Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State joins CFR President Richard Haass to discuss the Cold War. Kissinger reflects on the events, personalities, and thinking that characterized the United States and Soviet Union’s leadership.
Let the Past Collapse on Time! by Vladimir Sorokin | The New York Review of Books
From Vladimir Sorokin:
Yeltsin, who was tired after climbing to the top of the pyramid, left the structure completely undisturbed, but brought an heir along with him: Putin, who immediately informed the population that he viewed the collapse of the USSR as a geopolitical catastrophe. He also quoted the conservative Alexander III, who believed that Russia had only two allies: the army and the navy. The machine of the Russian state moved backward, into the past, becoming more and more Soviet every year.
In my view, this fifteen-year journey back to the USSR under the leadership of a former KGB lieutenant colonel has shown the world the vicious nature and archaic underpinnings of the Russian state’s “vertical power” structure, more than any “great and terrible” Putin….A country such as this cannot have a predictable, stable future….
Unpredictability has always been Russia’s calling card, but since the Ukrainian events, it has grown to unprecedented levels: no one knows what will happen to our country in a month, in a week, or the day after tomorrow. I think that even Putin doesn’t know; he is now hostage to his own strategy of playing “bad guy” to the West…..If you compare the post-Soviet bear to the Soviet one, the only thing they have in common is the imperial roar. However, the post-Soviet bear is teeming with corrupt parasites that infected it during the 1990s, and have multiplied exponentially in the last decade. They are consuming the bear from within. Some might mistake their fevered movement under the bear’s hide for the working of powerful muscles. But in truth, it’s an illusion.
Translated from the Russian by Jamey Gambrell.
Read more at Let the Past Collapse on Time! by Vladimir Sorokin | The New York Review of Books.
Margaret Thatcher’s free market legacy | Charles Moore
Margaret Thatcher’s biographer Charles Moore discusses the former Prime Minister’s legacy. Moore provides insights as to how Margaret Thatcher’s stance on the market economy developed and how she popularised it. He seeks to outline her approach to foreign affairs, in relation to the EU, the US, and her broad approach to the Cold War.
George F. Kennan’s Prediction On NATO Expansion Was Right
Interesting argument against further expansion of NATO on Moon of Alabama:
George Kennan was the U.S. diplomat and Russia specialist who developed the cold war strategy of containment of the Soviet Union, though he later criticized its militaristic implementation. In 1998, when the Senate voted to extend NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Kennan was asked to comment. He responded:
“I think it is the beginning of a new cold war,” said Mr. Kennan from his Princeton home. “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever.”
…..”It shows so little understanding of Russian history and Soviet history. Of course there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia, and then [the NATO expanders] will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are — but this is just wrong.”
Read a full report of the 1998 interview with George Kennan at NY Times: Foreign Affairs | Thomas L Friedman.
Vladimir Putin
“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.” ~ Vladimir Putin