Ukraine

Plus: Larry Fitzgerald reminds us how great Jerry Rice was, exaggerated crime on TV, and diplomatic blunders.

Plus: Larry Fitzgerald reminds us how great Jerry Rice was, exaggerated crime on TV, and diplomatic blunders.

Plus: Larry Fitzgerald reminds us how great Jerry Rice was, exaggerated crime on TV, and diplomatic blunders.

On November 25, Russian military forces opened fire on three Ukrainian ships off the coast of Crimea, rammed one of them, and seized all three. The ships were manned by 23 crew members. Ukrainian authorities say between three and six were injured.

Vladimir Putin’s deliberate provocation is important. What’s more important is the U.S. response.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

The outgoing U.N. ambassador calls attacks on ships an ‘arrogant act’ and violation of international law.

The secretary of state faced lawmakers still angry about the president’s Helsinki press conference.

Robert Zubrin reviews Timothy Snyder's 'The Road to Unfreedom'

How Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko was forced to fake his death.

Hosted by Charlie Sykes.

There is no proof of a quid pro quo with a government wary of "irritating the top American officials."

The State Department signed off on a potential $47 million sale of 210 Javelin anti-tank missiles and 37 launch units to Ukraine Thursday, moving the planned purchase one step closer to completion.

Special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians on Friday for their efforts to interfere with the U.S. political process. In the days since, President Donald Trump has taken to Twitter, pushing back hard on suggestions that his campaign colluded with the Kremlin, denying that he said Russia…

Four days after his surprise indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for conspiracy against the United States, special counsel Robert Mueller revealed a new plea deal Tuesday, with Russia-connected lawyer Alex Van Der Zwaan. Mueller charges that Van Der Zwaan lied to FBI…

The Polish poet Adam Zagajewski was born in the ancient capital of Lvov, but cherishes no early memories of the city. Lvov was occupied by the Germans at the time of the poet’s birth. After the Red Army occupied the city at the end of World War II, Zagajewski’s family was forcibly repatriated—or…

The Trump administration hit 30 Russian and Ukrainian entities with sanctions Friday in an effort to pressure the Kremlin over its role in the continued violence on Ukraine’s eastern border as well as its occupation of Crimea.

The Obama administration will be remembered for a number of disgraces in foreign affairs, prominent among them its terrible deal with Iran and its dithering over the war in Syria. Deserving of a place on that list is America’s acquiescence in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, to which the Trump…

The Trump administration has given the green-light for the commercial sale of some lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, a move that lawmakers and experts hailed as a sharp reversal from Obama-era policies. But some also hope the decision is an intermediary to a bigger step: sending defensive…

Ukraine is living through its bloodiest year in the conflict on its eastern border since it began in 2014, the Trump administration’s envoy for the crisis said Tuesday.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors filed evidence late Friday afternoon to demonstrate that Paul Manafort violated a court-mandated gag order by contributing to an op-ed defending himself in a Ukrainian newspaper.

Congressional negotiators approved a series of measures to counter Russian activities and influence in this year’s annual defense bill, including an authorization for providing Ukraine with lethal defensive aid and an initiative to bolster counter-propaganda efforts.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, On the 85th anniversary of the "Holodomor," TWS contributor Andrew Stuttaford talks with host Eric Felten about the Soviet Union's murder, by starvation, of 4 million Ukrainians.

Just occasionally, the United Nations gets things exactly right. A fine example of that is the recent release of a report from its special investigative mission on human-rights abuses in Crimea. The U.N. verdict? There have been “multiple and grave” violations—up to and including illegal detentions…

GOP lawmakers are waiting on the White House to act on recommendations from top officials to send lethal defensive aid to Ukraine.

Watchers of Ukraine’s NewsOne television channel on September 25 were treated to what was suggested to be a congressional hearing in Washington about corruption in the National Bank of Ukraine (the NBU), which is the Ukrainian equivalent of the Federal Reserve Board.

