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US President Joe Biden’s cabinet has made a major policy mistake by driving Russia and China into a strategic partnership,
Heritage Foundation fellow Michael Pillsbury said on Thursday. Pillsbury spoke to Fox and Friends as Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on his first foreign trip since inauguration. “To draw, to push together two nuclear powers, Russia and China, it’s really a blunder of the highest order,” he told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade. According to Pillsbury, China spent much of the past 75 years in conflict with the Soviet Union, “so to see them come together like this to me is just shocking.” Pillsbury has helped Washington formulate its China policy since the 1970s. He held a variety of posts at the Pentagon and as a staff member for the US Senate, before settling at China-centric desks at the Hudson Institute and later at Heritage. It has long been a policy objective of Washington to keep China and Russia apart, starting with President Richard Nixon’s detente with Beijing in the 1970s. This policy was in effect as late as 2020, with President Donald Trump trying to use tariffs to pressure China into working with the US, noted Pillsbury. “This would never happen under Trump,” he said. “This was one of Trump’s goals never to allow this to happen.” When Kilmeade suggested that China “needs” the US and EU markets, so the West has leverage over Beijing, Pillsbury pointed out that this “simply isn’t happening under Biden.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also commented on the US attempts to split China away from Russia. In an interview on Thursday, he said that China was “strong enough” to resist the “brazen” attempts at pressure. China and Russia both “defend the principles of fairness and the democratic world order based on the multipolar realities and international law,” Putin said on Thursday, adding that relations between the two countries “are not aimed against anyone.” Putin described the Russo-Chinese cooperation as “one of the main stabilizing factors on the international stage.” Xi agreed, arguing that ties between Beijing and Moscow are a “model of relations between large powers and neighbouring states, characterized by mutual respect, trust, friendship and mutual benefit.” The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Putin and Xi meet in Beijing5/16/2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing during his state visit to China on Thursday.
It is Putin’s first foreign trip since he was sworn in for a fifth term as president earlier this month. The leaders shook hands outside the Great Hall of the People building on Tiananmen Square and listened to a military orchestra perform the two countries’ national anthems. They later posed for photographs and left for a meeting between the delegations. Putin is accompanied by multiple state ministers, who will participate in the negotiations on joint projects aimed at deepening bilateral ties. In an interview with Xinhua before the trip, Putin hailed the “unprecedented level of strategic partnership” between the two states. “Having lasted three quarters of a century, China-Russia relations have grown from strength to strength despite the ups and downs, and have stood the test of changing international landscape,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. “Steady development of China-Russia relations is … conducive to peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world at large.” Russia and China have similar positions on the Ukraine conflict. Speaking to Xinhua, Putin praised Beijing for understanding “its root causes and global geopolitical significance.” China has refused to blame Russia for the tensions and instead condemned the expansion of NATO and Washington’s “Cold-War mentality.” The fighting between Russia and Ukraine entered its third year in February, with Kiev’s Western backers renewing their pledges to support Ukraine with money and weapons for “as long as it takes.” At the same time, tensions continue between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently described China as “the main country that is enabling Russia to conduct its war of aggression.” Beijing unveiled its 12-point roadmap to peace in Ukraine last year, emphasizing on diplomacy. “We should prioritize the upholding of peace and stability and refrain from seeking selfish gains,” Xi said last month, urging all sides to “cool down the situation and not add fuel to the fire.” Beijing also rejected Washington’s sanctions policy and trade war as a way to ensure a dominant position on the world stage. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Putin to visit China this Week5/14/2024 Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to China later this week to meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the Kremlin has announced.
