While the US and its NATO allies are bashing Russia over its "special military operation" into Ukraine, they remain silent about their own wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, to name but a few say retired UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order Alfred-Maurice de Zayas. Sputnik: The US and European press have called Russia [...]

The US diplomat George Kennan, an astute observer of Soviet Russia under Stalin, offered his observations later in life on the question of NATO expansion. The tragedy of our times is that those views are being ignored. Winston Churchill once famously quipped that the “Americans will always do the right thing, but only after all other possibilities are exhausted.” That bit of dry British h [...]

Putin was right, Stoltenberg was wrong: NATO “brazenly deceived” Russia about expansion and a British document proves it. A newly discovered document from March 1991 shows US, UK, French, and German officials discussing a pledge made to Russia that NATO will not expand to Poland and beyond. Its publication by the German magazine Der Spiegel on Friday proves Moscow right and NATO wrong on the m [...]

In a recent press conference held on the occasion of a visit to Moscow by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about continued NATO expansion, and the potential consequences if Ukraine was to join the trans-Atlantic alliance. “Their [NATO’s] main task is to contain the development of Russia,” Putin said. “Ukraine is simply a tool to achieve this [...]

On Feb. 5, more than 55 cities and towns rallied with the message: “Disband NATO! No War on Russia!” The day of action was sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition, Code Pink, Black Alliance for Peace, Peace Action, Maryland Peace Action, Popular Resistance and others.  From Huntsville, Alabama, to Providence, Rhode Island, from Dallas to Milwaukee to Seattle — people nationwide are standing up [...]

Emmanuel Macron is no Talleyrand. Self-promoted as “Jupiterian”, he may have finally got down to earth for a proper realpolitik insight while ruminating one of the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs key bon mots: “A diplomat who says ‘yes’ means ‘maybe’, a diplomat who says ‘maybe’ means ‘no’, and a diplomat who says ‘no’ is no diplomat.” Mr. Macron went to Mo [...]

Russia will have to be on guard and use counter-force to prevent any reckless offensive conduct by the United States and its European minions. The dangerous tensions that have escalated between the United States, NATO, and Russia pose a grave threat to world peace. It’s important to remember that the series of high-level talks convened this week in three European cities was initiated by Russia. [...]

With Russia challenging Western unilateralism in a way not seen since the end of the Soviet Union, two major issues keep coming to the fore. Both, it seems, are centered on America's flagship military bloc, NATO. First, there is Moscow’s claim that there was a Western promise not to expand NATO beyond its Cold War area. Second, there is a Western claim that NATO cannot, let alone will not, put a [...]

NATO has never promised not to admit new members, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed on Friday, labeling Russia’s demands of the bloc inadmissible. However, long-declassified Western documents suggest otherwise. “NATO never promised not to admit new members,” the top American diplomat told journalists during Friday’s press briefing, as he commented on Moscow’s proposals to [...]

Russian President Vladimir Putin has wound up his annual end-of-year press conference, having taken questions on the Kremlin’s policy positions at home and abroad, amid strained relations with the West, high rates of Covid-19 deaths and pressure on a range of domestic political issues. Talks with NATO Last week, Moscow issued a series of proposals to both Washington and NATO as part of a bid t [...]

NATO membership for Ukraine may still be a distant dream, but the US is continuing to pretend otherwise to keep Kiev in the anti-Russian camp. The question is how long it will be before Ukrainians realize they've been conned. Joined-up government is not one of America’s strong points. While one arm of the system does one thing, the other arm does something different, often entirely contradi [...]

Moscow has announced that it will completely suspend the operations of its mission to NATO, two weeks after the US-led bloc expelled eight Russian diplomats for alleged 'undisclosed espionage' at its Brussels headquarters. Speaking on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also revealed that the NATO information bureau in Moscow will be forced to shut down as part of retaliatory measu [...]

Just as it all ended badly for the West’s military interventions in Vietnam and Afghanistan, so it will in Kosovo. NATO has overstepped its mandate, overplayed its hand, and overstayed its welcome. As the last US military helicopters were leaving Kabul, Afghanistan, many, including myself, emphasized the similarities with America’s embarrassment in Saigon, South Vietnam – but one parall [...]

MOSCOW, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The Kremlin warned on Monday that any expansion of NATO military infrastructure in Ukraine would cross one of President Vladimir Putin's "red lines", and Belarus said it had agreed to take action with Moscow to counter growing NATO activity. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Moscow ally, accused the United States of setting up training centers in Ukrai [...]

Relations between France and the United States remain considerably cold, even as President Biden acknowledges that the US ought to have been more transparent with France concerning its nuclear submarine deal with the UK and Australia. The deal superseded an earlier agreement Australia had negotiated with France and thereby deprived the latter of the billions of dollars the deal would have yielded. [...]

If there’s one Western leader who knows the depth of corruption in Ukraine politics, then it has to be US President Joe Biden. His wayward son Hunter milked the country while daddy cemented the 2014 coup d’état in Kiev. The president knows cheery talk about reforms for joining NATO are meaningless platitudes to conceal a dysfunctional state that he helped create. Biden has belatedly in [...]

NATO non-enlargement promises to Soviet leaders following the fall of the Berlin Wall have again prompted a debate in the media. What's behind the timing of the Western media's renewed attempt to downplay the famous "not one inch eastward" assurance as a myth? Earlier this month two reports emerged concerning the "myth" of NATO's post-Cold War non-enlargement guarantees given to Soviet le [...]

The deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament has sounded the alarm on escalating military activity on Russia’s borders, insisting that those living on the disputed peninsula just want to be left alone. In comments reported by RIA Novosti, Efim Fiks warned that an aggressive US-led campaign against the stationing of Russian troops in Crimea, which was reabsorbed into the country in 2014, is [...]

President Donald Trump’s US government has on Sunday withdrawn from an international treaty that allows countries to monitor military hardware build-ups from afar, accusing Moscow – without evidence – of breaking its terms. The Open Skies Treaty was first considered by the US and the Soviet Union in the 1950s as a possible way to increase transparency around troop movements and the depl [...]