Rusia

Visą pastarąjį šimtmetį Vakaruose vyraujanti politika Rusijos atžvilgiu buvo viena didelė klaida su palyginti nedidelėmis išimtimis – klaida, iš kurios iki pat šių metų beveik niekas nepasimokė.

1917–1922 m., kai buvo galima ir reikėjo neleisti bolševikams laimėti Rusijos pilietinio karo ir tam būtų visai pakakę vidutinio intensyvumo Vakarų sąjungininkų pastangų, Lenino šutvei vis dėlto buvo leista įsigalėti. Padugnių remiamai nusikaltėlių partijai buvo leista įsteigti nusikalstamą režimą ir padugnių valstybę (jos steigėjo tipažas gerai aprašytas Ivano Bunino knygoje „Okajannyje dni“).

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday met with Ukrainian refugees and urged the need to confront Russian brutality as she visited Poland ahead of a meeting of finance ministers for the Group of Seven leading economies.

The European Union’s efforts to impose a new round of sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine appeared to bog down on Monday, as a small group of countries continued to oppose a ban on Russian oil imports.

The regiment that doggedly defended a steel mill as Ukraine’s last stronghold in the port city of Mariupol completed its mission Monday after more than 260 fighters, including some badly wounded, were evacuated and taken to areas under Russia’s control, Ukrainian officials said.

On a warm summer evening in July 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin, together with the German chancellor and French president at the time, Gerhard Schroder and Jacques Chirac, looked on as a lavish fireworks display entertained a vast crowd in the Baltic city of Kaliningrad. In commemoration of the 750-year anniversary of the founding of what had once been the Prussian city of Konigsberg, the Russian government that had inherited Kaliningrad after its conquest by the Soviet Union during World War II had put on elaborate festivities to celebrate its complex history.

On December 20, 1999, Vladimir Putin addressed senior officials of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) at its Lubyanka headquarters near Moscow’s Red Square. The recently appointed 47-year-old prime minister, who had held the rank of lieutenant colonel in the FSB, was visiting to mark the holiday honoring the Russian security services. “The task of infiltrating the highest level of government is accomplished,” Putin quipped.

The war in Ukraine is placing significant costs on the environment not only through the destructive effects of modern warfare, but also from the unintended consequences of developing international sanctions on Russia.

The devastating and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine has not only triggered significant loss of life and a massive refugee crisis spilling into Europe, but has also dealt a heavy blow to a silent victim of modern-day military and economic warfare: the environment.