The Trump administration is considering sending lethal defensive aid to Ukraine, defense secretary Jim Mattis said during a visit there Thursday.

The Trump administration is not ruling out providing Ukraine with defensive weapons in its fight against Russian-backed separatists, a State Department official told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, though the administration is focused on a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

Don't look now, but Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine isn't going how he expected.

The Trump administration is giving serious thought to providing Ukraine with lethal defensive aid, Arizona senator John McCain told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, a move that is likely to rile the Kremlin if realized.

The United States might waver on Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia but Europe will not, the European Union's foreign policy chief said Friday, so long as a standing agreement to stop the fighting in Ukraine is not fully implemented.

A top Republican senator is urging President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive aid as the fight there against Russian-backed rebels has again intensified in recent days.

The United States will never successfully partner with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Arizona senator John McCain warned Thursday, in an apparent rejection of vows from the president-elect to improve relations with the country.

The U.S. State Department updated its travel warning for Ukraine this week, backing off a recommendation that U.S. citizens currently in Crimea and the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk leave the area. The warning posted Wednesday advises U.S. citizens "to avoid all travel to" those regions of…

Top Republican senators tell THE WEEKLY STANDARD they don't know what a Donald Trump administration will mean for Ukraine, but they plan on urging his team to support the country in its fight against Russian aggression regardless.

Paul Manafort, the Republican campaign veteran who is chairman for Donald Trump's White House bid, was reportedly engaged in a secret effort to influence Americans on behalf of the reigning pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The Associated Press has the story:

In the New York Times's recent report on Trump aide Paul Manafort's possibly illegal payoffs from pro-Russian interests in Ukraine, there's this curious detail:

Earlier this year, Michael Warren wrote about Paul Manafort's involvement with the Trump campaign. From the outset, there were questions about his lobbying for foreign strongmen, particularly his involvement with Viktor Yanukovych and Russian interests in Ukraine. "Manafort was instrumental in…

As Ukraine fears a new Russian offensive "at any time," Republican lawmakers are remaining silent on the Trump campaign's reported role in scaling back calls for assisstance to the eastern European country in the Republican party platform.

After Donald Trump said Sunday that Russian president Vladimir Putin wasn't "going to go into Ukraine", most media outlets seized on the fact that Putin illegally annexed Crimea, formerly a part of Ukraine, in 2014.

The speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament said that a Hillary Clinton presidency would not be good for U.S.-Russian relations, Russian media reported Sunday.

As the 2016 Republican National Convention began, GOP chairman Reince Priebus spoke with confidence about the coming transformation of presumptive nominee Donald Trump. "He knows the pivot is important," Priebus said. "He has been better and I think he's going to be great moving forward." Priebus…

Donald Trump insulted a Gold Star family who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, denied a years-long incursion by Russia into Ukraine, and voiced support for the Russian annexation of Crimea in a single interview Sunday.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday in Moscow, a meeting that stretched to one in the morning, according to Kerry. Although the session centered on Syria and restoring the "cessation of hostilities", spokesperson John Kirby noted that Kerry also raised…

It's said that hopeless causes are the only ones worth fighting for. At first blush, that's Ukraine. On a recent visit to Kiev, we heard account after account of the problems facing Ukraine, the two most serious being corruption and the ongoing conflict with Russia. Two doozies, to be sure.

Kiev

In defending the Iran nuclear deal to Congress, President Obama and his staff argued repeatedly that rejection would leave America in dire isolation at the United Nations. Obama can now relax. Having used slash-and-burn executive tactics to roll right over a dissenting majority in Congress and a…

Mariupol, Ukraine

Has NATO become a paper tiger, trying (and failing) to stand up to a resurgent Russian bear? A speech by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Wednesday addressed this issue, discussing both the challenges facing the 66-year-old alliance,…

Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Vladimir Putin in Sochi, the State Department announced today. They are expected to discuss Iran, Syria, and Ukraine. 

