Today’s Headlines and Commentary
Winston Churchill famously declared, "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Almost 80 years later, that's President Putin in a nutshell: the Russian leader has totally baffled three U.S. Presidents to date, the New York Times writes this morning. The U.S.
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Winston Churchill famously declared, "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma." Almost 80 years later, that's President Putin in a nutshell: the Russian leader has totally baffled three U.S. Presidents to date, the New York Times writes this morning. The U.S. continues to ratchet up economic sanctions against Russia but may have difficulty bringing Europe along, as the Times observed yesterday in a story on increasingly obvious Western disunity in the face of bold moves from Russia.
On Saturday Russian troops stormed the Belbek air base as well as a second Ukrainian air base in Crimea; in Belbek, on the orders of a commander determined to avoid casualties, the Ukrainians armed themselves with little more than "broken broom handles, tree branches, railing dowels, table legs and croquet mallets," reports the Washington Post.
Britain hosts Russian billionaires and their money; Germany gets about one-third of its energy from Russia and sells it machinery and cars; France is in the process of delivering sophisticated attack ships to the Kremlin; and Italy depends on Russia for some 28 percent of its energy.
Yesterday NATO head Gen. Philip Breedlove suggested that the "very, very sizable" Russian force at the Ukrainian border posed a threat to Moldova's Trans-Dniester region, according to the Wall Street Journal, and White House deputy national security adviser Tony Blinken expressed concerns about Russian troop buildup along the border to CNN. Meanwhile Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Deshchytsia appeared on ABC's "This Week" to warn that the chances of war between Ukraine and Russia were "growing." Check out the WSJ coverage.
The New York Times reports that Japan has just announced that it is handing over 700 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium to the U.S., a big coup for President Obama just as world leaders gather in the Hague today for the Nuclear Security Summit. The Guardian reminds us that the summit is an initiative that relies heavily on cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, the two biggest players in the nuclear game. President Obama will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, while Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But it appears that the Ukraine crisis has derailed the hopes of nuclear disarmament advocates, who have been pushing for the U.S. to remove about 200 B61 gravity bombs from European soil.
John Harris has an entertaining piece in Politico about "raucous" developments at the annual Brussels Forum last Friday, where Russian ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov announced to a roomful of national security experts that Russia was forced to annex Crimea because Ukraine was in danger of becoming a failed state. He was called out as a liar by former Ukrainian diplomat Vasyl Filipchuk...at which point ex-President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili then got up and announced, “I have no respect for Ambassador Chizhov. He reminds me of a character from Dr. Strangelove.”
Michael McFaul, former ambassador to the Russian Federation, had an op-ed in the Times yesterday on Putin's strategic demonization of the U.S. for domestic political ends and on strategies for undermining his autocratic hold at home and on the world stage. The New Yorker has a short piece by George Packer on Putin's speech at the Kremlin asking the Duma to ratify Crimea's status as a Russian republic, which Packer describes as "a memorable example of annexation rhetoric."
Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, went on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday to suggest that Edward Snowden is "under the influence of Russian intelligence officials" and may have some nefarious connection to the crisis in Crimea. Here's the transcript; here's Politico.
Yesterday Jack flagged the New York Times' Saturday story on the NSA placing backdoors into Huawei networks. Here is the document leaked by Snowden containing details on Operation "Shotgiant."
The latest on the CIA-SSCI showdown: an opinion piece, in Politico, from former acting CIA General Counsel John Rizzo.
The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 continues to widen. Reuters reports that French satellite images revealed floating debris in "850 km north of the current search area[]" in remote seas off Australia. Investigators have not ruled out technical problems, though they have focused on hijacking or sabotage based on a belief that someone on the flight shut off the plane's communication systems. According to the BBC, "Malaysian officials believe the plane was deliberately taken off course." The Times notes that there is no evidence that debris spotted in either of two Indian Ocean sightings is from the missing Boeing 777.
Gunmen in ski masks are patrolling the streets of Fallujah and apparently performing various forms of community outreach---repairing electricity poles, clearing garbage, planting flowers in a highway median. The Associated Press reports that ISIL militants seek to show they can run the city and increase its appeal among the Sunni minority.
A month after the Security Council adopted a resolution ordering both sides in the Syrian conflict to stop blocking aid to civilians, the UN has issued a 14-page report documenting the Syrian government's systematic obstruction of UN efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the 175,000 Syrians besieged by government forces and the 45,000 Syrians besieged by the opposition. Here's the New York Times coverage.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has demanded that Israel release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners by March 29, but Israeli leaders are threatening to put a stop to the release unless Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, scheduled to go until April 29, are extended. The Times reports.
This weekend Al Jazeera America reported that the UK has been forcibly returning asylum seekers to Mogadishu where they face threats of violence from al-Shabab.
Two gunmen opened fire on worshippers in the Kenyan city of Mombasa yesterday, days after prosecutors charged two Somalis with terrorist activity. Al Jazeera America has the story.
At least four Osprey aircrafts will be deployed to Uganda this week as part of the U.S. effort to hunt down Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) warlord Joseph Kony. U.S. Special Operations forces there will be increased too, writes the Washington Post.
Last week the Miami Herald reported that President Jose Mujica of Uruguay has agreed to take five Guantanamo inmates, though an agreement has not been reached.
Lastly, news from Drone World: the Center for National Security Studies, in partnership with the American Bar Association's Center for Human Rights, has published a study on the legality of targeted killings conducted with unmanned aircraft. Read more about it in the New York Times.
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Jane Chong is former deputy managing editor of Lawfare. She served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University.
