Russian Military Reform: The Ukraine Conflict and Its Impact on Morale
Evidence has emerged in Russia’s Southern Military District (MD) that the conflict in Ukraine is not popular among Russian contract personnel (kontraktniki). Reportedly “dozens” of kontraktniki have absconded from or deserted their units on grounds of their opposition to being sent to fight in Donbas. After more than a year of the...
European Energy Security Should Remain a U.S. Priority
WASHINGTON—Why does the United States care so much about Europe’s energy security? This question comes up regularly on both sides of the Atlantic, at times with a feeling that U.S. policymakers worry more about energy security in Europe than even the Europeans do. The standard Washington response is that the United States and Europe share a...
Multinational Military Exercises Start in W. Ukraine
A military exercise involving Ukrainian and U.S. forces, along with troops from more than a dozen… …read more Source: American Security Council...
Eastern EU Countries Agree to Host Refugees, Shock at Maria Gaidar’s Ukraine Move
Plus, Belarus bars jailed politician from presidential run and mystery deepens around five Czechs kidnapped in Lebanon. …read more Source: Transitions Online...
OSCE promotes social entrepreneurship to prevent human trafficking in Ukraine
ZHYTOMYR, VINNYTSIA, LVIV, 21 JULY 2015 – The OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Ukraine (PCU), jointly with Ukraine’s Social Policy Ministry, conducted a series of round tables to launch a project in support of social entrepreneurship as a tool to address challenges of trafficking in human beings held on 20-21 July. The project aims to...
Isolated Russia has little left to lose
The one-year anniversary of the tragic shooting down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine is an opportunity to take stock of the costs of Europe’s latest, biggest, and apparently most intractable security crisis. Twelve months after Russia-backed separatists were first accused of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet, Europe’s...
Weekend catch-up: Iran nuclear deal, MH17, China’s stock market, ANZUS and more
Earlier this week, an ‘historic’ agreement was concluded between the P5+1 and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program. The specifics of the deal, and whether it was a good one for the West, Iran or the Middle East has generated heated debate. Anthony Bubalo said the deal will form the basis of Iran’s cost-benefit analysis:...
No alternative to Minsk Agreements, says CiO Dačić during visit to OSCE operations in Kyiv
KYIV, 17 July – OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Serbia’s Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić visited the OSCE operations in Kyiv today, where he expressed his full support for their efforts aimed at addressing the crisis in and around Ukraine. Meeting Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Dačić said the OSCE is a key supporter on Ukraine’s road...
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine based on information received as of 19:30 (Kyiv time), 16 July 2015
The level of violence at and around the destroyed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (“DPR”)-controlled airport (12km north-west of Donetsk) decreased compared to previous days. Positioned at the “DPR”-controlled Donetsk central railway station (8km north-west of Donetsk), the SMM heard and observed on 16 July between 08:10 and 16:00hrs 10...
US/Israeli/Saudi ‘Behavior’ Problems
There is a madness in how the mainstream US media presents the world to the American people, a delusional perspective that arguably creates an existential threat to humanity’s survival. We have seen this pattern in the biased depiction of the Ukraine crisis and now in how Official Washington is framing the debate over the Iranian nuclear...
