Could global warming pose the greatest threat to the future of life on the planet?  Quite possibly, if we believe the international (and scientific) consensus, despite a widening stratum of debunkers, deniers, and skeptics.  What about the prospects of thermonuclear war between the United States and Russia, two countries armed to the max and seemingly…

WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki last week faced withering criticism for everything ranging from his “fondness for strongmen” to alleged “treason,” the geostrategic objectives of his attempt to advance détente were largely ignored or taken at face value alone. Yet Trump’s own comments, as well as…

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (ANALYSIS) After over a year and a half of anticipation, the first formal meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was certainly a momentous occasion, but hardly for the intended reasons. It remains too early to definitively tell whether Helsinki will go down in history as the beginning of a new stage…

TEHRAN, IRAN – Little of real substance seems to have resulted from the infamous Helsinki meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, with even a joint communiqué from the two heads of state failing to materialize. Yet much of the talk about a possible “Helsinki pact” discussed between the two leaders has focused on…

The inside-the-beltway crowd was absolutely outraged and appalled by Trump’s performance at Helsinki. There, Trump violated all the principles of American hawkishness. He sat next to Vladimir Putin, leader of a rival power, signaling that Russia is a peer. He sided with Putin over the assessments of the CIA, the NSA and other US intelligence…

The Cold War is a thing of the past. By the time President Putin said as much during preliminary remarks at his joint press conference with President Trump in Helsinki, it was clear this would not stand. Not after so much investment by American conservatives in Cold War 2.0. Russophobia is a 24/7 industry, and…

The reaction of the U.S. establishment media and several political leaders to President Donald Trump’s press conference after his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday has been stunning. Writing in The Atlantic, James Fallows said: There are exactly two possible explanations for the shameful performance the world witnessed on Monday, from a serving American…

Vladimir Putin made a bombshell claim during Monday’s joint press conference with President Trump in Helsinki, Finland, when the Russian President said some $400 million in illegally earned profits was funneled to the Clinton campaign by associates of American-born British financier Bill Browder – at one time the largest foreign portfolio investors in Russia. The scheme…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US National Security Adviser John Bolton met Wednesday in a preparatory meeting regarding a long-awaited and anticipated summit with President Donald Trump. That summit has been looking more and more likely to happen since the first known reports in The Wall Street Journal on 2 June, and today’s meeting appeared by all…

The topic of Russian actions in Syria still continues to fascinate and create a great deal of polemics.  This makes senses – the issue is exceedingly important on many levels, including pragmatic and moral ones, and today I want to stick strictly to the pragmatic level and set aside, just for a while, moral/ethical/spiritual considerations.  Furthermore, I will…

MOSCOW – (Analysis) A string of events, beginning with the exchange of missiles between Israeli and Syrian forces last Thursday, has brought the relationship between Russia and Syria under new scrutiny, leading some to suggest that Syria’s greatest ally may be faltering in its resolve to protect the government of Bashar al-Assad from regime change. On…

Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a nerve agent on March 4 on a park bench in Salisbury, England. Skripal had been a Russian double agent, a spy who turned over 300 names of Russian spies to British intelligence from 1995 to 2004. He was (not so surprisingly) arrested in Russia in 2004…