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Category: Politics

Does the U.S.-Russia crisis over Ukraine prove that the Cold War never ended?

Does the U.S.-Russia crisis over Ukraine prove that the Cold War never ended?

Robin Wright writes: In his final State of the Union address, in 1992, President George H. W. Bush sounded almost ecstatic. “The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: by the grace of God, America won the Cold War.” The ideological struggle between the U.S.-led West and the Soviet-dominated East—which played out in proxy wars around the world over four decades—had not simply ended, the President declared. The U.S. had triumphed….

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Russia extends Belarus military drills for thousands of troops as Ukraine violence escalates

Russia extends Belarus military drills for thousands of troops as Ukraine violence escalates

The Wall Street Journal reports: Russia will extend its military drills with Belarus because of rising violence in Ukraine’s Donbas region, the government in Minsk said, as Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted a new round of talks with Kyiv in the midst of warnings of an imminent Russian invasion. Mr. Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron said after speaking Sunday that they agreed to continue seeking a diplomatic solution. Russia has amassed as many as 190,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders,…

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Former top White House Russia adviser details the sharp contrast between Trump and Biden

Former top White House Russia adviser details the sharp contrast between Trump and Biden

John Harwood writes: Fiona Hill doesn’t know whether President Joe Biden can lead Western allies to ward off Russia’s threat to Ukraine. But unlike his predecessor, he’s trying. Hill has a special vantage point on this slow-rolling crisis that US officials say could bring war in Europe at any moment. As a White House national security aide, she advised then-President Donald Trump on Russia and Ukraine — and became a star witness in impeachment proceedings that resulted from his conduct….

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Climate change is seen as the most worrying threat to global security

Climate change is seen as the most worrying threat to global security

Bloomberg writes: Climate change is seen as a bigger threat than war by a majority of people living in some of the world’s top economies, according to new data being presented to diplomats and military officials who convene Friday for a key security meeting in Germany. The poll commissioned by the Munich Security Conference listed concern over global warming, habitat destruction and extreme weather as the top three risks named by 12,000 people surveyed globally in November. The results are…

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Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians

Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians

The Guardian reports: A massive leak from one of the world’s biggest private banks, Credit Suisse, has exposed the hidden wealth of clients involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes. Details of accounts linked to 30,000 Credit Suisse clients all over the world are contained in the leak, which unmasks the beneficiaries of more than 100bn Swiss francs (£80bn)* held in one of Switzerland’s best-known financial institutions. The leak points to widespread failures of due…

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Republicans wince at Wisconsin GOP crack-up

Republicans wince at Wisconsin GOP crack-up

Politico reports: Timothy Ramthun’s entry into Wisconsin’s gubernatorial primary last weekend was the car wreck no one could look away from. His campaign is built around the preposterous idea the 2020 election could still be overturned — something even sympathetic Republicans here acknowledge is impossible. His campaign website went live, only to be deactivated. His three-hour campaign kickoff featured the appearance of Mike Lindell, the pillow salesperson and conspiracy theorist. “It’s Tim time,” Ramthun, a state lawmaker, told supporters, while…

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In Ukraine crisis, the looming threat of a new Cold War

In Ukraine crisis, the looming threat of a new Cold War

The New York Times reports: Vladimir Pozner was an English-language Soviet propaganda editor in Moscow in 1962, a job that gave him rare access to American newspapers and magazines. That allowed him to follow the Cuban Missile Crisis outside the Soviet media filter, and sense a world at the brink of war. Mr. Pozner, a longtime Russian television journalist, says he now feels something similar. “The smell of war is very strong,” he said in an interview on Friday, a…

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West plans to arm resistance if Russian forces occupy Ukraine

West plans to arm resistance if Russian forces occupy Ukraine

The Observer reports: Secret discussions are under way between western allies over how to arm what they expect to be fierce Ukrainian resistance in the event of a Russian invasion that topples the Kyiv government. Boris Johnson laid bare the case for such a move in a dramatic speech to the Munich security conference where he stated it was in the collective self-interests of the west for any Russian invasion to “fail and be seen to fail”. He said that…

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Putin oversees nuclear drills, U.S. says Russian forces ‘poised to strike’ Ukraine

Putin oversees nuclear drills, U.S. says Russian forces ‘poised to strike’ Ukraine