It will be the Russian leader’s first foreign trip of his new presidential term. In a statement on Tuesday, the Kremlin said that the state visit at the invitation of the Chinese leader is scheduled for May 16 and 17. During the summit, the two leaders “will discuss in detail the entire range of issues of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction” between Moscow and Beijing, as well as determine key directions for the further development of Russian-Chinese ties. Putin and Xi will also discuss the “most pressing international and regional issues,” the Kremlin added. The leaders are expected to sign a joint statement and a number of bilateral documents, the announcement said, without giving further details. The Russian leader will also hold talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, the second-highest ranking official in the country. The meeting will focus on bilateral trade, economic and humanitarian cooperation. In addition, Putin and Xi will attend a gala marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Beijing, as well as the opening of the Russian-Chinese Years of Culture.The Russian president will also visit the city of Harbin in northeast China, which was founded by Russian settlers in the late 19th century. There, he will take part in the opening ceremony of the Russian-Chinese EXPO, which will be held from May 17 to 21. Putin will also oversee the opening of the Russian-Chinese Forum on Interregional Cooperation, and meet with students and professors of Harbin Institute of Technology. Russia and China have maintained close ties for several decades, declaring in early February 2022 that “friendship between the two states has no limits, there are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.” Against this backdrop, Beijing has not denounced Moscow’s military campaign against Kiev, nor joined unprecedented Western sanctions over the conflict. At the same time, China has floated a plan to settle the Ukraine conflict, calling for a ceasefire, “respecting the sovereignty of all countries” and “abandoning the Cold War mentality.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised the initiative, noting that it is the most “clear” and detailed plan of its kind. In March 2023, Chinese leader Xi Jinping paid a landmark visit to Moscow, with the two sides signing a package of documents on economic cooperation. In October of that year, Putin traveled to the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing where he held one-on-one talks with Xi, discussing a number of “sensitive issues.” The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Today, May 12, 2024, the Dresden Peace Prize was awarded to Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic Circle prison camp on February 16.
"The resistance of the opposition politician was and is an emboldening example to all the human rights defenders who are continuing his activities," the organizers said of the winner. Navalny's widow Yulia Navalnaya accepted the prize and the laudatory speech was held by former German President Joachim Gauck. Gauck, who had already praised Navalny as an "icon of all decent Russians" shortly after the news of his death, used a German sporting expression on Sunday and called the dissident a "feared opponent" for President Vladimir Putin. The ceremony also included a performance of "Alexei Navalny's Speeches in Court" by the Dresden State Theatre ensemble. The award comes with a €10,000 (roughly $10,800) prize. A blogger with a sense of humour Born in 1976, Navalny gained worldwide attention for his many years of work to expose corruption and human rights abuses in President Vladimir Putin's Russia. As a blogger, Navalny reached millions with his humor, especially younger Russians. In doing so, he made many powerful enemies. The Kremlin endeavored to keep him out of politics but Navalny still managed to organize supporters across the country. Businessman, lawyer, politician Navalny began his career as a businessman and lawyer. At the end of the 1990s, in his mid-20s, he became involved in the left-liberal Yabloko party but was expelled in 2007 due to conflicts with the party leadership and his nationalist views. He was subsequently active in a nationalist movement — a reason that he was also controversial in Russian opposition circles. Keeping up the fight His poisoning in 2020 attracted a great deal of international attention. Navalny was flown to Berlin for treatment and survived. He accused Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, and Putin personally, of attempting to murder him. Once healthy again he returned to Russia despite the risks, only to be immediately arrested at Moscow airport and subsequently sentenced to 19 years in prison. Last December Navalny went missing for several weeks. It was later discovered that he had been transferred to a penal camp in northern Siberia. Navalny believed that Russian authorities wanted to isolate him even further ahead of presidential elections in March, elections that Putin won. Powerful even in prison Before his death Navalny had lodged a series of complaints against the ongoing violation of his rights as a prisoner. Until he died, he used his court appearances to voice biting criticism of Putin's authoritarian rule and Russia's war on Ukraine. A few weeks after his death, Putin himself confirmed that there had been preparations for a prisoner exchange shortly before Navalny's death. It remains unclear why the exchange never took place or if the claim is true. Russian crackdown continues Since Navalny's death the Russian regime has continued its brutal crackdown on critics. Supporters recently expressed concern about the health of one of Navalny's close companions, Vladimir Kara-Murza. The 42-year-old was sentenced to 25 years in prison for "high treason" in April 2023 after accusing Russia of war crimes in Ukraine during a speech in the United States. Parallel to Navalny's fate, Kara-Murza's family and lawyers claim that the FSB attempted to poison him too, in 2015 and 2017. He has suffered from serious health problems ever since. A danger to Putin Navalny repeatedly drilled into the wounds of the Russian dictatorship, becoming the greatest danger to Putin and his system. That is why he became a political prisoner whose death is representative of countless people who stand up for freedom and democracy in Russia," said the statement by Friends of Dresden Deutschland association. The prize has been awarded annually since 2010 to commemorate the Allied bombing of Dresden on February 13, 1945, with the intention of countering the appropriation of the anniversary by right-wing extremists. Previous recipients include former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and the conductor Daniel Barenboim. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Ukraine has never been in a position to get a favorable settlement to end the enduring conflict with Russia and so Washington has never actually encouraged Kiev to negotiate with Moscow, former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and former acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has claimed.
