The European Commission has announced its plan to eliminate regional imports of Russian oil gradually. The ban is part of the sixth proposed European Union sanction package imposed on Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. The proposal is yet to be approved by the members of the 27-nation bloc as …
Read More »The horrible dangers of pushing a US proxy war in Ukraine
If there is indeed a shift in strategy to another level of confrontation with Russia, we need to know what we’re getting into. To judge by its latest statements, the Biden administration is increasingly committed to using the conflict in Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia, with as …
Read More »Tell us how this war in Ukraine ends
As calls grow for a ‘victory’ over Russia, we should examine whether such a win-lose outcome is even possible. Tell me how this ends. General David Petraeus famously posed this question at the outset of the Iraq War in 2003. In retrospect, to say that the Bush administration’s expectations for …
Read More »Reckless and ruthless? Yes. But is Putin insane? No.
Declaring someone irrational leads to a place in which no one wants to negotiate, because, no one wants to talk to crazy people. A number of things about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine are not in doubt: that it was a deeply criminal act; that it has been accompanied by great …
Read More »11 Years Later, al-Qaida Is Stronger, on Its Way To Recentralizing
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan paved the way for the Islamist group to regain a safe haven This week marks 11 years since the death of Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of al-Qaida. On May 1, 2011, US President Barack Obama announced his death, slain during a US …
Read More »Russian Spy Chief Naryshkin Claims Poland Seeks To Dismember Ukraine, But Others Impute The Same Designs To Russia
On April 27, 2022, the Director of Russian Foreign Intelligence Service [SVR], Sergey Naryshkin, (whom Vladimir Putin publicly humiliated on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) claimed that the Polish authorities are planning to take control of Ukraine. Russia has made these charges before[1] but Naryshkin now claimed that …
Read More »Has Ukraine war given Erdogan free hand at home?
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan might be aiming to tighten his grip on the domestic front, taking advantage of Ankara’s rising profile amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A Turkish court sentencing of prominent Turkish philanthropist and businessman Osman Kavala and seven other defendants on April 25 in the trial …
Read More »Is Turkey behind border wall, Iraqi deployment in Sinjar?
Baghdad’s military moves in Sinjar, coinciding with a Turkish military operation in northern Iraq, and the construction of a wall along the border with Syria have rekindled fears among the local Yazidi population. As the struggle for control in Iraq’s northwestern region of Sinjar escalates, some observers believe that Turkish …
Read More »Mélenchon ou la défaite de la raison
Héros fatigué d’une gauche en déliquescence, le leader de la France insoumise veut se croire un destin. Imagine-t-on vraiment l’avenir avec Mélenchon ? A peine le danger Le Pen écarté, voici la folie Mélenchon. Animée de cette curieuse propension à flirter avec les limites, la France hésite. C’est du moins …
Read More »Petrolio russo, la via sbagliata all’embargo
Mentre cerca di capire come gestire il petrolio ed il gas che le arrivano dalla Russia, l’Unione europea si è persa in un labirinto. Ad ogni svolta sembra smarrire la strada un po’ di più, come in questi giorni con le sanzioni sul petrolio. Tutti concordano che qualcosa va fatto …
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