Reading Russia is never easy. Chatham House recently produced a report on dealing with Russia, written with the help of two former UK ambassadors in Moscow, which painted Russia in almost entirely negative hues. This report lined up with the neo-Cold warriors in Washington and with the prevailing views of Polish and Baltic leaders that see Russia in terms of confrontation and containment.
On the other side of the argument there are the voices of Putinversteher (understanders of Putin), as the Germans call those who seek to explain rather than leap to knee-jerk condemnations of the Russian leader. They include the former UK Ambassador to Moscow, Tony Brenton, Richard Sakwa of Kent University, and the Independent journalist, Mary Dejevsky.
Countdown to War
In an alarming (not to say alarmist) essay, ‘Countdown to War: The Coming U.S.-Russia Conflict’, the Harvard geo-political guru, Graham Allison, writing with Dimitri K. Simes, draws parallels with the current situation to the run-up to 1914: then, just as now, the Great Powers misread each other’s intentions.