The ex-official and one of the key proponents of supporting Ukraine through military means made the remark in an interview with Politico published on Saturday. A vast part of the interview revolved around the Ukrainian conflict, with Nuland producing a typical mainstream American assessment of it. “Let’s start with the fact that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has already failed in his objective. He wanted to flatten Ukraine. He wanted to ensure that they had no sovereignty, independence, agency, no democratic future – because a democratic Ukraine, a European Ukraine, is a threat to his model for Russia, among other things, and because it’s the first building block for his larger territorial ambitions,” Nuland asserted, without providing any supporting evidence. The official insisted that Kiev can still “succeed” in the conflict, though she dodged the question of whether she believes Ukraine could seize its former territories from Russia, including the Crimean Peninsula, which broke away from Kiev in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan coup and joined Moscow after a referendum. It can definitely get to a place where it’s strong enough, I believe, and where Putin is stymied enough to go to the negotiating table from a position of strength. It’ll be up to the Ukrainian people what their territorial ambitions should be,” she said, adding that “whatever is decided on Crimea, it can’t be remilitarized such that it’s a dagger at the heart of the center of Ukraine.” The former official revealed Washington has never actually pressed Kiev into negotiations with Moscow, claiming its “negotiating position” was never actually strong enough, including in late 2022. “They were not in a strong enough position then. They’re not in a strong enough position now. The only deal Putin would have cut then, the only deal that he would cut today, at least before he sees what happens in our election, is a deal in which he says, ‘What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable.’ And that’s not sustainable,” she claimed. Victoria Nuland has been widely perceived as one of the key figures behind the whole Ukrainian crisis that started with the Maidan events, which ultimately brought down Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, in 2014. The diplomat, who at the time was Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, infamously showed up among Maidan activists, handing out pastries. The affair became widely known as “Nuland’s cookies,” serving as a textbook example of direct US involvement in the coup. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has condemned the latest remarks from French President Emmanuel Macron about the option of sending troops to Ukraine, and has warned such a move could ultimately spark an all-out nuclear war.
Speaking to French broadcaster LCI on Thursday, Szijjarto was asked for his take on Macron’s renewed threat to deploy his country’s troops to back up Kiev. The diplomat strongly condemned the idea, saying that the French leader’s comments themselves have contributed to escalating the situation. “If a NATO member commits ground troops, it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation and it will then be World War Three,” Szijjarto told the broadcaster. Macron made fresh belligerent remarks in an interview with The Economist published Thursday, doubling down on previous statements about the prospect of deploying French troops to Ukraine. The president said his original remarks, made earlier this year, were a “strategic wake-up call for my counterparts.” He suggested that Paris could deploy troops “if the Russians were to break through the front lines” and a request for help came from Kiev. Hungary’s top diplomat also criticized Macron’s idea that France’s nuclear weapons could become a part of a “credible European defense.” “In peacetime it would be different, but in wartime such statements can be misinterpreted and have serious consequences,” Szijjarto stated, warning that, should the situation escalate into a global nuclear war, “it will be over for everyone.” Speaking to Hungarian broadcaster M1 earlier in the day, the minister also rejected NATO’s proposed €100 billion ($107 billion) five-year plan for a war chest to prop up Ukraine, floated by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, describing it as “madness.” “In the coming weeks during negotiations we will fight for Hungary’s right to stay away from this madness, from collecting these 100 billion and siphoning them out of Europe,” Szijjarto stated. Hungary has been consistently opposed to the growing involvement of both the US-led NATO and the EU in the Ukrainian conflict, refusing to support Kiev militarily, including through sending weaponry or training Ukrainian troops. The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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Die Welt, a