In this week’s media must-reads, Robbie Gramer highlights the risks of a NATO policy that overlooks the Black Sea region, where Russia is continuing its military buildup. In the New York Times, Roger Cohen argues that the Obama administration’s policy in Syria is becoming Putin’s policy in Syria. And, in the American Interest, Lilia Shevtsova continues her series on how the West has misjudged Russia.
A dress rehearsal for Russian Navy Day parade in Sevastopol. Photo: Alexei Polishak / TASS.
Changing Tides
Robbie Gramer, Foreign Affairs
In this Foreign Affairs piece, international relations analyst Robbie Gramer shifts our attention from the Baltics to the Black Sea, arguing that Russia’s naval base in Sevastopol allows that country to extend its reach into Turkey and the Mediterranean—a threat that NATO and the West should not take lightly. Gramer suggests that NATO mirror its existing Baltic defenses in the Black Sea, which would mean establishing a rotating air patrol and a permanent naval presence in the region. NATO must not ignore the Black Sea, Gramer writes, or else it will risk “further Russian aggression.”
Eminent Domain, Moscow Style
Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg View
In this article for Bloomberg View, Leonid Bershidsky comments on the Moscow government’s seizure of small businesses that have long flourished near the Russian capital’s subway stations. In light of this demonstration of Putin’s “power vertical,” Bershidsky argues that in contemporary Russia, “the state remains the only true owner of assets, as it was in Soviet times.”
America’s Syria Shame
Roger Cohen, New York Times
In his latest piece for the New York Times, foreign affairs columnist Roger Cohen criticizes Washington’s strategy (or lack thereof) in Syria, arguing that Obama’s indecisiveness has given the Kremlin too much room to maneuver, ultimately at the cost of American interests in the region. Cohen believes that if Washington doesn’t change its policies on Syria, the Kremlin will have an unnecessarily weighty influence on the country’s future.
How Censorship Works in Vladimir Putin’s Russia
Alyssa Rosenberg, Washington Post
Alyssa Rosenberg, a pop culture columnist for the Washington Post, writes about censorship in modern-day Russia and how the country’s artists, authors, and publishers are dealing with the pressure. In response to the arbitrary and ever-changing contours of state repression, Russia’s creative intelligentsia has been forced into self-censorship—a state of affairs that will undoubtedly prove damaging to the country’s exchange of ideas.
How the West Misjudged Russia, Part 5: Peaceful Coexistence. Round Two
Lilia Shevtsova, American Interest
In the fifth installment of her American Interest series, Lilia Shevtsova continues to explore the ideas put out by pro-Kremlin experts (or “pragmatists”) to defend the Putin regime and challenge the Western world. She questions the idea of Russia’s “peaceful co-existence” with the West, reminding readers that similar concepts were exploited by both Lenin and Stalin. Another initiative that meets with Shevtsova’s criticism is Russia’s recent pivot to China, as a meaningful alliance between the two countries may be no more than wishful thinking.
This roundup was compiled by Daniel Frey.
