Russia, The Return of Containment & Putin's Failed Balkan Coup

Putin's Coup In the Balkans
 Russian nationalists were behind a foiled plot to raid the Montenegrin parliament on election day, kill the prime minister, and install a pro-Kremlin government, the government of Montenegro alleged.

Putin has tried mixing and matching shards of Russia’s fragmented history to create a version his countrymen can embrace while discarding some of the uglier material. He has tried to come up with a “national idea” for them no fewer than three times: After toying with “competitiveness” and “saving people,” earlier this year he told a meeting of regional business leaders that he had settled on “patriotism.” He has publicly asked legislators to define the “Russian nation” by law, although there is confusion about what that means. – Washington Post

• Russian soldiers secretly dying for the Kremlin in Syria

Officially, Russia is participating only in an air war over Syria with a small number of special forces on the ground. Moscow denies that its troops are involved in regular ground combat operations. However, in interviews with more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of these deployments, Reuters has established that Russian fighters are playing a more substantial role in ground combat than that the role the Kremlin says is being played by the regular Russian military. - Reuters

Project Syndicate

Damir Marusic writes: [I]f the story, as I’ve tried to reconstitute it, is true and the Russians were in fact involved in a failed coup against a sovereign country trying to align itself with the West, it should give pause to those pundits who still think that a workable equilibrium with the Kremlin is somehow attainable. At the Valdai conference this past week, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that he increasingly saw talking to Washington as pointless. With old spies running the Russian state, the conversation appears to be going back into the shadows, where these men are most comfortable. – The American Interest

Ilya Yashin writes: The entire country is in the clutches of a venal system. In order to get access to the feeding trough of public funds, one must simply share one’s profits with those who offer protection from above. As a result, since United Russia’s rise to power, the party has established itself as a route to upward mobility for criminal elements. These criminals have adapted, and have managed to successfully integrate themselves into government bodies by using the party’s resources. – Atlantic Council

Alina Polyakova and Anton Shekhovtsov write: The West faces a revanchist Russia on Europe’s borders and the growing appeal of authoritarian regimes across the globe, it is time to remember how only twenty-five years ago, U.S. leadership and Western Europe’s resolve helped bring democratic institutions, liberal values, and economic prosperity to Central and Eastern Europe. Those values and institutions now face their greatest ideological challenges since the end of the Cold War. If the United States once again comes to the aid of Europe’s East, one of the greatest achievements of the twentieth century, the post-communist transformation of Europe, can be secured. – World Affairs Journal

• Russia signals resolve with new, revamped bases in Crimea

Mark Schneider writes: Russia is well aware that there has been no apparent U.S. response to their INF Treaty violations.  Absent a major change in policy, there would likely be little or no serious U.S. response to Russian “suspension” of its obligations under the New START Treaty.  Russia has little to lose if it initiates a post-election nuclear crisis, assuming of course it does not get out of hand—which is apparently what Russian leaders believe – National Institute for Public Policy

Mike Wynne writes: China and Russia are rapidly modernizing their militaries and their cyber abilities. Iran and North Korea are on track to obtain nuclear weapons with sophisticated ballistic missile capabilities. ISIS and other Islamist terror organizations remain serious threats. The United States military must be readied to meet each of these challenges, and only Donald Trump has proposed a serious plan to do so. Our country and the world simply cannot afford another four years of military and national decline. – Breaking Defense

Jeffrey Gedmin writes: The next American President must get real about Russian mendacity and manipulation—and the rise of the new authoritarians around the world. If we fail to respond, we’ll be complicit in writing a most tragic chapter in human history, namely ”How America and its allies won the Cold War, only to throw away the peace.” And make no mistake: Get this wrong, and it will be near impossible to get anything else right. – The American Interest
 
Ilan Berman and Amanda Azinheira write: Russia’s economy, in other words, is increasingly running on empty. Whether this translates into significant, sustained opposition to Mr. Putin’s regime from the Russian “street” remains to be seen. But one thing is already clear: The Kremlin’s claim to renewed global greatness is being undermined by less-than-savory economic realities at home. Western leaders truly interested in curbing Russia’s potential for future aggression should take notice, and press their political advantage. - Forbes