In These New Times

“This is a world where we need to work with the Russians,” a senior State Department official said Tuesday. “This is not about the United States versus Russia.”

Senior State Department officials said there was no “point in making hollow threats” toward Moscow. In the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American public has no interest in getting into a direct — or indirect — military confrontation with Russia in the Ukraine, Syria or virtually any other nation.

Notwithstanding the presence in the State Department of the likes of Clintonites like Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Victoria Nuland, these briefings do not indicate New Cold War perspectives

Japan Times

28th February, 2014

Days after his ally Viktor Yanukovych was ousted as Ukraine’s leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 150,000-troop Russian military exercise on Ukraine’s border. The fall of Yanukovych — and Putin’s potential response to it — has reignited a debate in Washington on how to respond to the assertive Russian leader.

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