A month and a half has passed since Boris Nemtsov, the Russian political activist who rose to prominence as a dynamic young reformer in the 1990s and later became one of the fiercest critics of Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule, was shot dead a few blocks from the Kremlin. The shocking murder,…

Last week’s Minsk agreement, by which France and Germany in effect codified the cession to Russia of Kiev’s sovereignty over southeastern Ukraine, has temporarily taken the issue of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine off the table and thus off the conscience of the West. But the question whether the…

... “getting worse every day” and Western efforts to deter Russian intervention are having little effect … That was the testimony of NATO’s top military commander, Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, on Wednesday.  As the Washington Post reports, General Breedlove told the House Armed Services…

The CBC reports that:

Former Texas governor Rick Perry is taking on Russian president Vladimir Putin. The possible presidential candidate says that the "peace and security of the world" depends on how America deals with Russia.

Lucian Kim at Reuters writes that:

Anton Zverev of Reuters reports that

Warsaw

In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, President Obama mistakenly gave Vladimir Putin a promotion in the Russian president's previous career in the KGB, saying that Putin "ran the KGB."

Munich

Vice President Joe Biden had an interesting exchange with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. The two were speaking in front of reporters at the Munich Security Conference. 

Vice President Joe Biden is in Europe today where how spoke out against Vladimir Putin's aggression toward Ukraine.

That, according to CNN, is how one “senior State Department official describes things in Ukraine.  This is, the official say, because:

Ever since March 2014 when President Obama referred to Russian aggression against Ukraine as an "invasion," administration officials have avoided that word in conjunction with the ongoing conflict. In fact, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt's declared on April 29, 2014, that "Russian…

According to this Reuters headline, Germany is getting its game face on

MNSBC's Andrea Mitchell knocked President Obama's description of the world in the State of the Union address as "not close reality":

In April, the Obama administration announced plans for financial aid, advisers, and 'non-lethal' security assistance for Ukraine in its struggle against Russian encroachment on its territory. Eight months later, citing the "urgent and compelling need to establish security and stability," the White

A year ago, Ukraine’s “Euro-maidan” protests, spurred by then-president Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to reject a promised trade agreement with the European Union and rush into the well-paid embrace of Vladimir Putin, began to escalate in Kiev, turning to violent clashes with government forces. A…

Europe is experiencing increased, and threatening, intrusions by Russian aircraft and:

The shaky cease-fire in Ukraine may be falling completely apart.  Reuters is reporting that:

While some in Congress have warned that Russian involvement in Ukraine portends a "looming" new cold war, Obama administration officials have for the most part brushed off the comparison. The president himself flatly said in July in response to a reporter's question regarding the Ukrainian…

Gdansk

The conflict in Ukraine took some dramatic turns this month that led many observers to conclude that the Kremlin was succeeding in its effort to keep Ukraine under Russia’s thumb, with the collusion of a spineless West. Actually, while Russia has wrested some concessions, the handwringing is…

Vladimir Putin’s efforts to establish hegemony over Ukraine may now have reached a decisive point both for the balance of power in Central and Eastern Europe and for the NATO alliance. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko warned on August 30 that Russia’s invasion of his country and extensive aid…

House Speaker John Boehner has invited Ukraine president Petro Poroshenko to address a joint session of Congress. The speech is scheduled for September 18.

"Maybe it’s all a matrix and we’re all like programs written by somebody else. .  .  . And none of us really exists, just the matrix. The program works, you live your life and think everything’s fine. Here you are drinking coffee right now. But there is no coffee—it doesn’t exist.” So mused Fyodor…

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on why you shouldn't bet on President Obama using any muscle on his foreign policy.

