Dispatches 1) “Guerre en Ukraine : le chef de la diplomatie russe « convaincu » que la Russie atteindra ses objectifs à force de «…
Dispatches 1) jok/dpa, “Russland bestätigt Pläne für Sturz der ukrainischen Regierung; Der Kreml verschärft den Ton im Ukrainekrieg: Erklärtes Ziel sei es, die amtierende Regierung…
Developing. We are publishing this article as it is being written. Please check back for updates. UKRAINE: THE WAR TO SAVE THE U.N. CHARTER AND…
Putin, at the press conference after his meeting with Macron, used extremely crude language to tell Ukraine it just has to accept Putin’s position in…
Developing. We are publishing this article as it is being written. Please check back for updates. To see a list of previous articles, enter “Ukraine”…
Developing Due to rapidly-breaking developments and in order to facilitate readers’ access to the latest dispatches, we are publishing this article as it is being…
Cuesta and Gómez quote Zbigniev Rau, the new President of the OSCE (and Polish foreign minister), as saying after the OSCE meeting in Vienna on Thursday, January 13, “The risk of war is the region in now greater than at any other moment in the last 30 years.”
Developments appear to confirm previous analyses that Putin is merely going through the motions of attempted diplomacy to bolster his case that he tried everything and had no alternative other than to invade Ukraine.
It now appears that he is doubling down on his threat and plans to invade Ukraine, in what may be in his mind a giant game of “chicken” with Joe Biden and the U.S.
Putin’s “red lines: have no meaning or significance under international law.
But Russia’s threats of an invasion of the Ukraine if it and NATO do not accede to Russia’s demands–for some kind of tong-term and binding security arrangements to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO or the EU–themselves violate the most fundamental norms of the United Nations Charter and international law.
These might be called, in a non-technical sense, the real “red lines” in international relations–the real “red lines” of the United Nations Charter and international law.
Fighting continues in and over Nagorno-Karabakh. The Russian-brokered ceasefire agreed upon in Moscow on Saturday is not holding. It is time for the U.N. Security…
Reprinted, with permission, from Lawyers for Humanity, December 14, 2019. With the adoption by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee of two narrowly-focused articles of impeachment,…
See Krishnadev Calamur, “Russia Threatens to Expel 30 U.S. Diplomats; Moscow is angry about the Trump administration’s refusal to return two diplomatic compounds seized last…
Trump’s statement in the presence of Putin before going into their meeting says it all: “It is an honor to be with you.”
For Trump, it is an honor to meet the military aggressor who invaded the Crimea and the eastern Ukraine in 2014….
For Trump, it is an honor to meet the leader of a country which committed barbarous war crimes in Syria, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure in Aleppo, for example.
There is no statute of limitations for military aggression.
The U.S. will not improve relations with Russia by trying to appease the aggressor, Vladimir Putin.
Trump has been, and remains, the first pro-Russian president of the United States at least since 1917….
After Comey’s firing, it was learned that subpoenas have been issued to Michael Flynn to produce all papers and records related to his contacts and business dealings with the Russians.
Flynn has apparently commited acts which might constitute serious crimes. If prosecuted and convicted, he could spend many years in prison. His earlier efforts to gain immunity in exchange for his testimony before Congressional committees failed.
Flynn’s testimony could be explosive. It may be the key to blowing open the conspiracy involving collusion with the Russians, if there is one. If he talks, he could bring the whole Trump charade on Russia crashing down.
Hopefully he is under very good security protection.
***
Russia’s “Trump card”
Putin’s “Trump card” is already paying off. While the focus in he U.S. media has been on whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians intervening in the U.S. election, less attention has been paid to the reasons for Trump’s pro-Russian positions and failure to criticize Putin.
The strongest hypothesis for this behavior is that Trump has been compromised by the Russians. This will remain the strongest hypothesis until an alternative, more persuasive explanation is presented.
Revised April 21, 2017 Two of the things Rex Tillerson said in his Senate confirmation hearings appear to have been either extremely misleading or simply…
Rex Tillerson met Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin for two hours, in addition to his over three hours of meetings with foreign minister Sergey…
As he prepares to travel to Moscow to meet with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov (and possibly with Vladimir Putin, whether publicly or in secret), U.S….
Developing Appeasement has many colors and takes many forms. In the last few days, it has taken the form in Europe of shifting the focus…
Developing PERSONAL TAKES Once in a while, The Observer reflects on his own personal involvement in world events. Today’s news triggered such a reflection. The…
Update: See “Syria: Russia’s military assault on Western civilization; Questions for the Clinton-Trump “smackdown” tonight,” The Trenchant Observer, September 26, 2016. “At last they speak…
LATE BREAKING NEWS!!! Developing Eric Schmitt, Michael R. Gordon, and Somini Sengupta, “U.S. Officials Say Russia Probably Attacked U.N. Humanitarian Convoy,” New York Times, September…
