April, 2023

• 11 April

  Explainer: Russia’s Geopolitical Games With Africa – OpEd

  

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expresses desperate fears and is highly nervous over possible clandestine threats by the United States and its Western allies to derail the second Russia-Africa summit scheduled late July 2023. With the rapid changing geo-political situation, mostly due to its ‘special military operation’ in the neighbouring …

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• 11 April

  Eyewitnesses Describe ‘Bomb Jokes’ Moments Before Cafe Blast That Killed Military Blogger

  

  Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was laughing about bombs with his apparent assassin at an event in St. Petersburg minutes before he was killed by a bomb hidden inside a gifted statuette, eyewitnesses told The Moscow Times. Daria Trepova, who gave Tatarsky the golden figurine of himself, told the pro-war …

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• 11 April

  The Fallacy Of A US Withdrawal From The Middle East – Analysis

  

  America is in decline. Eclipsed by China’s rise, it is shifting attention from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific. That is one refrain in the analysis of three seemingly paradigm-challenging developments in the past month: a Chinese-mediated restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the kingdom’s association with …

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• 11 April

  A Better Euro-Atlantic Approach To The Black Sea – OpEd

  

  In 2019, I warned: “The Russian Federation is pursuing an active and wide-ranging strategy to reassert and strengthen its dominant position in the greater Black Sea region, which the Kremlin believes is critical for the restoration of Russia’s great power status. Consolidation of the Russian position in this region will …

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• 11 April

  Finland’s Accession To NATO Death Knell For Russia’s Baltic Fleet – OpEd

  

  Most commentaries on Finland’s accession to the Western alliance have focused on the fact that this development had doubled the land border between NATO and the Russian Federation. But Sergey Ishchenko says, an even more important consequence may be on the Baltic Sea and for Russia’s Baltic Fleet. With the …

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• 11 April

  The Baltic Sea Region At An Inflection Point – Analysis

  

  The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, catapulted conventional military operations to the forefront of Western security thinking, re-kindled serious contemplation of major war in Europe, and galvanized dramatic re-thinking among Western countries about how to secure and protect democratic governance which has become the norm in …

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• 11 April

  Saudi, Omani envoys hold peace talks with Houthi leaders in Sanaa

  

  Saudi and Omani delegations held talks with Houthi officials in Yemen’s capital Sanaa on Sunday, Houthi-run media said, as Riyadh seeks a permanent ceasefire to end its military involvement in the country’s long-running war. The visit indicates progress in the Oman-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa, which run in parallel …

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• 11 April

  Turkey: Possible US Sale Of F-16 Aircraft – Analysis

  

  In February 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken publicly confirmed that the Biden Administration supports a possible sale of F-16 fighter aircraft to Turkey (Türkiye), and has engaged Congress on the issue. According to January 2023 media reports citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Administration informally notified Congress of its intent …

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• 11 April

  Fragile Unity: Why Europeans Are Coming Together On Ukraine (And What Might Drive Them Apart) – Analysis

  

  Introduction The conventional wisdom is that wars end in negotiations. But their end is more often determined at the ballot box – or even in the opinion polls. A lack of public support brought America’s war in Vietnam to an end, the French war in Algeria to its close, and …

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• 11 April

  What Agreement? – OpEd

  

  Once again the West struggles to enforce a deal of questionable value on unwilling Balkan participants. The old saying that a deal satisfying neither side involved in it must be a good deal does not apply to the text Western diplomacy (finally) published and forced on Serbia’s Aleksandar Vucic and …

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