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Tag: Putin

  • The pull of Putin

    The pull of Putin

    By Tim Whewell

    Donald Trump’s willingness to build better relations with Russia is threatening to turn US foreign policy on its head. His openness towards Vladimir Putin has dismayed most of the foreign policy establishment in Washington. But it’s now shared by some European politicians, not all of them far-right extremists, in France, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and elsewhere. They can’t all be Kremlin agents – so what’s the new pull of Putin for some in the West?

    The two politicians, one American, one Russian, put down their drinks and clasped hands across the pub table. Then they both pushed. But there was no real contest.

    The arm-wrestling match was over in a second and the winner was the deputy mayor of St Petersburg, a man who’d built up his strength through years of judo training. Few outside Russia had ever heard of him. But five years later he would become its president.

    US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher still laughs when he recalls his brief duel with Vladimir Putin in 1995, when the Russian came over in an official delegation. He hasn’t met Mr Putin since. But for many years he’s been the most consistent voice for détente on Capitol Hill, often effectively in a minority of one.

    “I don’t see Putin as a good guy, I see him as a bad guy. But every bad guy in the world isn’t our enemy that we have to find ways of thwarting and beating up,” Congressman Rohrabacher says.

    “There are a lot of areas where this would be a better world if we were working together, rather than this constant barrage of hostility aimed at anything the Russians are trying to do.”

    Mr Rohrabacher doesn’t condone Russian hacking during the US election campaign or the Kremlin’s military incursions into Ukraine. But he believes Russia is the victim of Western double standards.

    And that view is shared by some Western experts on Russia, though the vast majority stress how aggressive the country has become under President Putin.

    Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent, in the UK, is in the minority camp. “We are living in a huge echo chamber which only listens to itself,” he says. “The key meme is ‘Russian aggression’ and it’s repeated ad nauseam instead of thinking.

    “When we have national interests, that’s good. But when Russia tries to defend its interests, it’s illegitimate, it’s aggressive, and it’s dangerous for the rest of the world.”

    Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea and military support of separatists in eastern Ukraine is widely taken as evidence that Mr Putin seeks to extend his country’s borders.

    But Prof Sakwa sees the Ukrainian crisis as a symptom of the failure after the Cold War to establish a new international security system that would have included Russia.

    Meanwhile Stephen Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University, argues that the “vilification” of President Putin in the West stems originally from disappointment that the Russian leader turned his back on some of the Western-inspired reforms of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin: reforms that many Russians blame for the lawlessness and falling living standards of that period.

    “Putin is a European man trying to rule a country that is only partially European,” Cohen says. “But we demand that the whole world be on our historical clock.”

    Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea and military support of separatists in eastern Ukraine is widely taken as evidence that Mr Putin seeks to extend his country’s borders.

    But Prof Sakwa sees the Ukrainian crisis as a symptom of the failure after the Cold War to establish a new international security system that would have included Russia.

    Meanwhile Stephen Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University, argues that the “vilification” of President Putin in the West stems originally from disappointment that the Russian leader turned his back on some of the Western-inspired reforms of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin: reforms that many Russians blame for the lawlessness and falling living standards of that period.

    “Putin is a European man trying to rule a country that is only partially European,” Cohen says. “But we demand that the whole world be on our historical clock.”

    Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea and military support of separatists in eastern Ukraine is widely taken as evidence that Mr Putin seeks to extend his country’s borders.

    But Prof Sakwa sees the Ukrainian crisis as a symptom of the failure after the Cold War to establish a new international security system that would have included Russia.

    Meanwhile Stephen Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Russian Studies at New York University, argues that the “vilification” of President Putin in the West stems originally from disappointment that the Russian leader turned his back on some of the Western-inspired reforms of his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin: reforms that many Russians blame for the lawlessness and falling living standards of that period.

    “Putin is a European man trying to rule a country that is only partially European,” Cohen says. “But we demand that the whole world be on our historical clock.”

