Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Every year Western leaders mark D-Day by hailing The Greatest Generation of Americans, Britons, Frenchmen, and Canadians who “saved the world.” Except that they invariably overlook the role Russians played. This constitutes a historic oversight (or slight). Moreover, it is at the root of much of the resentment that has beset Russia’s relationship with the… Read more.
Pro-Moscow insurgents in eastern Ukraine declared independence Monday and sought to join Russia, undermining upcoming presidential elections, strengthening the Kremlin’s hand and putting pressure on Kiev to hold talks with the separatists following a referendum on self-rule. (Associated Press, May 12, 2014) While President Vladimir Putin gobbles up even more of Ukraine, Western leaders are… Read more.
It hardly bodes well for national unity in Ukraine that the pro-Western parliament is now calling not only for closer ties with Europe but also for Yanukovych’s arrest on charges of mass murder. Indeed, bear in mind that the country was virtually split down the middle at the last election in 2010—with those in the West… Read more.
I’m not going to insult your intelligence by delineating the obvious symmetries/analogies any further. I’m merely imploring Western leaders—who might eventually have to play Churchill and FDR to Putin’s Hitler—to show that you’ve learned from history by standing up to this bully if he even attempts to take Crimea… Don’t stand by and let him… Read more.
Mikhail Prokhorov became the Russian oligarch Americans could love when he bought the Brooklyn Nets in 2010. He endeared himself further by hiring (Black) Avery Johnson as head coach; and even bought a little street cred by allowing Jay Z to front as co-owner. What’s more, political pundits began hailing him as a pro-democracy dissident… Read more.
President Vladimir Putin attempted to justify Russia’s annexation of Crimea in a rambling and defiant national address last week. This quote pretty much sums it up: They are constantly trying to sweep us into a corner… But there is a limit to everything. And with Ukraine, our Western partners have crossed the line, playing the… Read more.
To all intents and purposes Crimea is now a part of Russia. All that remains is for the United States and Europe to negotiate a way to contain President Putin’s pan-Russian ambitions so that Ukrainians can govern what remains of their country (especially in the East) without undue interference. Their strategy of containment might work… Read more.
I’m merely imploring Western leaders – who might eventually have to play Churchill and FDR to Putin’s Hitler – to show that you’ve learned from history by standing up to this bully if he even attempts to take the Crimea. (The president of China might have to play Stalin….) Don’t stand by and let him… Read more.
Putin clearly has no use for Snowden. But, as a perfectly understandable matter of form, he must avoid any appearance of caving in to American demands to return him immediately… There seems little doubt that Putin will eventually hand Snowden over to his ‘American partner.’ And I assure you, he has every intention of doing so… Read more.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been so lampooned for using staged heroics to boost his He-Man (Master-of-the-Universe) reputation that you’d think he would seize any opportunity to display a genuine human touch and, no less important, a self-deprecating sense of humor. An ideal opportunity presented itself in February 2012 when his thought police arrested three… Read more.
