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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.
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.
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.
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”?
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.
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.
By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW | PARIS (IDN) — Russia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in April 2011 after almost 18 years of persistent efforts and multiple negotiations, to fulfil stringent membership requirements, apparently because the Soviet Union had ceased to exist and replaced by the Russian Federation. Average accession period is five to seven years.
Viewpoint by Ramesh Jaura
BERLIN (IDN) — "We affirm that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought," pledged the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states—China, France, Russia, UK, and the United States—in a joint statement on January 3, adding that they "consider the avoidance of war" between them and "the reduction of strategic risks" as their "foremost responsibilities". The five nuclear-weapon states are also the five permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council, which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.
Viewpoint by John P. Ruehl
This article was produced by Globetrotter. John P. Ruehl is an Australian-American journalist living in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor to Strategic Policy and a contributor to several other foreign affairs publications. He is currently finishing a book on Russia to be published in 2022. Source: Globetrotter.
Viewpoint by Purnaka L. de Silva*
“Anyone who falls into the habit of thinking and expecting the best of his subordinates at all times is, for that reason alone, unsuited to command an army”—Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) in Vom Kriege (1832)
NEW YORK (IDN) — The Kremlin confirmed in September 2014 that Russia’s current President Vladimir Putin, told José Manuel Barroso the outgoing president of the European Commission that “Russian forces could conquer the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in two weeks if he so ordered”. For more details see the September 2, 2014 Guardian article by Ian Traynor: “Putin claims Russian forces ‘could conquer Ukraine capital in two weeks’”.
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