Russia’s INF Treaty Violations Raise Nuclear Alarm for U.S., NATO
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Russia’s INF Treaty Violations Raise Nuclear Alarm for U.S., NATO
VASYLKIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - A massive fire at a Ukrainian fuel depot killed five people on Tuesday, officials said, including three firemen who went missing after the flames triggered a powerful explosion.
The fire burned overnight and by morning had spread to at least 16 tanks, most of them storing petrol. That sent a pall of black smoke over the area around the depot near Vasylkiv, 30 km (19 miles) from Kiev. The depot's owners said they suspected arson.
"Firemen have the situation ... under total control," top security official Oleksander Turchynov said in a statement.
There was no longer any threat of the blaze spreading and emergency services were putting out remaining fires in the depot, he said.
Entire oil tanks were consumed in the flames, which emergency services had feared would spread to another fuel depot nearby. Weapons and equipment were removed from a neighboring military base to a place of safety.
"The crisis will be resolved entirely within the next 12 hours," Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said in televised comments.
The bodies of three firemen, unaccounted for after the explosion ripped through the area as they battled the fire, had been found, Avakov said. Two other people died and several others were injured, the emergency services said.
Sixty-two fire-fighting units and three trains delivering water and supplies have been mobilized, emergency services said.
Rescuers had evacuated people from within a two-kilometer radius of the fire, Turchynov said.
Interior Ministry official Zoryan Shkiryak said police were investigating three possible causes of the fire -- "violations of fuel storage regulations, technical malfunctions or arson".
The owners of the depot, BRSM-Nafta, said in a statement they believed the fire was the result of an arson attack aimed at damaging its business.
Of the 16 fuel tanks affected, eight had a capacity of 900 cubic meters, while the rest were smaller in volume, the emergency ministry said. The overall capacity of the depot is 25,000 cubic meters.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Serhiy Karaziy; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Richard Balmforth and Andrew Roche)
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More than 6,000 troops take part in ‘Saber Strike' operation
Thousands of troops from 13 NATO allies have been training in Lithuania as part of the annual Saber Strike exercise. More than 6,000 soldiers arrived to take part in the large scale exercises inLithuania's two largest training areas.
Lithuanian Major General, Almantas Leika: "It is the largest exercise of its type in Lithuania during last decade. The aim of this exercise is to train together and ensure that we achieve inter-operability in conducting military operations. Besides this, we continue building and developing trust and confidence among us, among soldiers, commanders and units. Soldiers from our nations, were deployed together on operations numerously. We know each other. Here, during Saber Strike, we'll further what we built previously, and make sure that confidence and trust of each other do not diminish."
The United Kingdom, which contributed participants to Saber Strike, raised its commitment to NATO's new rapid response force on Monday, a day after US President Barack Obama pressed Prime Minister David Cameron over defence spending.
US Major General Mark Mcqueen: "This is a tremendous opportunity to showcase the incredible talent that is embedded in the formation that stands before us this day. With a focus on regional stability, inter-operability, and fostering trust and confidence in our systems, and our command operating systems. This gives us an opportunity to train hard, to hone our skills and to strengthen leadership within our formations. What is standing before us today is the tip of the spear for what exists throughout Saber Strike within Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, representing over 6,000 soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, that are all committed to working together to forge peace in this region and the world."
These latest exercises comes following a drill last month called ‘Lightning Strike' which simulated an attack on Lithuania's new gas terminal; a move the president said was intended to show the Kremlin that the small country can defend itself.
The drill involved some 3,000 troops and also simulated a response to armed groups seizing local government buildings, weapons stockpiles and airports in order to form a separatist government.
The scenario emulated events from last year in Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, when the Black Sea territory was annexed by Russia.
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Washington; and Moscow — Knowing your enemy doesn't just win the war. Sometimes, it also can be critical to keeping the peace.
Such was the case in 1983, during a massive NATO drill to test the alliance's capabilities to respond to a Soviet invasion of western Europe. Unknown to its planners, however, "Able Archer," which envisaged using nuclear weapons to halt the enemy advance, looked to Soviet eyes exactly the way Soviet intelligence had predicted a US nuclear "first strike" would unfold.
Though many of the details of how war was averted remain undisclosed, experts on both sides say the world came to the very brink of nuclear Armageddon through a chain of preventable misunderstandings. It was one of several cold war close calls that convinced Moscow and Washington to step up military contacts and establish formal, as well as informal, channels of communication that might make all the difference in an emergency.
Those old tales are taking on urgent new relevance as the crisis over Ukraine drives East-West tensions to levels unseen since the cold war.
Military machines on both sides are engaged in nearly non-stop war games aimed at displaying their readiness to their jittery publics, and scary near-misses between warplanes are multiplying as Russia's Air Force tries to return to its Soviet-era pattern of global patrolling. All this is happening at a time when dialogue, even at the highest levels, is almost nonexistent.
"Not just communications, but other mechanisms that used to exist are simply not working anymore," says Viktor Baranets, a former Russian defense ministry spokesman. "I don't want to sound alarmist, but judging by the rapid pace of events and growing aggressiveness on all sides, we may be moving toward disaster. It's like we're all priming a bomb, but no one knows when or how it will explode. Gradually, we are moving from cold to hot war."
'We should be having these conversations'
The disconnect between the Russian and American militaries is in part a natural result of the end of the cold war. Most of the old coping mechanisms were scrapped after they became unnecessary 25 years ago. That has left fighter pilots and ship captains today without the experience of their cold war predecessors, who were steeled by regular encounters with the enemy.
But as NATO and Russia broke off relations last year amid the escalating spat over Ukraine, communications at lower echelons virtually ended.
Last month NATO announced that it would set up a cold war-style "hotline" with the General Staff in Moscow. But that came even as NATO kicked out dozens of Russians formerly stationed at its Brussels headquarters.
Pentagon officials say the US decision, alongside NATO, to slash military relations with Russia was the right thing to do "in light of Russia's aggressive actions in Ukraine." Virtually all bilateral engagements were shut down, including military exercises, bilateral meetings, port visits, and planning conferences. They say they continue to maintain "open lines of communication with Russia."
But some experts worry that the hotline may prove far too little as tensions spiral, snap war drills become larger and more frequent on both sides, and genuine efforts to see the other guy's point of view dwindle.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno says the fall-off in communications is indeed of concern.
"I’m a big believer in no matter how big your disagreements are, it’s important that you continue to have discussions," he says. "In my mind, when you’re not talking, relationships can deteriorate faster because you can misinterpret – you don’t quite understand exactly what’s being said, and you don’t have the opportunity to discuss the most difficult issues," he told defense reporters on May 28.
"I believe we should be having these conversations, but we’re not."
Nuclear troubles
Strategic nuclear weapons are still subject to strict controls. Five years ago Russia and the US signed the New START treaty, which holds the two sides to defined numbers of warheads and delivery systems. The treaty has its own apparatus for mutual verification and consultation.
But the late-cold-war treaty that banned all medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe is under new strains, with the US accusing Russia of violations and some Russian politicians openly calling for the accord to be scrapped altogether. Russia is also warning that it might deploy nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its western enclave of Kaliningrad and the newly-annexed territory of Crimea, which could add a nuclear dimension to the standoff.
