Bomb the Usual Arabs
It seems that every new US president has to prove his machismo…or make his bones, as wiseguys say…by bombing the usual Arabs. By now, it’s almost a rite of passage. The American public loves it.So we just saw the US launch 59 or 60 $1.5million apiece cruise missiles at a western Syrian airfield to express President Trump’s outrage...
FTAC: Reprise: How ISIL Serves Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran
Again: Assad (w/ Putin and Khamenei looking on) incubated ISIL as a tool with several interesting functions: –A “jihadi” trap that has drawn thousands of fighters to itself, including from Chechnya, to serve as a “Kill Zone” for the type. Not a bad idea, eh? –However: the same ploy turns out for bribing the west — “Assad OR The Terrorists” in...
Russian media twist Bellingcat study to find Ukrainian Buk in Donbas before MH17
Incredibly, some Ukrainian websites have copy-pasted Russian propaganda media, including a website closely linked with the defence ministry, which deliberately distorted the findings of a new Bellingcat investigation …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
FTAC: Syria – “Expect ‘Mission Creep’”
Posted to YouTube by The New York Times, April 7, 2017. Comment: The public presentation of conflict may attempt to keep separate Syria, Ukraine, Russia, and Iran, but I don’t think the Kremlin (this is a good comment for Kremlin Watch) has an “Off” button in association with the defense of the autocratic feudal past that each dictatorship...
How Can the West Combat the Global Democratic Recession?
Map of Eurasia by Regime Type (Source: Freedom House 2017 Nations in Transit Report) Earlier this month, Freedom House released its annual “Nations in Transit” (NIT) report,[1] which painted a disheartening picture for democracy in Eurasia. “Populists’ stunning electoral victories in Europe and the United States have shaken the post–Cold...
Russia’s YouTube Generation
Society On March 26th, a wave of anti-corruption protests swept across more than 90 Russian cities. One of the central themes was the active participation of people under 20, which many in Russia’s state media indulgently (and somewhat patronisingly) called ‘school kids’ (shkolota). Of course, it is hardly possible to calculate the...
Kleptocracy Weekly: 4/3-4/7
KI will host Oleksander Danyliuk, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, for a discussion with Walter Russell Mead at Hudson Institute on April 19. Sign up or watch live. ICYMI: Watch video of the 3/31 Brookings event, ‘One year after the Panama Papers: Progress on anonymous corporate ownership?’, which featured Senator Whitehouse, KI’s...
Conspiracy Theories & the St. Petersburg Metro Tragedy
(Source: kremlin.ru) Everyone likes a good conspiracy. Conspiracies explain a complicated world.[1] …read more Source: Foreign Policy Research...
Kleptocracy Daily: April 7, 2017
KI will host Oleksander Danyliuk, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, for a discussion with Walter Russell Mead at Hudson Institute on April 19. Sign up or watch live. News The FBI and federal immigration agents searched a hotel and two homes in California for evidence related to an alleged $50 million visa fraud scheme that gave green cards to...
European Parliament approves visa liberalization for Ukraine
It’s finally happened! The European Parliament on April 6 voted to lift visa requirements for Ukrainians wishing to travel to anywhere in the Schengen zone. …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
