Dmitri Trenin (2021-12-19). After COP26: Russia's Path to the Global Green Future. moderndiplomacy.eu Russia is certainly now taking climate-related issues seriously, but even though a latecomer in embracing the climate change agenda, it will not simply accept the West's or the EU's lead. Rather, it will act in accordance with its national interests. At the COP26 UN climate change summit that ended last week, Russia was noted mainly …

Dmitri Trenin (2021-12-19). Russian Foreign Policy: Shifting Gears. moderndiplomacy.eu Not long ago, a popular Russian joke went: "Those who do not want to listen to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will have to deal with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu." Now it is official. President Vladimir Putin often makes statements on foreign policy. Just last month, he spent several hours discussing world affairs at the annual …

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-19). Why Russia vetoed at the U.N. the U.S.-proposed inclusion of climate-change as a 'National Security' issue. moderndiplomacy.eu The United States Government wants to persuade the gullible global public that that Government takes seriously the global-warming threat. The only way actually to stop global warming — if it still can be stopped — is to outlaw, even if in only one major country (such as the U.S.), purchases of stocks and bonds in …

M. K. Bhadrakumar (2021-12-18). Spectre of War is Haunting Europe. globalresearch.ca A fateful week is ending today for international security with the Russian Foreign Ministry releasing the two documents on security guarantees that Moscow had proposed to Washington as the basis for discussions to ease the tensions over NATO's eastward expansion …

M. K. Bhadrakumar (2021-12-18). A Sino-Russian military alliance is gratuitous (as of now). mronline.org To apply a western analogy, while the Sino-Russian partnership has great potential to model itself after the European Union, neither Moscow nor Beijing desires an Eurasian NATO to create synergy for it.

Rick Rozoff (2021-12-18). Kremlin still Beseeching NATO not to be NATO. Moscow's Security Proposals. globalresearch.ca As though a self-identified nuclear alliance which reserves the right to the first use of nuclear weapons, which has 70 members and partners (120 in all if the collective partnership with the African Union is factored in) on six continents, …

Sharmila Devi (2021-12-18). [World Report] Russia—Ukraine tensions hampering health-care access. thelancet.com Humanitarian groups warn that medical care for civilians is being jeopardised amid a military standoff. Sharmila Devi reports…

_____ (2021-12-18). True Colors: Red, White, Black And Blue. popularresistance.org With a bold and completely self-sabotaging diplomatic blunder, one which fails on every level including the least rigorous sanity test, this past Wednesday the U.S. was one of two nations to vote against a UN resolution designed to discourage the glorification and promotion of Nazi ideology. The other nation was Ukraine, which currently is overrun and effectively ruled by Jew-hating, Russia-hating, LGBT-hating neo-Nazis, who openly flaunt their allegiance to Stepan Bandera, a collaborator with the Third Reich during WWII. | The reason the U.S. supports such Jew-hating, Russia-hating thugs is obvious. It's an effe…

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. moderndiplomacy.eu Germany's new Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock came into office on December 8th without her knowing that America's stationing missiles in Ukraine on Russia's border, and only a 7-minute flying distance away from Moscow, would be even more unacceptable to Moscow than, in 1962, would have been, to Washington, the Soviet Union's stationing missiles in Cuba, …

William Minter (2021-12-18). US Cold War with China — first stop, Equatorial Guinea. zcomm.org Right out of the playbook: hype the threat of a potential Chinese naval base facing the Atlantic, get more funding for military operations…

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). US Missiles on Russia's Border: The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. globalresearch.ca Germany's new Foreign Minister, …

WSWS (2021-12-18). EU summit threatens Russia. wsws.org The escalating coronavirus pandemic and threats against Russia were the focus of the EU summit that met on Thursday in Brussels.

Scientists for the Future (2021-12-18). Nuclear Energy Can ≠not Meaningfully Contribute to a Climate-Neutral Energy System. zcomm.org Nuclear energy is too dangerous, too expensive, and too sluggishly deploy ≠able to play a significant role in mitigating the climate crisis…

Sharmila Devi (2021-12-18). [World Report] Russia—Ukraine tensions hampering health-care access. thelancet.com Humanitarian groups warn that medical care for civilians is being jeopardised amid a military standoff. Sharmila Devi reports…

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. moderndiplomacy.eu Germany's new Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock came into office on December 8th without her knowing that America's stationing missiles in Ukraine on Russia's border, and only a 7-minute flying distance away from Moscow, would be even more unacceptable to Moscow than, in 1962, would have been, to Washington, the Soviet Union's stationing missiles in Cuba, …

WSWS (2021-12-18). EU summit threatens Russia. wsws.org The escalating coronavirus pandemic and threats against Russia were the focus of the EU summit that met on Thursday in Brussels.