  • Trump-Putin deal on Crimea could trigger much bigger war – Paul Goble

    By Paul Goble

    Avraam Smulyevich, a leading Israeli specialist on ethnic issues in the former Soviet space, says that Kyiv might be forced to agree to a Trump-Putin deal on Crimea but that such a deal would “only convince the Russian dictator that he had invade other countries without being punished” and thus lead him to launch new wars.

    “Putin himself has acknowledged,” the head of the Israeli Institute for an Eastern Partnership told Kseniya Kirillova in an interview published by Radio Liberty, “that the Syrian war is a training ground for his army and that the state of his army has really improved”.

    The Kremlin leader is “evidently preparing his country for war” in order, among other things, to preserve his own power by launching aggression abroad. The rest of Ukraine is less likely to be in his sights than the Baltic countries, Poland, or “some countries in the South Caucasus such as Azerbaijan.”

    And in the current environment, Shmulyevich says, it is possible that Putin will reach an agreement with Turkey’s Recep Tayyp Erdogan “about the participation of the Middle East or a dash into Central Asia,” a region Ankara has long coveted and one that Moscow would like to rebuilt its power in.

    With regard to a settlement on Crimea, he continues, “the return of Crimea is even more important for some representatives of the West than it is for the ruling Ukrainian elite.” That is because Kyiv wants to end the conflict as soon as possible, while some in the West want to maintain the principle of the inviolability of international borders by force alone.

    That commitment explains the recent UN General Assembly resolution on Crimea, but Shmulyevich says, “it is important to understand that for the majority of the Western establishment, returning Crimea to Ukraine is not as important as simply finding a way to resolve it in a legal fashion.”

    Putin clearly understand this, the Israeli analyst argues, and that explains why he bases his actions on what he says was Khrushchev’s illegal transfer of Crimea from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR and on the fact that the Budapest Memorandum is null and voice because none of its signatories has lived up to its provisions.

    Putin’s people are also arguing that “the Helsinki Accords fixed inter-state and not intra-state borders, and that the state which signed them was not Russia or Ukraine but the Soviet Union.” Indeed, they point out, the only high-level international agreement both Russia and Ukraine have signed was the one creating the UN.

    But from the point of view of Ukraine and the West, that too is a legal argument that undermines their case, Putin thinks, according to Shmulyevich. That is because when the Ukrainian SSR signed the UN treaty, it did not have Crimea within its borders, something other UN members may take note of.

    What is thus likely to happen, he says, is a willingness in Kyiv to accept a deal if it formally keeps Crimea as part of Ukraine even if it does nothing to end Russian occupation, an arrangement unlikely to spark massive protests by Ukrainians given their reluctance so far even to declare war on Russia following Russia’s invasion and seizure of their territory.

    In exchange, if such a deal were to be arranged, Russia would fulfill the Minsk agreements, returning the Donbass de jure but in fact retaining control there through the pro-Russian separatists on the ground who “redressed in Ukrainian uniforms” and with power remaining “in the hands of the local oligarchs.”

    That would be a tragedy for Ukraine, Shmulyevich says; but a far greater tragedy would likely emerge from how Putin would read such a deal, as an indication that the West is not ready to stand up to him and that he can engage in more aggression with impunity.

  • Trump hails Putin’s halt of U.S. diplomats’ expulsion

    Trump hails Putin’s halt of U.S. diplomats’ expulsion

    Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has hailed the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to delay his planned expulsion of 35 U.S. diplomats.

    Putin’s planned expulsion of 35 U.S. diplomats was in response to Thursday’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats from U.S. among other sanctions over Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election.

    The News York Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Trump, who had consistently dismissed Russia’s involvement in the hack, took to his twitter handle and called Putin’s decision a “great move”.

    “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!” Trump tweeted.

    Reports quoted Putin as saying on Friday that Moscow would not expel American diplomats in response to U.S. sanctions against Russia.