At this writing, it seems that the hundreds of trucks sent by Moscow with supplies for the residents of Eastern Ukraine will be delivered without further incident. For over a week, the long convoy wended its way toward the Ukrainian border, carrying with it the prospect for a spike in tensions…

New rule for investors: Don’t listen to stock tips from White House flacks. As Steven Dennis of Roll Call writes, then White House press secretary Jay Carney said at the March 18 daily dog and pony show, when asked about the effects of sanctions on Russia:

Russia has "outright lied" to the United Nations about its actions in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power charged during an emergency meeting Thursday of the Security Council. "At every step, Russia has come before this Council to say everything except the truth," Power said. "It has…

Less than a week before President Obama and other NATO leaders gather in Wales for a two day summit, NATO is accusing Russia having "well over 1,000 troops" in Ukraine where Russian-backed separatists continue to skirmish with Ukrainian forces. This latest development underlines a statement on the…

After news broke this morning of Russia furthering its invasion of Ukraine, the White House announced that President Obama will meet with the National Security Council later this afternoon in the Situation Room:

Kateryna Choursina, Volodymyr Verbyany and Bryan Bradley of Bloomberg are reporting that:

The BBC is reporting that:

The various wars in the Middle East and the apparent re-involvement of the U.S. there have temporarily overshadowed tensions in Ukraine. But today, as Jake Rudnitsky, Daryna Krasnolutska and Patrick Donahue of Bloomberg report:

As part of the U.S. Crisis Support Package for Ukraine announced by the White House in April, the State Department awarded a $435,000 contract to B.K. Engineering System in Kyiv for razor wire to help "defend the newly imposed borders between Ukraine's mainland and the Crimean peninsula." The…

Kristina Wong of The Hill reports that:

Sanctioned, but so far undeterred, Vladimir Putin is making the Russian presence felt on the Ukraine border.  As Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times report:

CNBC reports the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute, is saying that

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the United Nations, the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine, and the crisis at the southern U.S. border.

The boss appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe Thursday and discussed the geopolitical fallout from the attack on the Malaysian airliner shot down by Russian-backed separatists over Ukrainian territory.

Vladimir Putin does not seem inclined to talk nice and patch things up with the West. To the contrary, he is drawing lines. They may, or may not, be “red." He seems confident enough not to need the modifier.

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with senior writer Stephen F. Hayes on Obama, Putin, Ukraine, Netanyahu, Hamas, and Israel.

President Barack Obama spoke on the White House lawn Monday morning about the downing of a Malaysian Airlines airplane flying over Ukraine last week by pro-Russian separatists there.

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with editor William Kristol on the happenings this week in Ukraine, Israel, and the United States.

We've been seeing short clips from President Reagan's address to the nation a few days after Korean Air Lines fight 007 was shot down by the Soviet Union. But it's worth reading the whole text to remember what an eloquent, serious, tough, and thoughtful American president says--and does--in such a…

The world continues to ask questions about who is responsible for the July 17 downing of Malaysia Airlines (MH) flight 017 as it was crossing the airspace over the border between Russia and the eastern region of Ukraine near the city of Donetsk. The aircraft, a U.S.-made Boeing 777, was by all…

Max Boot, writing for Commentary: 

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with executive editor Fred Barnes on Ukraine, the crash of MH17, and the rise of Texas Governor Rick Perry.

I taught for a year at the Kiev-Mohyla University in 1993-94 and returned to Ukraine this June after an absence of twenty years. Things here have changed.

Kiev

In an interview to promote her book on BBC, Hillary Clinton called the Russian so-called reset "a brilliant stroke." The statement came in response to a question about whether she was in retrospect embarrassed about the policy.

Reuters is reporting that:

In Bénouville, France, Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin have gone out of their way to ignore each other.

The Ukraine crisis continues and intensifies, despite the recent election. This morning, the BBC is reporting that:

It is an uncomfortable fact that several European countries depend on Russia for energy and the situation in Ukraine has jeopardized that arrangement. Today, as Vanessa Mock of the Wall Street Journal reports:

In the Ukraine crisis, the weapons of choice for the Obama administration and NATO have been lots of stern talks followed up by exceedingly anemic sanctions.