In the worst case, there is still the "red phone" – not actually a phone, but a priority connection – between the White House and the Kremlin, established in the wake of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. But that's not enough to offset the shift in attitudes.
"Relations are changing in the worst possible direction. We're in a propaganda war, and the realization has dawned that we are not friends," says Viktor Kremeniuk, a veteran Russian America-watcher and author of a new book, "Lessons from the Cold War."
"If something should happen in an area not covered by a specific, preexisting agreement, it's not clear how it would be handled," he says. "Basically, the normal channels of diplomacy are all we've got now."
Growing risk of accident
An air-to-air encounter turned bad is one of the nightmares that plague officials on both sides. Pentagon officials point to an April 2014 incident, in which a Russian fighter plane buzzed a US reconnaissance aircraft and "put the lives of its crew in jeopardy."
"During the cold war, it was routine anytime our reconnaissance aircraft was looking at them, or them at us, that we would be flying in formation in a very predictable way," says Christopher Harmer, a retired naval officer who served as former deputy director of future operations at the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet. That tight formation flying helped keep miscalculations to a minimum, Mr. Harmer says.
But the sort of "reckless" flying demonstrated by the Russian fighter jet represents a shift in tactics. There is little chance it was the act of a show-off pilot, he adds. "Russian pilots don’t do rogue."
The US Navy complains of similar close and "provocative" Russian approaches toward its ships in the Black Sea, including an incident last week involving the guided missile destroyer USS Ross. Russian media accounts of the same event stress the defensive actions of Russian military forces in the face of US "aggressive" moves.
Odierno says that he has endeavored to arrange meetings to discuss rules of engagement. "I’ve actually tried to meet to meet with my Russian counterpart on two separate occasions, and both times they’ve refused to do that in neutral settings. So it’s concerning," because the lack of communication "definitely increases the danger of miscalculations" between the two countries, he says.
"It's depressing to find ourselves back in this situation. Trust is ebbing, tensions are spiking, there's the constant feeling that something could go badly wrong," says Andrei Baklitsky, an expert with the independent PIR Center in Moscow, a think tank specializing in nuclear security issues.
"We need to work out a new set of rules. The way we've been doing things for the past 25 years isn't working in this new situation, so people really need to start talking."
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Hundreds of NATO troops with heavy equipment began a military exercise in Poland on Tuesday, testing the alliance's rapid response readiness in the face of new security challenges on its eastern flank.
The so-called spearhead force was agreed upon at a NATO summit last year in reaction to Russia's role in the separatist fighting in Ukraine which has raised security concerns in other nearby nations that were once under Moscow's dominance.
"It is our unconditional priority to have NATO's eastern flank strengthened," Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys said when asked about the role of the Noble Jump exercises. "I feel safe."
The deployment exercise began with German and Dutch troops arriving near the southwestern Polish city of Zielona Gora to test the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. It will soon move to a test range in nearby Zagan, where more than 2,000 troops will train.
A mobilization exercise was held in April in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The current exercise tests deployment procedures by road, rail and air.
Allied Shield exercises will be held this summer in the region and will involve 14,000 troops from 19 NATO members and three partner nations.
A multinational naval exercise opened on the Baltic Sea last week.
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The Russian government’s violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has recently risen in prominence as a concern in Washington and European capitals. What was originally an arms control issue for the United States has escalated into a major defense and security problem for all of NATO.
Russia’s strategic modernization, nuclear saber-rattling and aggressive bomber patrols throughout the trans-Atlantic region have compounded the alarm over Moscow’s violation of the treaty as well as Russia’s continuing aggression against Ukraine. Moscow’s disregard for long-standing laws, borders and agreements demands a major re-evaluation of Russian goals and strategy. The U.S. and its NATO allies are correctly considering vigorous response options even as American officials prudently game out the likely response of Russia and other critical players. ...
Russia’s strategic modernization, nuclear saber-rattling and aggressive bomber patrols throughout the trans-Atlantic region have compounded the alarm over Moscow’s violation of the treaty as well as Russia’s continuing aggression against Ukraine. Moscow’s disregard for long-standing laws, borders and agreements demands a major re-evaluation of Russian goals and strategy. The U.S. and its NATO allies are correctly considering vigorous response options even as American officials prudently game out the likely response of Russia and other critical players. ...
During a scene that would not be out of place in a Cold War blockbuster, Russian jets flew over a large NATO maritime exercise consisting of dozens of ships and aircraft that were operating in international waters in Baltic Sea on Monday evening. A sailor from USS San Antonio, an amphibious assault ship, was able to capture the moment, showing two unidentified jets flying at low altitude and high speed over the ships. The footage was published on Youtube by the U.S. Navy.
“Sailors and Marines enjoy an air show courtesy of the Russian air force during #BALTOPS2015,” read the posting.
Along with the ships, around 5,600 ground troops are taking part in the joint exercise, which began Tuesday and will end on June 19.
“The goal of these at-sea scenarios is to sustain partnerships, knowledge and skill sets across a broad range of mission areas to strengthen the capabilities of both individual services and our international force,” said the official U.S. BALTOPS website.
Recently, another Russian jet buzzed a U.S. warship operating in the Black Sea.
NATO said in the lead-up to the exercise, which included fourteen NATO members plus Finland, Sweden and Georgia, that BALTOPS 2015 was not aimed at any specific threat. In fact, the exercise is now in its 43rd year. However, the significance and timing of the event cannot be ignored.
Russia and Europe are deeply divided over Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to annex Crimea in March last year and the continued involvement of Russian soldiers in the yearlong east Ukraine war. While Russia has denied its involvement, Europe and the U.S. have enforced strong financial sanctions on Russia last year. Russia has since flown hundreds flights close to the airspace of NATO countries, contributing to tensions not seen since the end of the Cold War.
In east Ukraine, where the Russian military is alleged to be assisting pro-Russian rebel forces, fighting has intensified in recent weeks, despite the signing of a ceasefire in February. Over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian officials have reported that eight soldiers have been killed and five wounded.
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The Russian military has successfully test-fired a short-range anti-missile system, the Russian defense ministry announced Tuesday. The latest move comes four days after Pentagon officials said that the United States was considering deploying missiles in Europe to counter potential threats from Russia.
“The launch was aimed at confirming the performance characteristics of missile defense shield anti-missiles operational in the Aerospace Defense Forces,” the defense ministry said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
According to Lieutenant General Sergei Lobov, deputy commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces, “an anti-missile of the missile defense shield successfully accomplished its task and destroyed a simulated target at the designated time.”
The test's timing is crucial as the U.S. government is considering aggressive moves, including deploying land-based missiles in Europe, in response to Russia’s alleged violation of a Cold War-era nuclear arms treaty, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Last year, Washington had reportedly accused Moscow of violating the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, by testing a banned ground-launched cruise missile.
“The administration is considering an array of potential military responses to Russia's ongoing violation of the INF Treaty,” Agence France-Presse quoted Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, as saying last week. “All the options under consideration are designed to ensure that Russia gains no significant military advantage from their violation.”
