After the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the struggles of American policy following the Arab Spring uprisings, what is the role the United States should play in the world? Are we really in ‘Cold War 2.0’? Can we work with Russia on Afghanistan? On Syria? And what role do non-politician politicians, so called “outsiders,” […]
Yesterday, October 5, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov received Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the first vice president of Afghanistan, to discuss cooperation in their struggle against ISIS. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. […]
Staunton, April 22 — Because of the nature of the conflict in Ukraine and the kind of people who have gone to fight there, Donbas veterans suffer from a special “Donbas syndrome” and constitute a bigger threat to themselves and to society when they return to Russia than did the veterans of the Afghan and […]
Staunton, March 12 — Because of widespread poverty, brittle authoritarian regimes, and the impact of developments in neighboring Afghanistan, the Central Asian countries have long been a breeding ground for Islamist terrorists. But now there is a new component in this mix: the abandoned families of those who have gone to Russia to work. Students […]
Staunton, March 12 — Yesterday, Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Putin’s Security Council, warned that Russia will face a serious terrorist threat if and when militants from Russia who have been fighting with various Islamist groups in the Middle East return home. But he said nothing about what may be a more immediate and serious threat: […]
With America’s decade long entanglement in Afghanistan coming to a close, the debate over the size and scale of any remaining American involvement in the country has come to the forefront of Washington’s policy making circuit. From the Department of Defense and the State Department, to USAID and the White House, discussions are being held […]
– It seems that C-list action star Steven Seagal is now trying his hand at diplomacy. Seagal, coming off of his recent ventures helping Putin promote school physical education and posing with Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, attempted to organize a Congressional fact-finding trip in the aftermath of the Boston bombings to the volatile republic. As […]
