Ted Snider

There are two things that go off script and are not allowed to be said. Every official statement or mainstream media article that mentions the war in Ukraine must call it an unprovoked war. You are not allowed to say that NATO expansion east, potentially to Ukraine and right up to Russia’s borders, was a … Continue reading “NATO Keeps Saying Things NATO Doesn’t Let You Say”

US President Joe Biden’s speech before the General Assembly on September 19 spent surprisingly little time on Russia and the war in Ukraine and, in many ways, hit many of the right notes with its praise of “Sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights . . . the core tenets of the U.N. Charter, the pillars of … Continue reading “Fact Checking Biden’s UN Speech: Words Versus Action”

In an interview with ABC This Week on September 10, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked about the possibility of negotiations with Russia. “You spent quite a bit of time with President Zelenskyy,” ABC’s Jonathan Karl said. “What is your sense?  How does he see this ending? Does he see himself coming to … Continue reading “The War in Ukraine Can’t End Until Washington Stops Interfering in Talks”

The signature of Joe Biden’s State Department has been the abdication of diplomacy. Its head, Antony Blinken, the chief U.S. diplomat, has abdicated the role of diplomat. Though obvious in Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, this absence of diplomacy has been nowhere more evident than in the Russo-Ukrainian war where the State Department has … Continue reading “Why We Don’t Negotiate”

There is a dawning realization that the war in Ukraine is not going to end with the Ukrainian counteroffensive. It is not going to end with a military victory for Ukraine, and it is not going to end by attaining the goals necessary to force Russia to concede Ukraine’s key demands at the negotiating table. … Continue reading “In Ukraine, the Best Plan B Is the Plan Before Plan A”

“International law” and the “rules-based international order” sound like the same thing. They’re not. International law is the Charter international system firmly built upon the foundation of the United Nations. It is impartial and applies to everyone. Rules-based law is the preferred system of the political West, and it is built upon the structure of … Continue reading “A Tale of Two Coups”

The five members of BRICS promised that their fifteenth annual summit, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, would be an important one for BRICS’ development and that it would mark a significant moment in the changing international architecture. The political West predicted that the summit would disappoint and forecasted that differences would dominate and unity would … Continue reading “Following the BRICS Road to Multipolarity”

The trouble started in 2014. A US supported coup took out the democratically elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, with his eastern base, and replaced him with a West leaning president who was handpicked by the US. Victoria Nuland, who is now Acting Deputy Secretary of State and who was then Assistant Secretary of State for … Continue reading “Was Putin Really Serious About the Minsk Accords?”

Although Wagner leader Yevgeni Prigozhin had reportedly been banished to Belarus after his brief and spectacularly unsuccessful rebellion, he seemingly enjoyed a surprising freedom of movement. He apparently traveled between Belarus and Africa and traveled frequently between St. Petersburg and Moscow. He even made a very public and conspicuous appearance in July at the Russia-Africa … Continue reading “Who Killed Yevgeny Prigozhin?”

US President Joe Biden’s policy in the war in Ukraine has been clear from the beginning: to put Ukraine in the best position “on the battlefield [to] be in the strongest possible position at the negotiating table” while being careful “not fight the third world war in Ukraine.” There has been a lot less clarity … Continue reading “Biden’s Blunder: Three Costly Mistakes in Ukraine”