I am grateful to the German newspaper BILD for running this piece as “Wie Snowdens schöne Geschichte langsam zerfällt” For the benefit of readers who don’t know German, I’m providing the English version — enjoy! Exactly two years after Edward Snowden went public with his exposure of Western intelligence secrets, causing a global sensation, the […]
In the two years since the Edward Snowden saga went public, a handful of people who actually understand the Western signals intelligence system have tried to explain the many ways that the Snowden Operation has smeared NSA and its partners with salacious charges of criminality and abuse. I’ve been one of the public faces of […]
Staunton, June 14 – Seventy-five years ago today, the Soviet Union began to occupy Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, act the West never recognized as legitimate but that lasted until 1991. Despite the distance in time from those events, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite says that the Baltic peoples must remain vigilant with regard to the Russian […]
Staunton, June 14 – “Reconciliation is a good thing, and hostility is bad,” Igor Klyamkin says. “But there are reconciliations and reconciliations,” some of which open a path to a better future and others of which point to the return of the evils of the past. Unfortunately, the one on offer in Russia today is […]
Staunton, June 13 – The toughening of the West’s position on Ukraine very much in evidence at the G7 meeting reflects the fact that Vladimir Putin has fundamentally misread the situation and not taken advantage of the face-saving measures which the West had been offering him, according to Vitaly Portnikov. The Kremlin leader “sincerely believed […]
Staunton, June 10 – Picking up on the increasingly alarmist rhetoric of Kremlin outlets about the possibility of war, a Urals blogger who openly flaunts his ties with the FSB yesterday posted three commentaries in which he said that Russians must prepare for a major war with the West, according to Kseniya Kirillova. Sergey Kolyasnikov, […]
The resumption of heavy fighting in Ukraine in early June suggests the likelihood of a major new Russian offensive sometime soon. As many analysts have noted, Vladimir Putin, like Shakespeare’s Macbeth or Richard III, has gone so far in blood that he cannot go back. Moreover, admitting that this adventure known as the war in […]
Staunton, June 9 – It has become almost commonplace to assert that Russians under Boris Yeltsin had a positive view of the world and that they began their search for enemies only under his successor, Vladimir Putin. That such feelings have intensified under Putin is beyond doubt, but it is important to remember that they […]
Staunton, June 2 – Internet publications, blogs and social media in general, the new media many have expected to transform Russia’s media and public space, are in fact “developing in [Russia’s] regions according to exactly the same scenarios as the market of traditional media,” according to Olga Dovbysh of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics. And […]
Staunton, June 8 – This week’s meeting of the G-7 has been forced to focus not on the challenges posed by the Islamic State, Iran’s nuclear program, or Ebola but on the actions of a former member of the group, Russia, because Moscow by its aggression in Ukraine has betrayed the entire civilized world, according […]
