Russian Diplomacy Is Winning the New Cold War

Russian Diplomacy Is Winning the New Cold War

Washington’s attempt to “isolate Putin’s Russia” has failed and had the opposite effect. 

By Stephen F. Cohen

NOVEMBER 21, 2018

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.)

On the fifth anniversary of the onset of the Ukrainian crisis, in November 2013, and of Washington “punishing” Russia by attempting to “isolate” it in world affairs—a policy first declared by President Barack Obama in 2014 and continued ever since, primarily through economic sanctions—Cohen discusses the following points:

1. During the preceding Cold War with the Soviet Union, no attempt was made to “isolate” Russia abroad; instead, the goal was to “contain” it within its “bloc” of Eastern European nations and compete with it in what was called the “Third World.”

Press release on Russia-US-UN consultations on Syria

27 July 201621:04

Press release on Russia-US-UN consultations on Syria

1383-27-07-2016

  

On July 26-27, Geneva hosted Russia-US-UN consultations on Syria. Russia was represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov.

The sides conducted a detailed exchange of opinions on the continued efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, in which intra-Syrian talks in Geneva should play a central role.

Gatilov emphasised the need to launch a dialogue among Syrians as soon as possible without any preconditions. In turn, Staffan de Mistura suggested late August as a tentative time for convening the next round of talks. The Russian spokesman said the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic has already agreed to take part in the talks and emphasised the importance of an inclusive delegation from the Syrian opposition, which should include Kurdish representatives as well as all other opponents of official Damascus that take a constructive approach and seek a comprehensive political settlement of the Syrian crisis.

The Russian spokesman called it unacceptable to make the start of the talks dependent on artificial preconditions and to impose on Syrians settlement solutions from the outside. He emphasised that only Syrian parties should be involved in agreeing the parameters of Syrian statehood at inclusive talks.