February 23, 2023 Eurasia
The West’s historical anxieties have made it impossible to come to terms with the war’s reality. On the first day of Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner met with then-Ukrainian ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk. As Melnyk later recounted, Lindner didn’t simply decline to supply Ukraine …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia, South East Asia
China can make friends or break legs. It can’t do both. In the span of a decade, China has emerged as the developing world’s bank of choice, pouring hundreds of billions of dollars in loans into global infrastructure projects as part of its sprawling Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden delivered dueling speeches on Tuesday, each offering different visions of Russia’s war in Ukraine and world events more generally. The main news from Putin’s sometimes rambling two-hour speech came toward the end: the suspension of New START, the last remaining nuclear …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia
“The United States will provide Ukraine with a new $500 million infusion of aid to help the government in Kyiv continue paying salaries, pensions and providing services, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday. Yellen detailed the assistance following her meeting Wednesday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Finance Minister …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia
When news first emerged over explosions endured by the Nord Stream pipelines, known collectively as Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, an army of guessers was mobilised. The accusation that Russia had done it seemed counterintuitive, given that the Russian state company Gazprom is a majority shareholder of Nord …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia
With the Ukraine war now reaching its one-year mark on February 24, the Russians have not achieved a military victory but neither has the West achieved its goals on the economic front. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the United States and its European allies vowed to impose crippling sanctions that would …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia
In an address to the Federal Assembly on February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would suspend its participation in the 2011 New START nuclear arms controls treaty. The treaty, which provided for a 50 percent reduction of the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers and a bilateral …
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February 23, 2023 Balkans, Eurasia, Serbia
The insensitivity of the President of Serbia, the former general secretary of the convicted war criminal Vojislav Šešelj, who is the same thirty years after the crimes and the blackness of the people of the former Yugoslavia, including his own, only in accordance with the new circumstances, has become accustomed. …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia, Middle Orient
In less than a month, French President Emmanuel Macron hosted both Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani and Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani as Paris works to revive its influence in the region and counter China and Iran. France is increasingly flexing its diplomatic muscles in Iraq as French President …
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February 23, 2023 Eurasia, Middle Orient
Clashes are occurring regularly in the Palestinian territory as tensions further rise. At least 10 Palestinians were killed in fighting with Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Nablus on Wednesday. The particularly deadly incident could further ignite tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the territories. The Palestinian Health …
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