Russia

Hagel Escalates Obama’s Warning to Allies: US Support for NATO Could Be at Risk

By James G. Neuger and Gopal Ratnam, Bloomberg News

NATO defense ministers struggled to find a response to Russia’s Ukraine incursion, hemmed in by financial constraints, U.S. demands that Europe raise defense spending and a desire not to provoke the Kremlin.

Chechnya’s Leader to Russian TV: ‘I Did Not Send’ the Chechen Militiamen Fighting in Ukraine

By Irena Chalupa

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-allied president of Chechnya, has taken to Russian television to deny that he has sent any of his Chechen fighters to join the Russian-backed separatist militias in eastern Ukraine.

Sikorski Calls for Major US Base in Poland

By Peter Baker, New York Times

Anxious about the threat from Moscow, Polish leaders have been pressing for a more robust deployment, and even creation of a permanent base on their territory.

President Komorowski: Russia has No Right to Block Deployment of NATO Troops and Infratructure in Poland

By Bronislaw Komorowski, White House

I also wish to stress that it is our common concern that, at the Wales summit, of NATO to reconfirm the need for the greater engagement of NATO in the development of infrastructure that would facilitate the reception of the reinforcement forces in case of threat.

To Liberate Ukraine, Get the Maidan Back in the Fight

By James Rupert

Let’s consider for a moment what has worked, and not worked, in Ukraine’s fight for freedom from Russian domination. What worked was the Maidan – the massive, determined and (almost completely) non-violent protest movement that overthrew the corrupt, Kremlin-dependent President Viktor Yanukovych. What has not worked has been the Ukrainian government’s patchwork counter-insurgency offensive against […]

Russia Warns of ‘Negative’ Consequences if Sweden and Finland Join NATO

By ITAR-TASS

The accession to NATO by Sweden and Finland will lead to dangerous negative changes in the Baltic Sea Region, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

German Official Discloses that NATO To Discuss Sending More Troops to Poland

NATO defence ministers will discuss temporarily reinforcing forces in Poland when they meet in Brussels this week