In 2015, Russia is also expected to triple the production of missiles -- for use in air-defense and missile-defense complexes -- compared to last year, in a sign that the country is strengthening its missile defense shield.
“The defense-industrial complex has been ordered to step up the production of missiles manufactured for air defense and missile defense complexes by 200%, which is to considerably increase the capabilities of the newly-created arm of the Russian armed forces -- the Air and Space Force,” a source at the Russian defense ministry told TASS.
When Russia annexed Crimea, the Kremlin installed a reputed gangster known as "the Goblin" to run the peninsula. When Moscow's agents abducted Estonian law enforcement officer Eston Kohver, they used a mafia-run smuggling ring to set him up.
And of course, organized crime groups have played a prominent role in the Moscow-instigated conflicts in Transdniester, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Donbas.
It has become something of a cliche to call Vladimir Putin's Russia a "mafia state." But cliche or not, the term actually fits. Not just because the Kremlin and organized crime groups are closely linked. And not just because Moscow uses gangsters as instruments of policy.
The term is most apt because the Putin regime actually operates like a crime syndicate. It uses threats, intimidation, and extrajudicial violence to achieve its goals. It has teams of enforcers to harass, harm, and -- if necessary -- kill its enemies.
It is even structured like a crime syndicate. It is run by a tight cabal of "made men" who oversee their own crews of capos and underbosses.The made men are led by a godfather-like figure whose main function is to settle disputes among them.
The Putin Syndicate has its code and its rituals. It has a team of respectable consiglieres, who, like good little mafia lawyers and accountants, give it a facade of respectability. In this sense, Tom Hagenhas nothing on Sergei Lavrov.
And its goal is simple. Self-perpetuation and self-enrichment.
But just as La Cosa Nostra adorned itself in age-old Sicilian traditions and the venerable rites of Roman Catholicism (recall the chilling baptism scene from The Godfather), the Putin Syndicate cloaks itself in Russian nationalism and Orthodox Christianity.
But all the pomp and ceremony masks a much more banal reality.
Be Corrupt, Be Very Corrupt
Vladimir Yakunin is doing pretty well for himself. According to an investigation by anticorruption blogger Aleksei Navalny, the longtime Putin crony and boss of Russian Railways controls a business empire of offshore companies around the world worth billions of dollars.
"It is an underworld family of the purest kind, and it exists due to its mafia boss, Vladimir Putin, who gives license to steal everything they can get their hands on," Navalny wrote.
Yakunin's case is typical for the syndicate's made men, all of whom have their own little empires: Igor Sechin at the oil giant Rosneft; Yury Kovalchuk at Bank Rossia; Gennady Timchenko at the gas producer Novatek; and construction magnates Arkady and Boris Rotenberg.
Corruption is the Putin Syndicate's lifeblood. It starts at the top and it flows down by design. It isn't a bug in the system, it's a feature -- an essential feature.
"For the Kremlin, corruption has been a reliable means of keeping control over all meaningful elites -- economic, political, municipal, media, even intellectual," Kadri Liik of the European Council on Foreign Relations wrote recently.
"It is the basis of much upward mobility in Russia. In the clientelist system, loyalty rather than merit is rewarded, and access to illicit wealth is the reward as well as guarantee of continuing loyalty."
And the more widespread the corruption, the better. The more people and companies who are corrupt, the more who are dependent on -- and beholden to -- the syndicate.
Indeed, the syndicate's code demands that its members steal, seek rents, and take bribes and kickbacks -- although not in excess of their rank. It also demands total loyalty.
And those "that do not engage in corruption are clearly alien elements to the system," Liik wrote. "What happens to them depends on the circumstances. If they are dangerous, they will be marginalized or isolated, even destroyed."
And this same principle applies to Russia's neighbors.
Making The World Safe For Graft
Putin's syndicate is more than a small-time local mafia. It's an international conglomerate that seeks to spread corruption -- and by extension its reach -- beyond its borders.
In a 2012 report for Chatham House, James Greene noted how Putin sought to gain control over Ukraine and Belarus's energy infrastructure by using murky companies "such as EuralTransGas and RosUkrEnergo as carrots for elites, and energy cut-offs as sticks."
But the approach is about more than just energy policy. It's about control.
Greene wrote that by utilizing "the corrupt transnational schemes that flowed seamlessly from Russia to the rest of the former Soviet space -- and oozed beyond it -- Putin could extend his shadow influence beyond Russia's borders and develop a natural 'captured' constituency for maintaining a common Eurasian business space."
And in this sense, the European Union, with all its transparency and accountability, is a mortal threat. Which goes a long way toward explaining Moscow's approach to EU aspirants like Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
"Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovych was clearly 'Russia’s person' in Moscow’s eyes -- if not by convictions, then certainly by virtue of his corrupt relationships and the ties that these created," the European Council on Foreign Relations' Liik wrote.
"Yanukovych's talks with the EU were therefore viewed by Moscow not even as a rebellion by Yanukovych, but as a hostile takeover attempt by the West."
And when Putin's syndicate was unable to stop this by buying off Yanukovych, it resorted to more extreme measures.
"Russia’s destabilization of Ukraine...should be seen for what it is: a Kremlin containment effort to prevent Ukrainians from achieving a democratically accountable government that would threaten Russia’s corrupt authoritarian system," Christopher Walker, executive director of the National Endowment for Democracy’s International Forum for Democratic Studies, wrote last year in The Washington Post.
In a recent article expanding on this theme, Walker noted that the Kremlin "aims to erode the rules-based institutions that have established global democratic norms and cemented the post-Cold War liberal order." It is also seeking "to check the reform ambitions of aspiring democracies and subvert the vitality of young democratic countries."
The Kremlin frames this in the language of national security and restoring Russia's international role. But at it's core, it is about protecting the interests of a corrupt syndicate.
-- Brian Whitmore
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BAGHDAD—
Three militants disguised in military uniform killed at least eight people in a local government office in Amiriyat al-Falluja in western Iraq on Tuesday, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.
One of the attackers blew himself up inside the building, but the other two were still at large, according to deputy district council chairman Falih al-Issawi, who said he could still hear gunfire.
A further 17 people were wounded in the attack, including the head of the council, Shakir al-Issawi, who leapt from the window of his office after the explosion, a police source said.
In a statement, Islamic State said the three attackers had killed "dozens of apostates."
Located on the western fringe of Baghdad, Amiriyat al-Falluja is one of the few remaining pockets of territory under government control in Anbar province, most of which is held by Islamic State.
Since overrunning the provincial capital Ramadi last month, the insurgents have sought to consolidate their gains in Anbar by attacking the last government strongholds, strung out along the Euphrates river valley.
Iraqi security forces and Shi'ite paramilitaries are meanwhile edging toward Ramadi.
He was seconds away from whipping out his smartphone just so he had something to do
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A video shows Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi and an aide sit down next to Obama on a bench in the hope of engaging him in conversation.
He is already too immersed in one with Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi however, and things soon get awkward.
After an encouraging nudge from his aide, al-Abadi sidles a little closer to Obama, who completely misses this.
