Russia

Image: Meeting of the NATO Russia Council, 12 January 2022 | NATO/Flickr

Putin’s Actions in Ukraine are Vile, But Russia was Sorely Provoked by NATO

This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Ramesh Thakur

CANBERRA, Australia (IDN) — Resorting to what President Barack Obama called the Washington Playbook of militarised response to a foreign policy crisis, Arta Moeini writes, the ruling elites in the West collude with the mainstream media in a Manichean framing that ‘redirects a natural reaction of sympathy felt by all into a moral outrage that insists on certain retaliation’.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 11 April 2022

Image: A demonstrator holds a sign during a peaceful stand for Ukraine rally in Boston. Demonstrator came together in downtown Boston to protest against the increasing tension and violence following President Vladimir Putin's attack days prior. Source: CounterCurrents.org

If The US Wants, It Can Solve the Ukraine Crisis Tomorrow

This article was originally published by CommonDreams.org under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Viewpoint by Robert Freeman

LIVERMORE, CA USA (IDN) — Russia's assault on Ukraine is an unambiguously bad thing. But it didn't happen in a vacuum. In order to solve the problem, we have to first understand the context in which it occurred, and the part that the U.S. played in its happening.

[The U.S.] can attain that end with two simple moves: declare that Ukraine will not be admitted into NATO; and remove its offensive nuclear missiles from Russia's borders.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 10 April 2022

Putin's Aggression Against Ukraine Has Changed the World

This article was issued by the Wall Street International and is being republished with their permission.

Viewpoint by Franz Baumann

NEW YORK (IDN) — Wars teach about geography. In mid-February, the autocorrect on my phone did not recognize, and few people in Western Europe or America could have located on a map Mariupol, Charkiv, Bucha, Kherson, Chernihiv or Irpin. Now we know, tutored by the shocking images of Putin’s 'spetz operatsiya’.

: Franz Baumann; OPINION; 07 April 2022

Russian Invasion of Ukraine Triggers a Rise in Military Spending in Europe

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The Russian invasion of Ukraine is forcing most European countries to increase defence spending, boost military capabilities and secure their territorial borders.

The attack against Ukraine, which began February 24 and has continued despite international condemnations, has resulted in thousands of civilian killings, along with the devastation of a country of 44 million people, triggering charges of war crimes.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 07 April 2022

Photo: The Ukraine Refugees Response Moldova - IsraAID

EU and US Allocate Funds to Assist Refugees in Moldova

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW | CHISINAU (IDN) — The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland, has documented almost five million refugees streamlining from the war-ravaged Ukraine crossing borders, most often with difficulties, especially into neighbouring Poland, Baltic republics, Moldova, Romania, and Hungary.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; EU & Europe; 06 April 2022

Photo: Some call them war heroes, others neo-Nazis: Ukraine's Azov Regiment is at the heart of the propaganda war between Kyiv and Moscow, as Russia claims to seek the "denazification" of Ukraine. MAKSYMOVA AFP/File

Russia, Ukraine, and Nazi Influence

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — Lost in the clouds of combat we forget how the violence in otherwise peaceful Ukraine came about. The spark that lit the fire was struck in Kyiv’s central square, the Maidan.

In 2014, demonstrators in the Maidan, the central square of the capital, Kyiv, were motivated by the arguments over a trade agreement with the EU, then being negotiated. They were ardently for it but the government under Russian pressure had done a somersault and was re-orientating its trade policy towards the Moscow-sponsored Eurasian Economic Union.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 05 April 2022

Image credit: ISS-Institute for Security Studies

Europe Soliciting Support from African Leaders for Ukraine

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW | DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) — European Union members have been soliciting support from the African Union (AU), Regional Economic organizations and African countries for the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, now experiencing tremendous atrocities and worsening humanitarian conditions as a direct result of Russia's “special military operation” since late February.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 30 March 2022

Avoiding Nuclear War Over Ukraine

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — In the Cold War days, some of us used to say, “Better red than dead”—to rebuff those who believed in “role-the-dice” nuclear deterrence as a way of political life that gave them security. Now those of us who are frightened that Vladimir Putin could start a nuclear war over Ukraine should coin a new phrase. How about: “Better alive than going to the grave with Vladimir Putin”?

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 29 March 2022

Photo credit: The Nation: Hiroshima - It’s time to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons

The MADness of the Resurgent U.S. Cold War With Russia

Viewpoint by Nicolas J.S. Davies*

NEW YORK (IDN) — The war in Ukraine has placed U.S. and NATO policy toward Russia under a spotlight, highlighting how the United States and its allies have expanded NATO right up to Russia’s borders, backed a coup and now a proxy war in Ukraine, imposed waves of economic sanctions, and launched a debilitating trillion-dollar arms race. The explicit goal is to pressure, weaken and ultimately eliminate Russia, or a Russia-China partnership, as a strategic competitor to U.S. imperial power.

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 29 March 2022

Photo: In Warsaw Joe Biden warned Russia not to move on an "inch" of NATO territory. Credit: NDTV / afp

Biden’s Unhinged Call for Regime Change in Russia

Viewpoint by Norman Solomon

SAN FRANCISCO, USA (IDN) — Ever since Joe Biden ended his speech in Poland on Saturday (March 26) night by making one of the most dangerous statements ever uttered by a U.S. president in the nuclear age, efforts to clean up after him have been profuse.

Administration officials scurried to assert that Biden didn’t mean what he said. Yet no amount of trying to “walk back” his unhinged comment at the end of his speech in front of Warsaw’s Royal Castle can change the fact that Biden had called for regime change in Russia.