Given the lack of foreign policy success with "red line" threats of military force, the Obama administration has apparently broadened the definition of "use of force" to include financial threats of red ink against Russia for recent actions in Ukraine. U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Matthew…

It's hard to look on the bright side of the dismemberment of a sovereign state by force of arms. But because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the ongoing threat Vladimir Putin intends to pose to eastern Ukraine, the Obama administration must now face international reality free of one of its…

The administration is playing hardball with the Russians.  Among other tough measures, it has, as Peter Baker of the New York Times reports:

The continuing Ukraine crisis raises both a critical “what if?” question and a pressing policy issue. What if, in April 2008, the Europeans had not rejected President Bush’s proposal to bring Ukraine and Georgia onto a clearly defined path to joining NATO? And today, urgently, should we try again…

After separatists in the Ukraine shot down two government helicopters and violence escalated, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin issued the following statement, as reported by Neil MacFarquahar and Alan Cowell of the New York Times:

Barack Obama's approval rating is at its lowest ever, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Just 41 percent of American adults approve of his job as president, with 52 percent saying they disapprove. That's the worst rating Obama has received in a Post-ABC poll since he became president…

New York 

Secretary of State John Kerry has now deployed the full rhetorical arsenal against the Russians and their slow march on Ukraine. As Justin Sink of The Hill reports,

The situation in Ukraine worsens and Putin makes ever more menacing noises. 

Vice President Biden addressed Ukrainian legislators Tuesday in a committee room of the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, where he began his remarks by thanking the legislators for "making me feel relevant again." Biden is in Ukraine to show support for the Ukrainian government as that country faces…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior editor Lee Smith on why the U.S. needs to push back against Vladimir Putin.

The crisis in Ukraine has not reached the dreaded point where it turns into a shooting war.  And likely it will not.  So we hear no urgent analysis of things like objectives, interior lines, unity of command, logistical staying power, the durability of alliances, and the other matters that have…

A new Gallup poll of Ukrainians undermines the main rationale for Russia’s aggression towards its neighbor and calls into question the U.S. approach to diplomacy with the Russians, which treats some of the Russian claims as legitimate. The findings of the national survey also cast further doubt on…

It is a decade since America confronted the question of just how much financial assistance to provide Iraq, then burdened with billions in debt incurred by the Saddam Hussein regime. Now we face a similar problem in Ukraine, the important difference being that Iraq’s huge but mismanaged oil…

Throughout the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has insisted that the Euromaidan protests against the pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovych were driven by far-right groups, fascists, or even “neo-Nazis” and that Yanukovych’s downfall has brought these dark forces into the corridors of power. These claims…

The situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate, providing Russia with what it considers a case for intervention.  As James Marson and Lukas I. Alpert of the Wall Street Journal report this morning:

The Ukraine crisis may end not with an invasion, but a lien. As Reuters reports:

Secretary of State John Kerry believes that, 

Travelling from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, to Mostar, a city almost midway toward Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Coast, one drives through a stunningly-beautiful landscape of mountains, forests, and rivers. On a recent trip, however, I observed a surprising sight: four gas stations…

The non-military measures taken against Russia for its actions in Crimea and against its threatened invasion of Ukraine has not, as yet, had any discernible military effect. Reuters reports that NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, "said on Tuesday he had seen no evidence that Russia is…

Despite the Russian troops massing on the Ukainian border and Russia's "illegal and illegitimate" actions so far, Secretary of State John Kerry told the press in Paris last night after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov that, according to Lavrov, "Russia wants to support Ukraine in its…

The failures of American will exposed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are numerous and mounting. Coming on top of the tepid response to China’s declaration of an air defense identification zone over Japanese waters and the withdrawals from Iraq, Afghanistan, and the “red line” in Syria, they have…