Perhaps sparing him further embarrassment, the cameraman then zooms in to cut the Iraqi PM out of shot, who is later forced to simply leave without a greeting, checking his watch as his aide shrugs.
Obama took aim at Vladimir Putin at the summit in Germany, accusing him of trying to 'recreate the glories of the Soviet empire'.
The G8 became the G7 after Russia was suspended following the annexation of Crimea last year.
The pro-Russia separatist regions of Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) just named Crimea as a part of Ukraine in the draft amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine.
That doesn't jibe with claims made by their backers in Moscow.
From the document (translated into English by Business Insider):
"Article 133. The administrative-territorial system of Ukraine contains : Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some regions with special status in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, provinces, districts, cities, districts in cities, towns and villages.
Ukraine is composed of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some regions with special status — the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, Vinnytsa, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Transcarpathian, Zaporizhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Poltava , Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Kharkiv, Kherson, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv regions, cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol."
Asked to clarify, an LNR envoy, Vladislav Deynego, said that it's not their place to "bring changes to the constitution of Ukraine regarding the presence or absence of Crimea," according to Lenta News.
"We are acting exactly within the borders of the Minsk agreement. In the Minsk agreements, there was no mention of Crimea," he added. Consequently, he added, the constitution's draft only reflects the changes with respect to the separatist regions, DPR and LNR.
The interesting thing here is that by labeling Crimea as part of Ukraine, this document directly contradicts Russia's annexation of Crimea with special forces in March 2014.
Twitter/@CanadaNATOA map published by Canada's Mission to NATO when arguing that the Crimea peninsula (marked) is not part of Russia.
Last year, after signing the treaty to annex Criema, Putin drew cultural connections between Russia and Crimea when he addressed both houses of the Kremlin's legislature.
"We all used to belong to the same country: The Soviet Union. ... The Soviet Union has collapsed. The events happened in such a fast way that many of the countries didn't realize. ...
"When Crimea ended up in a different state, Russia realized that not only Russia was robbed, but Russia was robbed in broad daylight."
"Crimea is a Russian land," Putin added.
The West condemns the annexation of Ukraine, calling it illegal. And it seems that the pro-Russia separatists (at least in this document) don't recognize Russia's claim either.
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In the world of diplomacy, "signals" and perceived nuances are vital indicators that governments use to interpret the intentions of other countries. Such signals are especially important when dealing with non-democratic regimes.
Dictatorships tend to see the world in a distorted light, which means that they are prone to misinterpreting the signals. Yale scholar Jack Snyder has described this tendency as "mythmaking." These misinterpretations begin wars, even wars that the regimes are unlikely to win.
Russia's foreign policy makers combine their obsession with personalities with black and white Manichean thinking. Intelligence dossiers on U.S. scholars and officials provide the Kremlin with information on the personalities, biases, and apparent motivations of those in the U.S. administration dealing with Russian interests.
Russian leaders use these dossiers to decipher what an American president and his appointees intend to signal through their statements and actions, regardless of official policy pronouncements or even common sense.
U.S. President Barack Obama has sent some powerful signals to the Kremlin — whether intended or not. Moscow saw Obama's appointment of Michael McFaul and Fiona Hill as his top Russia hands through the prism of their academic writings on democracy promotion in the post-Soviet space.
Putin broke diplomatic protocol during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by accusing McFaul of attempting to organize a color revolution in Russia. Significantly, Kerry did not admonish these unfounded attacks on his own ambassador — an unfortunate signal to Putin.
One can only speculate how the Kremlin interpreted the appointment of Celeste Wallander as the senior director for Russia and Eurasia on the National Security Council — in effect, Obama's current most senior Russia hand together with Victoria Nuland at the State Department. Wallander succeeded Michael McFaul to the position after he departed to take up the position of U.S. ambassador in Moscow.
Wallander has a long record of criticizing not only NATO expansion, but NATO itself. As one of her graduate students in 1998, I attended a Harvard panel at which she spoke.
"How many times do we have to lie to the Russians?" she blurted in a choked voice, referring to U.S. assurances of not expanding NATO beyond East Germany, given to Russia in the 1990s.
Her tone clashed with that of fellow panelist Andrei Kortunov, the general director of the Russian International Affairs Council. Kortunov treated the imminent acceptance of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland into NATO with levelheadedness.
Russia pays careful attention to Harvard faculty whose influence in international affairs, and especially on forming policy on Russia, can be profound.
Moscow's intelligence collection would surely have documented Wallander's public and private anti-NATO proclivities, though her writings on the subject displayed more balance.
Obama's signals to Russia on personnel decisions appear to reinforce other actions.
One was Obama's long apology to Putin, during a meeting near Moscow, for the policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush. Another was the botched attempts at a "reset" following the Russian-Georgian war in 2008.
In a 2012 meeting with Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev, Obama pleaded for Putin to give him more "space" on a range of issues, particularly on the thorny subject of missile defense in Europe. He said, however, that these issues could be ''solved'' later.
"This is my last election," Obama said, apparently unaware that journalists were picking up his comments over an open microphone. "After my election I have more flexibility."
After Putin granted him the requested "space," Obama canceled a long-standing missile-defense project with Poland.
What signals is Obama sending Putin now when he reverses U.S. sanctions on Iran and its nuclear weapons program, announced an intention to end the five-decade ban on Cuba before extracting any concessions from the regime and appointed an anti-NATO scholar to an important foreign policy position?
Obama's careless signals have already been sent, as have Russian tanks into Ukraine.
Fredo Arias-King is founder of the Washington-based academic quarterly ''Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization.''
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Russian federal investigators have launched a criminal case against opposition-minded State Duma Deputy Ilya Ponomaryov, who moved to the United States last summer citing legal troubles at home.
"In view of the fact that Ponomaryov is currently abroad, the investigation plans to issue an international warrant for his arrest and subsequent extradition, so he will face the Russian judicial system," the Investigative Committee said in a statement published Tuesday.
Ponomaryov, a rare voice of dissent amid a devoutly Kremlin-loyal parliament, stands accused of large-scale misappropriations in connection with work he was paid handsomely to do for the Skolkovo Innovation Center, a science and technology initiative spearheaded by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in a bid to bolster Russia's high-tech industry.
The Skolkovo Foundation, which oversees the Innovation Center, agreed to pay Ponomaryov $750,000 to conduct research.
The agreement was later amended, changing the terms and the payment structure. Under the new version, Ponomaryov would receive $450,000 for research, but would be freed from the obligation to file reports on the work he had done. He would still receive the additional $300,000, but now it would be to pay for a series of lectures and workshops on the commercialization of new technologies.
But the appearances he made on the campus left much to be desired, ranging from three to 18 minutes each, and focusing on topics unrelated to that which he was paid to speak about, the investigators said.
Investigators allege that Ponomaryov and the deputy president of the Skolkovo Foundation, Alexei Beltyukov, "created conditions for the theft of Skolkovo's money on behalf of Ponomaryov."
Ponomaryov has adamantly denied accusations of misappropriation, claiming that the charges against him are politically motivated. He has maintained that he cannot return to Russia until the Skolkovo situation has been resolved.
