Posts Tagged ‘russia’

The Russian invasion of Ukraine – an act of aggression

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 pm, May 3rd, 2022 - 140 comments

The invasion that began just over two months ago will have a profound impact on global politics for many years. The conflict is unlikely to end quickly and will take a toll on everyone involved.

The US withdraws from Afghanistan and the inevitable happened

Written By: - Date published: 9:57 pm, November 29th, 2021 - Comments Off on The US withdraws from Afghanistan and the inevitable happened

The withdrawal in August of US and allied troops from Afghanistan saw the return of the Taliban in control of that country. This sadly was always going to be the outcome once the US and its allies withdrew.

New book reveals Le Carré’s bleak view of post-Brexit world 

Written By: - Date published: 9:39 am, January 3rd, 2020 - 5 comments

John le Carré’s 26th book, Agent Running in the Field, which, according to the publishers is his take on Brexit, and suggests a dystopian future for European liberal democracies in a post-Brexit world. It follows John le Carré’s overarching theme – with friends like these, who needs enemies?

Media Thriving on its Own Shit.

Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, October 29th, 2018 - 24 comments

When purveyors of propaganda come to believe their own spin and start entertaining really quite idiotic conspiracy theories and abandoning any pretense of being in possession of rational thought, then we’ve got a problem.

Second Kremlin Killer Unmasked, Putin Untroubled

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, October 9th, 2018 - 185 comments

We know the real names of the Russian spies who bungled the Salisbury novichok poisoning. Will it make a difference to the Kremlin’s plans?

Yulia wants to go home.

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, May 25th, 2018 - 59 comments

Oops. Was this desire meant to be in the script?

No Iran Israeli War.

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, May 12th, 2018 - 11 comments

In spite of all the sharp intakes of breathe going on across media outlets, there will be no war between Iran and Israel. Here’s why.

Trump’s Russia smoking gun

Written By: - Date published: 12:02 pm, July 12th, 2017 - 39 comments

Some of the best tweets on the latest chapter of the Trump tragedy. We never expected the smoking gun to be friendly fire. Will Republicans meekly swallow this too?

The Intercept has published leaked NSA report on Russian hacking of US election

Written By: - Date published: 10:10 am, June 6th, 2017 - 28 comments

From The Intercept: “Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.”

Green Party criticises US strike on Syria

Written By: - Date published: 7:08 am, April 8th, 2017 - 141 comments

“We expect and deserve cooler heads than this from our global leaders.”

Russia’s ‘traditional family values’

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, February 12th, 2017 - 22 comments

Constructive and positive ‘conservative’ organisations everywhere should be outraged at the way the use of ‘traditional family values’ gets corrupted, and they should be doing more to speak out against it.

Syria escalating

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, February 14th, 2016 - 37 comments

Turkey has started shelling the US backed Kurdish forces that are fighting against ISIS. What could go wrong?

Collision course Syria

Written By: - Date published: 1:03 pm, December 5th, 2015 - 81 comments

Russia is backing anti-Islamist Kurds in Northern Syria to control their own territory, and acting directly against the interests of the jihadist groups that Turkey, a NATO member, is supporting. The temperature will only rise from here.

International law and the Turkish shootdown of the RuAF Su-24

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 pm, November 27th, 2015 - 117 comments

Assuming the Russian jet did enter Turkish airspace for 17s, was there really no recourse for  Turkey other than using lethal force?

Turkey shoots down Russian jet

Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, November 25th, 2015 - 151 comments

Late yesterday Turkey (a NATO member) shot down a Russian jet, either inside its airspace (Turkey claims) or over Syria (Russia claims).

The view from Russia

Written By: - Date published: 1:21 pm, August 2nd, 2014 - 123 comments

Long time commenter, grumpy, has had this post from a russian friend explaining his view on what has been happening in the Ukraine. As this event has excited considerable comment over the last few months, this will probably be a good discussion post.

The spy who loved me

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 26th, 2012 - 33 comments

Last month on The Nation (or Q+A?) Groser mentioned how the much hyped, but actually insignificant, free trade deal with Russia had hit a mysterious wall. Groser couldn’t even get to see the current minister and had “tough” talks with the ex-minister instead, while Key’s meeting with Putin was cancelled by Putin at the last minute. Now, I think we know what the trouble is.