Op-Ed: The OSCE Monitoring Mission- Ukraine

By now if you have been following the Ukrainian conflict, you will have seen or noticed and organization that calls themselves the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) the guys driving around eastern Ukraine in white Toyota Landcruisers. Below is a mission statement from their website. Who we are The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that […]

Russia’s youth doesn’t watch TV — and that’s creating a big problem for Putin

The face of the recent Russian anti-corruption protests is young, vocal and fed up with their country’s government. On March 26, the police in Moscow arrested dozens of people who came out in protest of government corruption led by popular opposition leader Alexei Navalny. But unlike demonstrations in the past based in Moscow, more than 90 similar protests took place […]

U.S. defense chief says North Korea has ‘got to be stopped’

LONDON — North Korea must be stopped on its path toward being able to threaten the United States with nuclear attack, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday in a stark expression of America’s top national security concern at the moment. He emphasized diplomatic means of changing Pyongyang’s “reckless” agenda. On his first visit to […]

Russia’s mass protests were a win for Navalny. How will the Kremlin respond?

MOSCOW — A day after Russia’s largest wave of unsanctioned protests in years, opposition leaders on Monday cheered the turnout as a sign of widespread dissatisfaction with the system created by President Vladi­mir Putin. Anti-corruption whistleblower Alexei Navalny has sent the Kremlin a sharp message by single-handedly sparking nationwide rallies noteworthy both for their geographic diversity and the […]

Poland Says ‘No Thanks’ to Used US F-16’s Falcons

It looks like the Polish government has decided not to purchase used F-16’s from the US after all. Poland’s Deputy Minister of National Defence Bartosz Kownacki had said as recently as January that they were considering purchasing 50 to 100 used Falcons. “We are not going to buy used older versions of the F-16,” Kownacki […]

Watch: Ukrainian arms depot explodes in what officials call ‘an act of sabotage’

A Ukrainian military arms depot located approximately sixty miles from fighting with Russian-backed separatists exploded in dramatic fashion on Thursday, in what is being described by local officials as “an act of sabotage.” “According to preliminary data … as a result of sabotage, last night at 2.46 AM (0046 GMT), fire and explosions caused the […]

Link seen between Russia and Libyan commander Haftar: U.S. general

The head of U.S. forces in Africa told reporters on Friday there was an “undeniable” link between Russia and powerful Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar, underscoring U.S. concerns about Moscow’s deepening role in Libya. Earlier this month Reuters reported that Russia appeared to have deployed special forces to an air base in western Egypt near the […]

Russia may be helping supply Taliban insurgents: U.S. general

The top U.S. general in Europe said on Thursday that he had seen Russian influence on Afghan Taliban insurgents growing and raised the possibility that Moscow was helping supply the militants, whose reach is expanding in southern Afghanistan. “I’ve seen the influence of Russia of late – increased influence in terms of association and perhaps […]