International law firm Amsterdam & Partners announced last week that Ponomaryov had retained its services to represent his interests.
"The charge brought against the Honorable State Duma Deputy Ponomaryov not only lacks merit, it is incoherent to the point that it is not even worthwhile to refer to it as a 'legal case,'" said Ponomaryov's lawyer Robert Amsterdam in the statement.
"Having seen similar abuses of process by the Russian prosecutors in the past, our top priority at this point is to communicate the fundamental absence of grounds of any applicable laws before a number of international forums, such as Interpol," he said.
Ponomaryov was the only Duma deputy to vote against the decision to annex Crimea in March 2014, a move that invited widespread criticism from his more conservative fellow deputies.
Following the 2011 Duma elections, Ponomaryov was one of the organizers of the large-scale anti-government protests in Moscow. In 2013 he stepped down from the A Just Russia party, though he remained within its faction in the Duma at that point.
In April the Duma voted to strip Ponomaryov of his immunity, paving the way to his criminal prosecution.
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Kim Kyung-Hoon / ReutersThis trend has only continued this year, with the number of Chinese tourists to Russia climbing 250 percent in the first quarter.
Even as the flow of Western tourists to Russia decelerates due to international frictions over the Ukraine crisis, tourism from neighboring China is soaring.
Indeed, Chinese tourists last year for the first time became the largest group of foreign tourists to Russia, pushing Germany into second place, according to data from the Federal Tourism Agency. More than 1.1 million Chinese citizens visited Russia in 2014, almost 410,000 of them tourists, the agency said.
This trend has only continued this year, with the number of Chinese tourists to Russia climbing 250 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2014, according to data from Russian travel association World Without Borders.
Russia’s introduction of a visa-free regime for Chinese tour groups, falling prices due to the devaluation of the ruble and blooming political relations between the two countries have all helped bring more and more Chinese tourists to Russia.
But despite this surge in popularity, Russia is not yet even among the top 10 destinations for Chinese tourists, according to data from World Without Borders — despite being just across the border.
In a bid to increase this stake, Russian tourism players are now beginning to cater to the unique demands of Chinese tourists, from hiring Chinese-speaking staff to taking on the intricacies of Chinese cuisine.
Replacing Westerners
With tensions over the Ukraine crisis hitting Russia’s image in the West and elsewhere, China is more important to the Russian tourism industry than ever.
The total flow of tourists into Russia slumped by a third last year, the head of the Federal Tourism Agency, Oleg Safonov, said earlier this year, news agency Interfax reported.
According to industry players, Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine last year and the West’s ensuing sanctions on Moscow are largely to blame for this decline in interest among foreign tourists.
Russia’s largest hospitality industry association, the Russian Tourism Industry Union, said in May that U.S. and European tourists are turning away from Russia over ideology even as tourists from other countries worry about the safety of traveling in Russia, Interfax reported.
But as tourists from other countries look elsewhere, the number of Chinese tourists is climbing thanks to growing political and economic ties between the neighbors and efforts to promote a positive image of Russia within China, experts polled by The Moscow Times said.
Russia has taken a momentous pivot toward Asia, and China in particular, as economic relations with the West come under pressure from U.S. and EU sanctions. The two countries signed a landmark $400 billion gas deal in 2014 and last month closed a raft of further economic cooperation deals, including a $25 billion deal to jump-start Chinese lending to Russian companies.
As these flourishing political and economic relations have helped boost Chinese tourism to Russia, so too have efforts to improve Russia’s image within China, said Vladimir Kantorovich, first vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR).
“Holding numerous events and presentations [in China] in order to show Russia in a favorable light has had positive results,” Kantorovich said.
Future Gold Mine
Efforts to attract visitors from China, the biggest source of outbound tourists in the world, is a growing trend worldwide.
More than 116 million Chinese people traveled abroad last year, spending a total of $160 billion, according to data from the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, an independent institution that studies outbound Chinese tourism.
More and more countries are looking to tap into this fast-growing market, and Russia is eager not to fall behind.
In March, Russia joined Chinese Friendly International, an international association aimed at developing joint initiatives that create hospitality environments geared toward Chinese tourists.
Chinese travelers present a unique challenge to other countries’ hospitality industries. Most speak only their native language and prefer to have traditional Chinese meals every day, even when they are abroad, experts said. Some of their needs can appear peculiar to those not involved in the tourism industry.
“It’s very important for Chinese people to constantly have free access to hot drinking water,” said Anna Sibirkina, the head of China Friendly in Russia.
The project is still in early stages in Russia, with only 13 Moscow hotels participating.
Those who have joined, however, are offering a range of new services, including Chinese-language newspapers and television channels, Chinese breakfasts and Chinese-speaking staff.
Chinese travelers are less profitable for Russian tourism agencies than European and U.S. tourists, as Chinese tour operators tend to arrange everything themselves with very little participation from Russian companies, said Alexander Kurnosov, head of the committee on inbound tourism at ATOR.
But for other parts of the industry, such as hotels and restaurants, Chinese tourists — who spend an average of up to 200,000 rubles ($4,000) per trip, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization — are promising new clientele.
Visa-Free Travel
Russia currently receives no more than 1 percent of the total number of outbound Chinese tourists, but there’s a great deal the industry and the Russian government can do to expand that share, industry experts said.
The main factor that would help attract Chinese tourists is introducing visa-free travel, ATOR’s Kurnosov said. The method has already proven effective: waiving visas for South Korean travelers helped increase the number of tourists by 58 percent last year, according to the Federal Tourism Agency.
Chinese citizens can currently come to Russia without visas when traveling as part of a group of at least five people.
Another factor that limits the flow of Chinese visitors is limited flights between the two countries.
“There are simply not enough aircraft operating between Russia and China,” said Svetlana Pyatikhatka, head of World Without Borders, adding that Russian and Chinese airlines are currently in negotiations to expand service.
Far East Casinos
Moscow is the most popular destination among Chinese visitors to Russia, with 40 percent of all Chinese tourists to Russia in the first quarter of this year bound for the Russian capital, according to data from World Without Borders.
Moscow is followed by the Amur and Primorye regions of Russia’s Far East, which are both located directly across the border with China, the report said.
The Far East has seen a flood of Chinese tourists over recent months as the ruble’s fall of some 40 percent against the U.S. dollar in 2014 enticed visitors across the border for cheap shopping trips, according to ATOR’s Kantorovich.
The generally underdeveloped area has another ace up its sleeve as well: a casino complex under construction in Primorye designed to attract gamblers from across Asia as well as Russia.
Nor are the Far East and Moscow the only areas of Russia looking for an influx of Chinese tourists. Anatoly Pakhomov, the mayor of Russia’s southern resort city of Sochi, recently announced that direct flights from China will be launched in September, enabling up to 2 million Chinese tourists to visit the city every year, news agency RIA Novosti reported.
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President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Italy this week represents an attempt by the Kremlin to capitalize on Rome’s affinity to Moscow despite the stormy ties Russia currently maintains with many other Western states, political analysts told The Moscow Times on Tuesday.
