Russian Discussion Club

Interest both in the US media and in OLLI has diminished considerably as events in Ukraine and Russia have become overtaken in importance by our new War on ISIS. For that reason, I am suspending meetings of the group until further notice. If events warrant, I will resurrect the group.

Gordon

Remember that we meet again on Friday, Sept 26, at 9:30 in the Tallwood Annex. Only about five people showed up for the last session, so if interest continues to be low this week, I will go ahead and dissolve the group. It looks stalemated and is apt to drag on for years (see Georgia-Russian relations).

A former US Ambassador to Ukraine recently visited Kiev and provided this recap of his impressions: http://tinyurl.com/nbppjf4

Last Tuesday’s Washington Post featured an editorial on the Ukraine crisis entitled “Making Mr. Putin feel the heat of sanctions” arguing for greater sanctions. This is a quote:

“The status quo in eastern Ukraine should not be acceptable to the United States or any European nation…… Mr. Putin has paid an insufficient price internationally for invading an independent country.”
That raises some interesting questions for our discussion tomorrow:
1. Which vital “US national interest” is involved in Ukraine’s independence?
2. Why is it OK for example to bomb Syria, Libya, and Serbia as long as we don’t put boots on the ground? Isn’t bombing a violation of national sovereignty?

A draft truce has been agreed to between Kiev and the Donbas — anyone think this one is going to last? I would think it depends greatly on whether the two sides can agree on what constitutes the new borders and thus how much territory Kiev will effectively cede.

For an interesting outlook on Putin’s plan for Ukraine and a controversial concept for thwarting it, see the latest issue of Foreign Policy at http://tinyurl.com/o4yqjo8.

For background on Anne Applebaum’s contention in The Washington Post that Putin might be willing to drop a nuke on Warsaw or Tallinn, see http://tinyurl.com/l69waxs.

Found an interesting, informative article in the current edition of Foreign Affairs on this subject. You can read it at: http://tinyurl.com/pmwn6zc

Based on the club’s discussion at out last meeting on Aug 25, a consensus was reached that we do not need to meet weekly and perhaps once a month would be adequate.

The OLLI Calendar lists the following meetings: Sep 15 at noon in TA-1, then at 9:30 on Sep 26, Oct 10, and Oct 24 in the Tallwood Annex. Those dates and times were negotiated to avoid conflicts with other OLLI activities, so I’ve decided to stick with that schedule.

If events warrant, I will call for an additional meeting when I can arrange a time and place with the staff and post the announcement on this blog.

Since our last meeting on Aug 25, NATO claims that Russian troops in large numbers have entered Ukraine headed toward Mariupol, the Ukrainian port on the Sea of Azov. Some analysts fear that this represents a third front aimed at shifting Ukrainian forces from the siege of Donetsk and Lugansk or even a direct thrust at opening a land corridor to Crimea.

Moscow admits that some Russian troops have taken leave from the Army and have volunteered to join the armed forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic to fight against the fascist hordes controlled by the illegal Kiev junta. Although they allegedly do not represent the Russian Ministry of Defense, it seems odd to me that they were allowed to bring their tanks and self-propelled artillery with them. The US Army has much stricter rules on the use of “service weapons.”