Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni arrives to attend the gala premiere in the country’s most famous opera house, Teatro alla Scala, which opened its new season with the Russian opera “Boris Godunov,” Milan, Italy, December 7, 2022 Noam Chomsky once wrote that the astronomical cost of the Bush-Obama wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, estimated into trillions …
Continue reading “Italy distances from ‘cancellation’ of Russia”
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (C) received Russian President Vladimir Putin (L). Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is on the right, Tehran, July 19, 2022 The ongoing unrest in Iran since mid-September following the death of a Kurdish woman in police custody shows no signs of abating as of now. The unrest has drawn support …
French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and US President Joe Biden met in the White House, Washington, DC, Dec. 1, 2022 The state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the United States stands out as a signpost of the alignments taking place against the backdrop of the historic churning in the world order. The two …
Continue reading “Macron’s US visit tells Europe’s alienation”
At least 100 children were killed in a terrorist attack at a school in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 30, 2022 41. US brings culture wars to Afghanistan The time has come to pick up threads from my blog of January 27 titled The West co-opts the Taliban. Indeed, the wheel has come full circle since the …
Continue reading “Reflections on Events in Afghanistan — 41”
Defining moment in the Battle of Donbass, as the 4-month long defiant Ukrainian resistance to the Russian offensive is ending The meet-up location of NATO foreign ministers on November 29-30— Bucharest — was where ten years ago, former US President George W. Bush persuaded America’s transatlantic partners that Ukraine and Georgia should one day join …
Continue reading “Conflict in Ukraine is doomed to escalate”
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with mothers of military personnel participating in the special military operation in Ukraine, Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region, November 25, 2022 Wading through the 18,000-word transcript of an hours-long meeting that President Vladimir Putin took with the “soldiers’ mothers” last Friday in Moscow, one gets the impression that the fighting in Ukraine …
Continue reading “What to expect in Russia’s winter offensive in Ukraine”
Statue of Fidel Castro, first of its kind anywhere in the world, was unveiled by President Vladimir Putin, Moscow, Nov. 22, 2022 A three-meter-tall bronze statue of Fidel Castro was unveiled on Tuesday in the Fidel Castro Square in Moscow’s Sokol District by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in memory of the …
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed President of China Xi Jinping with an official ceremony at Akorda Presidential Palace, Nur Sultan, Sept. 14, 2022. The President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev made a tantalising remark to reporters on Sunday that his country will pursue a multi-vector policy. As he put it, “I believe that given our geopolitical …
At the White House press conference on November 9, when asked about the evacuation of the Russian forces from the Kherson Region and Kherson city, the US President Joe Biden said, “First of all, I found it interesting they (Moscow) waited until after the (midterm) election to make that judgement, which we knew for some …
US president Joe Biden (R) and Chinese president Xi Jinping met at Bali, Nov 14, 2022. Biden said they discussed their responsibility to prevent competition and find ways to work together. The seventeenth G20 Heads of State and Government Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, on 15–16 November stands out as a consequential event from many angles. The international politics …
