations. The success was achieved regardless of...
Russia Announces War Games After Accusing Ukraine Of Terrorist Plot
Vladimir Putin summoned his security council and the Russian Navy announced war games in the Black Sea, a day after the Russian president accused Ukraine of trying to provoke a conflict over Crimea, which Moscow seized and annexed in 2014.The belligerent posture heightened worries in Ukraine that Russia may plan to ramp up fighting in a war...
Syria: Good News and Bad
News that Syrian rebels have, at least temporarily, broken the siege of Aleppo is good. Despite the best efforts of Russia, Iran, and the Assad regime to terrorize the city into submission, some 300,000 Syrians will be spared, for the time-being, from the onset of disease and starvation at the hands of a government still permitted to represent...
Beyond The Turkish Coup
Enough time has passed since the attempted coup to begin to take stock of the situation. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has clearly emerged from the coup in a stronger position than before. The coup, rather than fragmenting the country, has brought it a greater degree of unity, outside the Kurdish area, than has been seen before. Erdoğan is...
Armenia Fires Police Chief, Punishes 18 Others for Violence Against Protesters
Image: Armenian police used excessive force against peaceful protesters and journalists on July 29, 2016. Author: Nancy Kricorian (@nancykric), Twitter YEREVAN, Armenia — In any urban protests that police meet with violence, there is one day or night when authorities’ use of force reaches a crescendo. That day was February 20, 2014,...
Politically Motivated Crimes in Germany: The Story Behind the Numbers
Yesterday I tweeted this graph of “politically motivated crimes” in Germany in the period 2006-2015. The graph comes from Rote Linie and is based on data provided by the Federal Bureau for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) and the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA), the two...
This Is What Trump’s ‘America First’ Policy Would Mean For Germany
Donald Trump is branding his foreign policy with the slogan: “America First.” He has decided that he wants the U.S. to focus on its own problems. During the fourth Republican GOP debate in November 2015, he said: “We have to get smart. We can’t continue to be the policemen of the world. We owe $19 trillion, we have a...
