US climbs escalation ladder in Ukraine

Building hit by 6 US-made HIMARS missiles on New Year Day killing at least 89 Russian conscripts, Makeyevka, Ukraine  In all probability, the message conveyed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from his American counterpart Antony Blinken via Israel’s new foreign minister Eli Cohen concerned the Ukrainian missile attack on Makeyevka (Donetsk) on New Year …

With eye on Iran, Netanyahu wades into Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a meeting in Sochi (File photo) In his second coming as Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has hit the ground running. The international climate in which he skilfully operated for close to 15 years in two stints as prime minister has changed beyond …

Ukraine war tolls death knell for NATO

President Vladimir Putin addressed an expanded meeting of the Russian Defence Ministry Board, Moscow, Dec. 21, 2022 The defining moment in US President Joe Biden’s press conference at the White House last Wednesday, during President Zelensky’s visit, was his virtual admission that he is constrained in the proxy war in Ukraine, as European allies don’t …

NATO nuclear compass rendered unavailing

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) with Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, Minsk, December 19, 2022 The visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Minsk on Monday, accompanied by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, turned out to be immensely consequential for European security.  Putin drew attention to it rather obliquely at his news …

Demons creep up from Europe’s attic

‘Reichsbürger’ at a rally in Berlin: Neo-Nazi, or just a crackpot? The visit of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to New Delhi had an anti-climatic ending. Baerbock waxed eloquently about Germany as a paragon of democratic values and claimed affinity with India. She hoped to persuade Modi government to disengage from strategic partnership with “authoritarian” …

Italy distances from ‘cancellation’ of Russia

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 …

The G20 is dead. Long live the G20

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 …