Etiket arşivi: Putin

Ukraine Peace: A Challenge for Transatlantic Relations

March 10, 2025

On February 19, 2021, President Biden addressed the Virtual Munich Security Conference. He declared, “America is back.”

Last week, President Trump delivered his State of the Union address before Congress. He started his remarks with the following:

“I return to this chamber tonight to report that America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back…”

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The Summit on Peace in Ukraine  

June 18, 2024

The Summit, organized by Switzerland, took place at Bürgenstock on June 15-16, 2024. The task of the meeting was to develop a common understanding of a path towards a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. In the absence of Russia and China expectations from the summit were modest. No one anticipated a debate on what a postwar settlement would look like or Ukraine’s hopes of joining NATO. Nonetheless, attendance was high. After all, countries across the globe are interested in peace in Ukraine regardless of their vision of the endgame.

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The War in Ukraine Two Years On

February 19, 2024

On February 16, 2023, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died at a penal colony above the Arctic Circle, marking a dark day for Russia. A Le Monde article was titled “Navalny’s death buries the last hope for a free Russia”. In 2020, Navalny was poisoned in Siberia by what German laboratories later confirmed to be the nerve agent Novichok. His return to Moscow on January 17,  2021, knowing that he would immediately be detained, was a remarkable display of courage and patriotism. Someday, in Moscow, Russians will pay him their respects before his statue.

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Looking Back at the Year 2023

December 18, 2023

For most of the past year, the war in Ukraine and Washington’s strategic competition with China dominated the global agenda. Then came the October 7 Hamas onslaught against Israel creating yet another maelstrom of uncertainty for the Middle East and beyond, leading me to say in an earlier post that at present Washington and its European allies are neither at war nor in peace. Today, Western countries do not have troops on the ground fighting in Ukraine, but they are deeply involved in the conflict providing Kyiv with huge sums of military assistance and military advice. They are not at war with Hamas, but they are politically involved. In brief, one may say with some exaggeration, that today Washington and its European allies are fighting a one-and-a-half war.

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A Marathon with No Finishing Line?

August 28, 2023

The following are a few takeaways from the American press, in chronological order, about battlefront developments in Ukraine.

On April 5, 2022, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared before the House Armed Services Committee for the first time after Russia invaded Ukraine.

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A World of Confrontation

August 14, 2023

The loss of life and devastation caused by this summer’s wildfires, floods, and drought unmistakably show that climate change is going to impact the world sooner and much more dramatically than generally expected. But understandably, many nations are also concerned about food security, and the suspension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

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The Russia-Africa Summit and Black Sea Grain

July 31, 2023

The center of interest of the past week was the second Russia-Africa Summit which took place in St. Petersburg on July 27-28. The US and some of its allies were delighted that only 17 heads of African states attended this year’s meeting, less than half of the 43 heads of state that attended the first conference in 2019. This must have been a disappointment for Moscow. Nonetheless, during his bilateral meeting with President Putin South Africa’s President Ramaphosa said what is particularly pleasing is that Russia conducts its relationship with Africa at a strategic level, and it conducts it with a great deal of respect and recognition of the sovereignty of African states. Russia has continued to be supportive of Africa as it did in the past, even during the days of the Soviet Union. [i]

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The Black Sea Grain Deal, What Now?

July 24, 2023

Heatwaves unseen in the past, wildfires, and huge floods have led some scientists to say that “The earth is in uncharted territory.” So is the world. The war in Ukraine grinds on. Washington’s strategic competition with China has led to an adversarial relationship between the world’s two leading powers. Democracy is in decline, the “judicial overhaul” proposed by Israel’s far-right government being a sad example. Problems of food security are no longer on the horizon but much closer. Migration has become a big challenge for well-to-do countries. There is not the slightest indication that there is an awareness of the need to confront global problems through international cooperation.

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The Black Sea Grain Initiative

July 18, 2023

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on July 17, that the Black Sea agreements were effectively terminated on Monday as the part of the deal concerning Russia has not been fulfilled.

“The Black Sea agreements are no longer in effect. The deadline, as the Russian president said earlier, is July 17. Unfortunately, the part of the Black Sea agreement that concerns Russia has not yet been fulfilled. As a result, it has been terminated,” he said.

“As soon as the Russian part [of the deal] is fulfilled, the Russian side will immediately return to the implementation of this deal,” Peskov added. In other words, he did not say that the deal was off the agenda for good.

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