It's time for a reset for U.S. policy toward Russia. The original Obama reset has now run its course, and President Vladimir Putin has thoroughly dashed all hope of Russia emerging as a partner of the United States and a constructive contributor to a liberal international order. The armed takeover…

On February 22, popular protests led to the fall of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev. On February 27, in response to this setback, President Vladimir Putin sent forces into Crimea to seize it from Ukraine. On March 19, President Barack Obama delivered his response. He…

In the present crisis over Ukraine, the capabilities of the Russians are clear enough. As Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes of the Wall Street Journal report:

Yesterday, President Obama explained that while “Russia’s actions are a problem,” it’s not really that big a concern. “They don’t pose the No. 1 national security threat to the United States,” said Obama. Russia, the president continued, is a “regional power that is threatening some of its…

That is how former secretary of defense, Robert Gates writing in the Wall Street Journal, describes what drives Vladimir Putin’s actions in the Ukraine, the Baltics, and any other region where he considers Russians interests and international reputation at stake. He is motivated by a massive…

The G-7 will not be meeting in Sochi this summer, according to a statement just released by the seven-nation group. "This Group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities.  Russia’s actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them.  Under these circumstances, we will…

President Obama is keeping up the rhetorical pressure on Russia. As Justin Sink of the Hill reports:

Kiev

For decades, the notebooks of Gareth Jones (1905-35), a brilliant young Welshman murdered in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, were stashed away in his family’s house in South Wales, only to be retrieved by his niece, Siriol Colley, in the early 1990s. By that time, Jones, once a highly promising…

Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson was a congressman and then senator from Washington state from 1941 until his death in 1983. Jackson was a traditional Democrat: liberal on domestic policy, strongly tied to the labor movement, and a hawk on national security matters. He was very much in the tradition of…

An open letter from the Foreign Policy Initiative to President Obama:

It would be ironic if Hillary Clinton had a second presidential campaign torpedoed because of another politician's foreign policy.

The BBC is reporting that:

President Obama has made nuclear nonproliferation one of his highest priorities but, as the Wall Street Journal explains, the White House’s weak response on Ukraine is sending all the wrong messages.

Appearing with the president of Latvia and Lithuania, Vice President Joe Biden warned Russia "that there is a price to pay for naked aggression."

THE WEEKLY STANDARD Podcast with senior editor Lee Smith on the crisis in Ukraine and how President Obama's foreign policy crisis started in Syria.

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post reports that Vice President Biden arrived in Warsaw:

It may come as a surprise to the architects of our “Smart Power” foreign policy, but the world is not entirely rational.  Vladimir Putin defies the West, which threatens sanctions – but nothing personal – and he is not deterred, even at the risk of recession.  Like a lot of strongmen, Putin knows…

Garry Kasparov, writing for Politico magazine:

On the last day of February and first day of March, Russia’s mendacious foreign and defense ministers told their credulous U.S. counterparts that Russia had every intention of respecting Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity. Of course, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is virtually the…

On February 23, five days before Russia invaded Ukraine, National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on Meet the Press and shrugged off suggestions that Russia was preparing any kind of military intervention: “It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence returned and the situation escalate.” A…

Steven Lee Myers and Alison Smale of the New York Times are reporting:

Pollsters call it the “rally effect.”  In a crisis, people tend instinctively, if abstractly, to support their leaders.  The signature example being that, when the Bay of Pigs invasion ended in failure, John F. Kennedy’s poll numbers went up.

The G-7 leaders are coming together to say that they "would not recognize the outcome" of a vote "to change the status of Crimea contrary to Ukrainian law and in violation of international law."

