Russia
August 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
This Wall Street Journal article is a fascinating behind the scenes look at the prisoner exchange that involved Russia, the U.S. and Germany. The exchange was controversial in Germany because that country released Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a Chechen exile in a park in Berlin. The article is interesting in several ways, but I want to focus on the relevance of
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April 2, 2024 — John Hinderaker
This morning’s New York Times email tells its subscribers that Russia and China are rooting for Donald Trump to win the 2024 presidential election: America’s biggest adversaries evidently want Donald Trump to win the 2024 presidential election. Vladimir Putin’s preference for Trump has long been clear. And now China’s government is taking steps to help Trump’s presidential campaign. The idea that either Russia or China prefers Trump to Joe Biden,
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March 25, 2024 — John Hinderaker
The terrorist attack in Moscow that killed more than 130 apparently was the work of ISIS-K, one of several ISIS franchises. That is what our intelligence agencies say, and I have no reason to doubt it. The fact that ISIS was able to upload video footage apparently recorded by the terrorists would appear to confirm that ISIS was responsible. The London Times reports: A Russian disinformation campaign is attempting to
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March 23, 2024 — John Hinderaker
It is widely believed that Joe Biden’s anti-Israel, pro-Hamas policy is driven by his desperate need to carry Michigan if he is to have any hope of re-election. That seems like a reasonable assumption, although, to be fair, it is also possible that he shares his old boss’s anti-Israel animus. But here is another one: Scoop: The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning senior
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March 5, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Josef Stalin died on this day in 1953. In his sleep; so, like Lenin, Mao and Castro, and unlike Hitler, Mussolini and Ceausescu, he never paid a price for his crimes. The Victims of Communism remember: Stalin died on this day in 1953. He left behind a legacy of terror, famine, and mass murder. Remember the victims. pic.twitter.com/HUBBYUZMwh — Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) March 5, 2024 Stalin ranks second only
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March 4, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In the latest episode of the Hoover Institution’s GoodFellows podcast (with Dan Senor sitting in for H.R. McMaster), Niall Ferguson joined from Jerusalem. He had some advice for Tucker Carlson regarding his misadventures in Putin’s Russia buried at about 43:00 of the video (below). Asked to assess Carlson’s interview with Putin, Ferguson responded: I am beyond disappointed in what Tucker Carlson has become because four years ago he was an
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February 24, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Yesterday in San Francisco President Biden held what the White House termed a press gaggle. In the event it seemed more of a gag than a gaggle. This is the White House transcript of his remarks: Hello, folks. This morning, I had the honor of meeting with Aleksey Navalny’s wife and daughter. As to state the obvious, he was a man of incredible courage. And it’s amazing how his wife
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February 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Before Bob Dylan really made his name in folk music he recorded “Mixed-Up Confusion” — a rock song that was his first single and that anticipated the direction he would go a few years later. Dylan recorded it in the sessions for Freewheelin‘, but Columbia held the original back from his albums until Dylan included it on Biograph in 1985. The song comes to mind in connection with the video
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February 19, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Alexei Navalny appears to have been manhandled if not murdered in the custody of Vladimir Putin. The Daily Mail updates the story here. The tyrant couldn’t stand Navalny’s dissent from his rule or his mockery of it and Navalny has paid the ultimate price. Putin thus finished the job he started with the poisoning of Navalny in the 2020 underpants operation. Paul Gregory set forth the background and the details
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February 18, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I believe this article in the Kyiv Independent is the source for stories, some of them rather alarmist, about comments made by Putin crony Dmitry Medvedev: Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, on Feb. 18 threatened to use nuclear weapons against the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and Ukraine if Moscow loses all occupied Ukrainian territories. *** “Attempts to restore Russia’s 1991 borders [i.e., Russia’s borders before its
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February 17, 2024 — Scott Johnson
As part of his celebration of life in Putin’s Russia, Tucker Carlson took a side trip to the grocery store during his visit to Moscow. Like the political pilgrims of old, he was impressed. It somehow “radicalized” him — “against American leaders.” Drawing on NRO, Ed Driscoll has more here. What’s wrong with this picture? Tucker Carlson bragging that Russia is better than America because groceries are cheaper in the
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February 16, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Via InstaPundit, re today’s absurd order from rogue judge Arthur Engoron: Between the United States and Russia, one country just arbitrarily seized the assets of an oligarch opposed to the regime, and is trying to jail him The other country is Russia — Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) February 16, 2024 There are obvious differences between our regime and Russia’s, starting with the fact that the Biden Administration has not yet actually
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February 16, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Alexei Navalny’s widow (assuming the Russian government’s announcement of his death is true) was at a security conference in Germany when she got the news. She delivered these impromptu remarks to that group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk7DC-So6w8 Vice president Kamala Harris reportedly was in the audience. It occurs to me that Harris would never have been capable of delivering such a powerful, coherent statement, let alone doing so under such tragic and emotional
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February 16, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Alexei Navalny has reportedly died in a Russian prison, a victim of Vladimir Putin’s murderous tyranny. He was 47 years old. Navalny’s death in prison represents one of Putin’s genuine achievements. I don’t believe Tucker Carlson thought to bring up Navalny’s incarceration during his recent interview with Putin. It certainly provides a timely contrast with Carlson’s celebration of life in Putin’s Russia. As Bob Dylan put it, take the rag
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February 15, 2024 — Scott Johnson
On his current visit to Moscow Tucker Carlson is repeating the old phenomenon of political pilgrimage. Paul Hollander devoted an entire book to it 40 years ago — Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society (1981). (The original subtitle of the book was Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba.) Hollander’s book was a powerful antidote to the phenomenon, but it did not
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February 9, 2024 — Steven Hayward
Geez, from the way the left is reacting, you’d think Tucker Carlson was doing an imitation of the New York Times‘ Walter Duranty, and slobbering over a Russian dictator and whitewashing the scene. Oh, wait. . . It’s pretty clear that the mainstream media is angry at Carlson because he didn’t get their permission to interview Putin, and moreover won’t agree to stick with the approved narrative. I haven’t had
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January 19, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Suddenly, there is talk everywhere of war in Europe. On Monday, I wrote about warnings from Germany and Sweden of a possible Russian invasion. The drumbeat continues. The London Times lays out a scenario for a Russian attack: A few years after a break in the fighting for Ukraine, the Kremlin seizes its moment and strikes at the Baltic states. While Nato forces clog up overstretched roads and railways across
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