M. K. Bhadrakumar (2021-12-18). A Sino-Russian military alliance is gratuitous (as of now). mronline.org To apply a western analogy, while the Sino-Russian partnership has great potential to model itself after the European Union, neither Moscow nor Beijing desires an Eurasian NATO to create synergy for it.

_____ (2021-12-17). Congress Passes Massive $778 Billion NDAA. popularresistance.org On Tuesday, the Senate passed the massive $778 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a vote of 89 to 10. | The legislation is a compromise version of the NDAA that was already passed by the House and now just needs President Biden's signature to become law. Congress added $25 billion more to the spending bill than Biden requested. | The bill authorizes $740.3 billion for the Pentagon, $27.8 billion for the Energy Department's nuclear weapons program, and $9.9 billion for "Defense-related Activities Outside NDAA Jurisdiction." | In September, the House passed a different version of the NDAA that inc…

_____ (2021-12-17). A Whistleblower And Constant Thorn In The Government's Side. popularresistance.org Joseph Carson, an Energy Department nuclear safety engineer originally from Brooklyn, NY, walked into the moral hazard of working for the U.S. government nearly as soon as his career started. The very first program he worked in during the Cold War led to the development of a nuclear weapon that could kill 20 million people in one fell swoop. The alarm bells immediately started ringing as the federal employee considered his work in the context of the engineering code of ethics he'd been educated in. What started as disclosures about the safety of federal workers in 1991—a report his manager immediately threw…

_____ (2021-12-17). US Unveils Legal Trigger For War With Russia. popularresistance.org A bill tabled this week in the Senate looks likely to pass into law because of the bilateral consensus of belligerence towards Russia. It is generally accepted as if fact that Russia is threatening to invade Ukraine despite Moscow's repeated denials and lack of evidence to support such sensationalized speculation. | Among other provocations, the lawmakers want to more than double the supply of lethal weaponry that the US is about to send Ukraine and to kill off the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Europe. | On top of that — as if all that were not incendiary enough — the US Senators want to d…

_____ (2021-12-17). Russia, China a Model of Inter-State Relations and Peace. strategic-culture.org Russia and China are proof that an alternative basis of international relations is possible. And fortunately, both are strong enough to prevail for the sake of peace. | For many observers around the world, the cordial and cooperative relations between Russia and China are inspiring, precisely at a time of mounting international tensions and belligerence. | Russia's President Vladimir Putin In a video…

Vijay Prashad (2021-12-17). Red Star Over the Third World w/ Vijay Prashad: Lessons of Soviet History, Part 2. mronline.org Russia's October Revolution in 1917 and the rise of Soviet power reverberated across the world, from Latin America to Africa to Asia, and Middle East — that part of the world that lived under the ravages of colonialism and under-development.

_____ (2021-12-17). The New Great Game Is Afoot — With All Of Us "Underfoot" journal-neo.org The western elites have finally pushed China and Russia too far. A long awaited independent trade network and alternative currencies will certainly go forward as Washington pushes NATO deeper into Eurasia. Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have now agree to accelerate attempts to create a system that cannot be influenced by 'third parties.' As …

WSWS (2021-12-17). German Chancellor Scholz's first speech: Praising Merkel, threatening Russia and committing to mass infection. wsws.org The new Chancellor's remarks confirmed the assessment of the WSWS that the programme of the so-called traffic light coalition of SPD (red), Liberals (FDP, yellow) and Greens is a declaration of war on the working class.

teleSUR (2021-12-17). China Refutes US Claim Concerning AUKUS Cooperation. telesurenglish.net On Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin refuted a U.S. claim concerning Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) trilateral nuclear submarine cooperation, urging the three countries not to go ahead with the cooperation. | RELATED: | "Nuclear submarine cooperation under the AUKUS trilateral security partnership poses a serious risk of nuclear proliferation, and clearly violates the objective and purpose of…

Prof. Louis René Beres (2021-12-17). Existential Perils From Iran: Israel's Options in Law and Strategy. moderndiplomacy.eu Abstract: Eleventh-hour diplomacy notwithstanding, few tangible barriers remain in the way of an Iranian nuclear capability. If Israel should decide that it no longer maintains any reasonable self-defense alternative to launching selective military attacks against Iranian hard targets, those preemptive strikes would need to be justified in both strategic andlegal terms. In this article, Professor …

_____ (2021-12-17). Tel Aviv Insists on a Radical Solution to Iran's Nuclear Program. journal-neo.org On December 10, at the annual Israeli-American Council (IAC) National Summit in Miami, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with senior US functionaries about a radical solution to Iran's nuclear program. He warned his American counterpart Lloyd Austin, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces or the …

Pepe Escobar (2021-12-17). Putin, Xi Running Circles around Biden's Hybrid War. globalresearch.ca Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin spent an hour and 14 minutes in a video conversation on Wednesday. Geopolitically, paving the way for 2022, this is the one that really matters — much more than Putin-Biden a week ago. | Kremlin press …