European members of the G7 — Italy, France, Germany and the Britain — signaled at the group’s summit earlier this week that they would support extending EU sanctions against Russia when they convene again at the European Council later this month. The leaders of the former G8 were meeting for the first time since Russia was exiled from the group last year over its annexation of Crimea.
Italy has demonstrated a willingness to foster close ties with Russia, despite the European Union’s overarching position on Moscow’s alleged role in fueling strife in Ukraine. Facing trying economic circumstances, the Kremlin has toiled to nurture every friendship it can find in Europe.
Putin will take part in festivities at Expo Milano 2015, a universal exhibition about food security, alongside Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, according to presidential aide Yury Ushakov.
Appearances are expected to be made by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, Rosneft head Igor Sechin and the ministers of industry and economic development, Denis Manturov and Alexei Ulyukayev.
Putin’s talks with Italian authorities are expected to focus on bilateral economic and energy issues.
Putin will then head to Rome to meet with Italian President Sergio Mattarella. His trip will include a stop at the Vatican to meet Pope Francis.
Exploiting EU Rifts
G7 summit leaders adopted a declaration Monday that said the duration of sanctions against Russia would be linked to “Russia’s complete implementation of the Minsk agreements and respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty.” Russia meanwhile continues to deny that it is involved in the Ukrainian crisis.
The Kremlin seems to have attempted to exploit cracks in the EU’s position, flirting with European governments and political parties that have expressed sympathy toward Russia. Putin hosted Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a staunch opponent to EU sanctions against Russia, in the Kremlin in April. The president also met with Euroskeptic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest to discuss energy issues in March.
Russian officials have also reiterated that the West’s position toward their country is not homogenous. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week that Russia viewed “nuances” in the approaches of the G7 powers toward sanctions against Russia.
“Putin’s meetings in Italy are meant to send the message that it is not only capable of having friendships with the East and the South, but also with the West,” said Georgy Arbatov, a scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank. “Putin wants to show that the West is not united in its position on the Ukrainian crisis and that the G7 can meet all it wants, but its members will still be open to having strong relations with Russia.”
According to Alla Yazykova, a scholar specializing in the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, Italy provides Putin with one of his only opportunities to visit the West. Although it is unlikely that Italy could sway EU policy toward Russia, maintaining warm relations with Rome will help Moscow keep one foot in the West while ensuring that the countries’ bilateral relations will not suffer unnecessarily from the current political tensions between Moscow and Brussels, said Yazykova, who works for the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe.
Renzi has reportedly expressed his objection to EU sanctions against Russia in private. The Italian Prime Minister visited with Putin in Moscow in March, one of the few leaders of European states to have done so since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis. Although no agreements were signed during the visit, Putin said Italy was “one of Russia’s most important partners in European affairs.” Renzi’s visit in March had been his third encounter with Putin since December.
Strong Ties
Sanctions imposed in connection with the crisis in Ukraine have caused upwards of 5 billion euros’ ($5.96 billion at the current exchange rate) worth of direct losses for the Italian economy prior to the plunging of the ruble in late 2014, according to Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo, the TASS news agency reported in February.
Arbatov claims that Russia’s ties with Italy are “extensive” in economic, humanitarian and cultural terms. In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera this weekend, Putin said that bilateral trade between the countries had increased elevenfold in recent years, reaching nearly $50 billion annual. Italy, Putin claimed, was the third largest consumer of Russian energy resources. Putin also said that Russia had always enjoyed a “privileged” relationship with Italy and that trust dominated the countries’ political interactions.
“I would say Putin views Italy as a weak link within the European Union,” Yazykova said. “Russia is looking for a compromise, for the harsh conditions created by the EU to rescind. Out of all EU countries, Italy is one of the few that has been more open to compromising with Russia as a state, but also with Putin as its leader.”
A History With Berlusconi
During his Italian escapade, Putin is also scheduled to drop in on an old friend: former Italian Prime Minister Sylvio Berlusconi, who is currently serving a two-year community service sentence after having been convicted of tax fraud in 2013. He has been ostracized by the current Italian leadership.
Putin and Berlusconi have reportedly entertained friendly ties since the early 2000s. Berlusconi has been a guest at Putin’s dacha in the Black Sea region and has attended Putin’s birthday celebrations. Putin defended the former Italian leader when the “bunga bunga” scandal erupted, a term used to reference the wild sex parties Berlusconi allegedly hosted with underage prostitutes, saying that Berlusconi’s private life would not have ended up in court had he been gay.
Many EU politicians viewed the camaraderie between Putin and Berlusconi with scorn and suspicion. The former Italian leader had also advocated for Russia to join the European Union, much to the dismay of European diplomats. Berlusconi, unsurprisingly, has been a staunch critic of EU sanctions imposed against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
Although Putin’s bromance with Berlusconi is unlikely to help him win over the current Italian leadership, Italian authorities have expressed a willingness to work with Russia, according to Yazykova. Putin told Corriere della Sera that he was once told by a high-ranking Italian official that he was the only person would could maintain friendly relations with both the flamboyant Berlusconi and the reputedly modest former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi.
“The current Italian leaders have always been interested in maintaining contact with Russia and Putin,” Yazykova said. “Italy’s economy has suffered because of the sanctions. The country is interested in keeping the spirit of its relations with Russia from before the Ukrainian crisis. They are interested keeping commonalities alive.”
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Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit said Tuesday that Iran's superior skill at negotiations will give them the edge in getting what they want in the emerging nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
Speaking at the IDC's Herzliya Conference, Shavit said, "Their patience is much greater than the patience of western negotiators. They will exhaust the Americans, they will squeeze them."
Shavit argued that the Iranians will use the fact that US President Barack Obama wants an Iran deal as part of his legacy to their advantage, leveraging his desire to get a deal to extract further Western concessions.
He warned that the world's vigilance in making sure that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon would eventually fade, allowing the Islamic Republic an opportunity to develop a bomb.
"As time goes by and the world is busy with other problems, there will be less attention paid to them."
He warned of the dangers that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose. "A radical Shi'ite leader with his hand on the nuclear trigger is a mind-boggling proposition," he said.
Iran and six world powers are currently seeking to overcome remaining differences with a self-imposed June 30 deadline looming to end a 12-year standoff.
A framework accord was reached between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China on April 2, but several major substantive disputes remain to be resolved, including access for UN nuclear inspectors to Iranian military sites and the pace and timing of sanctions relief for Tehran.
Israel has argued that the emerging deal with Iran is a bad deal that will enable the Islamic republic to remain a nuclear threshold state and that it will allow Tehran to pursue nuclear weapons when it expires in ten years time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Speaking at the IDC's Herzliya Conference, Shavit said, "Their patience is much greater than the patience of western negotiators. They will exhaust the Americans, they will squeeze them."
Shavit argued that the Iranians will use the fact that US President Barack Obama wants an Iran deal as part of his legacy to their advantage, leveraging his desire to get a deal to extract further Western concessions.
He warned that the world's vigilance in making sure that Iran was not pursuing a nuclear weapon would eventually fade, allowing the Islamic Republic an opportunity to develop a bomb.
