Russia Recoils From Possibility of Stable Relationship With US
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 18 Issue: 74
President Vladimir Putin at the May 9, 2021 Victory Day Parade (Source: AP)
The traditional May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow was not a grand affair this year, unlike the one originally planned for 2020, which had to be postponed and curtailed because of the severe aggravation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The rumble of tanks on Red Square last Sunday signified, nevertheless, that the pause in Kremlin policymaking caused by the extended May holiday (see EDM, May 3) is over, and the instrument of choice in Russian foreign policy military might is ready for new demonstrations and deployments. President Vladimir Putin was content to take a break from “irksome” matters such as the violent border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan or the diplomatic row with the Czech Republic (
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On May 10 North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg at NATO headquarters in Brussels to sign an agreement on the opening of a NATO Liaison Office in Vienna.
The NATO chief thanked Austria for twenty-six years of military cooperation, beginning with Austria joining the Partnership for Peace program in 1995. In particular he expressed appreciation for the nation’s contribution to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, where its troops served with those of fifty-three other countries under NATO command. (Among the others were fellow European Union member states and NATO partners Ireland, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. In 2014 Finland and Sweden were elevated to the status of Enhanced Opportunities Partners. The two nations were in charge of Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh province where their troops engaged in combat operations while under NATO comm
The members of the Bucharest Nine (9) NATO eastern flank Allies (White House terminology) held a virtual summit today from the Romanian capital that lends it name to the group.
Participants also included President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The participation of that trio should establish whose interests the group serves.
Though established in 2014, the real history of the Bucharest 9 goes back more than a century as will be demonstrated below, and has ominous implications for the worsening conflict between NATO and Russia.
Today’s event was hosted by Romanian President Klaus Iohannis and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda. The members of the group are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia; all were absorbed into NATO from 1999-2004. All are former members of the Warsaw Pact, and with the exception of former East Germany (which en
Blinken’s Debut in Ukraine: A Case for Managing Expectations (Part Two)
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 18 Issue: 74
(Source: Odessa Journal)
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his closest entourage sometimes raise public expectations of what the United States can deliver to Ukraine to unrealistically high levels. Furthermore they tend to discount the close relationship between what the US is actually delivering to Ukraine and the latter’s own performance on economic and governance reforms. These twin tendencies of Zelenskyy’s team can generate public disappointment after undue expectations, confronting the US with a problem of expectation management in Ukraine (see Part One in EDM, June 6).
President George W. Bush greets rescue workers, firefighters and military personnel, Sept. 12, 2001, while surveying damage caused by the previous day’s terrorist attacks on the Pentagon.
1999 – 2021
The Taliban insurgency has regained strength nearly two decades after U.S.-led forces toppled its regime in what led to the United States’ longest war. CFR President George W. Bush signs into law a joint resolution authorizing the use of force against those responsible for attacking the United States on 9/11.
1999 -2021 Timeline U.S. Army 1st Lt. Daniel Meegan (2nd from right), leader of 1st Platoon, Delta Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army Europe, and an Afghan interpreter (right) stop to question an Afghan man about Taliban activity while patrolling the area surrounding Forward Operating Base Baylough in Zabul province, Afghanistan, on June 18, 2010. DoD photo by Spc. Eric Cabral, U.S. Army. (Released)