German media outlet, has stated that a peace agreement could have been signed a few weeks after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The conditions for ending the war then were spelled out in a 17-page draft agreement that the parties agreed on on 15 April 2022. Russia demanded neutrality from Ukraine, and a limit on the number of troops, weapons, equipment and aircraft. The then-occupied territories were to remain with Russia. Only a few points remained unagreed upon, and they were supposed to be discussed personally by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a summit, but this never happened. Die Welt noted that immediately after the start of the full-scale war, the Russian and Ukrainian sides began negotiations to end combat actions. Moscow tried to force Kyiv to surrender at the negotiating table. In this treaty, Ukraine pledged to maintain "permanent neutrality". By doing so, Kyiv renounced any membership in military alliances. Thus, the country's accession to NATO would have been ruled out. Ukraine agreed to never "receive, produce or acquire" nuclear weapons, to not allow foreign weapons and troops into the country, and to not grant access to its military infrastructure, including airfields and seaports, to any other country. In addition, Kyiv had to refrain from conducting military exercises with foreign participation and from participating in any military conflicts. According to Article 3 of the document, nothing explicitly prevented Kyiv from becoming a member of the EU. In response, Russia promised not to attack Ukraine again. To give Kyiv this assurance, Moscow agreed that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, which are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China and Russia itself, could provide Ukraine with comprehensive security guarantees. In Article 5 of the draft treaty, Kyiv and Moscow agreed on a mechanism reminiscent of NATO's assistance provisions. In the event of an "armed attack on Ukraine", the guarantor countries would be obliged to provide Kyiv with support in its right to self-defence, enshrined in the UN Charter, within a maximum of three days. This assistance could be provided through "joint action" of all or some of the guarantors' powers. The treaty had to be ratified by each signatory state in accordance with international law. Thus, the two sides developed a mechanism that differs significantly from the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. At that time, Russia had already assured Ukraine of its territorial integrity. Western states promised Kyiv support in case of an attack but did not guarantee it. However, the security guarantees being considered in the spring of 2022 would have required the approval of the United States, China, the United Kingdom and France in a second phase. Russia also wanted to include Belarus, and Kyiv wanted to include Türkiye. However, the first goal of the negotiators was to create unity between Kyiv and Moscow so that the text could be used as a basis for multilateral negotiations. Crimea and the port of Sevastopol were to be excluded from security guarantees. By doing so, Kyiv was practically handing over control of the peninsula to Russia. It is not clear from the document which part of Ukraine’s east was to be excluded from the guarantor states' promise. The relevant areas were marked in red. In the Istanbul communiqué, Kyiv supposedly agreed to exclude parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts that Russia had already occupied before the full-scale war. The Russian delegation, on the other hand, insisted that the borders be determined personally by Putin and Zelenskyy and marked on a map. The Ukrainian delegation rejected this option. Russia demanded that in the event of an attack, all guarantor states would have to give consent to activate the assistance mechanism. This would have given Moscow a veto to override the defence mechanism. In addition, Moscow rejected Ukraine’s demand that the guarantor states could establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine in the event of an attack. During the talks, Russia signalled its readiness to withdraw from Ukraine, but not from Crimea and the part of Donbas that was to be excluded from security guarantees. Putin and Zelenskyy were to discuss the details of the withdrawal directly. This was confirmed to Die Welt by two members of the Ukrainian negotiation delegation independently of each other. The issue of the size of the Ukrainian army in the future also remained unresolved. Kyiv partially responded to Russia's demands for demilitarisation. Moscow demanded that the Ukrainian army be reduced to 85,000 soldiers, and currently, there are about a million servicemen. Ukraine proposed the number of 250,000 soldiers. Opinions also differed on the number of military equipment. Russia demanded that the number of tanks be reduced to 342, while Kyiv wanted to