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![Photo: Putin addressing a plenary meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club [a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum] on October 27, 2022. Source: Pravda.com.ua](/images/putin_at_valadai_forum.jpg)
Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*
NEW YORK (IDN) — The 19th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Forum, titled “Peace after Hegemony: Justice and Security for all” was held in Moscow from October 24-27.
The meeting was attended by 111 international policy experts, politicians, diplomats and economists from 41 countries, including from France, Germany, and the United States.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)—more commonly known as drones—largely by US and Russian military forces has highlighted a weapon that is being increasingly deployed in war zones in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and most recently Ukraine.
Viewpoint by Jeffrey D. Sachs
The proxy war between the U.S. and Russia is devastating Ukraine, ironically in the name of saving Ukraine.
This article was published in Common Dreams and is being republished with the author's permission.
NEW YORK (IDN) — President Joe Biden is undermining his party’s Congressional prospects through a deeply flawed foreign policy. Biden believes that America’s global reputation is at stake in the Ukraine War and has consistently rejected a diplomatic off-ramp.
By Jutta Wolf
BERLIN (IDN) — Researchers at the Institute for World Economy IfW Kiel and DIW Berlin have analysed the economic impact of jointly implementing punitive measures in the context of the 2012 Iran and 2014 Russia sanctions. They find that coalitions serve two crucial purposes—they not only magnify the economic cost imposed on the target but also reduce domestic costs for sanctioning states.
Viewpoint by Paul Goble
Eurasia Review issued this article.
OREGON, USA (IDN) — There is nearly universal consensus that World War I was the most senseless conflict in modern times, Yury Yarym-Agayev says; but in fact, Putin’s war in Ukraine is even more senseless than that war of a century ago in that none of its proclaimed goals are real and its real goals are not achievable.
The former member of the Moscow Helsinki Group who emigrated to the United States in 1980 and has worked as a physicist at Stanford and MIT has avoided making comments about Russia until now. But the war in Ukraine has compelled him to end his silence, he says (wow-press.com/u-vojny-net-celi-tolko-putin/?amp=1).
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — Russia's military setbacks in Ukraine have triggered widespread speculation in the US that Russian President Vladimir Putin may unleash his stockpile of "tactical nuclear weapons", which may be less devastating than the deadly US weapons that destroyed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki back in August 1945.
In the face of battlefield losses in eastern Ukraine, Putin has warned that he "will make use of all the weapon systems available to us" if our territorial integrity is threatened.
Viewpoint by John Feffer
Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF), a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, issued this article on September 28, 2022.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) — When a country starts casting around for 60-year-old veterans to send to the front, you know something’s wrong. All hands don’t go on deck unless the ship is foundering. It’s not yet clear whether the Russian ship of state is taking on water. But its military effort in Ukraine is obviously at the SOS stage.
Viewpoint by Jeffrey D. Sachs
This article was published in Other News and is being republished with the author's permission.
NEW YORK (IDN) — Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a “geopolitical pivot” of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the war in Ukraine is rapidly escalating to a nuclear showdown. It’s urgent for both the US and Russia to exercise restraint before disaster hits.
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The retreat of Russian troops from occupied territory in Ukraine has led to widespread speculation that Moscow may use non-conventional weapons, primarily biological and chemical weapons, to beat back the Ukrainians.
In a prime-time interview on US television on September 19, US President Joe Biden said the US response to any use of “non-conventional weapons” by Russia “would be significant” but did not provide any details of possible retaliation.
By Kalinga Seneviratne
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (IDN) — For the first time, the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) attracted international and regional media attention because the Ukraine crisis has made the region’s powerhouses China, Russia and India major players in the global economy.
The 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO took place in the historical city of Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, on September 15 and 16.
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