"As time goes by and the world is busy with other problems, there will be less attention paid to them."
He warned of the dangers that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose. "A radical Shi'ite leader with his hand on the nuclear trigger is a mind-boggling proposition," he said.
Iran and six world powers are currently seeking to overcome remaining differences with a self-imposed June 30 deadline looming to end a 12-year standoff.
A framework accord was reached between Iran, the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China on April 2, but several major substantive disputes remain to be resolved, including access for UN nuclear inspectors to Iranian military sites and the pace and timing of sanctions relief for Tehran.
Israel has argued that the emerging deal with Iran is a bad deal that will enable the Islamic republic to remain a nuclear threshold state and that it will allow Tehran to pursue nuclear weapons when it expires in ten years time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
The UN envoy on sexual violence Zainab Bangura said on Monday that the terrorist group Islamic State is selling girls in territories it controls in Syria and Iraq sometimes "for as little as a pack of cigarettes," she told AFP in an interview.
Sexual violence and female sexual slavery is rampant across ISIS controlled areas, where ISIS combatants refresh their efforts of indenturing girls to sexual slavery once they overrun a territory.
"They kidnap and abduct women when they take areas so they have – I don't want to call it a fresh supply – but they have new girls," Bangura told AFP, adding, "This is a war that is being fought on the bodies of women."
Bangura related to AFP the ordeal some girls have faced after speaking to those who have escaped captivity and were living in refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
"Some were taken, locked up in a room – over 100 of them in a small house – stripped naked and washed," and were then forced to stand in front of men so they could asses "what (they) are worth," AFP quoted her as saying.
Abducting girls has become a key part of the ISIS strategy to recruit foreign fighters who have been traveling to Iraq and Syria in record numbers over the past 18 months, AFP reported.
According to Bangura, "This is how they attract young men – we have women waiting for you, virgins that you can marry," adding "The foreign fighters are the backbone of the fighting."
AFP also cited a recent UN report as saying close to 25,000 foreign fighters from over 100 countries were involved in conflicts worldwide, with the largest influx by far into Syria and Iraq.
Sexual violence and female sexual slavery is rampant across ISIS controlled areas, where ISIS combatants refresh their efforts of indenturing girls to sexual slavery once they overrun a territory.
"They kidnap and abduct women when they take areas so they have – I don't want to call it a fresh supply – but they have new girls," Bangura told AFP, adding, "This is a war that is being fought on the bodies of women."
Bangura related to AFP the ordeal some girls have faced after speaking to those who have escaped captivity and were living in refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.
"Some were taken, locked up in a room – over 100 of them in a small house – stripped naked and washed," and were then forced to stand in front of men so they could asses "what (they) are worth," AFP quoted her as saying.
Abducting girls has become a key part of the ISIS strategy to recruit foreign fighters who have been traveling to Iraq and Syria in record numbers over the past 18 months, AFP reported.
According to Bangura, "This is how they attract young men – we have women waiting for you, virgins that you can marry," adding "The foreign fighters are the backbone of the fighting."
AFP also cited a recent UN report as saying close to 25,000 foreign fighters from over 100 countries were involved in conflicts worldwide, with the largest influx by far into Syria and Iraq.
As the Islamic State continues its efforts to create a "caliphate," killing thousands in its path, the group is also pursuing another campaign: the destruction of historic sites.
The militant group has destroyed numerous sites that have high historic and cultural value. And the destruction is never a coincidence -- as my colleague Ishaan Tharoor writes:
The militants espouse a radical, puritanical strain of Sunni Islam whereby all shrines or holy sites that honor beings lesser than their God are considered apostate.
But as The Post's Loveday Morris reports, the extremists aren't only attacking the sites. They also "have been quietly selling off smaller antiquities from Iraq and Syria, earning millions of dollars in an increasingly organized pillaging of national treasures."
The jihadists' hatred and destruction of ancient artifacts, shrines, statues, even mosques, often recorded and then distributed on social media, have caused global outrage. Here is a look at some of the sites that were destroyed.
Tomb of Jonah
Islamic State destroys 'Tomb of Jonah' shrine in Mosul(0:14)
Militants from the Islamic State, formally known as ISIS, destroyed the Shrine of Yunus Mosque in Mosul, Iraq, on Thursday. This comes on the same day the Iraqi people elected a new president. (YouTube/unknown)
Weeks after the militants seized Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq and one with a rich cultural heritage — it's a holy site for both Christians and Muslims — was ruined.
The destruction of the tomb of the prophet Jonah was one of the first major atrocities against a historic site carried out by the Islamic State, and it "brought a new level of resentment," wrote Morris, one that the lack of electricity and water had not yet caused in the month after the Islamic State seized control of the city.
Nimrud
Video shows Islamic State destroying ancient ruins of Nimrud(1:27)
Social media website video purports to show Islamic State militants destroying the ancient city of Nimrud in Iraq. (Reuters)
In what the United Nations' cultural agency deemed a "war crime," the Islamic State used heavy military vehicles to bulldoze the 3,000-year-old Nimrud archeological site, crushing relics from one of ancient Mesopotamia’s greatest cities.
The famous landmark, discovered in the last century, was known for its "pre-Islamic cultural heritage." According to a Post story from March, when footage was released of the destruction:
The second capital of the ancient kingdom of Assyria, Nimrud was built about 1250 B.C. and destroyed in 612 B.C. At its height, it was the center of one of the most powerful states at the time, reaching through modern-day Egypt, Turkey and Iran.
Hatra
In this image made from a militant video posted on YouTube on April 3, a militant hammers away at a face on a wall in Hatra, a large fortified city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. (Militant video via AP)
Militants used weapons to attack Hatra, an ancient fortress city in northern Iraq.
Video released by the Islamic State shows the militants pulverizing carvings, statues and walls, using guns, sledgehammers and pickaxes. In the footage, one fighter says: "Praise to God, who enabled us and the soldiers of Islamic State to remove the signs of polytheism."
"Until its ravaging at the hands of the extremists," Tharoor wrote, "Hatra was a remarkably well-preserved ancient site. It first rose to prominence in the 3rd century, probably as a garrison town for the Seleucid Empire, one of the quasi-Greek kingdoms that emerged after the death of Alexander the Great and the splintering of his short-lived empire in Asia."
Mosul museum
In this image made from video posted on a social media account affiliated with the Islamic State group on Feb. 26, militants attack ancient artifacts with sledgehammers in the Nineveh Museum in Mosul, Iraq. (AP Photo via militant social media account)
In February, the Islamic State went to the Nineveh Museum in Mosul and used sledgehammers to smash artifacts that were known as some of the most cherished of pre-Islamic antiquity.
The jihadists' reasoning? In the video they circulated on social media, one fighter says:
"These statues, these idols, and these antiquities, when Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, ordered to destroy and remove them, it was an easy matter. … We do not care even if it costs billions of dollars."
Related coverage:
Swati Sharma is a digital editor for World and National Security and previously worked at the Boston Globe.
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Politics | Tue Jun 9, 2015 12:25pm EDT
JERUSALEM
General Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrives to deliver a statement after a welcoming ceremony in Tel Aviv June 9, 2015.