Reuters reports: Russia’s strategic nuclear forces held exercises overseen by President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, and Washington accused Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s border of advancing and being “poised to strike”. With Western fears of war rising, foreign ministers from the G7 group of rich nations said they had seen no evidence Russia is reducing its military activity in the area and remained “gravely concerned” about the situation. After Kyiv and Moscow traded accusations over new shelling near the border,…

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Who is behind QAnon? Linguistic detectives find fingerprints

Who is behind QAnon? Linguistic detectives find fingerprints

The New York Times reports: “Open your eyes,” the online post began, claiming, “Many in our govt worship Satan.” That warning, published on a freewheeling online message board in October 2017, was the beginning of the movement now known as QAnon. Paul Furber was its first apostle. The outlandish claim made perfect sense to Mr. Furber, a South African software developer and tech journalist long fascinated with American politics and conspiracy theories, he said in an interview. He still clung…

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Grand corruption as a systemic parasite upon society

Grand corruption as a systemic parasite upon society

Sudhir Chella Rajan writes: In the 1970s, international development professionals settled on the following definition of corruption: the abuse of public power for private gain. For economic modellers and political sciences, this focus provided clear parameters to describe the institutional conditions that motivate government officials to make money on the side while providing public services. Bilateral and multilateral donor agencies, too, found the definition helpful to create programmes to reduce incentives for private gain by streamlining the bureaucracy, creating appropriate…

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Beijing uneasily weighs how far to go in backing Putin on Ukraine

Beijing uneasily weighs how far to go in backing Putin on Ukraine

The Wall Street Journal reports: China’s longstanding foreign-policy stance, set forth soon after the founding of Communist China by then-Premier Zhou Enlai in the “five principles of peaceful coexistence,” is to not endorse any country’s aggression or intervention in another’s affairs. That helps explain why China hasn’t recognized Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, or fully supported Moscow when it deployed forces to Kazakhstan early this year to quell unrest in the Central Asian nation. Beijing is aware that by so…

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In 2008 Russia announced a military withdrawal from its border with Georgia. 8 days later, it invaded

In 2008 Russia announced a military withdrawal from its border with Georgia. 8 days later, it invaded

Business Insider reports: Russia on Tuesday claimed it was withdrawing some troops from Ukraine’s border as it denies plans to attack the country, but the US and NATO said Russia appeared to be increasing its military presence there. They may worry that the situation could mirror Russia’s actions in 2008, when it said it was withdrawing troops and invaded eight days later. At the time, Russia said it sent soldiers to the Abkhazia region to fix a railroad, and then…

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How Russia hooked Europe on its oil and gas – and overcame U.S. efforts to prevent energy dependence on Moscow

How Russia hooked Europe on its oil and gas – and overcame U.S. efforts to prevent energy dependence on Moscow

Is it a weapon or merely trade? AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky By Ryan Haddad, University of Maryland The Biden administration hopes its threat of “severe economic consequences” deters Russia from invading Ukraine – an event Americans officials say could be imminent. In response, the U.S. said it may ban the export of microchips and other technologies to critical sectors like artificial intelligence and aerospace and freeze the personal assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin, among other sanctions. Meanwhile, the Senate is…

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Trump Organization accounting firm delivers blow that could be pivotal to NY AG case

Trump Organization accounting firm delivers blow that could be pivotal to NY AG case

Michael Conway writes: Mazars USA LLP, the longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization, has a new role: star witness in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil investigation into whether Trump’s company engaged in fraud. Mazars has some explaining to do. And none of it bodes well for the Trump Organization. On Monday, James made public a bombshell letter from Mazars dated Feb. 9 warning that 10 years of the “Statements of Financial Condition for Donald J. Trump” ending…

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GOP plunges into season of ‘self-hate’ that will rewire the party

GOP plunges into season of ‘self-hate’ that will rewire the party

Politico reports: Republicans are embarking on a primary season that is poised to reshape the GOP for a generation, and that journey begins in Texas. In less than two weeks, the first primary election of 2022 will take place in the nation’s second-most populous state, and it’s a blockbuster: The state’s Republican governor, attorney general and agriculture commissioner all face spirited challenges, as do several GOP House incumbents. From there, fractious primaries will unfold across the electoral map in the…

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