Who’s surprised that the Obama administration, evolved, urbane and forward-looking, is having a hard time dealing with Vladimir Putin’s unreconstructed Cold War mentality in Ukraine? “We’re hoping that Russia will not see this as sort of a continuation of the Cold War," John Kerry said last week. …

It was a year or two before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. I was sitting in the kitchen of a small, second-floor apartment in the Thuringian town of Ilmenau, when my friend’s mother turned pensive and pointed out the window to a hill nearby. In 1945, Frau Loebner explained, American soldiers arrived…

First question asked, supposedly, in situation rooms when there is … well, a situation: Where are the carriers?

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with executive editor Fred Barnes on President Obama's Ukraine statement and why it's his job to stop Vladimir Putin.

Here's the executive order President Obama signed today on Ukraine: 

President Obama "has signed an Executive Order that authorizes sanctions on individuals and entities responsible for activities undermining democratic processes or institutions in Ukraine," according to the White House. 

Vladimir Putin is aggressive, increasingly armed, and dangerous. Besides his recent attack against Ukraine, he invaded Georgia in 2008 and has been rearming since well before then.  Like his Communist and czarist predecessors, Putin seeks to expand Moscow’s control.  Russian military spending—for…

In a statement released this morning, House Speaker John Boehner pledged "to impose consequences on Russia for its hostile act" against Ukraine.

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with editor William Kristol on Ukraine, Israel, and the foreign policy crisis.

On Friday, President Obama noted that “any violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interests of Ukraine, Russia, or Europe.” But it also matters deeply to the United States of America and the tools Obama hopes to use to resolve…

From CNN:

Sarajevo

Despite the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the White House is focused on making the argument for raising the minimum wage. In just a few minutes, Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest will be joined on the phone with Governor Malloy of Connecticut, Governor Chafee of Rhode Island, and Governor Shumlin of…

Florida senator Marco Rubio spoke about Ukraine, Russia, and American foreign policy this morning on Meet the Press:

Marco Rubio, writing for Politico:

Elliott Abrams writes:

Jim DeMint, the former senator from South Carolina and head of the Heritage Foundation, blasted President Obama's "weak statements" on the ongoing situation in Ukraine.

A White House official emailed some reporters to say that President Obama's team met today to discuss the ongoing situation on Ukraine. It appears President Obama did not attend. 

The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with editor William Kristol on the situation in Ukraine.

Judy Shelton, writing in the Wall Street Journal, has an interesting idea for saving Ukraine's currency from collapsing in panic:

The Wall Street Journal's "Saturday Interview" with former Georgia president Mikheil Saakashvili:

Here's President Obama on Friday: "The United States will stand with the international community in affirming that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine."Characteristically, Obama establishes a few degrees of separation between himself and actually acting. He doesn't say,…

Kiev

After delivering remarks on Ukraine, and warning Russia, President Obama headed over to DNC where it's "officially happy hour with the Democratic party."

Russian president Vladimir Putin is everywhere. The former KGB officer has used virtually everything at hand to catapult himself as well as his country, the shell of a once mighty empire, on to the world stage. Whether it’s Putin’s determination to host the Winter Olympics in a semi-tropical…

Reuters is reporting that Russian high officials are expressing “grave doubts” about developments in the Ukraine.

The Obama administration is wasting no time in showing support for the new government forming in Ukraine.  The State Department has announced that Deputy Secretary of State William Burns will visit Kiev, Ukraine on a February 25 to 26 trip that will include a stop in Istanbul, Turkey, as well.…

Bill Kristol, with Tom Friedman of the New York Times and Martha Raddatz, discussed the crisis in Ukraine this morning on ABC's This Week:

A friend who lives in Kiev passes along this note calls it "now a war zone."

President Obama and German chancellor Angela Merkel spoke on the phone about the violence in Ukraine. The two leaders agreed "to stay in close touch in the days ahead," according to a White House read-out of the call.

A White House spokesman, Ben Rhodes, tells the press that President Obama is considering "taking action against individuals who are responsible for acts of violence within Ukraine.”

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Vice President Joe Biden joked about becoming a "co-president" with Barack Obama.

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