Reuters/Baz Ratner
JERUSALEM U.S. President Barack Obama is weighing steps to bolster Iraq's battle against Islamic State, including expanding the number of training sites for Iraqi forces, but the overall U.S. strategy is not in question, the top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a small group of reporters during a trip to Israel that it was still "to be determined" whether more forces might be needed in such a scenario.
A senior U.S. military official, speaking separately on condition of anonymity, said any decision to expand training of Iraqi forces would likely only require a "modest" increase of trainers and support personnel.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
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World | Tue Jun 9, 2015 1:02pm EDT
JERUSALEM
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey (L) is escorted by Israel's Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gadi Eizenkot during a welcoming ceremony for Dempsey in Tel Aviv June 9, 2015.
Reuters/Baz Ratner
JERUSALEM Iran would likely spend some newfound resources on its military and its surrogates if a nuclear deal can be reached that leads to sanctions relief, General Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, said during a trip to Israel on Tuesday.
But Dempsey said the long-term prospects were "far better" with an Iran that wasn't a nuclear power and reassured Israeli officials that Washington would work to mitigate Iran-related risks, with or without a deal.
"If a deal is made, we've got work to do. If a deal is not made, we've got work to do," Dempsey told a small group of reporters in Jerusalem. "And I think we've built up enough trust and confidence in each other – military to military – that we're prepared to do that work."
(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Susan Heavey)
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Story highlights
- The Pentagon expects the number of sites suspected of receiving live anthrax to go up as its investigation continues.
- The Pentagon's police force is one of the agencies that received questionable U.S. Army shipments of anthrax.
Washington (CNN)The UK has joined the list of countries that unintentionally received shipments of live anthrax samples from the Pentagon.
However, British authorities said the samples, from 2007, were no longer a threat.
"We do not believe there is any continuing health risk to staff or to the public," the UK's Health and Safety Executive said in a statement, noting that the company at issue -- which is not being named -- has been in touch with the Defense Department about the matter.
South Korea, Australia and Canada have already been named as recipients of questionable anthrax samples, along with 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work said last week that he expects the numbers of labs suspected of receiving live anthrax to go up as the Pentagon continues its investigation into the shipments, some of them made via FedEx. When put in the mail, the samples were not believed to contain live samples of the disease.
There have been "no suspected or confirmed cases of anthrax infections" as a result of the shipments, Work said, explaining that the samples that were sent out had very low concentrations of the deadly disease, which could not infect the "average healthy individual."
"We know of no risk to the general public from these samples," Work emphasized.
The four Defense Department laboratories that stockpile anthrax samples for research will test all previously "inactivated" samples to ensure that the anthrax is in fact dead. The department is testing over 400 batches, with live anthrax found so far in four of those batches.
"That is why the numbers may rise," Work said, adding that it takes 10 days to test anthrax samples.
The Pentagon will investigate why the anthrax samples were not properly killed before they were shipped and what protocols and procedures failed in the process.
The press conference was the first public accounting of the investigation into the shipment of live anthrax samples, which was initially reported last week.
The Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the Pentagon's police force, is one of the agencies that received questionable U.S. Army shipments of anthrax. That shipment now must be tested to see if it has live rather than dead pathogen.
The Pentagon police received a shipment of what was supposed to be dead anthrax agent from one of three original lots, all of which are now shown to contain live, rather than dead, anthrax.
Damien Ward contributed to this report.
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You won’t read much about it in the Beltway press corps, but a behind-the-scenes effort is under way to lobby the Federal Election Commission and Justice Department to stifle free political speech the way the Internal Revenue Service did in 2012. Don’t be surprised if the subpoenas hit Republican candidates at crucial political moments.
In late May the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 asked the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Right to Rise Super PAC for violating campaign-finance law. According to the letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, “If Bush is raising and spending money as a candidate, he is a candidate under the law, whether or not he declares himself to be one.”
ENLARGE
Photo: Getty Images
The theory behind this accusation is campaign “coordination,” the new favorite tool of the anti-speech political left. Earlier this year the Justice Department invited such complaints with a public statement that it would “aggressively pursue coordination offenses at every appropriate opportunity.”
Under federal law, illegal coordination occurs if a campaign expenditure (say, a TV ad) mentions a candidate by name in the 120 days before a presidential primary, or if it advocates for a candidate and if the candidate and Super PAC have coordinated the content of the ad.
The liberals claim that a Super PAC raising and spending money in favor of a Bush candidacy should be treated as coordinated expenditures, making them de facto contributions to his campaign.Candidate is the operative word here, a designation that has always been applied to those who announce they are running for public office.
Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer says Mr. Bush should be considered a candidate who is illegally coordinating because if you asked “100 ordinary Americans” if he is a candidate, they will say yes. What a bracing legal standard. What would the same 100 Americans have said about Hillary Clinton in 2013, or Ted Cruz in high school? Where is the limiting principle?
Under actual law, a politician becomes a candidate for federal office when he declares he is, and when he has raised or spent more than $5,000 on the candidacy. Once a candidate declares, he must abide by federal contribution limits of $2,700 each for the primary and general elections ($5,400 per donor per election cycle) and report contributors to the FEC. Candidates considering a run must also abide by the contribution limits to fund specific “testing the waters” activities like taking a poll, but they needn’t disclose donors or expenditures until they make it official.
The liberal accusers say Mr. Bush is over the line because the law defines political contributions and expenditures as money spent “for the purpose of influencing an election.” The problem with that argument is that in Buckley v. Valeo the Supreme Court ruled that the “purpose of influencing” language was unconstitutionally vague unless it refers to advertising that calls for the election or defeat of a candidate.
Justice’s involvement elbows in on the regulatory province of the FEC, an agency explicitly designed with a 3-3 partisan split to prevent it from being co-opted by one party. And that’s the point. Democracy 21 says it is lobbying Justice because the FEC has become “dysfunctional.”
We don’t recall any such cry when the FEC dismissed a similar complaint against the Ready for Hillary PAC regarding an email sent by the independent group to a list-serve provided by Friends of Hillary. The complaint set forth activities that could have constituted coordination with a candidate. The FEC unanimously dismissed the complaint in February 2015 on grounds that Mrs. Clinton was at the time only a potential candidate.
Criticism of the FEC is part of the left’s strategy to turn the commission into its agent to intimidate conservative groups and limit their political speech. The letter writing campaigns use the same accusations about “dark money” that the groups used to lobby the IRS in the 2012 election cycle.
In September 2011, Democracy 21 and the Campaign Legal Center wrote to then IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and Exempt Organizations Director Lois Lerner requesting an IRS probe into whether “certain organizations are ineligible for tax exempt status under section 501(c)(4).” Around the same time, the IRS created its process that targeted conservative groups. The same outfits are back at it, filling the FEC’s docket with complaints that target Republicans or GOP-leaning organizations 75% or more of the time.
If these liberal outfits don’t like Super PACs, they should look in the mirror. Super PACs are the inevitable reaction to campaign-finance limits on candidates. Instead of unleashing another round of political targeting, this time corrupting the Justice Department, true liberals should deregulate politics.
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