    “Further steps toward the restoration of Russian-American relations will be built on the basis of the policies carried out by the administration of President Trump,” a Kremlin statement said.

    Putin said he would not pursue “irresponsible diplomacy” and would instead attempt to rebuild relations with Washington after the inauguration of Trump.

    However, Putin said that Russia reserved the right to respond to the new U.S. sanctions, which included the expulsion of 35 diplomats from the U.S.

    NAN recalls that Obama had on Thursday said his actions were “in response to Russian malicious cyber activity and harassment”.

    “Today, I have ordered a number of actions in response to the Russian government’s aggressive harassment of U.S. officials and cyber operations aimed at the U.S. election.

    “These actions follow repeated private and public warnings that we have issued to the Russian government, and are a necessary and appropriate response to efforts to harm U.S. interests in violation of established international norms of behaviour.”

    “The State Department is also shutting down two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring “persona non grata” 35 Russian intelligence operatives.

    “Finally, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are releasing declassified technical information on Russian civilian and military intelligence service cyber activity.

    “This is to help network defenders in the United States and abroad identify, detect, and disrupt Russia’s global campaign of malicious cyber activities,” Obama said.

    NAN also recalls that House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, had thrown his weight behind Obama’s decision, describing it as “long overdue”.

    NAN reports that many Republican Congress members have criticised Russia’s alleged meddlesomeness in the election against Donald Trump’s position on the issue.

    NAN also recalls that Trump had in a series of tweets, dismissed the hacking allegations and even retweeted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tweet against Democratic Hillary Clinton lost presidency.

    “Vladimir Putin said today about Hillary and Dems: In my opinion, it is humiliating. One must be able to lose with dignity. So true!” Trump had said.

    “Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and we tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!”

    “If Russia, or some other entity was hacking, why did the White House wait so long to act? Why did they only complain after Hillary lost?”

    “Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that head of the DNC (Democratic National Congress) illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?” Trump had also tweeted.

  • Diplomat’s murder attempt to destroy Russian-Turkish ties – Putin

    Diplomat’s murder attempt to destroy Russian-Turkish ties – Putin

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday condemned the recent murder of the ambassador to Turkey, saying it is an attempt to destroy bilateral relations.

    “Russia and Turkey, with support from Iran, have been effectively working together in an effort to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

    “About 100,000 people were evacuated from the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo, the world’s largest humanitarian operation,’’ Putin stated in his annual press conference.

    Putin noted that a subsequent step should be to implement a ceasefire regime across all of Syria and then undertake practical efforts for a political resolution to the civil war.

  • Dangote, Trump, Putin, others make list of Forbes world’s most powerful persons

    Africa’s richest person and President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been named along other world leaders in Forbes recent list of world’s most powerful persons.

    Other world leaders who made the new Forbes list are Russian President, Vladimir Putin; American President-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump; and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel.

    They were ranked along with 70 others as the most powerful people by Forbes Magazine, with Dangote ranked as the second most powerful on the African continent.

    In the new list, Dangote was named 68th coming ahead of Trump. Recall that Dangote has remained a constant item on the Forbes list since 2013 when he was listed as the only black African among 100 most powerful persons on the planet.

    Forbes, in the latest edition of its 74 World Most Powerful People released at the weekend, listed the 64-year-old Putin as the most powerful in the world, ahead of Trump.

    While Merkel was ranked as the third most powerful person in the world, out-going American President, Barack Obama, placed 48th on the list.

    The Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis, is the fifth most powerful person, while the world’s richest person, Bill Gates, comes seventh. Chinese President, Xi Jinping comes before the Pope in number four, while the Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is the number 10 most powerful person in the world.

    Forbes reports that there are nearly 7.4 billion people on planet earth, but that the listed 74 men and women make the world turn.

    As of 2013, Dangote was the only African listed among the most powerful people in the world before the Egyptian President recently featured on the list.