The Agonist - USSR (Former) Minus Russia

Scott McClellan Comes to Jesus

Wed, 28 May 2008 14:58:43 -0700

Why would anyone volunteer to be slimed by the White House attack machine? A number of former officials as well as whistleblowers from the Bush administration have written tell-all books, and every one of them has been denigrated as traitors and delusional misfits who kept their poisonous opinions about George W. Bush secret even as they worked for him. Richard A. Clarke, a counter-terrorism expert in the Bush administration, wrote Against All Enemies when he left the White House – a damning indictment of Bush’s failure to take terrorism seriously before 9/11. Clarke says that the trashing he received from the administration has left “tire tracks” on his back to this day.

But that’s nothing compared to what former White House press secretary Scott McClellan is now receiving for his newly published memoir, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception. The current press secretary, Dana Perino, describes McClellan as a “disgruntled” former employee, rather like a homicidal postal employee off his medicines. Karl Rove doesn’t remember McClellan ever expressing such reservations, and thinks his book is about as prejudiced and untrustworthy as a leftist blog. Others have called him “self-serving”, “disingenuous” and “unprofessional”. All his former friends complain they feel betrayed and misled.

Revitalizing Nato's Identity

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:53:21 -0700

NATO deserves attention both in terms of its current activities in Afghanistan and because of the current debates revolving around NATO expansion to Ukraine and Georgia. NATO’s quest for a new identity since the end of the Cold War has rightly resulted in much debate about the utility of the Alliance in a world with contemporary threats that can no longer be defined by East and West. Several articles published recently at the Atlantic Community provide an excellent framework for anchoring discussions around NATO.

Andre Kelleners, a member of the Atlantic Community, argues that rather than sidelining Russia, NATO membership states should consult with Russia to determine a common understanding of NATO’s role. It makes sense, he contends, for Partnership-for-Peace countries to eventually join the alliance as full members, but only together with and at the same time as Russia. It is in all parties’ best interest for NATO and Russia to share the same vision.

Andreas Umland of the National Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv, continued the debate about when and how to offer a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. He highlighted the February 2008 statistics which revealed that a staggering 53% of Ukraine’s population were against NATO membership and only 21% in favor. He blames NATO rather than Germany for this statistic, saying that NATO “has done too little too late in terms of explaining to Ukrainians what NATO is about. Instead, Ukraine's political and public discourse remains corrupted by Soviet legacies.”

Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin focus the discussion around NATO on the difficulties which NATO is currently facing in Afghanistan and argue that the chances are high that the Alliance will fail. NATO, they contend, is both politically and militarily ill-prepared to execute the required counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan. An Afghan disaster might not be a death sentence for the Alliance, but would certainly have major repercussions.

Russia: Where Migration Means Trafficking

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:15:53 -0700

Kester Kenn Klomegah | Moscow | April 26

IPS - New efforts have been launched to curb human trafficking across Russia and the ex-Soviet republics. The Moscow office of the International Organisation of Migration is implementing a programme 'Prevention of Human Trafficking' jointly financed by the European Commission, the U.S. State Department and the Swiss government, adapting features of counter-trafficking legislation in the European Union to bridge gaps in Russian law.

According to United Nations estimates, 20 million migrants pass through the region every year. "Russia serves as a main transit country from Asia to the European Union, and it (Russia) has a significant amount of internal trafficking from smaller towns and villages to regional city centres, both for labour and sexual exploitation," said Lauren McCarthy of the University of Wisconsin. Many people look to leave poorer countries like Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The wish to migrate is then exploited by traffickers.

Trafficking for forced labour (other than forced prostitution) is the main form of trafficking in the region, in particular central Asia. Law enforcement responses, however, tend to focus on sex trafficking which often involves young women trafficked to western Europe, the Middle East and Russia.

Doomsday Fears Over Strange Matter

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:34:26 -0700

Dennis Overbye | Honolulu, Hawaii | March 29

NYT - Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More

More fighting in Iraq. Somalia in chaos. People in this country can’t afford their mortgages and in some places now they can’t even afford rice.

None of this nor the rest of the grimness on the front page today will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth — and maybe the universe.

Scientists say that is very unlikely — though they have done some checking just to make sure.

Putin's Elegant Solution?

