Interview with Historian Geoffrey Roberts

On Tuesday, February 21st President Putin gave a speech that was expected to be very significant. After it was delivered, however, most pundits said he didn’t say anything we didn’t already know. Most of them focused on his announcement of the withdrawal from the START II treaty. However, he said something far more significant.

A popular novel, “The Wizard of the Kremlin,” presents a sympathetic portrait of the Russian leader, critics say, raising concerns that it might influence national policy toward the Ukraine war.

An end to US hegemony?

Jake Sullivan has had confidential discussions with Russian counterparts amid concerns over escalation, nuclear threats

Speaking on Oct. 27 at the Valdai International Discussion Club, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the sanity of those who would “spoil relations with China at the same time they are supplying billions-worth of weapons to Ukraine in a fight against Russia.”

Fairly stable. Wagner Group making inroads into Bakhmut, but clearly a tough grind. British MOD and a Telegraph article talk of heavy Russian losses, which may or may not be true, and of a Russian “human wave” (this last claim is simply idiotic – OBB).

The recent ceremony of accession of four Ukrainian regions to Russia brought a speech from President Putin that outlined the reasons behind Russia’s current struggles, the character and identify of its foes and, more importantly, laid the groundwork for Russia’s next level of confrontation with the West beyond the ongoing military conflict in Ukraine. In his speech, Putin clearly defined the present fight as a worldwide battle in which Russia plays a leading role against the Deep State that ultimately runs the West and which uses all available tools – including military, economic, cultural, and social – in its attempt to preserve unipolar world domination.

Russia seeks to overthrow the world’s democracies

In the official Chinese and Russian statements regarding Thursday’s meeting between Presidents XI Jinping and Vladimir Putin in Samarkand lies not a scintilla of evidence that China’s support for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has weakened.