Russia

Photo: Officials examine a radionuclide detector stationed on the roof of the Vienna International Centre, home of CTBTO headquarters. Russia has deployed seven such detectors on its territory as part of the CTBTO's monitoring system, but some stopped transmitting information after a Russian weapons accident on August 8. Credit: CTBTO

Russian Weapons Accident Raises Nuclear Concerns

By Greg Webb

The writer is editor of Arms Control Today, the Arms Control Association’s flagship publication.

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN-INPS) – An accidental explosion on Russia’s White Sea coast has triggered questions about the Kremlin’s strategic weapons development efforts and concerns that Russia may have shut down sensors to deny information to international observers.

The August 8 incident began with a blast at a military test site near Severodvinsk, where Russia tests missile systems. Conflicting media reports and a lack of official Russian information have led to extensive speculation about the weapon that exploded.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 13 September 2019

Photo: Police firing tear gas to disperse protesters near Central Government Complex on 5 August 2019. VOA Cantonese. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Non-violence Is the Need of the Hour in Hong Kong

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The gloves are off in Hong Kong. Judging from the pictures on September 3 BBC News the police no longer have any compunction about beating protestors. Ironically, they don’t appear to get close to the fringe of protestors who are using violent tactics. Rather they are swinging their batons left right and centre at any young person they meet, even chasing them on to the metro trains where commuters get thwacked too.

It reminds me vividly of the tough sheriffs of Alabama and Mississippi in the 1960s who used dogs against the civil rights protestors and cracked heads.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 03 September 2019

Photo: Aerial view of Sochi, located on the Black Sea coast. CC BY-SA 3.0

Sochi Summit Expected to Open Russia’s Door to Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – As Sochi, a Russian city located on the Black Sea coast, prepares to host African leaders, experts have been discussing the possible outcome of this first high-level event in the history of Russian-African relations, with the heads of all states of the African continent invited, as well as leaders of major subregional associations and organisations attending.

According to official sources here, the summit on October 24 will play special attention to the current state and prospects of Russia's relations with African countries and to the expansion of the political, economic, technical and cultural cooperation.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 30 August 2019

Photo: President Filipe Nyusi addressing the Russian-Mozambique Business Forum on 21 August 2019 on Moscow. Credit: World Trade Center.

Mozambique Embraces Russia’s Investment Efforts

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – Keen to intensify and widen bilateral relations, Russia and Mozambique have signed several intergovernmental documents as well as business agreements during President Jacinto Filipe Nyusi’s visit here. Its highlights were talks with President Vladimir Putin and the Russian-Mozambican business forum, the first gathering of businesspersons from Russia and representatives of companies from Mozambique, in Moscow.

The importance of the August 20-23 visit is underlined by the fact that it has taken place in the run-up to the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on October 23-24. However, because of general elections in Mozambique on October 15, President Filipe Nyusi might not be able to attend the summit, reports said.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 August 2019

Photo: The U.S. Defense Department conducted a flight test of a conventionally configured ground-launched cruise missile at San Nicolas Island, California on August 18, 2019. Credit: Scott Howe | DVIDS – The Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

Nuclear Arms Race Is Here

By Jessica Corbett *

MAINE, USA (IDN) – Nuclear experts and disarmament advocates are warning that the world is witnessing a new arms race after the Pentagon tested a new missile August 18 that would have violated a Cold War-era treaty the Trump administration ditched earlier this month.

After years of the U.S. government—under both the Obama and Trump administrations—and NATO accusing Russia of violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed in 1987 by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Washington formally withdrew from the deal, which banned ground-launched nuclear and conventional ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,000 kilometers, or about 310 to 3,400 miles.

: UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 August 2019

Photo: Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin on June 5, 2019, The Kremlin, Moscow. Credit: en.kremlin.ru Moscow.

Russia and China Are Coming Closer Again

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – In her famous decree in 1767 Empress Catherine the Great proclaimed Russia to be a European power. She wanted Russia to be a major player in European politics. She compelled the Europeans to accept Russia as a great power as a condition for doing business. In 1815 Russia was considered an equal in the 1815 Concert of Europe.

In contrast, Imperial China at that time was self-sufficient and inward looking. It basked in its own superior culture. It did not want to open up trade relations with Europe and the emperor questioned the ability of the British who were knocking on the door to “acquire the rudiments” of Chinese civilization.

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; Russia; 13 August 2019

Photo: Ships both old and new displayed their combat power and military might. Credit: Kremlin.ru

Blue Water Navy Plays an Important Role in Russian Diplomacy

By Mark Thomas-Patterson*

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – July 28 marked Russia’s Naval Day, one of the series of military holidays celebrated in the country. The highlight of this year’s festivities was the first national fleet review in seven years, with President Vladimir Putin present at the main parade in St. Petersburg while Prime Minister Dmytry Medvedev was in Sevastopol. The parade also served as a time to display hardware, such as a new Admiral Gorshkov class frigate and Lada-Class submarine, two critical components of the modernized Russian navy.

: Europe Editor; THE WORLD; Russia; 10 August 2019

Photo: Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov with Burkina Faso President Marc Kabore in Ouagadougou in July 2019. Credit: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

Russia Prepares for Africa Summit to Elevate Economic Profile

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MOSCOW (IDN) – As Russia prepares to strengthen its overall corporate economic profile during the African leaders' summit in Sochi in October, policy experts are questioning agreements that were signed – many of them largely unfulfilled and forgotten – at least in the past decade with African countries.

Experts, such as Professors Vladimir Shubin and Alexandra Arkhangelskaya from the Institute for African Studies in Moscow, have argued that Russia needs to be more strategic in aligning its interests, and be more proactive with instruments and mechanisms in promoting economic cooperation in order to reap the benefits of a fully-fledged partnership.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 09 August 2019

Image: The Dragonbear (Source: David Parkins)

Troubled Prospects for Gulf Security Architecture

Viewpoint by James M. Dorsey

James M. Dorsey – a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture – offered this viewpoint to IDN.

SINGAPORE (IDN) – Russia, backed by China, hoping to exploit mounting doubts in the Gulf about the reliability of the United States as the region’s sole security guarantor, is proposing a radical overhaul of the security architecture in an area that is home to massive oil and gas reserves and some of the world’s most strategic waterways.

: Phil Harris; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 07 August 2019

Photo: Two aerial photos of atomic bomb mushroom clouds, over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 (left) and Nagasaki on 9 August 1945 (right). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Hiroshima Unlearned: Time to Tell the Truth About US-Russia Relations and Finally Ban the Bomb

Viewpoint by Alice Slater

Author and nuclear disarmament advocate, Alice Slater is a member of the Board of World Beyond War, UN NGO Representative of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and a longtime member of CODEPINK.

NEW YORK (IDN) – August 6 and 9 mark 74 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where only one nuclear bomb dropped on each city caused the deaths of up to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki. Today, with the U.S. decision to walk away from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force (INF) negotiated with the Soviet Union, we are once again staring into the abyss of one of the most perilous nuclear challenges since the height of the Cold War.