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:46:41 -0800

Might this be the solution, one we've all been eagerly awaiting, to the dilemma of power facing Vladimir Putin? Sources indicate that Putin and Lukashenko (Belarussian president) will soon announce a more formal union? Might it be a union that would require a complete constitutional overhaul? Perhaps, if, of course, that is what Volodya wants. Of course, historically, when the US adopted a new state it didn't require a whole 'nuther constitution. Same with the European Union for that matter. The petitioning state, of course, must adopt the acquis d'communautaire but it's not like Javier Solana, or whoever is president at the time, gets a new lease on political life--and power. But we are talking about Russia, home of the eternally cynical and pessimistic. I mean the last good thing to happen to Russia was . . .

Anyway, at the very least, it fans the flames of rumor concerning Putin's real succession plans.

Speaking of said plans, Friday night I was at a party (I know, it's scandalous that I was actually out and enjoying life! Who knew?) with a whole bunch of Belarussians, Professors of Russian here in Austin and Russian students--my buddy is a grad-student in Slavic studies. The conversation about yaiishkii notwithstanding (if you don't know what yaiishkii are, don't ask!), the other more newsworthy but less, erm, interesting discussion centered on just what Putin plans to do. My thoughts were firmly in the 'he'll be prime minister' vein appointing a figurehead now that he has a parliamentary supermajority in place, but others really thought he might step down and appoint a protege. (The Belarussians in attendance were firmly in this camp. Lukashenko anyone?) Never mind that no one could, of course, identify a single prominent Russian with the necessary gravitas by name. Alas, that would be too precise, I suppose, in an environment overflowing with beer and margaritas--no vodka, we are in Texas.

But this news? It's interesting, no? More speculation for the rumor mill.

Gazprom threatens to stall Ukraine supplies over payment defaults

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:45:43 -0700

Moscow | Moscow | Oct 2

dpa - Gazprom Tuesday said it would limit deliveries of gas to Ukraine, if Kiev does not pay accounts for fuel delivered to the end of October, the firm's official spokesman Sergey Kupryanov told the Russian news agency, Interfax.

Kupryanov said that the Russian gas monopolist had carried out its contractual commitments, but Ukraine had 'systematically defaulted on its terms of the contract.'

'Ukraine's debt amounts to more than 1.3 billion dollars,' he was quoted by Interfax as saying.

'Gazprom repeatedly raised the question of prompt repayment to Ukraine, but there is no action on the part of the government,' said Kupryanov, according to the Interfax report.

Russia's ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomudrin said on Tuesday that the price of Russian gas to Ukraine would depend on the structure of the country's new cabinet, following elections, the website Lenta.ru reported.

Are We All Going Crazy?

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 04:07:48 -0700

I’ve been pondering this question for awhile. Is it just me or is the world abandoning rationality? People in the public sphere seem to be talking gibberish, but no one cares, or maybe they don’t notice. Up is down and black is white. I found out I am not alone in wondering about my sanity. The author William Rivers Pitt has written in truthout this article titled “I May Have Gone Insane.” At last, someone else has noticed and is fighting with the daily struggle of compartmentalizing thoughts we had pre-Bush from those we must entertain now.

Pitt has been driven to accept the “… premise that the Bush administration has literally been trying to shatter elemental reality on planet Earth...” His litany of evidence includes of course the constant refrain from the administration that the Iraq War is about freedom and is not a civil war; we are in fact winning. But he goes on to cite the Vice President’s assertion that he lives in some netherworld between two branches of government; the administration’s efforts to suspend habeas corpus and describe it as buttressing our freedoms; the similar claims made about executive secrecy and intensive surveillance of citizens.

Chernobyl to be covered in steel

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:17:43 -0700

Ukraine | September 17

BBC - The authorities in Ukraine have approved a giant steel cover for the radioactive site of the world's worst nuclear disaster - Chernobyl.

Ukraine has hired a French firm to build the structure to replace the crumbling concrete casing put over the reactor after the 1986 accident.

The casing project is expected to cost $1.4bn (£700m).

It will take five years to complete and the authorities say they will then be able to start dismantling the reactor.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko hailed the project:

"Today is probably the first time that we can openly look into the eyes of the national and international community and say that a solution to the problem that has long been called the Chernobyl problem was formally found," he said.

U.S. officials will inspect the Qabala anti-missile radar station in Azerbaijan on Sept. 18.

Sat, 15 Sep 2007 06:56:34 -0700

Sept 15

Reuters - U.S. officials will inspect the Qabala anti-missile radar station in Azerbaijan on Sept. 18 as Russia steps up efforts to persuade Washington to form a joint security programme in the ex-Soviet country.