keep it at 800. Ukraine wanted to reduce the number of armoured vehicles to 2,400, while Russia demanded that only 1,029 be left. There was also a big difference in the numbers of artillery pieces. Moscow planned to allow Ukraine to keep 519, while Kyiv wanted 1,900. Kyiv wanted to retain 600 multiple-launch rocket systems with a range of up to 280 kilometres, while Russia wanted 96 pieces with a maximum range of 40 kilometres. Russia wanted to reduce the number of mortars to 147 and anti-tank missiles to 333, while Kyiv insisted that the number be reduced to 1,080 and 2,000 respectively. In addition, Russia demanded the destruction of Ukrainian aircraft. Moscow demanded that 102 fighters and 35 helicopters be left, while Kyiv insisted on 160 jets and 144 helicopters. According to Russian ideas, there should be two warships, while according to Ukrainian ideas, there should be eight of them. Die Welt stressed that the draft treaty shows how close Ukraine and Russia were to a possible peace deal in April 2022. But after the promising summit in Istanbul, Moscow put forward the following demands, which Kyiv did not agree to. Thus, Russia demanded that Ukraine make Russian the second state language, lift mutual sanctions and stop lawsuits in international courts. Kyiv also had to ban "fascism, Nazism and aggressive nationalism" in Ukraine. As Welt learned from several diplomats involved in the negotiations, there was great interest in the agreement in the spring of 2022. After the failure of its offensive on Kyiv, Russia withdrew from Ukraine’s north and announced that it wanted to focus on gaining territory in the east. Die Welt quoted an unnamed member of the Ukrainian delegation as saying: "It was the best deal we could have had." Die Welt believes that even after more than two years of the full-scale war, the deal still looks favourable in retrospect. 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Ukraine can Win4/22/2024 Ukraine has a chance of victory in the conflict with Russia now that the US House of Representatives has approved more weapons for Kiev, President Vladimir Zelensky claimed in an interview with NBC on Sunday.
The remarks came a day after a new aid bill, which authorizes an additional $61 billion in support for Ukraine, was passed by American lawmakers. The emergency spending had been stalled in Congress since last fall over concerns from Republicans that Washington lacked a strategy either for victory or a peace settlement. “I think this support will really strengthen the armed forces, I pray, and we will have a chance at victory if Ukraine really gets the weapons systems, which we need so much,” Zelensky said. He urged the US to wrap up final adoption of the legislation as soon as possible in order to start sending more weapons. The bill has yet to be passed by the US Senate, which is scheduled to vote on it on April 23. After that, it proceeds to President Joe Biden, who has said he will sign it. “We want to help get things as fast as possible so that we get some tangible assistance for the soldiers on the front line as soon as possible – not in another six months,” the Ukrainian leader said. He specifically requested more air defence systems and longer-range missiles, arguing that the Ukrainian army is suffering losses due to the lack of both. “We need long-range weapons to not lose people on the front line because we have, we have casualties because we cannot reach that far,” he said, adding that another delay would mean more casualties. “If we get it in half a year… we’ve had the process stalled for half a year and we’ve had losses in several directions. Losses in men, in equipment.” Zelensky admitted that victory is far from guaranteed. “Now we have the chance to stabilize the situation,” he stated. “There are so many variables, so many factors.” He continued to rule out talks with Moscow, claiming that neither President Vladimir Putin nor any high-ranking Russian officials can be trusted. The aid package authorized by the House is not solely intended for new weapons shipments. According to Politico, the biggest chunk of the money ($23 billion) will go to replenishing US stocks already used to provide arms to Ukraine. Only about $14 billion would go to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which the Pentagon uses to buy new weapons systems for Kiev from US defence contractors, according to The Guardian. Another $10 billion in aid was designated as a repayable loan to appease some Republicans, the newspaper said. Moscow responded by reiterating that Washington is causing Ukraine to “fight to the last Ukrainian” with its weapon shipments. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova predicted that the US will eventually face a “loud and humiliating fiasco on par with Vietnam or Afghanistan.” The Blog Tags Widget will appear here on the published site.
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