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By Kester Kenn Klomegah*
MOSCOW (IDN) — Russian policy experts and academic researchers have been upbeat with heated reactions, especially in the local media on the current state of affairs between the United States, Europe and Russia, and the prospects of moving forward. The focus has been on the key questions dealing with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its eastward expansion, security in the former Soviet republics and the much-speculated Russia's war on Ukraine.
Viewpoint by M K Bhadrakumar*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — This must be a rare occasion when Russian President Vladimir Putin during his 18 years in the Kremlin came out second best in an encounter with an American president. And it had to be at the hands of President Joe Biden who has not yet completed one year in office. Yet, Putin has met with every sitting American president since Bill Clinton, in dire circumstances filled with awkward silences, icy stares and even professions of trust.
The Kremlin officials apparently misread the tea leaves and betted on a high probability that Putin and Biden would strike a deal at one-to-one level over Russia’s “red lines” in Ukraine—no NATO membership for Ukraine, no western deployments close to Russian borders.
Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*
NEW YORK (IDN) — The Biden presidency is still in its early days, but it’s not too early to point to areas in the foreign policy realm where we, as progressives, have been disappointed or even infuriated.
There are one or two positive developments, such as the renewal of Obama's New START Treaty with Russia and Secretary of State Blinken’s initiative for a UN-led peace process in Afghanistan, where the United States is finally turning to peace as a last resort, after 20 years lost in the graveyard of empires.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — Harsh criticism continues to be heard from Africans and their leaders against UK and U.S. travel restrictions allegedly to control the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant—now showing up in several U.S. states.
"What is expected is a global approach, not selective," Sarafa Tunji Isola, Nigeria's high commissioner to the UK, told the BBC.
He also echoed comments made by the UN's chief, who described restrictions imposed on some southern African countries as "travel apartheid.”
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power
LUND, Sweden (IDN) — It's almost twenty-five years since General George Lee Butler made his confessional statement before the National Press Club in Washington—that as commander in chief of the US Strategic Command, which controls all army, navy and air force nuclear weapons, he'd had moral qualms and profound doubts about America's possession of nuclear weapons.
The speech triggered an avalanche of supportive phone calls and letters from all over the world. This led General Butler to conclude that he could "discern the makings of an emerging global consensus that the risks posed by nuclear weapons far outweigh the presumed benefits".
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW l MAPUTO (IDN) — The United States and Argentina Embassies in Maputo have donated large quantities of vaccines to the Government of the Republic of Mozambique. As their tremendous and recognizable contributions to help fight the spread of coronavirus, the United States offered 840,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines while Argentina gave 450,000 doses of the AstraZeneca.
By Thalif Deen
NEW YORK (IDN) — A head of state, who presided over an authoritarian regime in Southeast Asia, was once asked about rigged elections in his country.
“I promised I will give you the right to vote,” he was quoted as saying, perhaps half-jokingly “But I did not say anything about counting those votes.”
Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran*
NEW DELHI (IDN) — The text as well as the subtext of the three-hour-long virtual meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden held on November 15-16 is certain to be debated and dissected long after the event fades from the headlines before there is any conclusive view on whether Biden had got the better of Xi or was it vice-versa.
Viewpoint by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies*
NEW YORK (IDN) — A report in Covert Action Magazine from the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine describes grave fears of a new offensive by Ukrainian government forces, after increased shelling, a drone strike by a Turkish-built drone and an attack on Staromaryevka, a village inside the buffer zone established by the 2014-15 Minsk Accords.
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network
NEW YORK (IDN) — A whiz-bang tour through Africa had some discordant notes for US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken who was treated to wide vistas of Chinese-built infrastructure as his motorcade zipped from airport to airport.
In Nigeria, he zoomed past the China Chamber of Commerce in Nigeria building, a domed, palace-like structure along the expressway.
IDN-InDepthNews offers news analyses, features, reports and viewpoints that impact the world and its peoples. It has been online since 2009. Its network spans countries around the world.