Russia has proposed the idea as an alternative to U.S. plans to install a missile defence system in eastern Europe. A top army official said on Saturday the Qabala station would offer better protection against potential attack from the Middle East.

"Our chief goal is to prevent the deployment of a third anti-missile defence region in eastern Europe, in Poland and the Czech Republic," Major-General Alexander Yakushin, first deputy head of Russia's Space Forces, told a news conference.

"Our main goal (at Qabala) is to adequately respond to those threats that actually exist from a southern direction, and not some future hypothetical threats in 2025."

Belarus court convicts 4 as Polish spies

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 18:15:16 -0700

Minsk, Belarus | Sept 14

AP - Belarus's Supreme Court convicted four army officers of treason and spying for Poland, sentencing them Friday to 7 to 10 years in prison. They could have received the death penalty.

Prosecutors have said the officers transported documents across the border into Poland inside the kind of fire extinguisher that motorists in Belarus are required to keep in their cars.

When the arrests were announced in July, the deputy chief of the Belarussian KGB said that Polish intelligence was eager to obtain information on Russian antimissile defense systems in Belarus, especially long-range S-300 air defense missiles.

The four stood silently in handcuffs as the Supreme Court's military branch read out the verdict.

Belarussian law stipulates that treason is punishable by death; the court did not explain why they instead received prison sentences.

Russia to Reduce Gas Supplies to Belarus

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:50:50 -0700

Alex Nicholson | Moscow | August 1

AP - Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly said Wednesday that it will reduce natural gas supplies to Belarus by 45 percent as of Friday after Minsk failed to pay in full for previous gas shipments.

Gazprom tried to allay fears that the decision could reduce gas shipments to Europe through a key transit pipelines that handles about 20 percent of Russia's gas exports.

``Gazprom will take all possible measures for the transportation of Russian gas through the territory of Belarus in full accordance with current obligations before European customers,'' a statement said.

The announcement came after Russia's former Soviet neighbor missed a July 23 deadline for payment of part of an outstanding gas bill. Alexander Ananenkov, Gazprom's acting chief executive, was due to make an announcement about Belarus later Wednesday at Gazprom's Moscow headquarters.

I Wonder If . . .

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 09:03:38 -0700

. . . the US Army could ever get away with an ad campaign like this?

Via Danger Room.

If We Shove . . .

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 20:16:40 -0700

. . . this Kosovo plan down the Russian's throat we can expect difficulties in several places, namely: Abkhazia, Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transdneistria. Count on it.

Pipeline workers find mass grave of Jews killed by Nazis

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:05:01 -0700

Luke Harding | Moscow | June 6

The Guardian - A mass grave holding the remains of thousands of Jews executed by the Nazis during the second world war has been discovered in southern Ukraine by workers digging pipelines.

The workers stumbled upon the remains by chance last month in the village of Gvozdavka-1, near the Black Sea port of Odessa, Jewish leaders said yesterday.

The discovery provides further chilling evidence of the scale of Nazi brutality in Ukraine, which was occupied by both German and Romanian forces in 1941.

"The workmen were laying gas pipes near the centre of the village. They discovered hair, children's toys, skulls and pieces of clothing," Mr Shvartsman(spokesman for the regional Jewish community) told the Guardian last night.

Bait the Bear, Reap the Whirlwind

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:56:48 -0700

Cliff Schecter notes that Putin has escalated:

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to target Europe with missiles, including potentially nuclear weapons, in a dramatic escalation of his Cold War-style showdown with the United States.

Mr. Putin, in an interview at his summer residence outside Moscow, said he considers U.S. plans to build an eastern European anti-missile site to shoot down Iranian missiles a provocation aimed at Russia.

The US has been baiting the bear for a long time now. The only thing that's remarkable is that Putin was this patient. The missile defense systems are a clear provocation and clearly aimed at Russia. America has been interfering far, far too much in Russia's sphere of influence, and this is one of the consequences. America doesn't have any good will in Russia. None. Zero. Nadda. The "shock therapy" and the "color revolutions", NATO "expansion", and all the other bullshit that's been pulled in countries right on their border made sure of that.

Nota bene: For critical background on our relationship with Russia the last few years listen to this podcast interview of Ian and I with Anatol Lieven. ~spk