By Reinhard Jacobsen VIENNA | 18 August 2024 (IDN) —- The UN’s atomic energy agency IAEA is concerned about the nuclear safety situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), which is deteriorating following a drone strike that hit the road around the plant site perimeter on 17 August. The attack occurred as Ukrainian forces […]
Wagner Group Setback in Mali Challenges Russian Strategy in Africa
By Christopher Michael Faulkner* WASHINGTON, D.C. | 11 August 2024 (IDN) — While Russia’s army is bogged down in Ukraine, its mercenaries are faring no better in Africa. In late July 2024, mercenaries from the the Wagner Group, a Moscow-aligned private military company, accompanied the Malian army in what the Malian regime called a “stabilization […]
Nuclear Exercises of Russia – Stark Reminder to Dutch F-16s in Ukraine
By Drago Bosnic The writer is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. OSLO | 5 August 2024 (IDN) — On the very last day of July, the Russian military announced it started “the third and ‘final’ phase of drills to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons”. The Kremlin’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) also initiated […]
Seven-Nation Prisoner Swap Shows How Diplomacy, Not Law, Governs Exchanges
By William E. Butler* This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read original. PENNSYLVANIA | 3 August 2024 (IDN) — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans were freed from Russia in a prisoner exchange on Aug. 1, 2024. In total, 24 prisoners, including 12 German nationals […]
Western Powers Betrayed Russia by Expanding NATO Eastward
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 29 July 2024 (IDN) — U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s famous “not one inch eastward” assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, was part of a cascade of assurances about Soviet security given by Western leaders to Gorbachev and […]
The Forgotten Trophy of India-Russia Friendship
By Shastri Ramachandaran* This article was issued by The Wire and is being republished with the author’s permission. If there is one single individual icon who epitomises India-Russia cooperation above and beyond politics, diplomacy and transactional ties, it is India’s greatest chess player and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. NEW DELHI | 20 July 2024 […]
BRICS Parliamentary Forum Seeks to Strengthen Multilateralism for Global Security
By Tajul Islam* DHAKA | 12 July 2024 (IDN) — The 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum convened in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 11 and 12, 2024, under the theme “The Role of Parliaments in Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security.” This year’s plenary session focused on “The BRICS Parliamentary Dimension: Prospects for Strengthening […]
Russia: A Window to Europe Becomes a Gateway to Asia
By Yakov M. Rabkin* This article was originally published on Pressenza. MONTREAL, Canada | 12 June 2024 (IDN) — There has been ample coverage of a marathon press conference held by Vladimir Putin for heads of foreign and Russian press agencies earlier this month. Predictably, most attention was drawn to his answer to a British […]
How Can Putin Avoid Nuclear War? By Being a Little Crazier?
By Mike Whitney* This article was originally published on The Unz Review. WASHINGTION STATE | 9 June 2024 (IDN) — President Putin’s press conference on 28 May in Uzbekistan might have been the most unusual and extraordinary event in his 24-year political career. After addressing the Constitutional issues surrounding Ukrainian President Zelensky’s decision to remain […]
The Specter of Nuclear Conflict Continues to Haunt
By Daryl G. Kimball The writer is the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA). The following article appears as the Focus of the June 2024 issue of Arms Control Today. WASHINGTON, D.C. | 6 Jun 2024 (IDN) — Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale, illegal, and brutal assault on Ukraine in […]