[NOTE: Repression of dissent is a communicable disease. How many variants are loose in our own atmosphere? And are we preparing to resist their spread?] New York Times Thousands Swept Up as Kremlin Clamps Down on War Criticism The arrests are a stark gauge of how the Kremlin has intensified repression of critics. At least … Continue reading The Front Lines May be In Doubt, But Putin’s War on Dissenters is Going Great
Two Commentaries by a widely-respected analyst: Russia will not disappear Gwynne Dyer — May 23, 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin will almost certainly not be in power three years from now. The war he foolishly began in Ukraine has fatally undermined his political credibility among the Russian elite (and among a large though mostly silent part … Continue reading Russia’s Future; Taiwan, Ambiguity & Ukraine
Opinion: Thanks, Vladimir Putin, for greatly strengthening NATO From Max Boot – May 17, 2022, in The Washington Post . . . The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine has given the [NATO] alliance a new lease on life, making it more politically united and militarily formidable than at any time since the end of the Cold … Continue reading New Nordic Math: NATO+ Finland & Sweden = VLAD’s Ukraine Boomerang
Washington Post: Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all. Experts anticipated a Moscow-led cyber-assault; instead, unprecedented attacks by hacktivists and criminals have wreaked havoc in Russia. By Joseph Menn — May 1, 2022 For more than a decade, U.S. cybersecurity experts have warned about Russian hacking that increasingly uses the labor … Continue reading War Notes, Monday Threefer: Hackers Attacking Russia; Ukraine’s female minesweepers; and Sketches from Ukraine’s “International Legion”
From: How to End the War in Ukraine, by Alfred McCoy Alfred McCoy is Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of A Question of Torture, and In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power (Dispatch Books). His newest book, just published, … Continue reading A New Idea to End Putin’s War