Three months into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the prospects for a decisive Kremlin victory have evaporated. Yet even amid Russia’s battlefield failures, the heroic Ukrainian resistance, and abundant Western military aid, the tide has not completely turned.
Washington Must Ramp Up Support for Vulnerable Partners—Before It’s Too Late
It is too soon to predict how Russia’s brutal, unjustified war against Ukraine will end. But for now, it is clear that the Russian military has shockingly underperformed in the first phase of the war, whereas the Ukrainian military has punched far above its weight. Other revisionist powers contemplating aggression will be looking closely at Russia’s failings to avoid making the same mistakes, and the countries they threaten will be looking to Ukraine’s example for insight into how to fend off a larger, better-equipped adversary.
How His War Has Erased Russia’s Past—And Endangered Its Future
If a Ukrainian grandmother with pro-Russian views did not exist, it would be necessary to invent her—or at least that is what the Russian government decided in April. At the time, Anna Ivanova inhabited a village near Kharkiv. One day, mistaking a group of arriving Ukrainian soldiers for Russians, she took out an old Soviet flag and waved it vigorously at them to remind them of their shared past and try to deter them from destroying the village. Instead, the Ukrainian forces, outraged at the sight of the hammer-and-sickle, took the flag from her and trampled it.
Premierul Viktor Orban este știe să profite de pe urma a ceea ce prezintă electoratului drept pericole existențiale pentru Ungaria. Fie că este vorba despre demonizarea opoziției care sacrifică valorile tradiționale ale Ungariei pe altarul lui George Soros sau LGBT, fie că e vorba despre atragerea țării într-un război cu Rusia, dacă Ungaria va susține militar Ucraina, Orban a știut sa profite de aceste contexte pentru a rămâne la putere vreme de patru mandate consecutive. Prezentându-l pe Orban ca răul suprem din UE, criticii nu fac decât să urmeze strategia celui mult hulit, schimbându-i doar sensul.
Putin’s genocidal war on Ukraine may have less to do with empire and far more to do with profits.
Enormous profits.
There has been considerable commentary about Putin’s war motives, from a belief that Ukraine is little more than an insurgent province of Mother Russia to a fear that Ukraine is becoming a satellite of Western democracies. But those motives miss the fact that Putin rules by allowing oligarchs to enrich themselves and — by extension — himself. And like any criminal, he is going where the money is and there is much money buried in the ground of Ukraine.
These Palestinians are evidently fed up with the rampant corruption and bad governance of the Palestinian Authority leadership. Moreover, these Palestinians who no longer support Abbas are stating that they have no interest in any peace process with Israel.
As the last poll showed, 70% of the Palestinians are opposed to an unconditional return to peace negotiations with Israel. Another 58% expressed opposition to the two-state solution.
The Turkish finance minister is planning a visit to Egypt next month in the latest step toward rapprochement between the two countries.
In a new step toward rapprochement between Egypt and Turkey, Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance Nureddin Nebati will visit Egypt on June 1.
From the vantage point of the West, giving in to Ankara’s demands from Finland and Sweden amounts to letting an autocrat design the security architecture of Europe.
US President Joe Biden’s announcement of his country’s unequivocal support of Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership bids came as a veiled rebuke of Ankara.
Enraged by the Greek premier’s remarks to US Congress against arms sales to Turkey, Erdogan denounces Greece, along with Sweden and Finland, for supporting terrorism.
Opening up a new battlefront with NATO allies, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced late Monday that he had “written off” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for lobbying the US Congress against military sales to Turkey.
Over the past month, a series of violent episodes on Afghanistan’s borders have put the country’s relations with its neighbors in the spotlight. Some incidents involved Taliban fighters, such as clashes on the border with Iran.